Have you ever been curious about what that black and white board seen during filming is used for? Read on!

It’s called a clapperboard, and if you were under the impression it was just for editing convenience, you’re only partially right. If you’ve ever watched a behind the scenes video or have seen an old Hollywood documentary, it’s probably something you’re familiar with. 

Clapperboards are used in a variety of video production primarily for the synchronizing of picture and sound. As referenced above, they also are useful in marking particular scenes and takes to easier distinguish them from one another, which is greatly helpful during editing. 

The reason they always clap is so that the synchronization can be made easier. All it takes to match the audio and video is linking up the clap sound with the clap image. That way synchronization doesn’t have to wait for a certain sound or for an actor to say a line. 

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Lobsters have rubber bands on their claws to prevent them from becoming cannibals.

If you’ve ever been to a seafood restaurant or been at a house where lobster was served, you’ve probably noticed the lobsters have rubber bands on their claws. It turns out that despite what you might assume, this isn’t (just) to keep them from injuring the cooks. It’s to prevent them from eating each other. 

By nature, lobsters aren’t cannibalistic. In the wild, they eat 100 different kinds of animals including crabs, clams, mussels, worms, and even flounders, but rarely each other. Lobsters even sometimes catch animals then drag them back to their home where they bury them and eat them a little bit every day, like a dog would with a bone.

Lobsters will eat other lobsters if the situation is right, however. A wild lobster will typically only eat another lobster if there isn’t much else around the other lobster is weak due to molting. In captivity, lobsters become increasingly cannibalistic, however. So the rubber bands are really just to keep your dinner from eating someone else’s.  Mmmmm…. Lobster-fed lobster

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If you collapse an underwater bubble with a soundwave, light is produced, and nobody knows why.

It’s a phenomenon called sonoluminescence. Sonoluminescence is a physical occurrence by which sound turns into light. Scientists have been trying for 70 years to explain it, but have had no success. No one has managed to explain how a bubble of air in water can focus sound to cause light, but it happens. 

Some minor revelations have surfaced, however. At first, physicists thought friction was to blame, but in the late 1980s, they discovered that a sound wave’s path expanded bubbles and heated the gas inside them to temperatures hotter than the sun’s surface. That collapse with the heat, they thought, created a glowing plasma. Thirty years later, that is still the going theory. 

However, researchers have suggested that different physical mechanisms must be at work and that there must be multiple kinds of sonoluminescence. What’s been concretely determined so far, though, is that it has to do with the size of the bubble as well as the OH emission from the bubble when it bursts. 

If the science goes much further, it could be possible that some day sound and gas could be used to light underwater areas, exceeding the limitations of conventional lights. 

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NASA is investigating portals.

If you know what the Internet is, you probably know what a big deal portals are, specifically the game franchise. You probably also know such technology is far off in the realm in science fiction. Except it’s not really. 

A NASA funded researcher at the University of Iowa has figured out how to find portals- in the planet’s magnetic field. His name is Jack Scudder, and he calls them X points or electron diffusion regions. In his words, “They’re places where the magnetic field of Earth connects to the magnetic field of the sun, creating an uninterrupted path leading from out on planet to the sun’s atmosphere 93 million miles away.” In other words, they’re magnetic portals. 

NASA’s THEMIS spacecraft has data suggesting these magnetic portals function dozens of times every day. Some of the portals are short lived and small, while others are large and last for long periods of time. NASA is planning a mission for 2014 to study this phenomenon- and in case you’re worried about the state of NASA given the end of shuttle launches, it’s worth knowing this data came to light only last month, so this project is still on course. 

As for now, space enthusiasts should have their attention directed to the new Mars rover. 

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Not a single clone trooper costume was produced for the Star Wars prequels. They are all CG.

To the average Star Wars prequels critic, this should come as no surprise. Rick McCallum, the producer of the prequels, confirmed that every single shot in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith used a heavy amount of computer generated images. 

Hayden Christensen also confirmed just how heavy the use of CG was when he said he was pretty sure there was only one actual set he worked on, meaning one that wasn’t just a green screen and props. So it should come as no surprise that there are no physical clone troopers in the entirety of the trilogy. 

If you go back and look, every shot with them has that glossed over “CG” look to it. The actor was present on set, however, during scenes that required a clone’s face, such as the Order 66 scene in Revenge of the Sith. Many fans have criticized the heavy use of computer generated imagery in the prequels, feeling the environments look sterile and fake. 

Many have criticized the over usage of CG in filmmaking in general as well. Generally though, it’s something an increasing number of filmmakers are starting to do because of the convenience it offers, as shooting on location can be expensive and tiring. 

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