What on Earth is spin? And why is it so special? In this TEDEducation video, educator Brian Jones explains how this dynamic affects our lives in all sorts of ways.

From Nova PBS, “What is energy and why are we on a never ending search for new energy sources?”

Robots have to be able to move, perhaps quickly, on all kinds of terrain — search and rescue missions on remote parts of Earth or explorations on other planets like Mars will require it. So terradynamic researchers at Georgia Tech are creating and testing robots that have different leg shapes, all inspired by animals, to handle movement in a variety of environments. Bonus technology: 3D printing.

Watch this robot with c-shaped legs running super fast on Mars-like sand, and read more about the experiments here or here.

h/t PopSci.

jtotheizzoe:

Get hypnotized by this wave pendulum … seriously, I can’t look away.

A wave pendulum like this is built of equally weighted objects suspended by different (and carefully calculated) lengths of string. Released simultaneously, their differing periods (frequencies of oscillation) cause them to form a “wave” image together that cycles through all possible patterns. 

It’s mind-boggling. Looking for a science fair project? This would be a great one.

(via Citadel Physics)

More pendulum waves.

(via scinerds)

Wired Science has an incredible gallery of the Best Microscope Videos of 2012, via Nikon’s video competition. We have a few favorites: This is a Bay Scallop Argopecten irradians. (Those blue things are tiny eyes.) And here’s a beating heart display of a Danio rerio (zebrafish).

The above video shows a Limnias melicerta (a rotifer) at 200x: 

This microanimal lives in a self-built tube attached to waterplants. We see the rotifer using fast moving cilia to create a vortex. This enables it to sweep in food particles like algae. Inside the organism we can also see a jaw-like structures that grind the food.

Check out another rotifer and more microscopic views in the archives.