How Does Hair Dye Work?

To understand how hair dye works, we must first understand the anatomy of the human hair.

飞机超越音速会发生什么事？

声音的速度是每秒 340 公尺，也就是大约每小时 1,236 公里。

如果一架飞机的时速超过每小时 1,236 公里，那就是所谓的超音速。

当然，音波的速度会因温度气压而改变，有时候 1,220 km/h， 有时候 1,240 km/h。

目前世界上能突破超音速的机械不多。大多数都是在空中飞行的，而且全部都是战斗机。
其实以前也有超音速的商业机— Concorde—而且是非常非常快的商业机，能以两倍的音速飞行 （Mach 2.04）。可是后来 Concorde 在飞行业低潮期的 2003 年时被撤掉了。所以大家再也没有机会体验超音速。

What Does It Feel Like Getting Drunk?

I was part of the crowd that flooded the Haadrin beach for the Full Moon Countdown party in Koh Phangan, Thailand last week. 
If you haven't read about it already, please do it here. I drank three buckets of the infamous cocktail and then, according to my friends, I got drunk.
Very drunk.

So how does one know whether a person is drunk?
First, he murmurs sh*ts you don't understand. That includes those who present their final year project without knowing what the hell they have done.

Secondly, he can't stand/walk properly.

Thirdly, he falls asleep, but he hears whatever sh*t you say about him.

Tidur Boleh Menguruskan Badan

Sebagai seorang graduan fizik, saya memang suka membuat pengiraan yang bukan-bukan, contohnya pengiraan kuku yang tumbuh setiap hari, pengiraan bintang di langit, dan sebagainya.

Walau bagaimanapun, ilmu matematik saya masih di peringkat kanak-kanak lagi, jadi janganlah segan memberi tunjuk ajar.

Kita kerap dengar orang berkata bahawa tidur boleh membuat kita gemuk. Namun, pengiraan menunjukkan sebaliknya. Jika anda menimbang berat badan sebelum dan selepas tidur 8 jam, anda akan mendapati bahawa berat badan anda menjadi ringan selepas tidur.

为什么早上的橙汁是苦的？

相信大家都曾经入住酒店，早上吃早餐时喝橙汁，咦？怎么是苦的？

Image: www.foodsubs.com

其实橙汁是甜中带有少许苦味。这苦味很多时候是源自橙皮或纤维。我们通常喝橙汁是甜的，因为我们舌头上的味蕾都被其他食物的磷脂包围住了，所以我们能尝到比较强烈的甜味而尝不到微弱的苦味。

Research Is A Dangerous Business

When people talk about risk at work, they normally mean the risk of getting fired, losing a business deal, and probably encountering some minor accidents like electrocution while charging their electronics. 

Unlike these risks, the risks you encounter during research are far more unpredictable because you work with unpredictable subjects; the weather (climate scientists), wild animals (zoologists), chemicals (chemists), and sometimes, the product of your own research (physicists). Even in social sciences, the research is often far more dangerous than your average nine-to-five job.

Image: www.specialtyexecutives.com

One particular technique in psychology, called participant observation, involves taking part in the activities of those you want to study. For example, if you wish to study the drug cartel, you would need to actually get your hands dirty. Sociologist Mick Bloor, a professor at the Cardiff School of Social Sciences once ended up in a bar fight while studying male prostitution in Glasgow. Lorraine Dowler from the Pennsylvania State University was forced to flee when her interviewee became the target of a street-level assassination attempt. Social scientist Frank Burton woke up one morning to find a submachine gun pointed at him. The body of Ken Pryce was found washed up on a Caribbean beach after investigating criminology in Jamaica.

The Pharaoh's Serpent

I stumbled upon this video on Youtube and I was like: what-the-hell-is-this?

And by the way the person who uploaded this must really learn to edit his video first. The real meaningful part of the video didn't begin until about the halfway point.

The Flame Challenge

Brevity is the soul of wit~Carl Zimmer.

The Flame Challenge is aimed at explaining what a flame is to a bunch of 11-year-olds.

 For some of you who think that it's easy, you're dead wrong. 
Just because you've seen flames all your life doesn't mean you can explain what it is to a fellow economist or accountant--it has to be simple enough for them to understand, and at the same time include all the complex scientific concepts.

This is a challenge faced by science writers everyday-how to use everyday language to convey insights that scientists describe to each other. Words like atoms, electrons, and nucleus are usually enough to repel the most avid of non experts. And most 11-year-olds nowadays have cell phones, X-Box, and Facebook to distract them. Hooking up their interest in science is getting harder by the day.
 
The winner of this competition is Ben Ames, a 31-year-old American doing graduate work in quantum optics. For those of you who wish to learn what a flame actually is, you can watch the youtube video here.


Malcolm

What’s in the sausages we eat?

We love sausages, don’t we?
Billions of people chomping on billions of sausages every year resulting in billions of retail sales, so sausages are essentially a part of our life.
But what is it in those meat sticks that make it so irresistible?

How Would You Sound Like On Venus?

In conjunction with the Transit of Venus this week, I think I should write something about Venus.

Image: sites.wff.nasa.gov

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, and it's the hottest planet in our solar system. The surface temperature on Venus can reach 482 degree Celsius, high enough to melt lead and even zinc.

Dog Ate My Homework: It's Legit!

My dog ate my homework excuse is really a lame one. 
But it's legit, i.e. you can now tell your teacher that your dog ate your homework, because a dog in the United States apparently chomped down some scientists' labwork and got sick.

Cara Menulis Tesis Yang Betul

Ramai di antara kita perlu menulis tesis pada akhir pengajian kita. Tesis merupakan laporan kajian yang kita lakukan terutamanya pada semester terakhir untuk memenuhi kehendak atau syarat kursus universiti.

Namun ramai di antara kita yang selalu menulis yang bukan-bukan dalam tesis, contohnya, mengarang Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa pada tesis fizik adalah sesuatu yang tidak wajar dilakukan, sebab profesor fizik memang tidak berminat pada hikayat tersebut. Mereka lebih berminat dengan Hikayat Sang Kancil dengan Buaya.

How To Hide A Nobel Medal (A True Story)

Imagine you have a medal made of 23-karat gold. No, imagine you have TWO medals made of 23-karat gold. And they belong to your friends. Possessing them is like signing your own death warrant. What would you do? Would you even think of dissolving them?

That's what a Hungarian chemist did to his friend's medal.

Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS) is an INDUSTRIAL BLEACH!

This is total madness. The inventor of this product should be apprehended immediately and all his products should be confiscated. 

The followings are taken from a post by Martin Robbins.

When 15-year-old Rhys Morgan was diagnosed with Crohn's disease a few months ago he turned to the internet for help, and came across the Crohn's Disease Forum, a website offering support to patients. "I was looking for a support forum, a community of people with same illness as me and some on the same meds as me."

He followed the site for a while and noticed a disturbing undercurrent of people trying to push alternative medicines to members. One product in particular was called Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), and its website claimed it cured cancer, Aids, malaria, and basically most things short of actual death.