HS-PS4-5

Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy.

  1. Physics

    How to catch a gravity wave

    Physicists have just announced finding gravity waves. The phenomenon was predicted a century ago by Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Here’s what it took to detect the waves.

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  2. Physics

    Boom! Sounding out the enemy

    Armistice Day marked the end of the Great War. But what arguably won the war was acoustics — the science of sound. It allowed Allied troops to home in on and rout the enemy.

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  3. Physics

    Einstein taught us: It’s all ‘relative’

    One hundred years ago, a German physicist shared some math he had been working on. In short order, his theory of relativity would revise forever how people viewed the universe.

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  4. Brain

    Scientists Say: MRI

    MRI is a technique used to diagnose diseases and to study the body. The machine can map internal structures, all the way down to tiny blood vessels.

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  5. Chemistry

    Cool Jobs: Saving precious objects

    Museum conservators are experts at protecting and restoring precious objects. Along with art or history, many also have studied chemistry, physics, archaeology or other scientific fields.

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  6. Tech

    Laser vision reveals hidden worlds

    From discovering ancient ruins to forecasting climate change, the laser mapping technology called lidar is changing many fields of science.

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  7. Tech

    Explainer: What are lidar, radar and sonar?

    Radar, sonar and lidar and are three similar technologies. Each relies on the echoing of waves — radio, sound or light waves — to detect objects.

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  8. Animals

    Mates or survival: Which explains a bird’s color?

    When male birds are brightly colored, we assume that’s because their plumage attracts the gals. But a new study with thousands of museum specimens shows that sometimes survival is just as important a factor behind bird color.

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  9. Physics

    How to pick up messages after they’re gone

    By watching for light’s ‘echoes,’ physicists think they can retrieve information being relayed by or as light. It could make it possible for astronomers to view distant objects without having to see the light they cast off.

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  10. Health & Medicine

    Vision-ary high tech

    New devices are being developed to improve, restore or preserve the vision of people with eye diseases, such as glaucoma and macular degeneration. One device is a telescopic contact lens than can be zoomed with a wink.

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  11. Physics

    Measure the width of your hair with a laser pointer

    You can measure the width of a human hair with the help of a laser pointer, some math and a phenomenon called diffraction.

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  12. Tech

    Digital displays get flexible

    Flexible and unbreakable digital displays could soon be for sale, thanks to a new organic transistor made from plastic.

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