#science video

[troythecatfish]

Definitely 2nd Favorite North American Amphibian, the 1st being the Axolotl. ☺️😊😄

[babyfoxcollectionthings]

[lizardposting]

Why don’t crested geckos’ toe suction work on my skin? (Video + explanation below)

(Repost from my Instagram)

🦎 Fun fact: crested geckos stick to surfaces because of microscopic hairs on their toes that generate temporary attractive forces between molecules! These are known as van der waals forces, named after the scientist who discovered them.

🔬This physics phenomenon allows cresties to stick to many different surfaces, but some struggle to stick to human skin. I imagine this is because human skin is covered in tiny hairs and pores, which disrupt the forces between the skin itself and the gecko’s paws. Thus, my gecko slides down my arm. Unfortunately I don’t think many tests have been done on whether geckos can stick to humans or not and some that I did find were behind paywalls :(

Regardless, in addition to their adhesion abilities, geckos have tiny ridges as well as claws on each foot. This is how my geck climbs back up my arm, and also plays a role in helping wild geckos stick to uneven surfaces like tree bark.

❓Can geckos adhere to human skin? Yes! In fact I’ve noticed my guy using his adhesion on my thumbs and fingertips when he puts his paw on them and I try to pick him up off my hand. It’s like suddenly it won’t come off. I suspect this is because the palm of the hand doesn’t have hair on it in the way my arms do.

❗️Let me know your thoughts and theories in the comments!

[sleepy-bebby]

66mm fire tornado dec14

Man creates a mini ​tornado in a bubble and lights the top of the tornado on fire.

[bettergeology]

Much of western Washington's recent geology has been dominated by giant ice sheets stretching from the Canadian Rockies to central Washington. This ice gouged out the Salish Sea, Puget Sound, and carved up the rest of the landscape. Port Townsend sits on a peninsula made up of the junk giant glaciers left behind. This is typically sandstone, gravel, and mud but weird stuff starts happening when the giant glacier meets the ocean and starts to melt. There's lots of cool geology in Port Townsend, once you know where to look!

[sarah-the-anything]

Hello!

If you’re interested in science and science communication but feel daunted, my friend just started a YouTube channel! He is planning a series of educational videos on understanding science writing in a fun way :)

He’s only posted one video, but plans to do a whole series and more. You can check out the video here:

Subscribe to his channel if you want to see more!!

[thewriterkb]

This is a gallium and aluminium alloy spoon which reacts with water. Aluminium is a reactive metal, so it easily reacts with water. However, the oxide layer on a normal spoon prevents this from happening. When alloying aluminum with gallium, this aluminium oxide layer can't form.

Via

@chemistry.science

[nowscience-blog]

Why 2200°F space shuttle heat tiles won’t burn your bare hands

In the video you’ll see a giant industrial oven at Kennedy Space Center baking blocks of the material used in the shuttle’s thermal tiles. The small white cubes are LI-900, a type of low-density surface insulation composed almost entirely of silica glass fibers. They are basically pure quartz sand that are 94% air by volume.

LI-900 can be heated to 2200°F, which is exactly what the blocks in the video are heated to. Even after being subjected to that temperature for so long, they can be picked up almost immediately after being taken out of the oven.

Air and silica glass are both extremely poor conductors of heat, and thus great insulators. That’s why you can touch them after coming out of a super-hot oven. On the Space Shuttle, they protected the aluminum hull from the heat of reentry. The tiles were not mechanically attached to the craft, but were instead glued so they could be easily repaired.

Many of the tiles were replaced after each flight, especially after a damaged heat shield led to the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003.