The Story of Physics - Dara O'Briain

Balls, pendulums, apples and magnets all played their part in the story of modern physics, but then things got weird. And when Albert Einstein combined time and space, things got even weirder – step forward quantum uncertainty, black holes and the Big Bang.

This short animation, The Story of Physics, is one in a series of simplified historical summaries from the BBC2’s Science Club series hosted by Dara O Briain. Learn how 300 years of physics was mostly about observing and measuring, until x-rays, radioactivity, and other new discoveries stopped fitting neatly into initial observations.

And then “a Swiss patent clerk started a full-on storm.” That, of course, was 26-year-old Albert Einstein, who, along with other scientists, changed the story of physics and pushed our understanding of how the universe works.

Rolling Through the Bay - Scott Weaver

This nine foot tall wooden sculpture of San Francisco was made with glue and 105,387 and a half toothpicks. It was built by Scott Weaver who, stuck at home at the age of 14 with spinal meningitis, started working in earnest on the project and continued on it for 37 years. It has 10 different starting points and 5 different weaving track ‘tours’ throughout for ping pong balls to roll through, hence its name: Rolling Through the Bay.

Weaver shares the sculpture’s details in this episode of Coolest Thing. You can see Rolling through the Bay in person at its home inside San Francisco’s Exploratorium at Pier 15.

Early structures were abstract and about 2–4 feet tall. Then he built one sculpture that had a ping-pong ball roll through it. In 1974, Scott started a new sculpture and added the Golden Gate Bridge and Lombard Street, which also had a ping-pong ball roll through it. This is what started what is now Rolling Through the Bay. Over the years Scott has worked on Rolling Through the Bay, on-and-off, sometimes not working on it for years at a time, to do other projects and get married to his beautiful wife, Rochelle, and have a wonderful son, Tyler. Scott loves working with toothpicks and hopes to do so for years to come.

“I’ve used Diamonds, Forsters, Ideals, Penleys…Richwoods were the best, back in the nineties. Now I use Diamonds because they're the most accessible for strength, they’re birch still, I think.”

How to Make a Self-Starting Siphon

To move liquid from one container to another, you may need a siphon, a bent tube with one end that’s lower than the first. Suction is one way to get the liquid moving through it, but if you don’t have a pump and you don’t want to suck on the end of the tube—something to avoid with liquids you don’t want to breathe or drink—how can you get the liquid moving?

In this clip from Australia’s The Curiosity Show, which ran from 1972 to 1990, science educator Dr. Rob Morrison demonstrates how a self-starting siphon can move the liquid with relative ease. And after you’ve seen the physics, you can make your own self-starting siphon with some bendy straws.