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 7
The thought of an autopsy usually provokes fear, apprehension or extreme anxiety in people. Cut through the mystery of this process and learn the details of the preparation, procedures and tools used to perform an autopsy.
Viagra is one of the best-known drugs of all time. Nearly every adult in America has heard of the drug and can tell you what it does. Find out how this high-profile medication works its magic.
Crack cocaine, like many other illegal drugs, leads to addiction, death, increased crime rates and imprisonment. But this drug targets the inner city almost exclusively and possession or distribution of crack carries extremely harsh prison sentences.
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When you watch crime drama on TV, you don't usually see what happens after the police and ambulance leave a murder scene. One thing those people do not do is clean up the blood. That's the work of a whole different team.
By Julia Layton
Marijuana isn't just a recreational drug for hippies and philosophy majors -- its psychoactive history ranges from Egyptian mummies to modern U.S. politics. What's the big deal about this leafy, green plant?
By Kevin Bonsor & Nicholas Gerbis
You know how chocolate sometimes turns white? Why does that happen and is it still OK to eat?
A sound wave alone probably won't kill you. Crank the volume on a terrible song, though, and you just might annoy everyone to death.
By Oisin Curran
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These small molecules are the foundation for much bigger things, from ordinary household products around us to essential components within our bodies.
Polymers are the basic components in so many of the products we use each day.
What if there are colors within the visible spectrum that our brains can't perceive? In fact, there are. They're called impossible colors. But some researchers think they've discovered a way to see the impossible.
By Dave Roos
There are so many things in this world that are possible, and shattering glass with sonic force is one of them – but just how probable is it, really?
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At the same time scientists discovered that nitrous oxide could numb agonizing pain, they also found it could make you really lightheaded and silly. Yes, huffing parties started in the 1700s.
By Dave Roos
When speed is everything and light marks the universe's speed limit, lasers are bound to be the answer. At least, that's what NASA and a bunch of Wall Street types are betting on.
Cosmological redshift: sounds like the latest blockbuster coming to a theater near you, doesn't it? In reality, it has to do with how light itself travels -- and understanding how it works is essential to advanced space telescope technology.
It's a young lady! It's an old woman! It's a blue dress! No, it's gold! Why are we fooled by optical illusions and what do they tell us about how the brain works?
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If you've ever had a half-frozen beer explode on you, you know that yes, alcohol freezes — but not all types freeze at the same rate. We'll let you in on the secrets to frozen alcoholic delights.
How effective is fighting a wildfire with controlled fire?
By Oisin Curran
In 1957, Hugh Everett first wrote about the multiverse — different realms where every choice spawns a separate universe in which another version of ourselves does something different. It sounds crazy, but here are some reasons it might be true.
The Large Hadron Collider isn't just a one-trick (Higgs) pony. Find out what else has happened where hundreds of millions of particles may collide any given second.
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When something as important as the Higgs rocks our world, we want to know every last thing about it, including what it looks like. So?
Of all the superheroes we have in the universe, supersymmetry might be the one that will save us from total annihilation. Not because it fights bad guys, but because it just might explain how the tiniest parts of the cosmos work.
Has this ever happened to you? The meteorologist calls for a massive snowstorm, but the flakes fail to arrive. Chaos theory can shed light on why forecasts fail (and why our orderly world may not be so orderly after all).
Pianos lose their tuning, guitars fall out of key -- even church organs need to be tuned every now and then. For centuries, the only sure-fire way to tell if an instrument was in tune was to use a tuning fork.
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We've been observing and experimenting in the name of science for centuries. But who deserves the honor of being humanity's very first scientist? Is it Euclid, Darwin, Galileo or someone else?
Explosions, fires and dangerous radiation levels dominated the headlines after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami sparked a nuclear crisis in Japan. How did so many safety measures fail?