Science Made Cool

Eat Healthier, Die Younger

Following a link from the always-intriguing Gene Expression Web log, I found my way to this post on the Low Carb Art & Science 'blog, which asks the simple question: has eating a more nutritious diet made Americans healthier? If their data are to be believed -- and the author certainly makes a good case -- Americans have cut down on our consumption of red meat and dairy products in the past two or three decades, and switched to eating more grains, more chicken and fish, and more vegetables. The result? An "epidemic of obesity" and higher rates of heart disease (even though we're also drinking more wine than ever before). What gives?

Origins Awards!

We didn't attend the annual Origins Gamefair this year, but we'd like to congratulate the winners of the 2009 Origins Awards:

In the Board Games category:  the alarmingly topical Pandemic, from Z-Man Games.
Children's, Family and Party Games category:  Say Anything, from North Star Games.
Historical Board Games:  Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear, from Academy Games.
Card Games:  Dominion, from Rio Grande Games.
Collectible Card Games:  Magic the Gathering: Shards of Alara 1, from Wizards of the Coast.
Fiction:  Worlds of Dungeons & Dragons Volume 2, from Devil's Due.
Nonfiction:  Tour de Lovecraft, from Atomic Overmind Press. (We own a copy of this, and recommend it highly.)
Miniatures Rules:  Classic Battletech: Tactical Operations, from Catalyst Game Labs.
Miniature Figures:  Star Wars: The Clone Wars Miniatures from Wizards of the Coast.
Historical Miniatures Rules:  tied between Field of Glory by Osprey Publishing, and Song of Drums and Shakos from Ganesha Games.
Historical Miniatures Rules Supplements:  Field of Glory: Rise of Rome, by Osprey Publishing.
Historical Miniature Figures:  15mm SS Panzerdivision "Das Reich" from Battlefront Games. (Sorry I can't find a link -- ask your local game store.)
Roleplaying Game:  Mouse Guard Role-Playing Game, from Archaia Studios.
Roleplaying Supplement:  Serenity Adventures, from Margaret Weis Productions. (Again, no link. Their site appears to be under attack by the Alliance.)
Game Accessories:  the D-Total Die from Gamescience (a 24-sided die!).

Congratulations to all the winners!

Solar-Powered Flight

There's a report in WIRED about the Solar Impulse, a prototype aircraft designed to use solar power for a round-the-world flight. The pilot for the trip will be Bertrand Piccard, the long-range balloonist and one of Those Piccards. (Insert boilerplate joke about "Captain Piccard" here.)

According to some back-of-the-envelope calculations by an aerodynamicist we know, the plane would fly at about 25 miles per hour, making for a trip time of about a month -- although the low speed means a good tailwind could be a tremendous advantage. (Insert boilerplate joke about commercial aviation here.) The route will likely be somewhat meandering, as such a large, light aircraft will have to stay far away from active weather.

A month-long flight means the pilots will have to deal with some of the health issues previously only faced by astronauts. How do you stay fit and avoid bone degeneration when you're just sitting in a cockpit 24 hours a day? How do you avoid going bonkers from boredom? And (all together now) how do you go to the bathroom?

Let's hope the Solar Impulse project gets airborne, and good luck to all involved.

Physics Demonstrations 101: PV/T

All those equations you learn in physics class describe how aspects of the real world work, right?  Which is why physics class lends itself so well to live demonstrations. (Biology, not so much. Living things have this annoying tendency toward autonomous behavior. In short, they don't always do what you want to them to.) The University of Chicago has posted some of the most dramatic demonstrations that Heinrich Jaeger and Sidney Nagel  use to teach their introductory physics class.

In this clip, they show off the effects of temperature on the volume of a gas. Bring on the liquid nitrogen!

Thanks to the University of Chicago Magazine for the pointer. (Notice, by the way, that Jaeger and Nagel always wear their safety goggles.)

Seeing What Isn't There

I love maps, and have a modest collection of them. So I was interested to come across this article about an exhibition of vintage maps of Manchester at the University of Manchester. The article (which is to say, the press release) focuses on the way that 19th century maps of the city presage contemporary concerns -- commuting time, drinking, and attempts to solve social problems with wrecking balls.

I think this is an example of seeing the past through our contemporary lens. If you look at a collection of old maps, you're likely to see the continuities and think they're important. "Look, the pubs back then were all in the same places!" Not surprising, really -- even in the United States it's not uncommon for a successful business to stay in the same location for a century or more. The legendary McSorley's in New York has been open since the 1850s.

A focus on what hasn't changed misses the important stuff that has. A map like, oh, the plot of cholera deaths in London doesn't speak much to our era because we don't have deadly urban epidemics any more. (Swine flu? Don't talk to me about swine flu. So far 167 people have died worldwide of the current outbreak. That's about the average number of deaths from yellow fever per year in the city of New Orleans before the Civil War. Compared to our ancestors, we're disease-free, thanks to vaccination, pesticides, and clean water.) Yet of course it was that cholera map which helped create our modern healthier cities.