UCF researchers say they’ve trapped a sustained explosive detonation, fixed in place, for the first time, channeling its enormous power into thrust in a new oblique wave detonation engine that could propel an aircraft up to 17 times the speed of sound, potentially beating the scramjet as a hypersonic propulsion method…

…What does it all mean? Well, hypersonic air travel at speeds up to Mach 17 won’t just open the door to potential sub-30 minute flights between New York and Los Angeles. It’ll also enable spaceplanes to efficiently fly themselves right up into orbit without strapping themselves to rocket boosters

As our own David Szondy pointed out in this terrific hypersonic flight explainer from 2017, there’s not a radar or missile defense system in the world that could cope with a hypersonic missile at this point. What’s more, you wouldn’t even need a warhead on it to cause levels of devastation rivaling that of a nuclear bomb. “All that speed and all that inertia turns any research platform, recon unit, or passenger aircraft into a potential kinetic weapon,” writes Szondy. “They don’t need high explosives to destroy a target. All they have to do is hit it. In other words, any hypersonic vehicle is an intrinsic weapon given the proper modifications.”

Nine out of ten times, the eggs, perfectly cooked, slide seamlessly from pan to plate.

That kind of performance is good enough for most home cooks, but researchers at the Czech Academy of Sciences found themselves perplexed by that tenth breakfast.

“We experimentally explained why food sticks to the center of the frying pan,” study author Alexander Fedorchenko said in a news release.

“This is caused by the formation of a dry spot in the thin sunflower oil film as a result of thermocapillary convection,” said Fedorchenko, a researcher with the Institute of Thermomechanics at the Czech Academy of Sciences.

When any pan is heated from below, a temperature gradients forms within the layer of oil — including sunflower oil, which the researchers used for their experiments.

Because heat lowers surface tension, a surface tension gradient followed the formation of the temperature gradient in the pan. Sunflower oil slipped away from the center of the pan, where it was hottest, and concentrated around the pan’s outer edges.

This deformity inhibits the performance of the nonstick film, whether flowing oil or the nonstick coating itself, and allows food to stick.

The phenomenon can help explain the behavior of films, not just in pans, but in electronic devices and other kinds of technologies.

“Dry spot formation or film rupture plays a negative role, resulting in sharp overheating of the electronic components,” said Fedorchenko. “The results of this study may, therefore, have wider application.”

The feds have regulated the size of your liquor bottles since the 1930s, when Prohibition was repealed. The U.S. Congress gave the agency that would become the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) the authority to regulate bottle sizes for two key reasons: To prevent sellers from deceiving consumers by shorting them. And more critically, standard sizes made it easier to track federal taxes companies owed on liquor they sold.

Regulations rolled out in 1934 and 1936 that designated a roster of imperial units that could be used to sell liquor. That included the familiar quart, pint, and fifth (a fifth being a fifth of a gallon), but also oddballs, including a 1/16th pint (that is, an ounce), which was available only for brandy. The feds allowed 38 different bottle sizes.

So why was the 700ml bottle added to the metric family last month? Blame a global coalition. In this case, distillers, distributors and exporters all pressed for allowing new sizes. It wasn’t a new attempt—Washington state, for instance, lobbied for the change back in 1987, arguing that the restrictions on size stifled price competition. The feds didn’t agree back then.

This time, those pushing anew for change argued that the United States had become an isolated island of 750ml bottles amid a sea of 700ml bottles—the standard size most everywhere else in the world. (India is one other significant 750ml island.) So those wanting to export liquor—from either the U.S. to Europe, or vice-versa—had to order two sets of bottles and calibrate their equipment for two separate bottling runs. That was nobody’s idea of frictionless trade.

If it’s any consolation, shrinking size while maintaining price is a common practice among food products across the board. It even has a name—“shrinkflation”—and it can affect everything from coffee (bags switching from 16 oz to 12 oz) to laundry detergent sizes to tea—a box that once contained 20 bags will remain the same size and price but now holds just 12 bags. It’s a simple way to boost profits without boosting prices.