Bob Kalk

Radioactive elements were incorporated into the Earth when the Solar System formed. All rocks and minerals contain tiny amounts of these radioactive elements. Radioactive elements are unstable; they breakdown spontaneously into more stable atoms over time, a process known as radioactive decay. Radioactive decay occurs at a constant rate, specific to each radioactive isotope. (Different forms … Read more

The Cerebellum which is located at the base of the brain, receives information from the sensory systems, the spinal cord, and other parts of the brain and also regulates motor movements. It is only 10% of the brain. This part of the brain is also found in primates that came along before humans. Scientists are … Read more

Auroras appear when solar electrons excite oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the Earth’s upper atmosphere. The ionosphere (which includes the upper part of the mesosphere, and most of the thermosphere) is approximately 250 miles up. That’s 1,320,000 feet over our heads. The aurora (both north and south poles experience this action) mostly happens near the … Read more

As far as I know, heavy water is used for three things. But first, what is heavy water. It is water that has a lot of deuterium in it. It is an essential component in some types of nuclear reactors that generate electricity. It is also used in producing nuclear bombs. And lastly, it is … Read more

I know that volumes a mile high have been written about this man, but there are a group of facts that I like to keep in my mind; so I jotted them down so I could go back and do a quick review of the things I most admire about this guy. First off, in … Read more

Here’s something to think about. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of what astronomers call the local group. It consists of the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, the Large Magellan Cloud, the Small Magellan Cloud, and other smaller galaxies. The number is more than 54. Somehow these galaxies stay in a group as they … Read more

The first universal law of nature that was ever discovered by a human was found by Newton. That law is as follows: if you double the distance between two objects, the attraction between them becomes four times weaker. This idea, in itself, doesn’t mean much to most people, but with this idea, you will always … Read more

Astronomers estimate that there are approximately 100 billion stars in the Milky Way (the galaxy we live in). They also estimate that there are 200 billion galaxies in the universe. That’s around 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That’s 200 Sextillion stars. Just for the fun of it, after billion, there’s trillion, then quadrillion, then quintillion, then comes sextillion. Paul … Read more

Humans are an optimistic bunch of beings. We assume that someday we will travel to the stars and beyond just like what happened in Star Trek. The closest star to us (earth) is a star called Proxima Centauri which is one of three stars in a cluster known as Alpha Centauri. This star is 4.3 … Read more