September 16, 2024
Hello again, science fans.
Hallo nochmal, Wissenschaftsfans.
(Over 40,000 Bay Area residents speak German at home.)
SPACE
He emerged and then retreated back to the interior. He was not a groundhog, and his retreat does not suggest we will have 6 more weeks of winter. Jared Isaacson and fellow Polaris Dawn crew member, Sarah Gillis, popped up (down? sideways?) from the SpaceX Dragon capsule to get an unobstructed view of Earth from 700 km away. Since the capsule’s interior was exposed to the vacuum of space, it was also an opportunity to test the four spacesuits for flexibility and ‘leakproofness’ as well as to test all of the interior equipment for their ability to safely cycle from an air pressure of 1000 millibars to zero and back. Well, sorta. In fact those tests had already been done on the ground. They were researching changes to eyesight, to bloodflow, to the effects of medications, and to methods of ameliorating “space sickness” – similar to ‘carnival-ride sickness’ but much longer lasting.
I have got to share this with you. The super massive black hole Sagittarius A* (pronounced “A” star) is about 27,000 lightyears away in the center of our Milky Way galaxy, and here is a 1-minute video depicting a voyage from Earth to Sagittarius A*. Not only has the Event Horizon Telescope imaged Sagittarius A*, it has mapped the orientation of its polarized magnetic field – seen as streaks added to the image.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, SETI, was jolted in 1977 by the WOW! signal, a strong radio transmission from outer space at an ideal frequency for interstellar radio communications. In the intervening 47 years, no similarly strong signal has again been detected. However, much weaker signals of the same frequency from the same region of the sky have now been found in data from the – sadly destroyed – Arecibo radio telescope. The researchers hypothesize the signals – including the WOW! signal – were created by a natural maser – microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. (Just like a laser – light amplification by stimulated emission radiation – but with lower energy photons. The first maser was built in 1953; the first laser in 1960.) They suggest that interstellar clouds of cold hydrogen are periodically struck by strong radiation – possibly from a magnetar flare. Wow.
RAFFLE
We are offering a Polaris Dawn t-shirt with the project’s patch that has the astronaut’s names (Isaacman, Poteet, Gillis, Menon) and the expedition’s motto, “Exploratio simul” (Exploring together). Pick your color and size. Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with your guess of an integer between 0 and 1,000. Last time, Greg guessed closest to the randomly generated 498 to win a long-sleeved Polaris Dawn t-shirt.
BIOLOGY
Ocean Networks Canada and Instituto de Ciencias del Mar set up a fish-feeding contraption 645 meters deep off the British Columbia coast. They included a sonar detector that would trigger their camera when fish were present. Somehow (?) local Northern Elephant Seals learned to follow the sonar noise to find fish gathering to eat at this great depth. At least 8 different elephant seals were filmed repeatedly for nearly a year, creating plenty of data for an additional – and unexpected – science study. Never underestimate mammalians.
Electric butterflies. Really. Just flapping their wings gives butterflies a slight electrostatic charge. As a butterfly nears a blossom to extract some nectar, the electrostatic charge causes pollen to jump to the insect. While the butterfly draws nectar for food, the plant increases its chances of pollinating distant cousins.
In the reptile world: King’s College (London) researchers discovered that Komodo dragons have iron incorporated into the cutting edges of their teeth making them especially hard and durable for slicing through flesh and bone. The Komodo dragon is the clear cut winner of my nightmare monster of the week.
MY PICKS of the WEEK (Hint: save dates & times to your mobile phone)
A lot going on this week. I recommend you browse the entire calendar.
Extinct Xerces Blue Skies Project Mon Noon, Sonoma State University
Jane Goodall: Celebrating 90 Mon 6pm, San Francisco, $
Outbreaks: COVID, Mpox, Bird Flu, and more – Livestream Tue 4pm
Human Spaceflight: An Evolving Process Tue 6pm, Mountain View
Nerd Nite: Psychedelics, Geysers, & Science of Learning Wed 7pm, S.F., $
Exoplanets: Dead or Alive Thu 3:30pm, Berkeley
After Dark: Listen Thu 6pm – 10, ExplOratorium, S.F., $
NightLife: Falaṡṭīn (Palestine) Thu 6pm – 10, Cal Academy of Sci, S.F., $
Transforming Transportation: Bringing Science to Policy Fri 3pm, Berkeley
40th Annual Coastal Clean-up Day Sat 9am – Noon
Morning Walk at Wavecrest Sun 10 – 11:30am, Half Moon Bay
GEOLOGY
A year ago on September 17, the Earth began to tremor at 10.88 millihertz, a continuing seismic tone 92 seconds long from peak to peak. The low frequency hum diminished over the next 9 days until it no longer registered on seismometers. Baffling. Months later, the story came together through a high-definition sonar survey of Greenland’s Dickson Fjord, computer simulations, and 70 determined scientists. A massive rockslide had crashed down on a glacier. Rock and ice plummeted into Dickson Fjord creating a 200 meter (650 ft) high tsunami that sloshed across the narrow fjord setting up a seiche (a standing wave) that resonated at 10.88 millihertz due to the width and depth of the fjord.
Explorers just discovered a mountain that rises over 3,100 meters (10,200 ft) from its base. (Don’t ever say there is nothing more to explore on our home planet.) A big reason it was unknown is that its summit is 994 meters (3,260 ft) deep in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America.
Turns out there is something else just discovered deep in the Pacific Ocean: oxygen. Normally the deeper that one goes in the ocean, the lower the concentration of oxygen. When scientists found the opposite, they saw that the deep, dark ocean floor was covered with mineral nodules. They discovered that the nodules had an electrostatic charge. They hypothesize the nodules are splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis. More research is needed.
FUN (?) NERDY VIDEOS
Namib Desert Live Cam This Internet camera allows you to ‘go back in time’ 12 hours to watch a variety of animals: Springboks, Hyenas, Pied Crows, Hartebeests, Porcupines, et al. Click various places on the red timeline.
1.8 Billion Years of Plate Tectonics in Reverse – 1 min
Hermit Crabs Moving to Larger Homes – John Downer Productions – 2.5 mins
Jade Eggs in the Vagina – Cup o’ Joe – Joe Schwaarcz – 4 mins
The Overpopulation Myth – Big Think – Hannah Ritchie – 7 mins
Salps: Free-Floating Tunicates – Bizarre Beasts – Hank Green – 10 mins
ITER Won’t Do Anything – SciShow – Caylypso = 11.5 mins
Virtual Power Plants – Just Have a Think – David Borlace – 12 mins
A.I. – Humanity’s Final Invention? – Kurzgesagt – 15 mins
Understanding Passenger Flight – Veritasium – Derek Muller – 17 mins
Latest on the Hubble Tension – Dr. Becky – Becky Smethurst – 27 mins
Engineering the Future: Hyperloop – 52 mins
Have a great week in science, in health, and in adventure,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
― Douglas Adams (1952 – 2001) English author and screenwriter
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