I'm reading this book right now, so many awesome questions

In 2012, xkcd comic artist (and former NASA roboticist) Randall Munroe took on a new challenge: answering his readers’ zany hypothetical queries with math and science. That regular online column is now a book, titled What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. Munroe tells Ira what happens if you hit a baseball at 90 percent the speed of light, and explains why he definitely shouldn’t go diving in a spent nuclear fuel pool. 

Read an excerpt at http://sciencefriday.com/whatif

Randall Munroe Asks, "What If?"

Ryan Rykaczewski describes one of the most massive migrations on the planet, driven by the sun. Image by Tintinnidguy (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons 

#ExplainTheSun  - The Largest Migration on The Planet

Once, there was the ordinary incandescent light bulb. It shone brightly, but wasted much of the energy put into it as heat. Then came the compact fluorescent. And as costs have dropped, consumers have increasingly been switching to light-emitting diode (LED) technology for many lighting applications, in an ongoing search for a more efficient bulb. Now, in work published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, researchers report that nanophotonic devices may be able to breathe new life into old incandescent technology. Marin Soljačić and Ognjen Ilic, two authors of the study, explain how they’ve been able to “recycle” some of the incandescent bulb’s wasted heat and re-emit it as visible light, boosting efficiency.

For the Lowly Incandescent Bulb, a Ray of Hope

Science, technology, and other cool stuff from public radio's Science Friday. It's brain fun, for curious people. From WNYC Studios.

Randall Munroe Asks, "What If?"

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