physical

THE WOODLANDS, Tex. -- Mercury is a world of extremes. Daytime temperature on the planet closest to the sun can soar as high as 400 degrees Celsius near the equator, hot enough to melt lead. When day turns to night, the planet's surface temperature plunges to below -150 degrees C.

But some places on Mercury are slightly more stable. Inside polar craters on the diminutive planet are regions that never see the light of day, shaded as they are by their crater rims. The temperature there remains cold throughout the Mercury day -- and during the Mercury year. Now … Read more

With the incredible success of the original Angry Birds, few iOS gamers were probably surprised that Angry Birds Space would rocket to the top of the iTunes Store's list of paid apps. I've been playing the game quite a lot over the past 24 hours, and though I've noticed some bugs (kill all pigs with one bird to get one star, anyone?), the new gravity fields, interesting levels, and new bird types definitely add something new to the game.

Angry birds isn't the only game in this genre, however. When Angry Birds took off at the iTunes App Store, several developers came out with their own version of the sling-shot game mechanic and many brought new elements to add to the fun.

This week's collection of iOS apps are all Angry Birds-like destruction games, but each have an interesting twist on the original game mechanic. The first offers a heavy metal theme as you smash monster trucks into structures. The second lets you blast ragdolls through intricate levels towards a target. The third mixes game genres to add liquid physics into the equation making for unique challenges.… Read more

Angry Birds Space feels at once familiar and fresh. Unlike the previous sequels, which were pretty much the same game in different settings, Angry Birds Space puts a new spin on things with gravity-oriented physics, new obstacles to navigate, and bonus levels that add to the fun.

The gravitational mechanic in many of the levels adds a completely new element to how you approach each level. A flung bird might curve around a moon in one direction and then curve the other way once it passes into the next moon's orbit. It can also get caught in a gravity … Read more

Angry Birds Space feels at once familiar and fresh. Unlike the previous sequels, which were pretty much the same game in different settings, Angry Birds Space puts a new spin on things with gravity-oriented physics, new obstacles to navigate, and bonus levels that add to the fun.

The gravitational mechanic in many of the levels adds a completely new element to how you approach each level. A flung bird might curve around a moon in one direction and then curve the other way once it passes into the next moon's orbit. It can also get caught in a gravity … Read more

Angry Birds Space feels at once familiar and fresh. Unlike the previous sequels, which were pretty much the same game in different settings, Angry Birds Space puts a new spin on things with gravity-oriented physics, new obstacles to navigate, and bonus levels that add to the fun.

The gravitational mechanic in many of the levels adds a completely new element to how you approach each level. A flung bird might curve around a moon in one direction and then curve the other way once it passes into the next moon's orbit. It can also get caught in a gravity … Read more

Angry Birds Space feels at once familiar and fresh. Unlike the previous sequels, which were pretty much the same game in different settings, Angry Birds Space puts a new spin on things with gravity-oriented physics, new obstacles to navigate, and bonus levels that add to the fun.

The gravitational mechanic in many of the levels adds a completely new element to how you approach each level. A flung bird might curve around a moon in one direction and then curve the other way once it passes into the next moon's orbit. It can also get caught in a gravity … Read more

I'll be honest: I haven't flung a bird at a pig in months.

When Angry Birds first flew on the scene (way back in 2009!), I couldn't get enough. But as with most things, the novelty soon wore off. Even Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio were just variations on the same theme, and I eventually stopped paying attention--even when Rovio pushed out new levels.

So when the developer announced Angry Birds Space last month, I had to wonder: would pigs in space rekindle my love affair with slingshots and ornithology?

Today I found out. Angry Birds Space is now available for Android, iOS, PC, and Mac. Is it any good?… Read more

New experimental evidence is helping disprove last year's highly surprising finding of neutrinos breaking established physics laws by traveling faster than light.

The finding involved clocking the neutrinos--tiny, nearly massless subatomic particles--as they traveled from the CERN particle accelerator near Geneva to the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy, about 730km away. An experiment called Opera found the neutrinos taking less time to arrive than light would, but now another Gran Sasso experiment, Icarus, showed neutrinos making the journey at a more sedate pace under light speed, CERN said.

That finding comes after news in February that a fiber-optic connection problem … Read more

The position of guest star can sometimes be abused by sitcoms.

They roll out a movie star for one or two episodes in order to boost ratings, before that star departs, leaving a pitiful normalcy behind.

When it comes to "Big Bang Theory," however, the term "star" enjoys a more celestial quality.

So I know that many will feel a heavenward surge to learn that Stephen Hawking--he of the extremely large brain and extreme suspicion of the goodness of aliens--will be making a guest appearance on the show.

My voracious reading of Entertainment Weekly offered … Read more