FULL OR EMPTY BEER: WHICH IS THE BEST WEAPON?

It's likely that if I ever witness a barroom brawl that culminates in someone's head getting smashed with a beer bottle, I'm drunk too, and the gravity of the situation is lost to the spectacle of it all. But, if i  was a sober witness to the climactic crack, after everyone was deemed safe I might wonder, "Was the beer full or empty? Would it matter?" I'm just a curious person, you know.

Actually, I got the idea from researchers in Bern, Switzerland who decided to test it, applying a scientists' touch to the seemingly frivolous question. For the experiment, no hand-to-head smashing took place, probably for safety reasons. Instead, researchers constructed a 13-foot-tall drop tower and bought a few six packs of the Swiss beer Feldschösschen in half litre bottles. They placed full and empty bottles in a tub at the bottom of the drop-tower and wrapped them in clay to mimic human brain tissue. Then, they dropped a 2lb ball, analog of a human skull, from different heights. 

It turns out, it takes 30 Joules of impact energy to break a full beer bottle and 40 Joules of impact energy to break and empty beer bottle. The empty bottle is more sturdy--the opposite of what I would have guessed. The unopened beer, which you might think would act like a blunt object, is actually more fragile because it's pressurized. Any slight deformation makes it explode. Shaken-up beer creates even more CO2 bubbles that might help explode the beer, too.

So, for maximum impact, go with an open beer bottle. For minimum injury, go with an un-cracked brew. Now, the chances that you get so mad as to act on your homicidal urges before you've opened your next beer are probably slim. You need that extra alcohol to fuel your rage. Plus, the bartender probably opened it for you anyway.

In daylight?

Self inflicted? Ouch.

Not so bad.

Bad.

VIA B Good Science Blog

Bolliger, S., Ross, S., Oesterhelweg, L., Thali, M., & Kneubuehl, B. (2009). Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull? Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 16 (3), 138-142 DOI: 10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.013

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PHASE CHANGES IN ART: ICE MELTING AS A METAPHOR

This week, MIT graduate students have created a temporary sculpture if there ever was one. IceWall is a wall made entirely of ice bricks which continue to melt and evaporate as it sits on campus, signifying traditions of ideas fading away and new generation of ideas blossoming (in conjunction with the MIT150 Festival of Science, Art, and Technology.) Frozen in the bricks are flower seeds and as the ice blocks melt, the seeds will drop to the ground and hopefully grow a flowering garden in a few months time. The sculpture reminds me of Francis Alys and Allan Kaprow's performance pieces that use the simple process of H20 phase changes to say something about life.

Here's IceWall:

In 1997, world famous performance artist Francis Alys labored to drag an ice block through the streets of Mexico until the ice got smaller and then disappeared, signifying a reinvention of the way you interact with your city. By the end, he was just kicking the ice down the sidewalk like a kid. The piece was called Something Making Something Leads to Nothing:

 In 2008, Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo made dozens of ice-men and let them melt on the steps of a public street. What a sad affair.

The piece that started this all was made by artist Allan Kaprow in 1967, famous for basically birthing the genre of performance art, who built an ice wall and let it melt, signifying art as a part of  life in all it's transformations and fluidity rather than art as the making of a specific form in a specific circumstance. The exhibition was titled Fluids: A happening by Allan Kaprow and was recreated in 2007 in New York and in 2008 in Los Angeles.

Of course, ice sculptures have existed for decades as a decoration for weddings and sweet 16 parties. If only we knew that the melting signified the temporary-ness of our existence: parties come and go so enjoy it while you can, says the sad, melting swan:

MY BLOG WILL BE MOVING SOON

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NASA and Etsy Space Crafts Contest Winners

 NASA and Etsy joined up to run the 2010 Space Crafts Contest, a showcase for dozens of amazing space-themed crafts. From Etsy:

The judges included NASA astronaut Steve Robinson, Susannah Locke of Popular Science magazine, Shaifali Puri of the NY Academy of Sciences, John Matson of Scientific American, Peter Giles of the NYC Center for Space Science Education, freelance scientific journalist Lee Billings (formerly of SEED), Rob Giampietro of Project Projects Design Studio, and Maria Popova of Brain Pickings. Alison Feldmann, Matt Stinchcomb and Randy Hunt were also on the panel, representing Etsy. All winners' work (or photographs of their work) will have the opportunity to be flown into space aboard a shuttle!

The grand prize went to Colleen and Eric Whiteley (a.k.a. ColleenWhiteley) for their Northstar Table. Beautiful table with a secret mechanism: press the North Star and a drawer pops out:

 The  2D Original prize went to Rachel Barry Hobson for High Texture Hand Embroidery of the Moon:

 

Other finalists:

The eagle nebula, painting by by Eleanor Gilpatrick

Space Shuttle Fleece Hat by Ohmybrian

Galaxies Converge, quilt by Kim's Crafty apple