Thu. September 1, 2005
There Was a House in New Orleans
Otis Redding will have to change the title of his signature tune to the "House of the Rising Flood." New Orleans Faces New Threat from Breaches in Levees. After hurricane Katrina, 80% of New Orleans is under water, some by as much as 20 feet. Basically, the entire city is flooded, and until the dikes are rebuilt the work of pumping the water out cannot even start.
This is a disaster of the first order. The scope is just unbelievable. But the sad part, really, is that it is a man-made disaster. That's because for 300 years New Orleans -- like most of Holland -- lies below sea level, and has been protected by an intricate series of levees holding the ocean and Lake Ponchetrain away. That, in turn, means that the Mississippi River can no longer flood into the delta and deposit sediments and nutrients. So over the years, New Orleans is also sinking further down as the old alluivial sedimentation compacts.
As Mike Tidwell explained Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast --
Civilzation did not make the hurricane. But it is the urbanization and engineered river flow that allowed New Orleans to exist in the first place that has produced its current devastation.
Posted by glenn at Mon. August 29, 2005
Java Man
According to an academic study released at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society, coffee is really good for you. As PhysOrg.com described,
Well, that either means that Americans have no other real antioxidants (and lots of free radicals) or that coffee is hardly the evil toxin that the media have in most cases made it out to be. So drink up, America. At $6 a cup for a Starbucks-type double latte, at least you're putting something healthy into those stomachs of yours.
Thu. February 24, 2005
Dark Matter
Readers of this blog (whoever and how few you are) may recall that I am a big fan of theoretical physics. Now one of the biggest problems with the Big Bang theory -- which has been proven by remnants of microwave radiation and a red shift in receding galaxies -- is that the amount of known matter in the universe is just a small fraction of what the equations predict. (Perhaps a bigger problem is what was "before" the Big Bang, but that's a metaphysical question, as time was created by the Big Bang so there was no "before.") Physicists theorized that there was a lot of "dark matter" in the universe, perhaps in black holes, that had as yet been undetected.
Well now it has been found. Astronomers Detect First Invisible Galaxy [MSNBC.com]. An entire galaxy that is invisible, 500 times the mass of its visible "twin." As Carl Sagan would have said, "billions and billions" of dark stars is a lot of dark matter. Once again, the theoretical mathematics of Einstein and his heirs has been proven correct, decades later, by experimentation and observation.
It's a weird and wonderous thing, the scientific method. But it works.
Thu. January 13, 2005
Comet-Blasting
So our NASA engineers have design a comet probe -- dubbed Deep Impact -- that will smash into the Comet Tempel 1 millions of miles away near Jupiter at about 23,000 miles an hour on July 4, snapping images until the last minute. The probe is designed to give researchers their closest look yet at a comet's surface and help decipher the origins of the universe, as comets are remnants of the beginnings of solar systems after the Big Bang. Comet-Blasting Mission is 'Go' for Launch [MSNBC.com].
But if that's the case, why can't our Pentagon engineers make a suborbital rocket that can hit an inbound nuclear missile? "Star Wars" for comets, but not people. Food for thought.
Fri. November 19, 2004
Whip It
This story reports on how technology is now being used, after several thousands of years, to develop sex toys for men, not just for women. Pushing the Male Envelope [Wired News]. Thank goodness for sexual equality. We've come a long way, baby!
Tue. September 28, 2004
Sick of (In) the 'Burbs
A new study by the Rand Corp. finds that people who live in suburban sprawl, such Atlanta, Denver and many other American metropolitan areas, are more likely to report chronic health conditions than those in compact urban cores like New York or Boston. Feeling Sick? New Study Suggests Urban Sprawl Is Partly to Blame [LATimes.com]. Folks who reside amid urban sprawl showed increased reports of hypertension, arthritis, headaches and breathing difficulties, among other chronic health conditions. Sedentary, car-dominated lifestyles and air pollution appeared to be contributing factors.
So the suburbs may be sickening, really. In contrast, the study found no link between suburban sprawl and a greater incidence of mental health problems. Now that's depressing!!
Sun. August 15, 2004
One Toke Over the Line
A nice treat for those among us who still aspire to the ideals of the 1960s. Cannabis Extract Shrinks Brain Tumours [New Scientist].
Tue. July 27, 2004
Sweet Revenge
Acts of personal vengeance reflect a biologically rooted sense of justice, geneticists say, that functions in the brain something like appetite. Payback Time: Why Revenge Tastes So Sweet [NYTimes.com]
This sounds more like sociology than science to me. But the truth is the same; revenge is an endorphin and, like all emotions, both serves a social function and can get carried away, beyond its usefulness. So F.U.R.B.
Sat. July 24, 2004
Cockroaches Going Extinct?
As a former Manhattan resident, who suffered through the ignominy of roaches following me to three other cities to which I later moved -- and infecting my brother's apartment after he took possession of a teak credenza that had lived in New York City with me -- this story warms my heart. The Roach That Failed [New York Times]. It appears that the development of hydramethylnon bait (commercially sold as Combat) in the mid-1980s has been so successful that there have been "90 to 95 percent reductions in cockroach populations, across the country."
So the insects that have lived with mankind since the ancient Egyptians and can survive a nuclear bomb are finally on their way out. Now if only we can do the same thing with the other major scourge of human beings -- mosquitos.
Wed. July 21, 2004
Gray Holes
This is way too complex for laymen like me to comprehend fully, but renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking announced today that he had proven that information can indeed escape from black holes. The conventional wisdom the wheelchair-bound genius -- author of A Brief History of Time -- had advocated since the early 1970s was that black holes have such gigantic mass that nothing, even light, can escape. Hawking now says he was wrong, meaning that black holes cannot be "worm holes" to venture through to parallel universes.
And here I thought that, with private space travel coming soon, we could all engage in our own personal quantum leaps. Oh well. Stuck on this earth forever. But it remains true that time is relative, because while you may think you're reading this now, the present is already the past. Ponder that one!!
Sun. July 18, 2004
Swatting Flies
Now the ultra-paranoiod medical establishment says that folks shouldn't squash mosquitos because one elderly woman developed an infection by doing so. Flick Mosquitoes Away Say Doctors [BBC.co.uk]. Don't these morons have something more important to worry about, like curing cancer or AIDS? What a bunch of crap.
Fri. July 9, 2004
Saturn's Rings
Cassini Returns Dazzling Images of Saturn's Rings [New Scientist]. They've been a source of wonderment since Gallileo, and now they're here -- close-up -- in living color. Amazing.
Wed. July 7, 2004
Grandparents and Evolution
Old people may hold the key to human civilization, say US researchers who claim to have found evidence that, about 30,000 years ago, many more people started living into old age. Human Race's Survival Could be Chalked Up to Experience. Apparently, as ancient homo sapiens began living longer, the development of grandparents allowed more food gathering, parenting expertise and overall experience to be passed on to later generations.
So the white hairs have value after all. Cool.
Fri. June 4, 2004
Transit of Venus
Venus Makes Pass at Sun: Astronomers Ogle First Transit Since 1882 [Nature.com]. This is very cool. Too bad it is going to be hard to see from where I live in the Eastern US.
Tue. April 27, 2004
Out Damn Spot
The atmospheric storms on the planet Jupiter are changing over time, so that the giant gas planet is beginning to lose its spots. While the biggest anticyclone, known as the "Great Red Spot" has not yet been affected, scientists now believe it's only a matter of time. Holy Gallileo!
Wed. April 21, 2004
The End of Males?
Last year I blogged about the incredible shrinking Y chromosome. Now genetic researchers have created a female mouse with the genetic material from two mothers. But Mr. Big from Sex and the City, I think, proves that males are needed more than ever...perhaps just not for reproduction any more.
Tue. April 6, 2004
Flush the Ducts
This is just too good to resist. According to a recent research study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, frequent ejaculation helps to decrease a man's chances of developing prostate cancer. [MSNBC.com]. So if your woman isn't giving you any......now there's a health reason for whacking off.
Of course, other stories pointed out that "on average, the men overall had four to seven ejaculations a month." And you thought men were obsessed with sex? That's a pittance. We're talking basically once a week, like church. Let's get with it, boys!!
Sun. April 4, 2004
Hey Einstein!
I've been reading The Fabric of the Cosmos, by Brian Greene, an excellent overview of the advances made in modern theoretical physics over the past 50 years. All of which actually started earlier, when Einstein proved that gravity travels at the speed of light by warping the spacetime continuum, debunking Newton. (Both of whom had autism, interestingly.)
And thus my amazement at a story in today's BBC News about a long-delayed gravity probe to be deployed by NASA with the caption: "Einstein's theories about space have not been proved." Now, if that's not bad enough -- experiments decades ago proved Einstein right by measuring warping of light by the sun during solar eclipses -- but the story ran right next to a sidebar that listed other BBC articles about Einstein. And the most recent one, titled "Einstein Proved Right on Gravity," reports that "The speed of gravity has been measured for the first time, revealing that it does indeed travel at the speed of light. It means that Einstein's General Theory of Relativity has passed yet another test with flying colours."
This is far worse than an inability to master fact checking, it's plain idiotic. A writer at least has to have a basic understanding of the subject in order to write an intelligent story. The lesson must be never to accept scientific stories in the general media. But since we get political, international and business news from these same, highly respected but plainly disfunctional journalistic yo-yos, perish the thought how they are probably screwing that up blood well too.
Sun. March 28, 2004
Scramjets
As the world enters the second century of powered flight, the X-43A, a new experimental aircraft developed by NASA -- powered by a revolutionary "scramjet" (supersonic-combustion ramjet) engine that uses oxygen from the air instead of on-board liquid oxygen fuel -- screamed into history at Mach 7. That's 5,000 miles an hour, or about 83 miles per second. Never mind supersonic. The age of hypersonic jet travel is dawning.
Wed. March 17, 2004
A 10th Planet?
For years when I was young I was fascinated by the planets and the solar system. This has led to a deep interest in cosmology and relativity, but still is based on those majestic other worlds that, in space terms, lie right in Earth's own backyard.
This week's announcement of the discovery of a 10th "planetoid" -- dubbed Sedna for an Inuit goddess because it is so cold -- orbiting in an eliptical path many millions of miles outside Pluto throws everything into chaos. Pluto's Planet Status Could be Jeopardized by Sedna Discovery [Yahoo! News]. The mini-planet has an eccentric 10,500-year orbit that ranges between 8 billion and 84 billion miles (12.8 billion and 134 billion kilometers), which is much farther away than the existing nine planets and an outlying ring of frozen cosmic leftovers known as the Kuiper Belt.
For decades after Pluto's discovery, no other objects were discovered beyond Neptune. In recent years, however, other round objects about half Pluto's size have been detected in the Kuiper Belt, much closer than Sedna. And Sedna itself is so far from the Sun that if you were standing on the surface of Sedna today, and you held a pin at arm's length, you could cover up the entire Sun with the head of that pin.
So is this new discovery a planet or not? The International Astronomical Union is set to decide by establishing standards for what constitutes a planet (size, distance from the Sun, shape of orbit, etc.) I tend to agree with Michael Brown of CalTech, who first spotted Sedna. "Either Pluto is not a planet, or many other things are planets," Brown said today. "Which is a better choice? I want my planets to be more special, not less special, so I favor Pluto not being a planet. Emotionally, though, I have to admit that I have grown up thinking Pluto this special odd-ball planet at the edge of the solar system. While I now know scientifically that Pluto is less special, it's still hard to let go."
Tue. December 23, 2003
Space Images
The new Spitzer Space Telescope, successfully launched by NASA last August, is very cool. It photographs the infrared spectrum, getting behind the dust of space to capture images the naked eye never sees. Check out this sampling from the first release of Spitzer images.
Tue. December 9, 2003
Sterile, Stupid and Fat
Great Britain is breeding "a generation of adults that will tend to be infertile, obese and prone to mental illness," the British Medical Association announced yesterday. [TimesOnline.com]. The research focuses on teens and is related largely to income levels, but the same conclusions seem to hold in the US as well. Not a pretty picture.
Fri. November 7, 2003
The End of the Solar System
After traveling for more than 20 years, the Voyager I spacecraft is now nearing the edge of our solar system and is about to pass into interstellar space. [usatoday.com]. It is 8.37 billion miles from the Sun, three times further away than the planet Pluto. Not a bad ride. There's only 44,000 years left to the next star, and after that we're into the realm of "V'Ger" from Star Trek. Very cool stuff.
Thu. May 22, 2003
Our Tiny Blue Dot
First Picture of Earth From Mars. Sure makes you humble about one's place in the universe.
