The Science Of Smog

Fluid systems can sometimes serve as analogs for other physical phenomena. For example, bouncing droplets can recreate quantum effects and a hydraulic jump can act like a white hole. In this work, a bathtub vortex serves as an analog for a rotating black hole, a system that’s extremely difficult to study under normal circumstances. In theory, the property of superradiance makes it possible for gravitational waves to extract energy from a rotating black hole, but this has not yet been observed. A recent study has, however, observed superradiance for the first time in this fluid analog.

To do this, the researchers set up a vortex draining in the center of a tank. (Water was added back at the edges to keep the depth constant.) This served as their rotating black hole. Then they generated waves from one side of the tank and observed how those waves scattered off the vortex. The pattern you see on the water surface in the top image is part of a technique used to measure the 3D surface of the water in detail, which allowed the researchers to measure incoming and scattered waves around the vortex. For superradiance to occur, scattered waves had to be more energetic after interacting with the vortex than they were before, which is exactly what the researchers found. Now that they’ve observed superradiance in the laboratory, scientists hope to probe the process in greater detail, which will hopefully help them observe it in nature as well. For more on the experimental set-up, see Sixty Symbols, Tech Insider UK, and the original paper. (Image credit: Sixty Symbols, source; research credit: T. Torres et al., pdf; via Tech Insider UK)

Do you know anyone prone to pleonasm?

Read the full definition here: http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2016/11/16?param=social

“People who never met her except across the footlights did not realize how, in her private life, she had such compassion and interest in everyone. After I returned from Hong Kong I was ill with a virus and she rang me up reproachfully later to say, ‘Why didn’t you let me know? I would have come and sit with you.’ Giving flowers to sick people is easy. Giving that precious commodity time is far more expensive for someone who had such a full life. But she always found time for everyone.” -Godfrey Winn

Tuz Gölü - Cereal  / WORDS & PHOTOS: Peter Edel

FOR THE AMERICAN COLOUR FIELD PAINTER BARNETT NEWMAN, THE EMPTY, BOUNDLESS LANDSCAPE ENHANCED AN INDIVIDUAL’S SENSE OF PRESENCE WITHIN THEM. THE TUZ GÖLÜ, THE SALT LAKE LOCATED IN THE CORE OF TURKEY’S ANATOLIAN PENINSULA, IS ONE OF THE PLACES IN THE WORLD WHERE THIS UNDERSTANDING IS EXPERIENCED MOST PROFOUNDLY.

“There weren’t many opportunities to work in Paraguay. I was selling tools on the street. There was no money. There was nothing. I came to Argentina when I was nineteen and life has been so much better. I work every day. I’m close to opening another shop just like this. I do get called a lot of names like ‘Shitty Paraguayan.’ But I’m used to it now. In the beginning I would try to fight back, but not anymore. When I first arrived, I fought a man who tried to stab me through the cage. But he came back with twenty people and destroyed my store. So I don’t fight back anymore. Everyone in the neighborhood knows me now, so I’m treated with more respect. And my son was born in this country. So this one is an Argentinian. He’s going to study.” (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Must return soon

Golden Gate Bridge // Geek Creative

Sainte-Geneviève Library. Paris, France.