Bennett Science Blog

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons By Amber Bennett You likely know that your brain "talks" to your belly via electrical and chemical signals to control bodily tasks, such as digestion. But did you know that your belly talks back? How the Brain Talks to the Belly The brain sends electrical signals to the belly through the vagus nerve. It also sends chemical signals (hormones) through the bloodstream. These signals are what make us feel full or hungry. Plus, they determine how quickly we digest food. How the Belly Talks Back Did you know that your digestive process is helped along by microbes in your stomach and intestines? These microorganisms take in food and release waste molecules, which act as chemical signals that "talk" to organs throughout the body.  For example, microbial signals sent to the immune system can help prevent infections. Signals are also sent along the vagus nerve and in the bloodstream. Some of these messages are sent to the bra...

Photo Credit: YouTube Screenshot By Andrew Bennett The Cavendish gravity experiment requires us to be able to measure how much a hanging bar rotates when we place heavy weights nearby. In order to determine a reliable value for G, the gravitational constant, we must first measure the shift angle very precisely. In this video, I build a protractor with a 3-meter radius that can measure angular shifts of as little as one one-thousandth of a radian. That's less than 0.06   degrees or about 3.5 minutes of arc! How I Built My Protractor The design is pretty straightforward but is extremely labor-intensive to construct one this size. I start by making a circular wall to use as the surface of the protractor made of thin, white, flexible pressed wood. I glued some pieces of 2x4 to my garage floor and used a router to cut a groove that the wall will fit into. To make the groove along a circle, I first traced out the circle on the wood by attaching a marker to a long wire, which the...

Photo Credit: Pixabay By Amber Bennett When you browse the web, do you take advantage of the "private" or "incognito" browsing option? It turns out, you're not getting as much privacy as you might expect, according to a new study . How Incognito Mode Works Many popular web browsers, such as Apple Safari and Google Chrome, include a private or incognito option . It allows you to surf the web without the browser noting in your history where you went online. Plus, your browser's suggestions on forms and search engines won't be affected by where you go while in private mode. Many people choose to use incognito mode because they have to share a computer with family members or co-workers and don't want others to see what sorts of things they look at online. Misconceptions About Private Browsing However, people often incorrectly believe that using private mode offers more protections than it really does. This is true even if they have read a ful...

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons By Andrew Bennett As I'm using radians as my unit of measure for all angles in my Cavendish experiment, I thought some background might be useful for some of my readers. So, let's get right to it. What Is a Radian? Simply put, a radian is a unit for measuring angles. Imagine a big circle drawn on the ground in chalk. Use your chalk to draw a straight line from the center of the circle to the edge, and measure that line (the radius of the circle). Now, walk that same distance around the outside of the circle (if the circle has a radius of 5 meters, walk for 5 meters on the edge). Draw a new line from the edge of the circle where you are standing back to the middle. The two lines you've drawn have an angle between them that we define to be equal to 1 radian. Instead, if we had walked along the outside of the circle for a distance equal to 2 times the radius, then the lines we drew would have had an angle between them equal to 2 radi...