Einstein was right about Gravitational Waves

After todays announcement from the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo) we know a century on Einstein’s General Relativity prediction of gravity waves was right.  Reworked old Einstein cartoon to celebrate

Curiosity and water on Mars

Last Monday NASA announced they had found evidence of liquid water flows on Mars today and being a lazy topical cartoonist I have drawn something nearly a week later.

What NASA announced after teasing a "major mystery" of Mars had been solved is strong evidence that dark streaks on the surface are likely caused by seasonal flows of water.

This was discovered by studying dark streaks on slopes (known as "recurring slope lineaeae" or RSL) that were seen to come and go in the Martian summer.  The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter used its Crism instrument to analyse the chemistry of these streaks using spectroscopy and detected hydrated salts.  So not direct detection of water but a strong indication that salty water is flowing on Mars.

However NASA's Curiosity Rover won't be heading over to investigate because even if it could climb the steep slopes it has not been sterilised to the correct degree to be allowed into any areas where life could exist for fear of contamination.  So the scenario painted in this cartoon will probably not be allowed if there was deep water, aliens and a supply of swimming aids on Mars.

If you liked this cartoon I have had other space toons on the reality show that is Mars One, Voyager 1 not leaving the Solar System and the future of NASA's manned spaceflight.

Overreacting

An attempt at a chemistry joke for this week's competition.  Turns out all I could think of in terms of over reactions was water and magnesium.

Rocket Scientists

Voyager 1 doesn't leave the Solar System

Earlier today the American Geophysical Union announced that Voyager 1 had exited the solar system into interstellar space which would be pretty awesome.  Later they corrected its announcement to say it had merely entered a "new region of space" after NASA scientists queried readings that would show whether it had escaped the heliosphere.

Einstein's Speed Limit

This week's compedition cartoon is my attempt to draw Einstein.  Before anyone nit-picks I know c 'the speed of light' is not exactly 3x10^8 but I didn't want to write 299,792,458 m/s with a relative measurement uncertainty of 4 parts per billion.

Schrodinger's Census

Above is everything you need to know about Schrodinger's Cat in a (cartoon) box.  Actually the Wikipedia article is probably more revealing.  I did lots of Physics at secondary school and then went on to University where they told you that all that classical Newtonian laws of gravity was okay for kids but there was this bloke called Einstein who had some special relativity and also some more complicated general stuff.    Alongside that was Quantum Physics and the famous (thought) experiment Schrodinger's Cat.

There's a scientist who puts a cat in a box with a quantum device that has a 50/50 chance of killing the cat.  While the cat in is the box he doesn't know if it is dead/alive or in some quantum half-dead/alive state until he looks inside.  For a better description read the BBC h2g2 article.

The cartoon is for the CCGB's weekly contest.  The physicist in me may have clouded my cartoon judgement as I had other possibly funnier ideas but it scored points which is better than last weeks.

Why we shouldn't resurrect Dinosaurs

As well as the shocking news that dead dinosaur juice surged to almost $120 a dollar thanks to the unrest in Libya today I learned that Brotontosaurus don't really exist!!  This is after me spending last summer singing a catching little song to my kids about keeping a Brontosaurus as a pet who was as big as a house.

It turns out I should have been singing 'Apatosaurus don't you wait for me...' instead.  The story behind this interesting fact can be found here http://www.unmuseum.org/dinobront.htm

The short version is that in the late 19th century a couple of prominent paleontologists, Cope and Marsh were trying to outdo each other to see who could find the most exciting extinct animals.  In 1877 Marsh found a fifty foot creature which he called a Apatosaurus.  Then later that year he found a eighty foot creature which was the more famous Brontosaurus beloved of childrens songs.
  Trouble was Marsh was more interested in beating Cope and inventing more dinosaurs or he would have noticed (as Riggs did in 1907) that the Apatosaurus specimen was merely a younger version of the Brontosaurus.  So the species were the same and so scientists decided that the first published name Apatosaurus should be the correct scientific term which didn't stop people who preferred the snappier Brontosaurus.
  To make matters worse it turns out the head Marsh claimed belonged to the Brontosaurus actually came from a different dinosaur leading us to wonder whether Marsh got mixed up or deliberately used a skull from another location.

I won't paraphrased the whole article but there are other things we thought we know about Brontosaurus that were wrong too which leads onto tonights cartoon warning.  Lets not dabble in recreating dinosaurs from DNA stuck in amber like Jurassic Park.  After all they might be angry with us from powering our cars with dead dinosaur juice and calling them the wrong names!

Solar Flares For Slackers

Apparently the sun has just woken up from a period of being a bit sleepy and a series of eruptions is currently sending waves of sunshine particles towards the earth's atmosphere.  According to scientists and the media this will either knock out power grids, mobile phones and satellites or merely make some pretty lights in the sky (i.e. they don't know).  My 4-year old daughters reaction on seeing a picture of the blazing sun on BBC News 24 was to shout "Ahh the big fire, save us from the big fire" which is about the level of some of the coverage.

Todays cartoon depicts the opportunities this provides for people who require excuses.