Science News

This image shows how a basic mechanical system can produce both order and chaos. The dots are actually points on a plot: each point shows the angle (x-axis) and speed (y-axis) of an imaginary rotor (like a helicopter blade spinning without friction or air resistance) at a single moment in time. This map is the result of 1,000 imaginary trials: during each one, the blade begins at a different angle and velocity, and its trajectory is mapped every second for 100 seconds. As the process repeats, the plotted points begin to form an image composed, in some areas, of highly regular patterns, and, in others, of scattered, randomly arranged dots.

Choose a number at random from scientific data. Think it's just as likely that it will start with a 9 as a 1? In many cases, you'd be wrong. The ages of volcanic calderas are one of those cases. Law-abiding citizens everywhere will be happy to know our planet also obeys Benford's Law, with the duration and size of volcanic eruptions showing the same sort of pattern.

The surprising discovery of self-organized electromagnetic fields in counter-streaming ionized gases (also known as plasmas) will give scientists a new way to explore how order emerges from chaos in the cosmos. This breakthrough finding was published online in the journal,Nature Physics on Sept. 30.