Science

Physics seeks to study and explain atomic and subatomic particles that cannot be seen with the naked eye or even with an ordinary microscope. A number of tools can be employed to help with this...

Unlike a flashlight, the beam of a laser is highly concentrated. When pointed at a surface in clean air, all that can be seen of the laser is a small dot on the surface. However, if the air has...

Atoms are neutral because they have a number of protons in their nuclei equal to their number of orbital electrons. They become charged on gaining or losing one or more electrons.

Zeolite is a complicated supplement, surrounded by a large amount of criticism and hopeful claims. It comes in both powder and liquid form, although the liquid is generally more popular. The idea...

"Deicer" may be used in a broader sense than the word should signify: namely the prevention of freezing. At times it refers to a substance that thaws what's already frozen. Deicers are applied...

Reverse osmosis is a process used to conduct certain chemical processes and is a popular method of distillation and water purification. Osmosis itself is the transfer of particles through a...

The smaller a piece of matter is, the more it displays wavelike characteristics. For example, protons are 1,830 times more massive than electrons and so act like particles concentrated in the...

Filter paper is a basic supply item found in beginning chemistry labs as well as in research labs. Material, called solute, is deposited on the filter paper and can be analyzed for its chemical...

Everyone has heard "Don't eat yellow snow," but is any snow safe to eat? Freshly falling snow is a temptation to children and adults alike. Parents have been telling children for years not to eat...

While DNA is contained within most cells of living organisms, getting it out and examining it is a complex process. All DNA is made from four different bases, known by their abbreviations A, T, C...

Radiation--which is invisible to the human senses--was discovered in the late 19th century. Scientists and researchers needed to investigate this phenomenon, which led to the invention of devices...

Liquid smoke is a bottled substance designed to give foods a smoky flavoring without actually going through the smoking process. It is added to barbecued foods like fish or meat, and provides a...

The atom was pictured in many different ways until its true properties were illustrated in modern physics. The quest for understanding the composition of matter led to such a discovery and...

Electrophoresis is the process of separating certain large molecules so they can be examined more easily. The word itself is derived from Greek, "electro" referring to the electrical current that...

Around the 1920s, the ideas behind quantum mechanics started coming together and gathering a new perspective of the subatomic world. It started developing into a series of concepts that justifies...

Diesel fuel is a petroleum product produced by refining crude oil. It was named after French engineer Rudolf Diesel, who invented and patented in 1892 an engine in which the combustion of the fuel...

In order to understand how air particles move, it is first necessary to understand what air is made of and how it acts. While the exact composition of air differs at any given place and time, the...

Although there is a lot of material written about atoms, the investigations in atomic science are far from complete. Protons are the positive particles in atomic nuclei. In 1919, the existence of...

Quarks are among the smallest subatomic particles, the building blocks of larger particles like protons and neutrons. These strange and extremely tiny particles were only theorized about in the...

Biophysical methods attempt to determine what atomic and molecular structures are at work in biological processes. There are a vast number of biophysical methods used to examine biological systems...

Filtration is mechanical screening process. A filtration media (metal screens, cloth, membrane) has a source gas or liquid passed through it under pressure. Particles larger than the gaps in the...

The kinetic theory of gases is a theory that gases consist of small particles in random motion. Thermal conductivity is the property of a material that indicates its ability to conduct heat. The...

The main experiments in quantum physics that established the validity of quantum theory are quite famous: the Dual Slit experiment (showing that at their most basic levels, all elementary...

Non-chemical water treatments fall into two main categories; ultraviolet (UV) sterilization of water and pure filtration of water. These are not mutually exclusive approaches, as each has a...

Water used in households generally falls under two categories: graywater and blackwater. Graywater is the water used to wash hands, do laundry, and take showers, and is not usually recycled,...

What hydrogen releases upon burning depends on its environment and the type of burning it goes through. There are generally two ways hydrogen can burn: It can be used in nuclear fusion, in...

What components or particles make up an atom? Continue learning science in this free educational video atoms and matter.

Water in reservoirs and water plants can come from several different areas. Some types of water bubble up from springs, but most is piped up from deep underground reserves using pumps and wells...

A plasma cutter is a tool used to make cuts in very hard materials like metals. The plasma cutter isn't as futuristic as it might sound and in fact has its roots in technology developed during...

The word "kaleidoscope" comes from the Greek and roughly means "to view beautiful forms." Though it was originally invented by the ancient Greeks, it fell out of use, only to be rediscovered...

Colloidal silver has been used by people for thousands of years as a natural antibiotic. In early America, settlers put silver dollars into milk to keep it fresh. These pioneers also put silver...

A graviton particle is a theoretical particle, but it's believed to be what mediates gravity. Discover why string theory leads scientists to believe that graviton particles exist with help from a...

A particle accelerator is a machine that uses magnet fields to accelerate tiny, charged particles at high velocities. Learn about the advantages of circular particle accelerators with help from a...

Subatomic particles are extremely small particles, and the three major types of subatomic particles are protons, electrons and neutrons. Discover how the activity of subatomic particles gives...

When metal parts are manufactured, especially those parts that involve the transportation industry, they must withstand a through testing of integrity. These types of tests must not destroy the...

The sun gets its energy from the many nuclear reactions that occur within it. The sun is essentially a very large ball of gas-light energy in the sky, composed mostly of hydrogen and helium that...

At the beginning of the 20th century, experiments showed that atoms were made of smaller parts: electrons, protons, and neutrons. Since then, an ever-expanding zoo of sub-atomic particles has been...

Protons are one of the three fundamental particles, and they possess a positive charge. Discover how protons help to determine what a material is with information from a science teacher in this...

A Geiger counter is what most people mean when they think of a radiation detector. This device uses a Geiger-Müller tube as the sensor. This tube is filled with an inert gas that becomes...

As clouds get bigger with the continuous rising of air, they interact with particles of ice and dirt to create a buildup of static electricity. Learn about the interaction of electrical charges in...

Diffusion, in general, is the net movement of particles from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. Learn about simple diffusion, channel diffusion and facilitated diffusion...

In chemistry, polarity describes the covalent bonds that occur between particles when two atoms unequally share an electron. Learn how water is the perfect example of negative polarity substance...

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on the "micro" scale, 100 nanometers and less, to build molecular and atomic structures to serve a purpose on the normal scale. Currently limited to...

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on the molecular and atomic levels. Current development is limited to the creation of nano-scale objects for use as materials in other technology....

Nanotechnology is a new field of science, ripe with innovative possibilities. Product inventions and manufacturing processes are all subject to change as developments within this field continue to...

Mathematical models of the everyday world have evolved considerably over the past few centuries. Newtonian mechanics were replaced by theories of relativity and quantum mechanics as more accurate...

A magnetic field is a force that exists within a given area that is able to attract or repel other magnetically charged objects and electrical particles. There are many potential sources of...

A photon is what is known as an elementary particle, which means it cannot be divided into sub-components. It is also what is known as the quantum of the electromagnetic field. This means that it...

The most common type of smoke detector is the ionization model, which uses a tiny ionization chamber to detect the presence of smoke. The ionization chamber is flanked on opposite ends with metal...

A photon is one of a plethora of elementary particles, but the photon is particularly noteworthy because it is the particle that carries light--or, in effect, it is light itself. The photon is a...