Bennett Science Blog

By Amber Bennett Have you ever wondered about the origins of the phrase, "get your ducks in a row"? What about how the "doggy paddle" works or why squirrels are such amazing jumpers? The answers to all of these questions have one thing in common: physics. Keep reading to learn about the science behind these three famous animal behaviors. How Do Squirrels Leap from Branch to Branch? A squirrel leaps through the air.  Photo Credit:  caroline legg ,  CC BY 2.0 , via  Wikimedia Commons The death-defying acrobatic maneuvers performed by squirrels look a lot like parkour tricks. But how do they know how to land tricky jumps between bendy tree branches that move with the wind?  Researchers say  it's a combination of learned behavior (practice makes perfect) and inherited adaptations.  To see what determines how far a squirrel is willing to jump and how the leaps are timed, researchers set up an obstacle course in an artificial forest. Then, they used peanuts ...

The Northern Lights appear above Canada. Photo Credit: NASA By Amber Bennett Few people have the opportunity to view one of Earth's natural wonders: the awesome light shows known as auroras. This is because the northern and southern lights light up the sky primarily in the polar regions. So, what causes the ribbons of light and glowing skies? The cause is the solar wind that flows from the sun to the Earth. The majority of the charged particles  are deflected by the magnetic field. However, some of them move along the magnetic field to the north or south pole. Once there, they enter the atmosphere, bumping into nitrogen and oxygen atoms. This excites the atoms, which makes them unstable. The atoms then relax and enter a ground (unexcited) state, releasing the photons (light particles) that create auroras. This photo of an aurora was taken on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: ESA/NASA  Where Can You See the Auroras? You can watch the breathtaking light show ...

Photo Credit: Public Domain By Andrew Bennett Torque can be a tricky concept, particularly when we are asked to think of it as a vector. Since torque is a vector, to fully describe the torque caused by a force, we have to give both the magnitude and direction of the torque. The torque describes the ability of a force to change the rotational motion of some object or system. If you were to grab the handle of a door and pull it toward you, you could cause the entire door to rotate.  If you pulled harder (with more force), you could make the door rotate more rapidly (or rather, you would make it have a larger angular acceleration). If you tried to pull the door again, but this time pulled on the hinges, you wouldn't get any rotation. Similarly, if you grabbed the handle and used it to pull directly toward or away from the hinges (to the side, instead of toward yourself), the door's rotation wouldn't change. How Do We Calculate Torque? From this, we can gather that the amount ...

A study looked at how European robins know where to go when migrating. Credit: Public Domain By Amber Bennett Have you ever wondered how birds know where to go when they migrate? Recent research into birds' sense of direction shed some light on their ability to sense Earth's magnetic fields. The study led credence to the idea that birds have a sort of "quantum compass" that helps them navigate. Songbirds have a protein in their retinas called cryptochrome 4 (CRY4), and the new study shows it might be why birds can sense magnetic fields. For decades, some scientists have believed that this protein works similarly to a needle on a compass. However, this study using the variety of CRY4 found in European robins was the first to measure the protein's actual response to magnetic fields. So, How Does This 'Compass' Work? CRY4 is light-dependent, so it needs light at the proper wavelength to work. In fact, an earlier study found that migratory birds have trouble f...

Venus flytrap      Photo Credit: Beatrice Murch/Wikimedia Commons By Amber Bennett When you think about plants moving, you likely think of the phrase "like watching the grass grow." Although the motion of plants growing is rather slow, some plants can move faster than we can see with the naked eye. Venus Flytrap When you think of a fast-moving plant, you likely picture the Venus flytrap . The flytrap's leaves can snap together within a tenth of a second to capture food. Bunchberry Dogwood The stamens of the bunchberry dogwood flip outward at a force of 2,400 g's to spread pollen in the wind. That's an acceleration of 2,400 times the earth's gravity! For comparison's sake, a fighter pilot can take only about 9 g's before passing out. Science News/YouTube Bladderworts Some aquatic varieties of bladderworts have underwater sacs on their stalks to capture mosquito larva and other prey. They can capture their prey in around a thousandth...

Photo Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture By Amber Bennett You probably think that fires are bad for forests. However, a recent study shows that the opposite can be true. Hydrologists with the National Park Service at Yosemite National Park have been studying evapotranspiration. This is the process of plants releasing extra water into the air as vapor through tiny holes in their leaves. Over the course of 18 years, the scientists measured the water-vapor release using sensors in two river basins in California. Then, they compared the amount of vapor released from burned areas of the forest to that of unburned areas.  The Yosemite study looked at areas where forest fires that reduced the amount of young trees and underbrush by 40-50 percent. In these areas, roughly 17 billion gallons (77 billion liters) of water was saved from being lost to the air as vapor. That's a huge water savings! So, How Do Fires Help Forests? Without human intervention, a wildfire will ...

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons By Amber Bennett An enormous ring-shaped lab west of Chicago is helping scientists study illnesses; combat pollution; and design even better aircraft, batteries, and bridges. The outer diameter of the Advanced Photon Source's experiment hall is the length of more than 3½ football fields! Plus, the building sports a pipe ring that measures more than 1,100 meters around. So, What Is a Particle Accelerator?  Simply, it's to send beams of tiny particles at targets and record what happens. (These subatomic particles are, as the name implies, smaller than atoms.) The collisions can give scientists detailed info about the structure of incredibly tiny things. What Do They Study at the APS? Unlike at other particle accelerators, the scientists at the APS don't want to directly use the beam of electrons. Instead, they're trying to harness the photons (particles of light) created by the beam of electrons. The incredible energy and sma...