Physical Science
Physical science is the study of the physical world around you. Learn about everything from electricity to magnetism in this section.
Brown Noise vs. White Noise: Which Is Best for Quality Sleep?
Can a sound wave kill you?
Can two cans and a string really be used to talk over a distance?
Delta-8 vs. Delta-9: Comparing Types of THC
Strong Bases: Properties, Applications and Examples
Comparing Strong Acids and Weak Acids
How Electricity Works
How Faraday Cages Work
How Gasoline Works
What do bugs have to do with forensic science?
5 Things You Didn't Know About Autopsies
Do a Person’s Fingerprints Change After Death?
How Alchemy Paved the Way for Chemistry
How did Nikola Tesla change the way we use energy?
Time May Not Exist, Say Some Physicists and Philosophers
Why Does Ice Stick to Your Fingers?
What if I forgot to remove a piercing before an MRI?
A Kid-friendly Introduction to Magnets and Magnetism
Deciphering 'Greater Than,' 'Less Than' and 'Equal To' Symbols
Getting a Handle on Fraction-to-Decimal Conversions
How to Make a Number Line for the Classroom
5 Hugely Fun Facts About Mass (Not Weight)
Antarctica's Spooky Cosmic Rays Might Shatter Physics As We Know It
Entropy: The Invisible Force That Brings Disorder to the Universe
The Demon Core: A Tale of Atomic Ambition and Tragic Fate
Half-Life Formula: Components and Applications
Could an 'X17 Particle' Hint at a Fifth Force in the Universe?
Why Are School Buses Yellow?
HowStuffWorks: How To Draw An Impossible Shape
What Are the Colors in the Visible Spectrum?
Learn More / Page 4
The Diamond synchrotron is a massive facility that houses a beam of light 10 billion times brighter than the sun. But is that all it does?
In detective movies or TV shows like "CSI," photographers swarm in and take countless pictures of a crime scene. But how does crime scene photography really go down?
By Sarah Dowdey
Imagine spending your days racked with pain or losing pound upon pound because nausea leaves you unable to eat. Now imagine that someone offers you a wonder drug to cure all your ills. The problem? It's illegal.
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If you were thrown into prison for a crime you didn't commit, you'd probably welcome DNA profiling. Although the use of this technology has recently helped bring justice, there may be cause for concern.
Once considered a semiprecious metal alongside gold and silver, aluminum pretty much languished in obscurity until the 19th century. How did the metal become so ubiquitous?
A venerable work of art hangs lifeless in a museum, the once brilliant scene dulled by centuries of dirt and grime. Can laser analysis and modern art restoration techniques save the masterpiece?
Can you pass the acid test? That electric Kool-Aid changed the fabric of 1960's American counterculture. So, what's it's like to trip on LSD?
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It begins with an unassuming "H" and ends in crazy elements that you've likely never heard of. But the periodic table, encapsulated on a mere sheet of paper, can be a scientist's best friend and a testament to our human drive to organize the world.
When it comes to stimulating the human central nervous system, meth can hold its shaky, toothless head high. Why is this drug so additive?
If the sight of a mushroom cloud burning above the horizon suggests that the nuclear weapon-equipped world might end with a bang, then nuclear winter presents the notion that post-World War III humanity might very well die with a whimper.
By Robert Lamb
If you want to see a hologram, you don't have to look much farther than your wallet. But the most impressive holograms are large scale and illuminated with lasers or displayed in a darkened room with carefully directed lighting. Learn how a hologram, light and your brain work together make clear, 3-D images.
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The bloodstain from a crime scene has a story to tell, if you know how to analyze it. Then it might explain the who, what and when of a murder.
Who made it possible to light up your home at night? Thomas Edison, right? Yes, but without the work of Nikola Tesla, we would be living in a different world.
Criminals always leave traces behind after a crime is committed. In fact, footprints, tire tracks and tool marks are often more prevalent than fingerprints at a crime scene. What can impression evidence tell an investigator?
By John Fuller
One of the most influential ideas in forensic science history is known as Locard's exchange principle. This simple, yet groundbreaking idea forever changed the way we fight crime. But who was Edmond Locard, anyway?
By John Fuller
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Imagine walking through a field and stumbling upon scads of corpses, all in various states of decomposition. It's not the setting for your next nightmare, but rather a very real discipline of forensic anthropology.
By Tom Scheve
The Fibonacci sequence has been a numerical sequence for millennia. But what does it have to do with sunflower seeds or rabbits?
In the comics, radiation exposure turned an average man into a pea green and angry Incredible Hulk. But in reality, what can radiation do to those exposed? Is it always a villain?
By Debra Ronca
We love it. We wear it glittering around our necks and sparkling at our ears, wrists and feet. We pass it down to our children and hoard it in secret stashes. Why is this precious metal so prized?
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Mushrooms – they're not just a pizza topping. This psychotropic fungus has guided many an adventurer on a trip. How do shrooms make their magic?
We once emptied the scent pods of male musk deer into a bottle of fragrance and doused it on, feeling like a million bucks. How has perfume changed since then?
Unlike the cheap microscopes you peered into in school, these advanced instruments can breathe rich detail into the tiny world around us, including the world of nanotechnology.
For centuries, curious observers have probed the heavens with the aid of telescopes. Today, both amateur and professional scopes magnify images in a variety of ways.
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More than 2.3 billion people across the globe drink alcohol, but most don't consider it a drug. But if you've ever seen someone who's had too much, you know alcohol has profound effects on the mind and body.
Smoking or chewing tobacco makes many people feel good, even mildly euphoric. It's the nicotine that produces the buzz. Find out how nicotine affects the human body and what makes it so addictive.