mass
Science

The Kilogram Is Putting On Weight

There’s long been debate over the accuracy of the standardised kilogram. Now, scientists have shown once and for all that the lump of metal defining the unit of mass has been putting on some weight.

12 July 2012

Science

How All Mass In The Universe Is Allowed To Exist

The Higgs boson discovery is a good excuse to learn a bit (and just a bit) about why it was so damn important in the first place. By now, you’ve probably heard that the Higgs is the final piece of the standard model of physics. But what does that actually mean?

9 July 2012

Science

The Kilogram Is Losing Weight And That Might Screw The Metric System

We’ve long known that there were some issues with France’s ‘Le Grand K’, the international prototype for what a kilogram really is. Made in 1879 from platinum and iridium alloy, it is the perfect standard for what a kilogram weighs. The problem is it’s losing weight.

1 November 2011

Gadgets

Your Kindle Gets Heavier As You Add Ebooks To It

Moustachioed UC Berkeley computer science professor John Kubiatowicz told the New York Times that your Kindle gets heavier when you add ebooks. Don’t worry, though, you won’t feel it with your hand, or with any scale that we’ve ever created.

23 July 2008

Science

Nanotube Scale Weighs One Atom at a Time

Yesterday we got a peek at the combined power of nanotubes–technology that makes a rope-driven space elevator feasible–but what can just one do on its own? Berkeley researchers have discovered that one nanotube can be used as a tiny platform to determine the mass of a single atom.

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