SCIENCE CHUNKS

The Lick Observatory

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:40:17 -0700

I visited the Lick observatory last week, up in the mountains near San Jose. It is a spectacular place, well worth the “366 curves” required to get there along a windy road. Pictured above is the Great Lick Refractor, which is truly a marvel of engineering. The entire wooden floor of the observatory is an elevator that rises and falls to allow observation of objects at various altitudes night sky.

James Lick, the founder of the observatory. An interesting man as evident by his unique facial hair (out of style, even at the time). He attained his riches through a variety of means, and it’s a fascinating story. He made pianos in South America, imported Ghirardelli chocolate to San Francisco, and sold land to gold prospectors. Towards the end of his life, he gained an interest in Astronomy, and thus we have the observatory which is still used for research to this day. While we were there, Dr. Alex Phillipenko at UC Berkeley was operating one of the telescopes remotely in a search for new supernovae in our galaxy.
What motivated Lick to attain so much wealth? Perhaps the fact that early in his life, the father of the girl he loved disapproved of him due to his poverty. His skill in carpentry eventually led him to manufacture pianos. And thus, we owe an unrequited love story and pianos for the discovery of supernovae thousands of light years away.

http://dlvr.it/246cSY

Pluto's Moons

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:19:32 -0700

Pluto might be a dwarf planet, but its still an object of interest for NASA scientists. You may have learned in school that Pluto has one moon, Charon. In fact, in 2006, we discovered two more named Hydra and Nix. P4 was discovered last year and hasn’t been named, and P5 was discovered only a month ago. It’s somewhere between 5 and 16 miles across.

Image Credit: NASA

This could present a problem when the New Horizons probe arrives in three years. We didn’t know about these objects when the probe launched in 2006. Even a piece of rock the size of a BB pellet could destroy the craft since it is moving at speeds of over 30,000 Mph! http://dlvr.it/233gh8

KBOs

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 17:15:32 -0700

Image Credit: NASA

The Kuiper Belt is a large diffuse belt of objects beyond the orbit of Neptune. These icy and mysterious planetoids are thought to be the remnants of the formation of our solar system. Pluto is just one of them, and thus is not a planet but a dwarf planet. Much like no individual asteroid can be called a planet, such is the case with Pluto and its far-flung neighbors floating out in comet land, where the sun is so far away, it would almost appear as just another star in the sky.

Image Credit: NASA

Although there are thought to be hundreds of thousands of objects out there, the ones pictured above are the largest we’ve found. One of Neptune’s moons, Triton, is thought to be an object captured from the kuiper belt. We’ll know more about them soon; In 2015 the New Horizons probe arrives around Pluto to give us our first close up look.

http://dlvr.it/22rk6k

Martian Spacesuit

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 16:54:18 -0700

Image Credit: ESA

What’s the latest martian fashion craze? Pictured above is the Aouda.X suit being developed by the ESA. Of course, this isn’t the first and likely won’t be the last suit designed for the thin atmosphere and cold temperatures of Mars.

Image Credit: NASA

A suit designed by 5 schools in North Dakota under a NASA grant. It doesn’t have a name, and unfortunately has no “bathroom option”, but was developed for less than $100,000. By comparison, current NASA suits cost over $22,000,000.

Image Credit: NASA

Another NASA prototype being tested in a high altitude terrain.

Image Credit: NASA

Dr. Dava Newman of MIT developed the Biosuit.

Image Credit: ROSCOSMOS.RU

Last but not least, the Russian Orlan Mars Prototype. Check out those shoulder pads!
This is the definition of “all dressed up with nowhere to go”. We’ve got lots of options for our wardrobe on Mars, but still no plan to get there from anyone, nor the funding to do so!

http://dlvr.it/1mvnwq

Rattus Norvegicus

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:49:01 -0700

Image Credit: EPFL

We’ve been conducting tests on rodents for a long time. This rat is being used to find a cure for spinal injury, and you can read more here. Most laboratory rats are produced from a strain known as the Wistar rat, developed in 1906 by the Wistar institute, an important biomedical center with a focus on cancer and genetics research.

We use these strains of rats because they are almost genetically identical to each other. However, they are very different when compared to animals outside the lab. Over the 100 years of breeding in the laboratory, one would expect changes and there are. They are calmer and less likely to bite, can tolerate more crowding, breed earlier, produce more offspring, and live for a shorter period of time.
In a way we’ve created a new sub-species.
http://dlvr.it/1mPcqF

Cave Paintings

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 01:39:33 -0700

Lascaux, Dordogne, France

Want to know what our human ancestors were thinking many thousands of years ago? We can get an idea from their art. Recently, cave paintings in Spain were dated to close to 40,000 BC, meaning humans have been creating art for far longer than we thought. I find it fascinating to look at the details, and specifically at the unexplained objects in these works. What is the duck on the stick? What do the lines and dots mean?

_REUTERS/Image courtesy of Pedro Saura_

Many of these cave paintings have strange geometric shapes. My anthropology professor said that they are mostly unexplained, and therefore open to interpretation.

What are those checkered patterns supposed to represent? These paintings from the Lascaux cave in France were dated to 15,000 BC. It’s hard to imagine any prehistoric human from this time period encountering something that looked like that.

The lower photo is a prehistoric stag, but what’s up with the square and the series of shapes which follow?

These images are some of the oldest, dating to 37,000+ BC. Children today still outline their hands in this way; this behavior goes all the way back to some of our earliest ancestors. Do we create anything today that has a chance of lasting for 40,000 years? Will our descendants in the distant future be able to decipher what we were thinking when they dig up a digital archive of facebook?

http://dlvr.it/1kPKj0

Odontodactylus Scyllarus

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:07:02 -0700

Image Credit: Monique Elferink

The Peacock Mantis Shrimp. Look at this thing! Check out those eyes. Not just for show, each eye is divided for individual depth perception and with more colors and range than any other eye known, all the way from ultraviolet to much longer wavelengths in the infrared. This adaptation was likely necessary in the colorful coral environment in which it lives.

Image Credit: Wikipedia commons

But that’s not what landed this creature in the news. These shrimp smash open their shelled meals with the fastest punch on Earth. They have club-like appendages folded underneath their bodies which can strike at speeds of around 50 miles per hour. With this punch, they can break glass aquarium walls and crack open shells.

By comparison, the video below shows the guy with the fastest human punch (according to the Guinness book), which clocked in at around 43.3 miles per hour. It’s John Ozuna, and he also set the record for most punches in a minute in this video (713).

These appendages are being studied by scientists because of their remarkable resilience. Not every claw in the animal kingdom can withstand that much force and not break. The clubs are made out of layers of Hydroxyapatite, a key part of our bones and teeth. The layers are structured to allow small fractures in between layers, but localize them so that they do not spread.
We are already using the design to fortify cars, build better bulletproof armor, and high-impact sports equipment.

http://dlvr.it/1jcfWB

Venus Transit

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 12:08:17 -0700

Image Credit: JAXA, NASA, Lockheed Martin

On Tuesday you may have witnessed our neighboring planet Venus passing in front of the sun. In the distance we see solar prominences which would dwarf both planets. The ring of light around Venus is sunlight refracted by the thick atmosphere of the planet.
Transits like this occur very rarely; the next one won’t happen for 105 years. I like to think about the huge distances we are looking across in viewing both Venus and Sun in the same image. Historically, these distances were actually calculated using a transit event which occurred in 1761.

Image Credit: Lick Observatory

Before 1761, we knew that the distance between Venus and the Sun was 0.72 times the distance between Earth and Sun. Using the transit, we found the actual distance. For a detailed description of the math involved, check out an excellent explanation by Paul Doherty here.
The distance between Earth and Venus in the image is roughly 38 million kilometers, making it the closest planet to our own. To drive to Venus, you’d have to go the distance between Oakland and New York City just under 10,000 times. At the speed limit, with no rest stops, it would only take you 15,800 days (43 years) to get there. Road trip!

http://dlvr.it/1hgKZt

Helix Aspersa

Wed, 30 May 2012 22:07:01 -0700

Add caption

The garden snail. Humans relate to them in many ways; as pest, pet, food source, and even experimental subject. Maybe in the future, we will relate to them as power sources. A new study in Science reports that snails can generate energy when implanted with a biofuel cell.

Image Credit: American Chemical Society

The snail produces glucose which is then consumed by an electrode. After the snail eats or rests, it creates more glucose which generates more power. The energy amount is similar to that of a watch battery. Applications could include electronic monitoring devices. Smile! You’re on snail cam. http://dlvr.it/1f936q

Tomopteris Helgolandica

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:42:03 -0700

Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Tomopteris is a tiny worm which swims in the deep cold waters of the north Atlantic ocean. It can reach lengths of around 3 cm, and like most animals that live in the deep, it creates its own light source through bio-luminescence. Most bio-luminescent species glow in an eerie blue, but one species of Tomopteris glows yellow.

I love to imagine swarms of these animals lighting up the desolate reaches of the dark northern ocean water as icebergs float far overhead like bright mountains in the sky.

http://dlvr.it/1dbvjr

Ovis Aries

Thu, 24 May 2012 03:02:32 -0700

The domestic sheep. Relied upon for food, clothing, and much much more. These animals have been bred over thousands of years to provide what humans need with a minimum of fuss. Imagine trying to milk or shear a wild sheep:

Yea, these dudes aren’t sitting still for a haircut! Humans have selectively bred sheep to become “neotenic” meaning, to display characteristics usually reserved for immature members of the species.

Domestic sheep, depending on breed, have no horns, thick wool, are docile when being milked and sheared, and even seem to like the company of some humans. Sheep can recognize and individual human faces and remember them for years. When you look at the range of bizarre characteristics in dogs, I suppose it’s not that big of a deal. http://dlvr.it/1cS5SY

Annular Solar Eclipse

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:07:02 -0700

Annular (meaning “ring-like”) eclipses occur regularly, but are rarely visible from the United States. Which is why you should definitely go out and see it this Sunday.
Eclipses like this occur because the moon’s orbit around the Earth is not a perfect circle. During perigee, the moon is closer, and therefore appears larger than the sun. During apogee, the moon is farther away, and appears smaller then the sun. When an eclipse occurs, it must be during a new moon, and close to apogee for the ring to appear.
To get an idea of where and when the eclipse will be visible from northern California, check out this link. They quote some very reputable sources.
If you don’t live in northern California, check out this website for when and how the clipse might be visible to you. http://dlvr.it/1b437K

Sclerocephalus Haeuseri

Tue, 15 May 2012 13:29:33 -0700

Image Credit: Paleodirect.com

Sclerocephalus is a large amphibian that lived during the early Permian, around 300 million years ago. At this time, all of the world’s continents were joined together into a huge land mass known as Pangaea. These early amphibians were likely top-level predators, and could get to around 6 feet in length.

There is evidence that, much like our modern day amphibians , they also underwent metamorphosis, from a tadpole with external gills to an adult with lungs.

This species is special in that a large number of well-preserved fossils have been found. That could indicate that they were very successful; the odds of any creature being fossilized is very low. If there are large numbers of fossils, there were likely large numbers of Schelocephali.

The image above is a focus on the rectum of the amphibian, and the light brown chunk is a coprolite (that’s fossilized poop). We’re looking at an animal from 280 million years in the past taking a dump. Science truly is amazing!

http://dlvr.it/1ZGq9V

Gherman Titov

Fri, 11 May 2012 12:03:02 -0700

Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Gherman Titov was the fourth man in space, and to this day, the youngest to exit our atmosphere at 25 years old. His flights proved that we could live and work in space, as his was the first in which someone orbited the Earth multiple times, slept, and suffered from space sickness (he threw up).

Image Credit: AFP - Getty Images

Here he is in some sort of bizarre Soviet torture device. He was selected after Yuri Gagarin (who was the first man in space). He would have been the second or third man in space if Alan Shepard and Gus Grissom hadn’t beaten him to it. Later, when Gagarin died in a test flight accident, Titov was removed from all future flights. The Soviet Union figured it would be bad if they lost both of their figureheads. No one remembers the guy who came in fourth, do they?

http://dlvr.it/1YLY6N

Legged Squad Support System

Thu, 10 May 2012 11:48:03 -0700

Image Credit: Boston Dynamics

The future of mules is finally here. Boston Dynamics, a tech company located in Waltham, MA is perfecting a robot known as the LS3: legged squad support system. You can see the video of its freaky mule-action here.
Testing has already begun with troops overseas. Its pretty impressive, and must have some sort of rudimentary AI to find its way around terrain.

All I have to say is: “No fate but what we make.”

http://dlvr.it/1Y58jq

Sauropoda

Wed, 09 May 2012 17:41:02 -0700

Image Credit: Dinoguy2, Wikipedia

So I got started on the subject of Sauropods because they are all over the news right now. Apparently a new study in current biology, calculates the amounts of methane produced by the gut bacteria of grazing sauropods. By their measurements, the fart-tonnage of these dinos would have had an effect on the climate similar to the methane emitted by our herds of livestock.

Far more interesting, to me, is the biology and size limits of these creatures. The current record holder for land-size is Argentinosaurus, named for the country in which its bones were found. It likely topped out at around 115 feet and 100 tons. There are similar species which could have been larger, if only their bones hadn’t been lost.

Image Credit: Ultrazionale

The largest of these is Amphicoelias fragillimus.This would have been the big poppa of all dinosaurs, with a length of 190 feet and a weight close to 150 tons. There is a fascinating and detailed post here about A. fragillimus and the controversy surrounding them. Also, if you are wondering if these would have approached the size of a blue whale (the current record holder for size in the animal kingdom, past or present), the answer is no.

Still, it has inspired some pretty cool toys.

http://dlvr.it/1XtjXm

Ursus Maritimus

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:28:02 -0700

Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons

The polar bear. This is the largest land carnivore on Earth, and the poster animal for global warming. When habitat destruction occurs, it is often the top level predators who suffer first. So why talk about these bears? I recently found out that their fur is not actually white, but transparent.

Image Credit: Christina Yu

The hair of a polar bear looks white because the air spaces in each hair scatter light of all colors equally. The color white becomes visible to our eyes when an object reflects back all of the visible wavelengths of light, rather than absorbing some of the wavelengths. The air spaces help to trap heat from the sun. The bear’s skin is actually black.
So you might be thinking, all this is pretty interesting, but where’s the cubs? Here ya go:

Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons

http://dlvr.it/1XdbjN

Todarodes Pacificus

Sat, 05 May 2012 11:00:02 -0700

Image Credit: Geoff Jones

The Japanese flying squid. This 8 inch long squid will leap from the water and glide for a short period of time to avoid predators. It uses it’s lateral fins and tentacles to stabilize itself.

Image Credit: Graham Ekins

The squid shoot water from their siphon to assist with the launch. Apparently there have been accounts from fishermen for some time of finding squid jumping onto the decks of their boats. Just one more reason to avoid the sea, unless you like fresh calimari.

http://dlvr.it/1Ww4sT

Spirals on Mars

Fri, 04 May 2012 16:55:06 -0700

Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Are these shapes natural or man-made? Previously, there was no firm explanation for these strange polygonal and spiral etches areas on the surface of Mars. Now we think we’ve found an analog from here on Earth.

Spirals have been seen in pahoehoe lava in Hawaii. This type of lava forms when there is a smooth current of liquid lava flowing underneath a congealing surface. If there are multiple flows in different directions, eddies can form, and the spiral movement can be frozen in time as the lava hardens.
http://dlvr.it/1WmJHk

Brassica Napus

Thu, 03 May 2012 16:43:01 -0700

The fields of Luoping, China. They are covered with a yellow flowered crop known by its common name, Rapeseed. This crop has proliferated in part thanks to its use by humans in the making of Canola oil. This is likely where the canola oil in your cupboard comes from. China produces more rapeseed than any other country.

The oil from these seeds are used for making feed, engine lubricant, biodiesel, and of course cooking oil. I just love the photo; one more way humans have changed the planet, for better or worse.
http://dlvr.it/1WWmLd