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Saturn's Strange Hexagon Recreated In the Lab

Posted by timothy on from the reproducing-the-big-wet-spot dept.

cremeglace writes "Saturn boasts one of the solar system's most geometrical features: a giant hexagon encircling its north pole. Though not as famous as Jupiter's Great Red Spot, Saturn's Hexagon is equally mysterious. Now researchers have recreated this formation in the lab using little more than water and a spinning table—an important first step, experts say, in finally deciphering this cosmic mystery. More details, including a cool demo video, at ScienceNOW."

103 comments

  1. But, what I want to know... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    When will they solve the mystery of the inflamed ring around Uranus?

    1. Re:But, what I want to know... by frank_adrian314159 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      When will they solve the mystery of the inflamed ring around Uranus?

      They started with Preperation A and have made it up to Preparation F now, but they figure another couple tries and they'll have it licked.

      --
      That is all.
    2. Re:But, what I want to know... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 3, Funny

      That's what the TUCKS probe is supposed to find out!

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  2. Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This was explained when these pictures first came out. Years ago.

    1. Re:Yawn by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 5, Informative

      RTFA- the vortex previously used to explain this effect was gone when Cassini came by- but the hexagon was still there. This is a laboratory experiment, completely reproducible, that explains the effect in a new way.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    2. Re:Yawn by blargfellow · · Score: 1

      Old news. This article from 2006 details a similar experiment.

    3. Re:Yawn by MartinSchou · · Score: 2, Informative

      Similar experiment, opposite conclusions.

      2006: Faster speeds, more sides
      2010: Faster speeds, fewer sides

    4. Re:Yawn by cmiller173 · · Score: 1

      Dis-similar experiments, Dis-similar conclusions.

      2006: Spin a bucket of water

      2010: Spin a ring inside a slower spinning bucket of water

    5. Re:Yawn by arielCo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Stumped scientists first attributed the shape to a huge, stormlike vortex along one of the hexagon’s sides, which Voyager also spotted during its journey. Astronomers believed this gyre was altering the jet stream’s course, much in the same way a large rock would change a nearby river’s path. But when the Cassini mission returned to Saturn and photographed Saturn's north pole in 2006, the vortex was gone, yet the hexagon was still there.

      The PP is correct - it was also recreated in 2006 with only a spinning bottom. What was disproved is that the hexagon was shaped by an *offset* vortex. And it was featured in /. too, IKEA jokes included :) Quoth ye olde article:

      Tomas Bohr and colleagues made plexiglass buckets, 13 and 20 centimetres across, with metal bottoms that could be rotated at high speed by a motor. [...] Swinney, meanwhile, thinks that the process is unlikely to apply to large-scale flows such as that on Saturn, but might be relevant to smaller-scale phenomena such as tornadoes.

      Then again, experiments must be repeated for validation, additional data and other improvements (including prettier videos!)

      --
      This post contains no rudeness or derision of any kind. All arguments are friendly. Terms and exclusions may apply.
    6. Re:Yawn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was also repeated in some new age pseudo science movie I saw before that. As some sort of evidence of the "memory" or "energy" of water or something weird like that. Apparently if you spin water at different RPMs it will form a few different geometric shapes.

  3. Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A hexagon? The summary is right, that is the most geometrical feature I've ever seen in the solar system. At least twice as geometrical as all those spheroids and ellipses.

    1. Re:Geometrical by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      don't forget those pesky 6 sided snowflakes that keep falling

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:Geometrical by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

      The summary is right, that is the most geometrical feature I've ever seen in the solar system. At least twice as geometrical as all those spheroids and ellipses.

      Sadly, it's a direct quote of the first line of TFA:

      Saturn boasts one of the solar system's most geometrical features: a giant hexagon encircling its north pole.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    3. Re:Geometrical by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Spheroids, ellipses and circles arise fairly naturally from well-understood laws. Even if the laws were a bit different we'd still see them a fair bit. For example, if gravity was inverse linear planets would still organize into spheres. Orbits wouldn't be ellipses but they aren't really ellipses anyways, just ellipses to a first approximation (gravity from other planets distorts the orbits a measurable amount. This was actually used to predict the existence of Neptune based on the failure for Uranus to in as nice an ellipse). But hexagons are very rare in nature. In that sense they are a nice geometric object that we generally associate either with humans or with evolved self-organizing processes (such as bees which use hexagons because they are an efficient tiling pattern). But hexagons out of simple processes like this is just weird. In that sense this is more akin to geometrical objects like squares and octagons that you just don't see in nature. The point being made by using that term should have been clear.

    4. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even better... this hexagon encircles something.

    5. Re:Geometrical by AP31R0N · · Score: 4, Informative

      Bubbles will tessalate into hexagons with the right pressure. i guess it's more stable (closer to circles/spheres) than other shapes.

      --
      Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
    6. Re:Geometrical by JoshuaZ · · Score: 1

      As I understand it this is the same thing that's happening with why bees use hexagons, minimizing surface area. Surface area minimization is the main reason that hexagons generally show up in nature, but the contexts they do are pretty rare. I'm only aware of the bubble thing, TFA's and the hexagonal crystals. They're probably are others but the point is they aren't common at all and when they do occur they occur for interesting reasons.

    7. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but this is just a standing wave (of some sort, we don't know exactly what sort AFAIK, but maybe TFA says...), so the hexagon is a bit of a red herring -- pentagon, septagon, etc. could all arise from the same phenomenon.

    8. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Orbits wouldn't be ellipses but they aren't really ellipses anyways, just ellipses to a first approximation

      Ideal (mathematical) shapes are never met in real life. News at 11.

      In that sense this [the Saturn hexagon] is more akin to geometrical objects like squares and octagons that you just don't see in nature.

      Crystallization, anybody? I'm not an expert in this field, so I don't remember stumbling upon octagons, but pyrite, for example, forms cubes, that is, 6 squares for each crystal. Squares are really not that unnatural ...

      The point being made by using that term should have been clear.

      Yes, it is, but it is stupid, nonetheless. Hexagons are not more geometrical, they are possibly more complex than, say, circles.

    9. Re:Geometrical by Lifyre · · Score: 2, Informative

      According TFA they have made triangles and squares too, pretty much any shape you want by varying the speed. The fast the differential the fewer sides.

      --
      I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
    10. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Carbon atoms will arrange themselves into hexagons and pentagons quite readily in a natural process.

    11. Re:Geometrical by adisakp · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But hexagons are very rare in nature.

      Yeah, HoneyComb, SnowFlakes, Hexagonnaly symmetric Invertebrates (i.e. 6 Legged SeaStars), and Six-Sided Crystals (Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc) are all very rare in nature.

    12. Re:Geometrical by jonadab · · Score: 3, Informative

      Hexagonal crystals are also not unusual, for similar reasons.

      What would be weird would be a naturally occurring repeating pattern of different shapes, e.g., a soccerball-like repeating mixture of pentagons and hexagons, or a pattern of octagons that each adjoin another octagon on the north, south, east, and west edges, with squares (angled at 45 degrees) filling the gaps between the ne, sw, se, and nw edges, and bonus points if adjoining octagons are different colors while the ones across squares from eachother are the same color. Show me THAT occurring naturally, and I'll stand there with my jaw hanging open staring at it in wonderment.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    13. Re:Geometrical by telomerewhythere · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Buckyballs
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullerene

    14. Re:Geometrical by amicusNYCL · · Score: 3, Funny

      They are as rare as proper capitalization.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    15. Re:Geometrical by jo_ham · · Score: 1

      Yes, you just made the point that he went on to mention in the same post you quoted, including the same example of a honeycomb.

    16. Re:Geometrical by adisakp · · Score: 1

      Well, he did use honeycomb but basically said that hexagons came out of behavior (animal created structures where animals == bees or people) so you're right, I shouldn't have used the honeycomb example.

      However, the other examples show that structures that were not created by deliberate animal behavior and refute his point.

    17. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Probably as rare as grammar trolls on slashdot.

    18. Re:Geometrical by electrosoccertux · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      You describe that and I immediately think of a similar scenario where life in animals and our bodies exists naturally apart from it happening with a Prime Mover orchestrating the evolution. It makes my jaw drop to consider that happening without a Prime Mover, but for that the internet metaphorically stones me.

    19. Re:Geometrical by electrosoccertux · · Score: 1

      But hexagons are very rare in nature.

      Yeah, HoneyComb, SnowFlakes, Hexagonnaly symmetric Invertebrates (i.e. 6 Legged SeaStars), and Six-Sided Crystals (Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc) are all very rare in nature.

      only because the basic building blocks of atoms dictate that they arrange in that structure.
      When they're not rigidly connected (like in an atmosphere) then we're talking about something completely different.

    20. Re:Geometrical by jonadab · · Score: 1

      Fullerines are manmade. It's normal for manmade things to have complex structures and patterns. It would only be surprising it it arose naturally without human intervention.

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    21. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, except he didn't say "behavior", he said "self-organizing processes". Like... crystallization.

    22. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're all ClassNames!

    23. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Minimum exposed surface area?

    24. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, the soccerball formation (truncated icosahedron) is found in carbon buckyballs, which can form naturally.

    25. Re:Geometrical by Ken+Broadfoot · · Score: 1

      Hexagons are rare in nature....
      Not at a molecular level....

      I wonder if fluid dynamics ( as it may or may not be applicable to a quantum electron cloud ) may be another way to look at the way molecules take their shapes?

      Rather than think of valence bonds and such, but rather see it as a "blob" of energy that is doing something similar as these experiments show on a small level? The fact that the sides are geometric, is another form of discreet math, as shows up in string theory as well..

      I am old and my brain does not work as good anymore but seems to me something is here....

      --
      Bitcoin pyramid: Join here: http://www.bitcoinpyramid.com/r/1427 it's FREE!
    26. Re:Geometrical by gardyloo · · Score: 2, Informative

      Fullerenes are ridiculously common in soot. Besides, you don't think "manmade" means going in and arranging atoms one-by-one in arrangements that aren't stable, do you? If the atoms are in a stable arrangement, it's because it minimizes the free energy of the system, and I guarantee that nature has figured out a way to get there first.

    27. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      And does a hexagon really "enCIRCLE" something or does it "enhexagon" the north pole?

    28. Re:Geometrical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or as rare as people that don't know the difference between grammar, punctuation, and capitalization.

    29. Re:Geometrical by pclminion · · Score: 1

      Yeah, HoneyComb, SnowFlakes, Hexagonnaly symmetric Invertebrates (i.e. 6 Legged SeaStars), and Six-Sided Crystals (Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc) are all very rare in nature.

      Yes, they are. At any random moment, survey your surroundings -- how many naturally occurring hexagons do you see?

      Just because we can list examples of natural hexagonal objects, and even though these objects sometimes exist in localized areas in large numbers, doesn't change the fact that they are extremely rare. Most things at a macroscopic scale are NOT shaped like hexagons. (I specify "macroscopic" because at smaller scales, where the discreteness of matter begins to dominate, it's not at all unexpected that polygons and polyhedra will arise)

    30. Re:Geometrical by ^_^x · · Score: 1

      I think the line that summed it up from the linked story was "Most planetary scientists are not aware of how ubiquitous these sorts of patterns are in fluid dynamics."

      This is in no way my field, and I certainly have no chops to do a proper proof of it, but as soon as it said hexagon, I thought "oh, so it's probably a deposit of ice then?"

    31. Re:Geometrical by RivenAleem · · Score: 1

      Seen a Map of France lately?

  4. Mystery? by qoncept · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    What is this, 1629? What's mysterious about Jupiter's Great Red Spot?

    --
    Whale
    1. Re:Mystery? by MozeeToby · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Just for starters...

      Why has it persisted for so long?
      Why is it red?

    2. Re:Mystery? by NatasRevol · · Score: 1

      Why is it so large?

      --
      There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
    3. Re:Mystery? by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Funny

      Why is it on Jupiter?

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    4. Re:Mystery? by MartinSchou · · Score: 2, Funny

      Because if it was on Earth it'd cover everything. Just look at what happened to Mars!

    5. Re:Mystery? by glwtta · · Score: 1

      Why has it persisted for so long?

      Do other massive storms on gas giants dissipate quickly?

      Why is it red?

      Is there something baffling about it being red? We may not know its exact composition, but it's hardly a "mystery".

      --
      sic transit gloria mundi
    6. Re:Mystery? by zlel · · Score: 1

      Sure doesn't beat the mystery of the G-spot.

    7. Re:Mystery? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      I certainly did uncovered and beat that mystery in qoncept's mom.

    8. Re:Mystery? by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      Sure doesn't beat the mystery of the G-spot.

      There's no mystery, once you get past the smell you have it licked.

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
    9. Re:Mystery? by s66iw · · Score: 1

      There's no mystery, once you get past the smell you have it licked.

      I'd be curious to know how you can reach in there... Some tongue you must have :)

  5. Washing machine by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Didn't someone do this with washing machines a few years ago? Links?

    1. Re:Washing machine by eln · · Score: 1

      Yes, but this experiment proves the shape can form even in the absence of Tide®-al forces.

  6. Similar article from some years ago... by comm2k · · Score: 3, Interesting

    See http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/news060515-17.html

    1. Re:Similar article from some years ago... by chaodyn · · Score: 4, Informative

      That was done with one fluid, and looked at the shape of the "empty" space at the bottom of the bucket - the article also states that the researcher didn't think it would apply to large bodies like planets, but possibly for small bodies like tornadoes. This recent experiment used a base fluid rotating at one speed and a "disk" to rotate a subset fluid at a higher rate, simulating jet streams - seems much more relevant than the previous experiment, IMO.

    2. Re:Similar article from some years ago... by JesseL · · Score: 1

      And here:

      http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/26/1626245

      --
      "Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!"
  7. Duh! by oldhack · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's where you stick the socket in. Stupid scientists.

    --
    Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
    1. Re:Duh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

          nothing

  8. SATURN HAS 6 CORNER by butalearner · · Score: 5, Funny

    SIMULTANEOUS 6-DAY

    TIME HEXAGON

    IN ONLY 10.57 HOUR ROTATION

    1. Re:SATURN HAS 6 CORNER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Burma Shave?

    2. Re:SATURN HAS 6 CORNER by SalsaDoom · · Score: 0, Funny

      Oh shit.

      Just when I finally wrapped my head around time with 4 sides ;(

      --
      "Computers will never truly be free until the last windows user is strangled with the entrails of the last mac user."
    3. Re:SATURN HAS 6 CORNER by Sparkycat · · Score: 3, Informative

      $1,000.00 TO ANYONE WHO CAN DISPROVE THE HARMONIC HEXAGON.

      ( http://www.timecube.com/ for anyone not getting the joke)

  9. Chalker's Well World by weston · · Score: 4, Funny

    "A giant hexagon encircling its north pole?"

    Well, that sounds familiar:

    "The team discovers a surface anomaly near the north pole of the planet, where a hexagonal hole appears for a brief interval every day. "

    I for one welcome... er, wonder where our Markovian Overlords went.

    --
    Tweet, tweet.
    1. Re:Chalker's Well World by Tteddo · · Score: 1

      It's sad that there are less people like us on this thread than the last one. That was the first thing I thought of. Loved those books.

  10. YOU ARE EDUCATED STUPID by oliphaunt · · Score: 1

    I am intrigued by your ideas and I wish to subscribe to your news-letter.

    --




    Humpty Dumpty was pushed.
  11. Pffftt by MrTripps · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wake me up when the find a giant black rectangular prism. ( http://movieimage2.tripod.com/2001/2001-04.jpg )

    --
    "I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
  12. Missing the obvious... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 3, Funny

    It's one of the valid places to move your Mech.

    1. Re:Missing the obvious... by Samah · · Score: 1

      It's one of the valid places to move your Mech.

      Sorry, I think you have "Mech" confused with "Zig".

      --
      Homonyms are fun!
      You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
  13. Similar Features in Mercury by Sir+Holo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Similar oscillations have been observed in Mercury.

    Click on Activity 3.

    1. Re:Similar Features in Mercury by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      LOL, I had completely the wrong idea when I read your post. I was like "What bizarre hexagonal oscillations could have been seen on the planet Mercury?!"

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  14. Isn't this a dupe from 2007? by thomasdz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Dupe? http://science.slashdot.org/story/07/04/26/1626245/Possible-Clue-On-Saturns-Hexagon?art_pos=3

    --
    Karma: Excellent. 15 moderator points expire sometime.
  15. Someone needs to learn Photoshop. by RSKennan · · Score: 1

    It's obvious to me that someone screwed up the tiling on that texture.

  16. Hexagons are natural and common by elbiatcho1 · · Score: 1

    "Hexagon is nature’s way of using the least length of line to enclose the most area."

    View tortoise shells and Devils Postpile National Monument.

    1. Re:Hexagons are natural and common by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      In this case, it's more like "Hexagon is stupid people's way of referring to any symmetric 6-lobed shape."
      View a standing wave with periodicity of 6.

      If it was a true hexagon, with perfect line segments, your explanation might be the obvious one (except that it's bogus), but nobody would be asking about the hexagon. They'd be asking what about Saturn's atmosphere makes features form in straight lines contrary to everything we know about fluid mechanics.

      For the details of why you're wrong, consider a DragonballZgon (that's a regular polygon with over 9000 sides) -- more area for the same amount of line. It's only weakness is that you can't tesselate a bloody thing with it; since tortoises don't like shells with holes in them, and mass doesn't simply disappear from between the fragments when rocks crack, the hexagon has a valuable role as the tesselating shape with the lowest perimeter/area ratio.

    2. Re:Hexagons are natural and common by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      Hmmm....

      A regular hexagon of circumference C has an area A =~ 2.6(C/6)^2. A/C =~ 0.072*C

      A circle of circumference C has an area A = pi ( C / 2pi)^2. A/C =~ 0.79*C

      So, circles still win as far as "most area enclosed for least length of line".

      I think tortoise shells are better explained by the fact that hexagons tile well. Tiling isn't really the issue with saturn; there's just the one.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
    3. Re:Hexagons are natural and common by DriedClexler · · Score: 1

      "Hexagon is nature's way of using the least length of line to enclose the most area."

      Right, when circles aren't available.

      --
      Information theory is life. The rest is just the KL divergence.
  17. i could have saved them a bunch of money by FudRucker · · Score: 2, Informative

    i made hexagon shapes in the bird bath in my back yard with the garden hose while spraying water in it in such a way that gets water spinning in a circular direction (to clean out debris and freshen the water)

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    1. Re:i could have saved them a bunch of money by Old+School+Saturn+Fa · · Score: 1

      Thank you!

      --
      The tragedy of the human condition is that empathy is, by definition, impossible.
  18. UK catching up, only 11 years behind Denmark! by Old+School+Saturn+Fa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah so polygons are formed in hydraulic rotating systems when you introduce a vertical jet of a different viscosity. Welcome to 1999!

    Jesus this is getting ridiculous! When can Scandinavian scientists start to believe that UK/US researchers even scan their works before publishing? Its like Anders Celsius never existed!

    http://iopscience.iop.org/0951-7715/12/1/001;jsessionid=B8281BB419A9613CD40649F803F5C666.c2

    Full disclosure: I am not Danish

    --
    The tragedy of the human condition is that empathy is, by definition, impossible.
    1. Re:UK catching up, only 11 years behind Denmark! by SteveFoerster · · Score: 1

      It's neither a recent phenomenon, nor confined to the hard sciences. For example, Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations years after Anders Chydenius was writing about similar things.

      --
      Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
    2. Re:UK catching up, only 11 years behind Denmark! by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      Jesus this is getting ridiculous! When can Scandinavian scientists start to believe that UK/US researchers even scan their works before publishing?

      As soon as it stops being a source of paper-publishing gold!

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  19. Obligatory reference by ZaMoose · · Score: 2, Funny

    Professor: "I'm sorry, Fry, but astronomers renamed Uranus in 2620 to end that stupid joke once and for all."

    Fry: "Oh. What's it called now?"

    Professor: "Urectum. Here, let me locate it for you."

    --
    I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
  20. Explained the same way 4 years ago!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Geez this is old news....

    http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060519/full/news060515-17.html

  21. Just a big snowflake by pyite69 · · Score: 1

    It is an interesting fact, no two multi-earth-sized snowflakes are identical.

    1. Re:Just a big snowflake by PSandusky · · Score: 1

      Primarily because you can't step in the same hexagon twice.

      --
      "What's the use in being grown up if you can't be childish sometimes?" --Fourth Doctor, "Robot"
  22. I thought it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Had more to do with cymatics Guess not... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxV0FrFMxUY

  23. Another similar phenomena by AnonymousX · · Score: 1

    If you put sand on a plate and subject it to sound waves, you can make shapes at certain harmonics. This look familiar? http://www.world-mysteries.com/sci_cym3.gif I wouldn't be surprised at all if these were related phenomena.

  24. The Saturnians are planning an attack!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Saturnians are planning an a attack on earth and decided that to be able to beat the earthlings ( well American earthlings) , they needed a Hexagon to be able to conquer your Pentagon.

    *ducks*

    1. Re:The Saturnians are planning an attack!!! by ZeroExistenZ · · Score: 1

      *ducks*

      Ducking in fear of retaliation after voicing some quirky, offbeat, or specific humor hasn't been necessary since the general access to a means for free communication and a wide array of varied interestgroups finding eachother based on simularity, as very specific (eg. certain referencial) humor.

      Get up buddy, make proud and bold quirky humor not everyone might get, there'll always be some people who'll love it and who will want to throw stuff at you. This is the age of free selfexpression with no consequences. (unless you laugh with moslims)

      --
      I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
  25. Buckyballs, natural or only synthetic by telomerewhythere · · Score: 3, Informative

    You know, I thought that at first too, and maybe you know more than I, but the article I linked says they occur naturally.

    Minute quantities of the fullerenes, in the form of C60, C70, C76, and C84 molecules, are produced in nature, hidden in soot and formed by lightning discharges in the atmosphere.[6] Recently, fullerenes were found in a family of minerals known as Shungites in Karelia, Russia.

    I looked up a few sources, and they agree. Here is one that looks legit: http://www.springerlink.com/content/w3856554l87733w3/fulltext.pdf?page=1

  26. Hmmm, what about this? by Antony-Kyre · · Score: 1

    http://web.archive.org/web/20070207104840/http://info.fysik.dtu.dk/~tbohr/papers/Nonlinearitycover.pdf

  27. Here's more... by Antony-Kyre · · Score: 1

    http://www.princeton.edu/~aristoff/www/jump.htm

  28. old news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    once again, timothy, four years behind the times:
    http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/news060515-17.html

  29. Von Karman by riboch · · Score: 1

    It looks like a radial Von Karman Vortex Street, typically seen for low Reynolds numbers for flow over a cylinder. To me it like a Lorentz transformation similar to electrical current going in circles creating a magnet, and vice versa.

    --
    GO BLUE!
  30. Making symmetrical holes in water is easy by pizza_milkshake · · Score: 2, Informative

    I thought making symmetrical holes in water is easy http://www.nature.com/news/2006/060515/full/news060515-17.html

  31. There are already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    available many videos by amateurs, demonstrating the creation of geometrical shapes through sound resonance in Chladni plates (including hexagons).