After watching a campy mid-1950s science fiction movie recently, I was left wondering: how radioactive must something be to begin glowing? And could a living creature become that radioactive and still survive, even briefly? –Ranchoth, via AOL
Not exactly–nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, c. However, in translucent media, notably water, light travels much slower, at maybe 75 percent of c. A beta particle traveling through air, say, moves considerably faster than light traveling through water.
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Almost every bell tower I’ve heard chime the time precedes its hourly announcement with a musical preamble–a simple, beautiful tune we all know. It has four measures, each four notes long and then a rest before the next measure begins. What is this thing? Who penned it, and is he pulling in residuals? –Quas, via the Internet
