Physics Buzz

There's more to the South Pole than just some ice and a pole. A lot more. In fact the bottom of the world is a veritable hot bed of international scientific experiments. Like the Askaryan Radio Array, subject of this week's podcast . The pole at the South Pole in front of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Image: NSF

Emperor penguins are lords of the cold. They thrive in frigid conditions that would make human popsicles out of anyone relying on only the hair nature gave them for protection. Many researchers have bundled up and braved harsh Antarctic winters to study these fascinating birds and their strategies for survival. In 2011, a team of international scientists reported that tight-knit huddles of Emperor penguins exhibit wave-like motions. Every 30-60 seconds waves will propagate throughout the huddle, which can consist of thousands of penguins at a time, allowing penguins at the huddle’s chilly outskirts to move inward to the warm center and those at the center to relinquish their turn. The team’s observations generated more questions than answers. Was there a lead penguin that triggers the wave each time? How do the waves compare with the collective behavior of other masses such as bird flocks, fish schools and traffic jams? And why do the waves move throughout the huddle in the dire

Here at the 2012 April Meeting, we're celebrating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of cosmic rays by Victor Hess. Also, the meeting is taking place just months after the 100th anniversary of the first successful expedition to the south pole. Nowadays, the south pole and particle physics are intimately intertwined, and one physics outreach specialist attending this meeting has demonstrated his efforts to popularize fundamental frigid research at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory . An Aurora is seen over the South Pole scientific station. Image Credit: Christy Schulz/USAP

Most of us think of Science as a generally dignified enterprise. You plan your procedure meticulously, set up your instrument, conduct your experiment methodically and calmly, then write up the results. You don't shout and curse as your precious telescope bangs into the truck that's carrying it as you try to launch it into the sky. Right? The above clip, from last Thursday's episode of the Colbert Report, contains footage from BLAST, a documentary by filmmaker Paul Devlin . Devlin didn't look far for the subject of his film--the story follows the daily life of his brother, Mark Devlin, the guest in the above clip. Which meant traveling to Arctic Sweden, Canadian polar-bear country, and, finally, Antarctica. Based on where his work has taken him, you might guess that Mark is an explorer. In a way, he is. He's an experimental cosmologist at the University of Pennsylvani a, and he's trying to figure out what the universe looked like just after it was born.