Instant Freeze Water

A great water experiment recorded by The Sprangler Effect

Boiling in a syringe

Decreasing the pressure can make water boiling.
Video from Flinn Scientific

10 Amazing Science Tricks Using Liquid!

Why do ice cubes crack in drinks? (SLOW MOTION)

Where Did Earth's Water Come From?

Latest news from Curiosity

Low concentration of methane in the atmosphere

The data collected by Curiosity rover revealed a poor concentration of methane in Mars. This results are interesting because they are in contradiction with the data collected by other missions in Mars' orbit.

The methane is important to scientist because it came from geological phenomena and biological process.

“This results minimized the probability of microbiological process in Mars, but there are many types of terrestrial microbes that do not generate methane.”

The Curiosity measured six times the concentration of methane in samples from the Martian atmosphere, in the period between October 2012 and June this year. In any cases, the robot has detected its presence. Due to the high sensitivity of the instrument used, the tunable laser spectrometer which follows the edge of the robot, scientists estimate that the concentration of atmospheric methane Mars should not exceed 1.3 parts per million. This value corresponds to roughly one-sixth of some previous estimates.

More info ScienceMag.

Water in the martian soil

After careful analysis, the fifth soil collection done by Curiosity rover in 'Rocknest' showed the presence of water, carbon dioxide, oxygen and sulfur. As a result of this analysis, it appears that the Martian soil is composed by 2% water, which leads scientists to project future missions to colonize the red planet.

"We know that there must be water on Mars so abundant and accessible," said Laurie Leshin, lead author of the study, concluding that "when we send people to Mars, they may collect soil from the Martian surface, heat it a little and draw water ". According to the study, we can extract about 0.47 liters of water from 0.03 cubic meter of soil.

More info in Space.com

Source: NASA

Images: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Old streambed on martian surface

(Phys.org)—NASA's Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence—images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels—is the first of its kind.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-curiosity-rover-streambed-martian-surface.html#jCp

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has discovered what appears to be an ancient streambed, suggesting that water once flowed in large volumes — perhaps hip-deep in places — across the Martian surface. (space.com)

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind.

Scientists are studying the images of stones cemented into a layer of conglomerate rock. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream's flow. (NASA)

Science Behind Bursting Water Balloons

Lasers to force rain

Scientists working on technique to use lasers to force rain

(PhysOrg.com) -- As with many of man's most basic ancient desires; to be able to fly, to become invisible etc. making it rain on command (or by prayer) has always been high on the list, and up to now, has proved more elusive than other advances in the sciences. Now however, physicists in Switzerland might have finally made a breakthrough. In their paper published in Nature Communications, they describe a method whereby a laser is used to create nitric acid particles in the air to which moisture will gravitate forming droplets.

Experimental setup. Image: NPG, doi:10.1038/ncomms1462

A group of scientist with a Teramobile mobile femtosecond-Terawatt laser system start firing it into the sky (on a very humid day - over 70%) for 113 hours. To ensure their results were constrained to one area, wind shields were used. They then sampled the aerosols alternatively at 2 cm distances in the areas where they expected to see nitric acid particles form. In so doing they found that their efforts did indeed result in the creation of nitric acid particles which caused water droplets to form on the order of a few microns in size.

The tiny drops are not heavy enough to fall as rain. But this is a good start.

Making H2 from solar panel

This is the hybrid system schematic. Credit: Nico Hotz

Hybrid solar system makes rooftop hydrogen

While roofs across the world sport photovoltaic solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity, a Duke University engineer believes a novel hybrid system can wring even more useful energy out of the sun's rays.

"Instead of systems based on standard solar panels, Duke engineer Nico Hotz proposes a hybrid option in which sunlight heats a combination of water and methanol in a maze of glass tubes on a rooftop. After two catalytic reactions, the system produces hydrogen much more efficiently than current technology without significant impurities. The resulting hydrogen can be stored and used on demand in fuel cells."

Read full article in PhysicsOrg.com

Water can flow below -130 C When water is cooled below zero degrees, it usually crystallizes directly into ice. Ove Andersson, a physicist at Umea University, has now managed to produce sluggishly flowing water at 130 degree below zero under high pressure – 10,000 times higher than normal pressure. It is possible that this sluggishly fluid and cold water exists on other heavenly bodies.