Progressive Thinking

Our country was founded because of the efforts of progressive thinkers. They had the audacity to suggest that all men are created equal. Since then, as a country, we've stumbled forward. We fought a civil war to ensure that no one was denied their rights as US citizens because of the color of their skin. We behaved atrociously to the indigenous population. Women didn't have the right to vote until the early 1900's.

Even with all the set-backs to basic human rights, there were still plenty of progressive thinkers in the US. From Ben Franklin to President Woodrow Wilson to President Kennedy, there was progressive thinking for the sciences as well.

Benjamin Franklin supposedly experimented by flying a kite to test the theory that electricity and lightening were the same. He was also a prolific inventor and his Franklin stove is still in use today.

I choose President Woodrew Wilson because of progressive thinking of the theory of evolution:

Of course, like every other man of intelligence and education I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions should be raised.
Letter to Winterton C. Curtis (29 August 1922)

President Kennedy started one of the greatest periods of technological in the US when he vowed that we would send a man to the moon.

As a country, we were much more progressive in our thinking in the 1950's and the 1960's. Schools seemed to be geared to teaching US kids science and math courses that would help our country progress. Television shows like Watch Mr. Wizard are still fun to watch today.

When my son was growing up in the early 1990's, we watched Bill Nye, The Science Guy. It was awesome to watch the Space Shuttle and the Hubble Telescope. Those pictures are enough to see the value of progressive thinking.

The Space Shuttles have been grounded. The US must rely on Russia and other countries to get into space. This is something that would have been unthinkable 50 years ago. Progressive thinking led us into great discoveries and the lack now is leading us backwards. It doesn't help that the majority of Republican candidates for president have such a narrow view-point on science.

A New Ocean?

A 35-mile rift in the desert of Ethiopia will likely become a new ocean eventually, researchers now confirm.
The crack, 20 feet wide in spots, opened in 2005 and some geologists believed then that it would spawn a new ocean. But that view was controversial, and the rift had not been well studied.
A new study involving an international team of scientists and reported in the journal Geophysical Research Letters finds the processes creating the rift are nearly identical to what goes on at the bottom of oceans, further indication a sea is in the region's future.

Further down in the article it states that the same rift is parting the Red Sea. Fascinating!

Cool!

A link to the missing link.

Obama Releasing Detainees!!!

A Letter to Booby Jindal

Honorable Bobby Jindal,

In your response to President Obama's address to Congress, you displayed some ignorance. You decried that $140 million had been earmarked for 'volcano monitoring'. If you had studied a bit more, you might have seen that only a fraction of the $140 million was allocated for volcano monitoring. What I find must troubling about your comment is that you know the value of being able to predict natural disasters accurately. Funding for science was severely cut under former President Bush.

Advances in science can help all prepare for natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast just 3 1/2 years ago. Better weather satellites may have been able to offer better predictions. Alas, our weather satellites are in a sad state of affairs. Wouldn't it be nice if more funding for those satellites, river gages, and other tools necessary to predict natural disasters could be made available?

Right now, other tools to help predict hurricanes are being developed.

In the stimulus package was also money allocated to help restore and preserve coastal marsh lands. Much of it will probably go to Louisiana to help rebuild the marshes that have been lost due to hurricanes and other factors. These marshes provide a natural buffer to protect New Orleans and Hancock County Mississippi. Those funds are close to a billion. Due you consider that a waste?

There are people in Hawai'i and Alaska whose lives can be and are impacted by volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. They and we, should not be denied the tools to keep our lives safe.


Sincerely,

A Concerned Citizen of Gulfport Mississippi

2 for 2

A science museum in Mississippi? Yes!! You can help. Biloxi native and astronaut of the Apollo 13 mission Fred Haise is kicking off $2 Our Hero campaign. It seeks to raise $2 from 2 million people.



The Infinity Science Center will be at the Mississippi welcome center on I-10. Currently, those who want to take a tour of Stennis Space Center have to park at the welcome center and wait for scheduled buses. Stennis Space Center has a nice interactive program but other than the space shuttle flight simulator(very, very cool!), most of the activities and films are outdated.

The only thing I would miss is the observation deck at Stennis. It's three stories tall and you can see eagles, falcons, osprey, etc.

Please help. Thanks!

The Big Bang

I'm typing this, therefore the world has not ended as some were hysterically proclaiming would happen once the Large Hadron Collider was fired. I received the picture below via email:



I don't understand the science involved but I understand the sense of wonder. This collider is looking for signs of the Big Bang. What caused matter to be bottled up? What caused the seconds delay when the Big Bang started? If those seconds hadn't occurred would any of us be here today? What would the universe look like?

Other questions: Why do sub-atomic particles behave so differently from what is understood? What wonders will quantum physics and mechanics bring us? Is it possible that at some point in time we will be able to travel worm holes?

Questions, questions: The pursuit of the answers is the fun.

Update: Live webcast

When Physicists Rap

.... it will rock your head!

To Boldly Go

Space, the final frontier... Ah, the dream of going into space. Perhaps sometime in the future, traveling to the moon will be a regular tourist destination. Until then, the majority of us will have to be content with watching the rockets go forth on their missions and watching the space shuttle. But there is a way to have a part of go with the next mission to explore the galaxy.

The Kepler Mission will launch February 2009. Its mission: to seek out earth-sized planets in the Milky Way. By clicking on the Kepler Mission web-site, you can enter your name to be put on a DVD that will be abroad when the Kepler Mission launches.

Genetics

Since humans first began agriculture, we've experimented with the genetics of living things. From cultivating certain types of figs to the domestication of dogs and other animals such as cows, we've been very, very busy.

As impressive as our ancestor’s efforts in genetics were, those efforts cannot hold a candle to what is being done today. I'm currently watching National Geographic's Extreme Genes.

Take a look at the monster beef in the video below:



The show is fascinating. the featherless chickens are weird looking.

Genetically altered fish that grow twice the rate, rice that is being genetically altered so that it has Vitamin A, and genetically altering pigs so that their waste produces less sulphur seem like beneficial ideas.

The most exciting break-through discussed was growing artificial 'mini livers" by using stem cells.

There were two segments that made me very squeamish. One showed how cloned cows are altered and produce human antibodies. The cows whose blood is being harvested for human antibodies looked to be in distress. In order to produce the antibodies, the cows have to be infected.

The second discussed human stem cells being injected into sheep fetuses in an effort to genetically alter the sheep so that human organs can be harvested.

It is disturbing to think of human genes being mixed with animal genes.
To me, a line has been crossed.

6 Degrees

Last night, National Geographic had 6 Degrees Could Change the World. It was interesting but I couldn't help but wonder what other facts they had wrong.

First, great prominence was given to NASA's Jim Hansen. As you may recall, calculations he did on the mean temperatures proved to be in error.

On Aug. 4, however, the well-known climate change skeptic and former mining executive Steven McIntyre — who previously challenged climatologist Michael Mann's 1998 finding that temperatures have increased rapidly since 1900 A.D., compared with the previous thousand years, forming a distinctive "hockey stick" temperature pattern — observed a strange jump in the U.S. data occurring around January 2000. He sent an e-mail to NASA about his observation, and the agency responded with an e-mail acknowledging a flaw in the calculations and thanking him for his help, he says. By Aug. 7, he says, the agency had removed the incorrect U.S. data from the GISS Web site and replaced it with corrected numbers for all 1,200 stations.


The issue didn't end there, however. The corrections made almost no difference to global temperature trends, NASA reported, while U.S. mean annual temperatures from 2000 to 2006 were all reduced by about 0.15 degrees Celsius. Most significantly for climate change skeptics, however, the year 1934 now edges out 1998 as the hottest year in the United States.

Scientists are saying the errors were minimal. But if basic data such as temperatures are not correlated correctly, how can we, the general public, have confidence that the computer models used to project global warming/change are correct?

In programming, there is the adage: Garbage in, garbage out. New studies have shown that clouds play a critical role in warming and cooling the earth. Reputable scientists who challenge the status quo of the doomsayers for climate warming/change do not seem willing to look at data that contradicts their findings.

Now two new studies have been published in the February 1 issue of Science showing that something is indeed going on in the tropics that is consistent with Lindzen's iris effect (though it does not confirm it). Researchers at two NASA institutes have found that the tropics have become less cloudy over the past 15 years. According to the paper by Junye Chen et al., "satellite observations suggest that the thermal radiation emitted by Earth to space increased by more than 5 watts per square meter, while reflected sunlight decreased by less than 2 watts per square meter, in the tropics over the period 1985-2000." In other words, on balance, more heat escaped into space than was added by the additional sunlight that fewer clouds let in. This process tends toward cooling down the atmosphere.

Why are these studies important? Because as the Lindzen study points out, "Whether the iris feedback ultimately proves as effective as our results suggest, the inability of existing models to replicate the relevant observations suggests the need for model improvement in an area potentially crucial to the determination of climate sensitivity." In other words, the current climate models may be missing important effects that would dramatically reduce their projections of future global warming.

One factor I don't remember ebbing discussed is sunspot activity. In 2004, sunspot activity was being reported as very active. New reports suggest sunspot activity is going quiet. Perhaps it is the sunspot activity that is impacting our climate more so than man's activity:

Looking back through sunspot records reveals many periods when the Sun's activity was high and low and in general they are related to warm and cool climatic periods. As well as the Little Ice Age, there was the weak Sun and the cold Iron Age, the active sun and the warm Bronze Age. Scientists cannot readily explain how the Sun's activity affects the Earth but it is an observational correlation that the Sun's moods have a climatic effect on the Earth.

Today's climate change consensus is that man-made greenhouse gases are warming the world and that we must act to curb them to reduce the projected temperature increase estimated at probably between 1.8C and 4.0C by the century's end. But throughout the 20th century, solar cycles had been increasing in strength. Almost everyone agrees that throughout most of the last century the solar influence was significant. Studies show that by the end of the 20th century the Sun's activity may have been at its highest for more than 8,000 years. Other solar parameters have been changing as well, such as the magnetic field the Sun sheds, which has almost doubled in the past century. But then things turned. In only the past decade or so the Sun has started a decline in activity, and the lateness of cycle 24 is an indicator.

The show talks about Hurricane Katrina. It managed to get one key fact wrong. The show stated New Orleans was hit directly by Hurricane Katrina. This is so patently false that it casts into doubt any of the other facts presented. If they cannot even manage to get that one fact correct, what others are wrong? Hurricane Katrina made its first landing in Buras Louisiana and then came ashore at Lakeshore Mississippi. The show did manage to state correctly that Katrina's storm surge played a role in the levee failures.

The ice sheets of Greenland were given much prominence. The most striking was the film of the rivers of water at the top of the ice sheet gouging a hole to the bottom of the ice sheet. At the beginning, the ice sheet was mentioned to be 1500 meters thick, but when the scientists measured the depth of the water tunnels, it was said to be 73 meters. What gives? Surely, the ice sheets hadn't melted that much or else coastal cities would already be under water.

It would be safe to assume that those readings were done at the margins of the ice sheet and not the interior. I found this study to be very interesting. It shows the interior ice sheet is actually growing and that there appear to be 11 year cycles, much like sunspots occur in 11 year cycles.

By combining tens of millions of data points from ERS-1 and ERS-2, the team determined spatial patterns of surface elevation variations and changes over an 11-year period.

The result is a mixed picture, with a net increase of 6.4 centimetres per year in the interior area above 1500 metres elevation. Below that altitude, the elevation-change rate is minus 2.0 cm per year, broadly matching reported thinning in the ice-sheet margins. The trend below 1500 metres however does not include the steeply-sloping marginal areas where current altimeter data are unusable.

The spatially averaged increase is 5.4 cm per year over the study area, when corrected for post-Ice Age uplift of the bedrock beneath the ice sheet. These results are remarkable because they are in contrast to previous scientific findings of balance in Greenland's high-elevation ice.

One good thing about shows like 6 Degrees, if you pay attention to the facts presented, it should make you question the science behind the conclusions. One thing that struck me was the pictures of the glacier that feeds the Ganges River. A quick google search shows that 1956 was a record year for low temperatures. Could it be the retreat of this glacier also corresponds to sunspot activity?

I agree that we all should make attempts to conserve as much as possible. But I think that there are more variables into global climate change than just the amount of CO2. Other shows have indicated the role of sulphuric acid produced by volcanoes, sunspot activity, cloud cover, and many other factors. Each of us should do our part to conserve water, fuel, and other natural resources.

Letting Kids Explore

A typical ten year old may be disappointed at receiving an air compressor as a gift. Forrest Pearson used the one he received to build a snow machine.

With some research and time, you and your kids could build one as well.

Slingshots

Mythbusters can be a very engaging show. It covers everything from myths about lead balloons to illegal immigrants from Mexico using slingshots to cross the Untied States border. Last night, I watched the one titled Border Slingshots. A myth is going around that illegal immigrants are being catapulted across the border in an effort to get across a fence.

This myth was busted! While the slingshot is actually capable of catapulting someone across a 200 ft high fence, the landing proved to be somewhat problematic. Part of the myth included the person landing on a mattress. Even if the person were to land on the mattress, the impact would disastrous. If the person survived, he would face serious injuries.

Another problem with the slingshots is the size. The tops of the slingshots would be clearly visible from the United States side of the border and Border Control officials could just wait until the hapless person was flung across.

Teaching Kids

I saw this video at Fark and thought I would pass it on:



It makes sense what he is saying. Kids need to have the opportunity to explore and to learn responsibility. I allowed my son to do all but play with fire. But he learned about that while in Cub Scouts.

It was a lot of fun deconstructing old VCRs and microwaves with him. Like the video said, the parts might be unknown but it was fun to guess how the parts worked in the appliances.

It's Cute!

And it runs on compressed air! For $3.00, you can travel 125 miles. It also only costs $7,000.00. It is to go onsale in Europe and India.



Maybe we will see it in US markets. Oh, it needs a cup of vegetable oil that needs to be changed every 50,000 miles.

Star Wars

A galaxy faces a deadly menace from far, far, away. The weapon of choice: a deadly beam of energy from a black hole in the midst of the "death star" galaxy.

Scientists say the energy beam can cut a swath of destruction but yet allow for the formation of new stars in the galaxy that is facing the onslaught of energy.

Galaxies

I totally admit I read and watch tons of science fiction. From The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams to The Heechee Series by Frederick Pohl and everything in between: I read and watch. There are a some characters that stick out such as Paul Atreides in Dune and Valentine Michael Smith in Stranger in a Strange Land. And who can forgot the Marvin, the depressed and paranoid robot from the Hitchhiker's Guide.


Some of my favorite series include Star Trek, Star Wars, Dune, and Dr. Who. I appreciate PBS airing Dr. Who(the old shows) and would love to be able to watch the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. What attracts me most about Doctor Who is the concept of time as being fluid and akin to an interstate system in which different points can be accessed if you only have the key or are a timelord. The new Dr. Who show doesn't seem to have the same ummph as the old. I don't think anyone can top Tom Baker as Dr. Who.



I've been watching youtube this morning. Yeah! Four days off!! And came across a couple I liked.

Marvin: The Paranoid Android

and

Doctorin the Tardis

Science fiction has it all: epic battles, epic space exploration, and epic imagination on what the future will look like. But real science is even more fascinating. Echoing Life, the Universe, and Everything, tongue in cheek, scientists have been searching for The Theory of Everything. An unemployed surfer dude who also happens to be a physicist has come up with an elegant and simple solution.

Despite this unusual career path, his proposal is remarkable because, by the arcane standards of particle physics, it does not require highly complex mathematics.

Even better, it does not require more than one dimension of time and three of space, when some rival theories need ten or even more spatial dimensions and other bizarre concepts. And it may even be possible to test his theory, which predicts a host of new particles, perhaps even using the new Large Hadron Collider atom smasher that will go into action near Geneva next year...

In his post, Solomonia pointed out this interesting diagram Garrett Lisi drew up in support of this new Theory of Everything:



As Spock would say, "Fascinating".

They "Chat" With One Another?

Researchers at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School have discovered how bacteria "chat" with one another. And they also discovered a 'suicide module" bacterial cells. This discovery could lead to new drugs to combat bacteria that has become resistant to anti-biotics.

The communication factor, called extracellular death factor (EDF), enables the activation of a built-in "suicide module" that is located on the bacterial chromosome and is responsible for bacterial cell death under stressful conditions.

While suicidal cell death is counterproductive for the individual bacterial cell, it becomes effective for the bacterial community as a whole by the simultaneous action of a group of cells that are signaled by EDF. Under stressful conditions in which the EDF is activated, a major subpopulation within the bacterial culture dies, allowing the survival of the population as a whole.

Understanding how the EDF functions may provide a lead for a new and more efficient class of antibiotics that specifically trigger bacterial cell death in the intestine bacteria E. coli and probably in many other bacteria, including those pathogens that also carry the "suicide module." Given the growing resistance of bacteria to existing antibiotics, this would be a blessing.

This is great news, especially with the spread staph infections outside of hospital environments.

Burning Water?

Watch:



My guess is this component of alkaline batteries.