Recently in Experiments Category

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Bubbly poured into a long narrow flute provides more of a nose-tingle than when served in a wide and shallow "coupe".

The reason is that much higher levels of carbon dioxide, released by bubbles in the glass, collect at the top of a flute.

Harry Potter (Photo credit: Profound Whatever)

Scientists have deployed Harry Potter-style powers to levitate fruit flies and watch them walk on air.

Researchers performed the seemingly magical feat by suspending fruit flies in a strong magnetic field.

The technique, known as "diamagnetic levitation", allows water and organic based materials to become weightless.

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A first step has been taken towards hearing imagined speech using a form of electronic telepathy, it has been claimed.

Scientists believe in future it may be possible to "decode" the thoughts of brain-damaged patients who cannot speak.

In a study described by one British expert as "remarkable", US researchers were able to reconstruct heard words from brain wave patterns.

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

And why not?

A mysterious new property of graphene has been discovered by one of the British Nobel Prize-winning scientists who first created the "wonder material".

Graphene is an ultra-thin sheet of carbon just one atom thick.

In 2010, University of Manchester professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov won the physics Nobel prize for work that involved producing flakes of graphene using sticky tape. Both received knighthoods in the New Year Honours List.

Graphene is the thinnest material known and the strongest ever measured.

It also conducts electricity and heat better than any other material. Potential applications include fold-away mobile phones, wallpaper-thin lighting panels, and the next generation of aircraft.

Now a team led by Sir Andre has shown that graphene membranes shut out all gases and liquids except for water.

A laser capable of energy bursts that exceed the entire power output of Belgium has been used to recreate conditions found in stars.

Scientists from Oxford University took part in the experiments involving the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) in California, the world's most powerful X-ray laser.

It was used to focus X-rays on a spot 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair, heating a metal foil to two million degrees centigrade in less than a trillionth of a second.

Not one you should try at home!

Dallas Campbell and the crew from BBC Bang Goes the Theory are coming to The Giant Screen at Birmingham's Thinktank this Friday to conduct a giant experiment - and you can get involved!

The team will be conducting and filming an experiment between 3.30pm and 4.30pm.

The experiment is all about human behaviour. It will be fun, engaging and they hope surprising!

Click here for more details.

A game-changing study that showed how drugs can prevent the transmission of HIV has been named Science journal's Breakthrough of the 2011.

The HPTN 052 trial recruited 1,763 heterosexual couples from nine different countries, each of which included one partner infected by the HIV virus that triggers Aids.

Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) were administered immediately to half the infected individuals.

MIT Media Lab researchers have created a new imaging system that can acquire visual data at a rate of one trillion frames per second.

That's fast enough to produce a slow-motion video of light traveling through objects.