The “ultraviolet catastrophe” was a turning point in our understanding of energy that lead to Max Planck’s quantum theory. Classical physics posited that hotter objects glow brighter, but it was not accurate when applied to objects glowing in the ultraviolet range of light. Objects glowing at this frequency were much lower in intensity. Planck theorised instead that energy is more like a currency, and high-frequency light needs more of it to shine, making its light intensity drop off. Read full article here
Oddities
The Curious Case of the Ancient Brain
In 2008, archaeologists examining the University of York discovered something strange: the decapitated head of an Iron Age man and his very shrivelled but very much intact brain. How a centuries-old brain was preserved is still unknown, but research suggests that it could have been because of brain diseases like dementia. The Yorkshire man’s brain’s proteins were bunched up together, much like how dementia causes brain proteins to bunch up into plaques. This bunching up, or aggregation, could continue even after death, turning regions of the brain into hard masses. Read full article here
Merv
September 30, 2022
