Interactive Periodic Table

Check out this amazing, interactive periodic table. It features excellent representations of quantum orbitals, isotopes and many other aspects of the periodic table often lost in the simple diagram versions.

Superconducting Graphene

Potentially superconducting graphene has been synthesized using CaC₆ producing a series of carbon sheets with of calcium separating the layers of sheets.

Scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have been studying the origin of the superconductive behaviour of this material. Although the origin of this property is still a mystery, graphene and other analogous carbon based materials are often of interest for nanotechnology applications.

Read more: Scientists discover potential way to make graphene superconducting 

Creating quick chemical balance sheets

For all you teachers out there, here is a site that provides over 100 chemical equations that can be used to produce randomly generated chemical balance worksheets. Very quick, easy and even has options to increase or decrease the sheets difficulty.

The Periodic Table - by Abundance

Check out this cool periodic table from 1976, showing each element card sized in proportion to its natural abundance on earth.

Breaking Absolute Zero

Figure from Braun, S. et al. Science 339, 52–55 (2013).

Since Absolute Zero Kelvin is defined by the average energy of the observed particles. Typically more particles are in the lower energy states, and less in a higher energy states. If these states can be evened out than "Absolute Zero" is reached, if we can put more particles in the higher energy state than the lower energy state we reach negative Kelvin. Scientists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik have successfully observed such a state in a atomic Potassium-39 gas. You can check out this link "Ultra-cold atoms give way to negative Kelvin" at nature.com to read more and if you have access you can read their paper in the journal Science here.

New advancement in "cold fusion"

BBC News recently covered some advancements at the National Ignition Facility (NIF), in Livermore, California. 

For the first time a fusion reaction was observed that produced more energy than it used, this total gain in energy makes the reaction a form of "cold fusion".

192 laser beams were used to heat and compress a hydrogen pellet until nuclear fusion, the joining of two atoms to form one, occurred. 

Hydrogen fusion is the same process which powers the sun, and has been a desired source of energy for some time, but to date the fusion reactions have been inefficient, costing more energy than they produce. This prevents the reaction from being useful as an energy source.

Bohemian Gravity

Even particle physics can be fun, especially when McGill University physics graduate student, Tim Blais, put together this fantastic video on string theory using the tune of Queen's Bohemian Rapsody. Blais made some previous internet fame last year when he released a video titled "Rolling in the Higgs" describing the Higg's Boson set to the tune of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep".