Travelling to Mars in 70 days

NASA has trialled an engine that would take us to Mars in 10 weeks. Though the results have not been peer-reviewed, either way it is mind blowing nonetheless. Recently estimates of the time to travel to Mars were about 2 years. Hence 70 days would be a great step forward. This article explains the whole mechanism involved. It's a good read.

Topology and the Physics Nobel Prize 2016

Sometime in October, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize for physics: half went to David J. Thouless at the University of Washington, Seattle and half to F. Duncan M. Haldane of Princeton University and J. Michael Kosterlitz of Brown University for, in the Academy’s words, “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter.”

Here is an article explaining the concepts clearly and in depth.

Here is some 'crazy' quote:

"A topologist is a person who doesn't know the difference between a coffee cup and a doughnut.” (Anonymous)

Pluto: planet or not?!

Some time ago Pluto was declade not a planet qfter so many years being recognisef as one. The reasons proffered were that

But new evidence seems to turn the tide again suggesting Pluto could be a planet after all. A

Did you know #4

Freezing is the change in state from liquid to solid by reducing its temperature. The Freezing point or Melting point of a substance is the temperature at which a material changes from a solid to a liquid (or vice versa). The temperature remains constant until all of the substance has changed its state.

The Freezing point of nearly all liquids is lowered by adding another substance.

For example if you add an equal amount of antifreeze containing ethanediol (ethylene glycol) to an equal amount of water, the water which normally freezes at 0°C will now freeze at -37°C (the ethandiol freezes at -13°C).