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?

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.

The Taste Map

There's an interesting study out from some researchers at the University of Nottingham, plotting regional differences in food preferences in the United Kingdom. The study was sponsored by a coffee firm, which I'm sure was gratified to hear that coffee is among the earliest taste memories for most Brits.*

Happy Birthday, Maxwell!

Tomorrow, June 13, is the anniversary of the birth of James Clerk Maxwell. His 178th, if you're trying to think of a present. Maxwell was one of the last of the great multidisciplinary Victorian scientists -- he studied mathematics, astrophysics, electromagnetism, physical chemistry, and invented color photography. Like his contemporary Lord Kelvin, Maxwell was a Scotsman during the era when Scotland was arguably the most high-tech place on Earth.

Maxwell is best known for what are now called "Maxwell's Equations" -- four mathematical expressions showing the relationships among magnetic fields, electric fields, charge, and current. He showed that light is an electromagnetic wave -- thereby paving the way for the development of radio and all its infinite applications. He's also the creator of "Maxwell's Demon" -- a thought experiment on the nature of thermodynamics and entropy.

In honor of his pioneering work on electromagnetism, which led to the development of radar, the highest mountain on Venus is named Maxwell Montes in his honor. (It was discovered by radar.)

Happy Birthday, JCM!

Coupla Links

A pair of interesting essays about science and society. One, from the always-fascinating Gene Expression Web log, concerns science stories in the news -- analyzing them by content to see whether they focus on scientific personalities or scientific ideas.

Second, a piece from National Review Online about C.P. Snow's "two cultures" and how one of those cultures has pretty much vanished.

Crescent City Science

Tomorrow (May 7) marks the 291st birthday of the city of New Orleans. Since this 'blog is ostensibly about science, I sat down to write an entry about science in New Orleans. Then I found out something rather embarrassing:  there isn't much to write about.

For a 300-year-old city which was one of the leading commercial centers in the United States throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, there's a surprising lack of scientific enterprise in New Orleans. The place can boast some innovative doctors (particularly in the public health field), a few inventors, and that's about it, historically. Tulane University is a solid middleweight research university, but overall New Orleans pales by comparison with cities like Philadelphia or even Houston. Why is that? What makes some places centers of scientific inquiry? Money is an issue -- but New Orleans was fantastically prosperous in the 19th century, even after the Civil War.

Beyond Infinity

There's an interesting article at NewScientist about String Theory and how scientists are coming to accept the theory's implication that our universe is only one of a vast number of parallel universes, each with potentially different physical laws. This is a fascinating idea, and increases the scale of reality to an extent beyond what our minds can readily grasp. If you thought an infinitely large Universe was bad, what about a Universe which is merely one among 10⁵⁰⁰ others? That's beyond even cosmic in scope -- a Universe would be less important than an atom in your body. Once again Humanity's collective face is being rubbed in our insignificance.

This isn't as new an idea as the NewScientist article tries to suggest. The "Many-Worlds Interpretation" of Quantum Mechanics dates back to the 1950s, and in fiction the concept of alternate Universes is at least as old as H.G. Wells's novel Men Like Gods. Only now it may be true.

...there's a hell of a universe next door; let's go." -- e.e. cummings

 

...A Problem

Thirty-nine years ago today something went bang. The something was a tank of liquid oxygen aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft, which at that moment was speeding toward the Moon with three astronauts on board. Not a time or place for bangs.

The explosion crippled the Command/Service module combination, the spaceship which was supposed to carry the crew to and from Lunar orbit. They had to take refuge aboard the Lunar Module Aquarius, a cramped vehicle with about as much interior space as a closet and walls slightly thicker than aluminum foil.

By now everyone knows the saga of how they made it back safe and alive, even managing a pinpoint landing in sight of their recovery ship. The Tom Hanks/Ron Howard film from 1995 did an excellent and fairly accurate job of depicting the mission from start to finish. NASA has lots of stuff here.

There is an amusing consequence of the Apollo 13 accident. Space Shuttle missions were originally numbered STS-Whatever, where Whatever was the sequential number of the flight. This lasted from STS-1 in 1981 through STS-9 in 1983. Then, for some mysterious reason, the system changed. Flights were lettered by their order within a given fiscal year, so you had flights 41-B, -C, -D, and -G in 1984, 51-A through -J in 1985, 61-A and so on in 1986. Then Challenger blew up and Shuttle flights halted for a year and a half. When they resumed, with no explanation given, they reverted to the old numbering with STS-26. That system continues to this day.

The bizarre "fiscal year" numbering system seems like nothing but an excuse to not have an STS-13. Now I see that one of the Constellation series of "return to the Moon" missions will have the numbering Orion-13. I will bet a roast beef po-boy sandwich that if that mission ever flies NASA will come up with some reason to renumber it.