Hello Yarmouth Students,
Here is an answer to another of your questions and two more from local Cape Elizabeth:
If the universe is always expanding, will there be superplanets of collected mass that suck us all back in again, forming a big squish? (Oscar, gr. 6)
You are right to assume that the universe is expanding. In fact, Edwin Hubble (that the telescope is named after) discovered in 1929 that the universe speeds away from us faster the further away it is. Now we know that the universe is accelerating in its expansion. That means it is expanding faster and faster as time goes on.
As far as the “big squish” you ask about, it has been considered by many scientists and called several things such as “the big crunch”. In the past, scientists speculated that the universe may collapse because of the distribution of mass, the evidence points to the opposite effect. Their speculation was based on the thought that gravity would pull everything together. All observational evidence indicates the universe is expanding at a continuously increasing rate as mentioned before. This expansion is due to what scientists call dark energy. No one knows what dark energy is, we only see the effect it has. Its effect is observed to be much stronger than gravity, indicating that the universe will not collapse into a single point, but expand forever with everything getting farther and farther away from everything else. It will be very lonely.
A gif of the big crunch:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Big_Crunch.gif
-GWU SPS group
What is the main thing that is stopping nanotechnology from advancing? (Cape Elizabeth)
Nanotechnology has actually progressed quite a lot since the field began in the 1980s. Nanocomposite materials, which are any solids that have a dimension of less than 100 nanometers (1/1000 the thickness of a sheet of paper), have been becoming useful in many industries. The textile industry has developed nanocomposite materials that make clothing more stain resistant. The transportation industry has been replacing some materials, like the steps to get into trucks, with nanocomposites that overall make the vehicle lighter and more fuel efficient. Other types of nanomaterials help to reinforce car parts, like bumpers, making them stronger. In the electronics and computer industries, nanoparticles have helped make screens more water repellent and anti reflective to reduce glare. Nanoparticles has also helped make computers and cell phones smaller and run faster. Quantum dots, a nano sized semiconductor, has also revolutionized biological imaging.
So nanotechnology has advanced quite a bit, but there is plenty more progress and potential for the usefulness of nanoparticles. The largest challenge to overcome is getting the nanoparticles to form a consistent layer. In 2009, a Nobel prize was awarded to a team who developed a way to make a single layer of particles. The interactions between nanoparticles are hard to control. It is also difficult to pinpoint what is causing the problem due to the small scale and size. In short, we do not know enough about the interaction between nanoparticles to reach their full potential right now and how to use these interactions to create useful devices. However, there has been some great progress so far and there will continue to be amazing breakthroughs as more and more research is done everyday.
-Kara
If you split an atom to create an explosion, where do the two parts of the atom go? (Cape Elizabeth)
To explain where the parts of the atom go when breaking an atom apart, lets first look at what an atom is made of. You can think of atoms like a ball for now. Hovering inside the ball at the center, there is what is called a nucleus. The nucleus is made up of protons and neutrons and you can think of them as tinier balls packed closely together. On the outsides of the ball there are electrons. Splitting an atom breaks apart the center (the nucleus) into two smaller centers. Kind of like if you had a bunch of skittles melted together and then you broke it into two pieces. These two smaller pieces are atoms themselves.
If you were to weigh the two new atoms, you would think they would add up to the weight of the single atom you started with. When you actually weigh the two atoms though, they weigh a little less than the single atom you started with. This little bit of unaccounted for mass is actually energy. It is that release of energy that is the explosion. The two new atoms are still there but may move away from each other rapidly from the energy release.
-Brian
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