Articles written by Katharine M. J. Osborne

The idea of a fundamental quantity is an important concept that underpins all of physics

Aug 11, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Ultraviolet light, a frequency of sunlight, damages skin immediately and over time.

Jul 25, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Most people are familiar with the three states of matter they commonly interact with, solid, liquid, and gas, but these are hardly the only states of matter.

Jul 12, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Plasma is one of many states of matter, but it is one of the most common four: solid, liquid, gas, plasma.

Jul 5, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Physics textbooks often use billiards in examples to explain concepts in mechanics - but they teach you very little about how physics can be used in billiards.

Jun 26, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Physics answers how we exist, while metaphysics asks why we exist

Jun 14, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The term nanotechnology has been bandied about for years, but what is it, and more importantly, where is it going?

Jun 6, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Cymatics is a recently developed field of science that studies the visualization of waves, and in particular sound waves.

May 30, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

For all practical purposes, a vacuum is completely devoid of anything, it is the definition of nothingness. The reality is a bit more complicated.

May 22, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Even though reflection and refraction of light are important concepts in optics, they are often confused. The two concepts are unraveled here.

May 15, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Osmosis is an essential physical process for cellular biology.

May 8, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

How did the modern calendar come to be? The history of the calendar illustrates our evolving understanding of the universe.

May 1, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

As carbon-based energy supplies are dwindling, other sources of energy are being explored

Apr 23, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

LASER has become a common household word, but what does it mean?

Apr 15, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The crackling sound you hear under high-voltage power lines is caused by corona discharge.

Apr 9, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

"Parallel Universe" has been airing periodically on the Science Channel, and is one of the most comprehensible introductions to the topic.

Apr 1, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The Physics of the Buffyverse, a recent book written by Jennifer Ouellette, describes physics through the lens of the mythology of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV show.

Mar 25, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 showed that the solar system is still a very volatile place.

Mar 21, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Microwave ovens cook food by agitating water molecules

Mar 18, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Centripetal force and centrifugal force are related but often confused.

Mar 10, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The Physics Classroom is a multimedia tutorial website aimed at high school physics students.

Mar 3, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Stellar spectral classification helps astrophysicists understand the lives of stars.

Feb 25, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

On of the most surprising recent discoveries about the universe is not only that it is expanding, but that it is expanding at an accelerating rate.

Feb 17, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Throughout history, humans have tried to explain how everything came to be. The theories we came up with were conjecture based on intuition and imagination.

Feb 10, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The direction of north and south we take for granted, but magnetic north and south have switched places in the past and may do so again in the near future.

Feb 2, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Here are some of the best physics books published in the last few years.

Jan 27, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

We this century see the end of active study in physics? Will we truly know the nature of the universe? Probably not.

Jan 22, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Phlogiston and aether are the corpses of physical theories that didn't survive the onslaught of scientific scrutiny.

Jan 12, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Everyone "knows" that snowflakes have six arms (also known as dendrites) and that no two snowflakes can be perfectly alike, but this is not entirely true.

Jan 5, 2007 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

For all practical purposes, absolute zero is the coldest temperature, but the complete story of absolute zero is a little more complicated.

Dec 29, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Solstice occurs twice a year. It happens when either the northern or southern hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun so that the hemisphere has the longest day of the year.

Dec 22, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Last week I presented a series of puzzles using symbols from chemistry and physics. Here they are unravelled.

Dec 16, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Think the periodic table of the elements is beyond boring? Perhaps you escaped it in high school. Either way, try these puzzles.

Dec 8, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The Trinity test site in New Mexico was the location where the first atomic bomb was exploded.

Dec 1, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Jellied cranberry sauce is a traditional part of the holiday season, and is also a perfect example of a gel colloid.

Nov 24, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Electrons captured in an atom don't fly around in circles as they are often depicted, but rather exist in a particular area around the atom.

Nov 17, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Atoms are an intermediary step between fundamental particles and the material objects that make up our large scale world. This is a brief primer on the atom.

Nov 10, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The early industrial age revved up the study of physics; industry and science were happy companions after the beginning of the Enlightenment.

Nov 3, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

After the Caliphate, the nascent Church helped to spur the European economy, universities popped up everywhere, and the pursuit of science found new patronage.

Oct 26, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The road to modern physics has been rocky. The rise of Islam provided the tools and ideas that nurtured physics out of its infancy.

Oct 20, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Understanding how physics developed in the past helps us understand where it may be going in the future, but it also sheds insight on how we perceive the natural world.

Oct 13, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

In the 20th and 21st centuries, computer science and physics have teamed up to explore the enigmatic relationship between energy and information.

Oct 7, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Ball lightning has remained one of the most elusive and enigmatic natural phenomena to ever perplex physicists.

Sep 29, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Many new theories in contemporary physics only make sense if higher dimensions exist, but how do you make sense of higher dimensions?

Sep 22, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Waves are ubiquitous in the study of physics, and we are intuitively familiar with them from a very early age, but what are they really?

Sep 15, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Over time, the field of physics has discovered many new phenomena that defy easy description or naming. What do you call something that has never been seen before?

Sep 9, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The connection between consciousness and quantum reality has been bubbling up in popular culture and it has become unavoidable for physicists to address the issue.

Sep 3, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Dark matter has long remained elusive, but recent evidence suggests that it does exist, making up most of the matter in the universe. But what is it?

Aug 25, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

The definition of the word "theory" in the context of science is sometimes hotly argued by non-scientists

Aug 18, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne

Hurricanes have hit the popular consciousness hard - the increased hurricane activity has everyone worried - but how do they work?

Aug 11, 2006 - Katharine M. J. Osborne