Physics Buzz

Astronomy research often beats out other physics fields for headlines in the popular media, but does the general public understand these articles? A recent survey conducted at a science museum aimed to answer that question with six true/false questions. The M-74 spiral galaxy. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI / AURA)- ESA / Hubble Collaboration Overall, the museum goers scored pretty well. We'll go over the results later, but for now it's your turn to take the test. Here's the six true/false questions that researchers recently presented to attendees of the Franklin Institute, a science museum in Philadelphia: Questions: True or False? 1. Scientists have discovered planets going around other stars. 2. Scientists know pretty much all there is to know about the Universe. 3. Scientists have found life on Mars. 4. Scientists can calculate the age of the Earth. 5. Scientists can calculate the age of the Universe. 6. Science (peer

The peak of summer has passed, and many students are slowly turning their minds to the upcoming school year. As back to school specials start hitting stores, many prospective students are hitting the books for graduate school entrance exams or poring over their scores from spring tests. The most pervasive general graduate school exam in the U.S., the GRE , recently released its scoring data for the 1.5 years since a major overhaul of the test in late 2011. Within the dataset, the ETS has grouped average scores by the test-takers' intended graduate major, inevitably contributing to the bragging rights of "major" elitists. So which majors reign supreme on the GREs? Let's have a look at the data for the test's three main sections: verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing. Verbal Reasoning The verbal section measures a student's critical thinking ability, reading comprehension, and vocabulary mastery through a series of multiple choice questions. The q