Monday Science Links

Here's this week's Science:

• Well, this is not from this week. I've been making my way through the archives of Irregular Webcomic! and found this strip, the annotation to which explains Maxwell's Equations: "When you were writing down your equations, you were thinking about electricity and magnetism. Light was the farthest thing from your mind. You had not the slightest clue (and nor did anyone else) that light was related to electricity or magnetism. But there it is, falling out of your equations. You realise that you are the first person in all of history to know what light is made of. Can you imagine that feeling?" So, even though it's nearly a year old, I have to share it with you. (plus, there is a comic strip ;-) )


• Sean at Cosmic Variance gives us an Arrow of Time FAQ: "setting out the problem that physicists and cosmologists are going to have to somehow address if they want to say they understand how the universe works... In contrast to the macroscopic universe, the microscopic laws of physics that purportedly underlie its behavior are perfectly reversible".


• Stefan and Bee at Back Reaction give us another graph, the phase diagram of nuclear matter, which is quite different from last week's of water. "At this point, it should be clear that it is not possible to explore the phase diagram of nuclear matter in the same way as it can be done with, say, water. We cannot take a chunk of nuclear matter, heat it up or compress it in a controlled way and study its properties. Instead, we have to smash together heavy nuclei, and to rely entirely on the analysis of the fragments that emerge from these collisions".


• Judith at Zenobia, Empress of the East asks Were the Sassanians post-Achaemenids? And if you don't know what that question means, that's okay. She explains it: "One of the most interesting questions about the early Sassanians (if only to a classical archaeologist) -- and perhaps the most unanswerable -- is whether they were related in any real sense to the kings of the earlier Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids. Ardashir (according to a very late source) claimed that they were direct descendants, which justified his rebellion against the Parthians." Plenty of pictures and classical Persian history - cool stuff.


• Stuart at Cumbrian Sky says the Moon is cool again. "But I’ve just realised that my absolute love for Mars – both its unmanned and manned exploration – might have blinded me to beauty that exists a lot nearer to home. I’ve just found out that while I was busy staring into the exotic eyes of dusky, dusty Mars, dreaming of a glorious day three decades away when I would see the first men or women walk upon her, others have been seduced by a closer, more accessible beauty."

Enjoy!