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On this day December 14th 1962, a US made spacecraft called the Mariner 2 had finally arrived at it's long awaited destination Venus.  The Mariner 2 had launched on August 27th 1962, so it took just a little over 3 months to arrive. Before the Mariner 2 was successful, the Mariner 1 had to be self detonated only 5 mins after takeoff (July 22, 1962) due to it veering off course from a SW glitch.  They were able to correct that issue in the code and use other learnings to make Mariner 2 a success.  Although there were a few hiccups and course corrections through it's flight to Venus, it was able to recover from all of them and hit its mark. The Mariner 2 arrived at Venus on December 14th 1962 and began capturing data with its on-board instruments.  Weighing 40 lbs, here are the instruments it was equipped with: Microwave radiometer Infrared radiometer Three axis fluxgate magnetometer Cosmic ray detector Cosmic dust detector Solar plasma spectrometer Particle detect

It happens to all of us, young and old, short and tall. When that late afternoon hits and then the yawning frenzy begins. Sometimes or should I say many times we yawn when we feel tired.  But why is it the body has the need to do this?  Why do we yawn?! There are many theories as to why we yawn. Like many things about the human body, science can't quite explain it or just have theories and no real answers.  So here are some of the theories: We yawn because our brain needs oxygen This has been a theory for some time, but there is no real evidence this is the case We yawn to cool the brain Some theories are this is the way the brain regulates temperature.  When we yawn we draw in are to cool the bottom of the brain stem and cool our head down. We yawn to wake ourselves up Theory is that yawning is the bodies counter measure to wake itself up when too tired.  By the body doing this, it causes muscles to contract and blood to flow waking you up. We yawn when bored

Almost 80 year ago today an event occurred that changed the tides of WWII.  The war had been raging in Europe, but he US had mostly stayed out of it.  That is until the Japanese decided to attack and bomb Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.  This attacked killed 2,335 Americans and was the reason the US finally put both feet into the fire to enter the WWII stage. Source: Wikipedia On December 7th at 7:48 am Hawaii time, the base was attacked.  353 Japanese aircraft were launched from nearby aircraft carriers and started attacking.  Many of them after running out of bombs and ammo would nose dive into ships trying to sink them.  All eight battle ships in the harbor were damaged and 4 were sunk.  All but the USS Arizona were raised and repaired and 6 returned to service.  The USS Arizona remains there today along with the crew forever entombed as a reminder of that fateful day. I recently had the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor and see some of the aftermath from that attack.  It i

You may have not thought about this much, but why does ice float in water? It is water itself right?  Did you know water is the only liquid this will happen to? (At standard temperatures that is)  If you froze some alcohol and put it in its liquid self, it would sink... So why is water so unique? The simple answer?  Water expands when freezing making it less dense when in its frozen state.  So if an object is less dense than the liquid you are putting it into, it will float! Why does water become less dense when frozen?  Well, water is a polar molecule which means it has a positive and a negative side.  This is because it's a bit off balance having 2 hydrogen atoms and only 1 oxygen atom. This causes water molecules to be attracted to each other almost like little magnets. As water cools below 4 C, the hydrogen bonds adjust to hold the negatively charged oxygen atoms apart. This produces a crystal lattice, which is commonly known as 'ice'.  This also causes the froze