690. Feb 01: Atolla wyvillei, the deep-sea jelly that use bioluminescence to “scream” for help when attacked!  Bioluminescence is used in many different ways in the ocean, but the most unusual is perhaps this jelly’s strategy!  When attacked, it flashes frantically, hoping to draw a predator that will eat its attacker.

691. Feb 02: Case of hypothermic man, 2 hours in cardiac arrest, resuscitated, no neuro deficits.  We are used to the idea that a person has minutes, at most, to live when their heart stops.  When “preserved” at low temperature, however, people can survive extended periods with no circulation, and still come out with no lasting neurological damage. (h/t @msbellows)

692. Feb 03: Butterflies want to drink your blood, sweat & tears. (Post by @maggiekb1)

693. Feb 04: The saga of M.L. Humason, who went from mule skinner & janitor to observational astronomer!  (via @brx0)

694. Feb 05: Many owls have asymmetric ear size & placement, allowing better prey location. (This fact was posted in honor of #SuperbOwlFacts!)

695. Feb 06: The world’s oldest living organism lives in the Mediterranean.  (h/t @jacquelyngill)

696. Feb 07: The sex-changing frog, the chemical company, and the trash-talking scientist.  (via @motherjones)

Mashups seem to have become exceedingly common in recent years, but it is worth noting that they have been around for quite some time!  One that caught my eye in recent months is The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The War of the Worlds (to be called FASHWW for brevity), written by Manly Wade Wellman and his son Wade Wellman and released in book form in 1975:

The title pretty much makes it obvious, but nevertheless I will explain the premise of the book: Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes is present when the “Martians” from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds attack, and he sets himself against them!  Is it a titanic battle of mind versus monster?  We shall see…

The idea for this mashup came to Wade Wellman after he saw the 1968 movie A Study in Terror, in which Sherlock Holmes matches wits with Jack the Ripper.  The battle of the two famous characters led Wellman to wonder how Holmes might react to Wells’ Martian invasion.  From this idea grew the kernel of a story; Wade Wellman was primarily a poet, however, so he turned to his father Manly to help him develop the concept further.

Manly Wade Wellman was, in retrospect, the perfect person to write such a story.  He had a talent for writing about larger-than-life characters, as his “Silver John” stories and novels demonstrate; also he was no stranger to odd mashups, as his “world’s greatest scientists of history versus evil alien slime” story, Giants From Eternity.

FASHWW was originally printed as a series of magazine short stories and later coalesced into a novel.  The complete book consists of five chapters, which detail the actions of Holmes, Watson and others before, during, and after the “Martian” invasion.  Another major player in the book is Professor Challenger, the boisterous protagonist of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World (1912).  The chapters are:

1. The Adventure of the Crystal Egg.  In the course of an investigation, Holmes comes across a mysterious crystal object, which seems to allow him to see another world.  He calls his friend Professor Challenger to help investigate.
2. Sherlock Holmes Versus Mars.  As the first cylinders bearing the Martian tripods land, Holmes escapes the first attacks, and later comes back to occupied London to discern the invaders’ motives and strategies.
3. George E. Challenger Versus Mars.  We next learn about Professor Challenger’s exploits  during the beginning of the invasion, as he aids his wife in fleeing the “Martians” and later begins a reconnaissance mission against them.
4. The Adventure of the Martian Client.  As the war winds down, Holmes and Challenger launch a risky plan to gain the upper hand.
5. Venus, Mars, and Baker Street.  The war is over; the Martians defeated!  Yet there is still intrigue that has emerged from it, both on Earth and on other planets.

The book is utterly charming, and the Wellmans manage to capture the voices of Holmes and Challenger very well.  It is worth noting, though, that the story does not feature a titanic battle of wits between the invaders and Holmes, as the title might imply.  The Wellmans stay very true to the plot of the original War of the Worlds (which is treated as the “official history” of the invasion), including its denouement.  This means that Holmes, Watson and Challenger are all relegated to being relatively minor characters in the story, and most of their time is occupied with observation, conversation, and survival more than direct action against the invaders.

What the story does contain, though, is a view of the “Martian” invasion through the eyes of Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous characters, including the major events of Wells’ novel.  Holmes and Challenger are witness to the first landing of the capsule and the first attack, the harvesting of humans, the valiant attack of the “Thunder Child”, and of course the end of the war.

You may have noticed me putting the word “Martian” in quotation marks!  When H.G. Wells wrote The War of the Worlds in 1897, speculation about possible life on Mars was still very popular, even though the scientific evidence already found it unlikely.  By the time of FASHWW’s writing in 1968, scientists had conclusively shown that the red planet is a cold, dead planet that could not possibly hold a living Martian civilization.

The Wellmans decided to have a little fun at Wells’ expense!  In FASHWW, Holmes and Challenger deduce from the “Martian’s” physiology and technology that they must have come from somewhere outside the solar system.  Wade and Manly use this to have some fun at H.G. Wells’ expense, having Holmes and Challenger accusing him of sloppy reasoning!  Furthermore, they have Doctor Watson referring to H.G. as “a known radical and atheist, a boon companion of Frank Harris, George Bernard Shaw, and worse.”  I have noted previously on this blog that H.G. Wells had radical utopian ideas, so Watson’s accusations are not entirely unreasonable.  I wondered at first if the Wellmans had a genuine personal dislike of Wells, but their introduction to the tome speaks of Wells with such reverence that I am convinced they’re really just playing a joke of sorts on him.

So if you’ve ever wondered how Sherlock Holmes would deal with a trifling problem such as a Martian invasion, this is the book for you!  As I have noted, though, it is much more low-key than the subject matter would perhaps suggest.  Fans of Arthur Conan Doyle and fans of H.G. Wells will find something to enjoy in this book.

I remember my own very well: while I was still a graduate student in high-energy physics, I was sitting next to my advisor listening to various students and postdocs present their research to the overall collaboration.  Most talks went smoothly and uncontested, but when my advisor’s postdoc presented, he was bombarded with an extended series of almost hostile questions.  I leaned over and asked my advisor why the postdoc was getting such a hard time.  My advisor replied, in essence, “One answer is that this is an important result and everyone wants to make sure we get it right.  Another answer is that I’m his advisor.”

Even the greats have had their moments when their idealistic views were first tempered by a dose of cynical reality.  A particularly amusing anecdote is related to the great physicist and chemist Michael Faraday (1791-1867), when he first applied for a position with the famous chemist Humphry Davy.

Michael Faraday in 1829

Early in his life, the odds were stacked against Faraday ever even starting a science career.  His father was a poor blacksmith working in the very class-regimented English society, and scientists were drawn from the upper-class and wealthy elites.  Early on, Faraday himself certainly didn’t imagine he would eventually be a giant of science: at age 14 he began a seven-year apprenticeship as a bookbinder to binder and seller George Ribeau, and it probably seemed he was destined for such a humble career.

Humphry Davy in 1803

The book business gave Faraday opportunities to read widely on a variety of topics, however, and he became inspired to study science thanks to the book Conversations in Chemistry, by Jane Marcet.  Faraday started implementing his own simple experiments in chemistry and electricity and, with his master’s blessing, attended some public lectures on natural philosophy by one Mr. Tatum.  In 1812, as Faraday’s apprenticeship ended, a contact he had made at the bookshop gave him the opportunity to attend lectures by the famous chemist Humphry Davy.  Faraday took detailed notes of the lectures, and was sufficiently inspired to write to the president of the Royal Society to inquire about possible employment.  The official response to the porter who brought Faraday’s letter to the president was, “no answer”.

Now we come near to the punchline of this post! At the end of 1812, Faraday’s desperation to enter the sciences and escape the book business spurred him to appeal to Humphry Davy directly about a position.  He wrote about the experience later in life to one J.A. Paris, M.D. in 1829:

My desire to escape from trade, which I thought vicious and selfish, and to enter into the service of Science, which I imagined made its pursuers amiable and liberal, induced me at last to take the bold and simple step of writing to Sir H. Davy, expressing my wishes, and a hope that if an opportunity came in his way he would favour my views; at the same time, I sent the notes I had taken of his lectures.

Davy wrote back in a very favorable and encouraging manner, on December 24, 1812:

Sir,– I am far from displeased with the proof you have given me of your confidence, and which displays great zeal, power of memory, and attention.  I am obliged to go out of town, and shall not be settled in town till the end of January; I will then see you at any time you wish.  It would gratify me to be of any service to you; I wish it may be in my power.

I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant, H. Davy.

In a first interview, Davy was encouraging, but did not have a position available at that time for Faraday.  However, soon after in early 1813, Davy called on Faraday again (Faraday to Paris):

You will observe that this took place at the end of the year 1812; and early in 1813 he requested to see me, and told me of the situation of assistant in the laboratory of the Royal Institution, then just vacant.

At the same time that he thus gratified my desires as to scientific employment, he still advised me not to give up the prospects I had before me, telling me that Science was a harsh mistress, and in a pecuniary point of view but poorly rewarding those who devoted themselves to her service.  He smiled at my notion of the superior moral feelings of philosophic men, and said he would leave me to the experience of a few years to set me right on that matter.

(Emphasis mine!)  This passage paints a deliciously delightful picture in my mind: young, innocent Michael Faraday being humorously schooled on the realities of scientific labors by a more experienced and cynical Humphry Davy!

The rest, as they say, is history.  From his humble position as an assistant at the Royal Institution, Faraday would go on to make fundamental contributions to physics and chemistry, including the unification of electricity and magnetism and the demonstration of the link between magnetism and light.

This little anecdote is wonderful to me because, at the same time it hints at the cynical politics in science, it highlights the graciousness of one of its participants!  Without Davy’s faith and kindness to Faraday, it is likely we would never have been exposed to Faraday’s brilliance, and physics may have progressed at a much slower pace.

(Postscript: For the scientists out there: do you remember your first encounter with the politics of science! Feel free to share in comments!)

***********************

Quotes and image of Ribeau’s shop taken from Dr. Bence Jones, The Life and Letters of Faraday (J.B. Lippincott and Co., Philadelphia, 1870).

To commemorate the event, Carin Bondar of PsiVid and carinbondar.com (and genuinely wonderful person) put together an incredibly awesome video of the fun being had!  You can watch the video on the PsiVid site; pretty much all of the Science Online folks have certainly seen it but I wanted to share it with those readers of the blog who may not have come across it.

(I didn’t embed the YouTube video directly because I want to give Carin the pageviews at her blog!)

If you want to look for me, I appear 3 times briefly in the video, most conspicuously as “The Thinker” early on!

683. Jan 25: #weirdscifacts via @naturalsciences: Longleaf pines undergo a growth spurt to “get above” brush fires.  These pines depend on brush fires to survive, but must grow rapidly to escape the fire-susceptible sapling stage.

683a. Titanoboa, the extinct mega-snake!!! Unfortunately, titanoboa went extinct before it could eat Jon Voight (for real). (h/t @laelaps)

684. Jan 26: The Russian “water computer” of 1936!  This computer was built to solve partial differential equations; if the technique had persisted for long enough, we might be referring to “computer bugs” instead as “computer clogs”.  (h/t @jenlucpiquant)

685. Jan 27: #weirdscifacts via @naturalsciences: Female tree bats mate in fall, but don’t fertilize eggs until after hibernation, in spring!  It requires a lot of energy in order to hibernate with an actual baby on the way, so the female bat simply stores the male’s semen until spring.

686. Jan 28: Final #weirdscifacts via @naturalsciences: the hellbender salamander, which “breathes” through its skin!  The salamander has lungs, but it spends most of its time underwater and breathing through its skin.

687. Jan 29: Why swim when you can walk? The odd locomotion of the handfish.  Unlike mudskippers, which use their fins to walk on land, the handfish seem to “walk” underwater.

688. Jan 30: #weirdscifacts via @myrmecos: the spider that is disguised as its ant prey! 

689. Jan 31: #weirdscifacts via @discoveryplace “Mummies”: The Detmold child, a 6500 year old mummy.  This mummy predates King Tut by 3,000 years!

A few years ago, I had a plan to do a blog post surveying weird fiction books about the apocalypse.  After some initial research, I put the project on hold for a while, because apocalyptic fiction has a long, long, long history!  For instance, in 1826 Mary “Frankenstein” Shelley wrote a novel The Last Man, describing the end of humanity due to a devastating plague — and this is not the earliest novel about the end of the world, by far!

Though I didn’t write the post (yet), I did explore and read quite a number of books that looked at “The End”; one of those that caught my eye was Brian Keene’s The Conqueror Worms:

I have to admit, I expected something rather schlocky when I read the title of the book: it reminded me of many of the cheesy “creature feature” novels I read as a high school student, in which two-dimensional, indistinguishable characters get knocked off one by one by some sort of really absurd monster. (Cough cough Killer Crabs cough cough!)

What I got instead, was a book far more thoughtful — and with much more depth than I expected!  It turns out the title was quite misleading as to the tone of the book: Keene’s preferred title is Earthworm Gods, which was changed by the Dorchester Publishing Company for the first paperback edition.

Since then, Keene has had a falling out with Dorchester, and the book is scheduled to be rereleased (under Earthworm Gods) sometime in the near future by Deadite Press.  In light of this, I thought it would be an appropriate time to say a few words about Earthworm Gods…

Suppose it started raining one day, everywhere in the world, and it never stopped?  Would the water levels rise, and keep rising, drowning the coasts, the major cities, until only mountaintops remained unsubmerged?  If you’re like me, you would probably think that such a scenario is scientifically impossible — but Brian Keene is clever, and there’s more going on than at first seems.

The novel opens under the narration of Teddy Garnett, a veteran of World War II and a resident of a mountainous area of West Virginia.  He describes the global deluge, and the horror that followed: earthworms of increasingly monstrous size that burrow easily through the rain-soaked ground and are ready to consume and destroy all: houses, cars, people.  The grim struggle for survival by Teddy and his friend Carl comprise the first half of the book.  In the second half of the book, a pair of survivors from Baltimore arrive, and their story gives a partial explanation for the incessant rain and explores the depths of human depravity and desperation.  At last, the novel concludes with a grim showdown between the survivors and the forces of darkness on a lonely rain-drenched mountaintop.

A number of things jumped out at me while reading this novel.  First, I really, really appreciated the choice of such an atypical protagonist as Teddy Garnett.  As I noted, the “creature features” I read when I was younger had readily forgettable characters, but Teddy has stuck with me ever since reading the novel.  Second, I really liked the sharp turn the book took in the second half with the arrival of the Baltimore survivors.  The story takes on a completely different, and interesting, tone at that point.  Finally, I should note that Keene manages to make the idea of giant killer earthworms work — the idea could easily have come across as ridiculous.

I would recommend Earthworm Gods to anyone who is interested in a rather offbeat (though not silly) take on the idea of global armageddon — I’ll write a follow-up post when I see that it has been rereleased!  I should note that Keene has also written a sequel to Earthworm Gods, titled Deluge, that he wrote in serial form on his blog over the past couple of years during the economic downturn.  It will also be released in complete print and electronic form later this year.  I haven’t had a chance to go through the serial, but I will certainly read Deluge when it is printed — and I’ll also be catching up on some of Keene’s other work, as well!

I love museums!  My parents, especially my father, started taking me to science museums and zoos in the Chicago area from a very young age.  I grew up amongst such diverse distractions as dinosaurs, lunar landing modules, ancient Egyptian culture, and dolphin shows!

So when I had an opportunity to tour the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Rayleigh, NC during Science Online 2012, I jumped at the chance!  In fact, I had two chances: the conference reception was held in the museum on Thursday evening, and I signed up for a tour of the facility on Friday afternoon, including some fascinating behind-the-scenes peeks.

It is a wonderful museum, one which is in the process of completing a major expansion to be opened in April.  I thought I’d share some of the photos I took during the trip.

The beginning of our tour focused on some of the unusual natural phenomena to be found in North Carolina itself; many of these have been featured in my Twitter #weirdscifacts this past week!  One of the things I learned: the Carolinas used to be home to the only parrot species native to the eastern United States, the Carolina parakeet, now sadly extinct.

Carolina parakeet

The main floor of the museum also has some magnificent skeletons of whales; the image below is the skeleton of a right whale that was killed in 1876.

Right whale, killed in 1876

The bones of animals are more than decoration; they can often provide evidence of an animal’s life and travails.  For instance, later in our tour, we were shown a fossilized whale rib, which has scratches on it from shark teeth:

Fossilized whale rib

Occasionally, things other than bones can become fossilized, potentially providing a rare glimpse at other aspects of a long-extinct animal’s physiology.  For instance, the museum has a specimen of Thescelosaurus, named “Willo“, found in the Hell Creek formation of northwestern South Dakota.  Willo is almost unique in that it may contain the remains of the dinosaur’s heart!

Thescelosaurus "Willo"

Unfortunately, as I understand it, it is still not entirely clear that the reddish mass in Willo’s chest is in fact a heart and not some naturally occurring formation.

Some specimens are truly impressive!  One of my favorite prehistoric creatures is the giant ground sloth, which in geological terms went extinct practically yesterday:

Giant ground sloth

Other impressive specimens abound!  One of the jewels of the museum’s collection is an Acrocanthosaurus skeleton (Dr. Matthew Francis’ head in photo for scale):

Acrocanthosaurus skeleton

To me, perhaps the most interesting part of the museum was the exhibit about the museum’s history itself: the”museum within a museum”, or “meta-museum”, if you will!  This included a replica of the 1910 workshop of the first curator of the museum, H.H. Brimley:

Replica of 1910 office of H.H. Brimley

It is easy to forget how dramatically museums have changed!  The NCMNS illustrates this with a WWII-era exhibit of a Japanese doll:

Japanese doll

The doll is cute, but the preserved caption is fascinating:

Caption of the "Friendship Doll"

After seeing the public area of the museum, we were treated to a tour of its working areas.  It is easy to forget that natural science museums are typically active research institutions, with a lot of things going on behind the scenes.  We first visited the collections room where the biological specimens are preserved and stored.

Working area of the specimen room

The chamber is truly impressive, lined with cabinets filled with a variety of animal specimens, from bats to birds to primates:

Specimen cabinets

These very silent corridors have a very eerie feel to them, and are filled with preserved specimens not on exhibit:

We moved on from an examination of the animal specimens to a look at fossil remains; here physicist Dr. Matthew Francis got an unpleasant surprise:

Dr. Matthew Francis' unpleasant surprise

I should mention that one of the bonus joys of the tour was going through the museum with Brian Switek of Laelaps and Scicurious of The Scicurious Brain!  Scicurious’ enthusiasm is infectious, and she was filled with fascinating questions that the guides were often hard-pressed to answer!  Brian’s paleontology expertise really showed when looking at the fossils, and he had many intriguing observations to make about specimens that were otherwise unlabeled.  For instance, he spotted the skull of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus Rex wrapped up off to one side:

Juvenile t-rex skull, upside down

I stuck pretty close to Brian and Sci during the tour; I was always interested to hear what they would see or say next!

We were treated to one more interesting specimen: an excellently preserved Edmontosaurus from Hell Creek:

In addition to getting a behind-the-scenes tour of the specimen rooms and labs, during the Science Online reception we were also treated to a “sneak peek” at the new wing of the museum, currently under construction and due to open on April 20 of this year.  The centerpiece of this Nature Research Center will be the SECU Daily Planet, a 3-story globe which will serve as a multimedia center for live science news and presentations.  I took a mini-panorama of the view from the 3rd floor:

The center will include active research labs, and the public will get the opportunity to ask scientists questions about their research!  There’s still a lot of construction to get done by the 20th of April, however, as indicated by a variety of ironically-labelled touchscreens:

Ironically-labelled touchscreens!

I’m looking forward to the opening!  I probably won’t make it there right away, but the Nature Research Center will be open for a full 24 hours on the first day.

I really enjoyed my visit to the museum; looking forward to my next opportunity to visit and to see the new wing!

When I was starting out as a student of physics, most of the stories I heard about the history of physics were anecdotes about the eccentric behaviors of various famous figures.  There is so much more that we can learn from the history of science, however, and at the same time that we entertain people with stories from the past we can educate them about how science works.

This was, in essence, the idea behind a session co-moderated by myself and Brian Malow (Science Comedian) at Science Online 2012, “Weird and Wonderful Stories in the History of Science”.  We asked people to share their weird stories of science and tried to provide some thoughts on the lessons that those stories taught.  What follows is a rough transcript of the stories & events of the session.  At the end, we also had a bit of a discussion of books that tell excellent stories about historical science; a list of those books is provided at the end of the post!

Tom Swanson opened the discussion with an anecdote about wine! (Highly appropriate for this meeting.)  Now that science is learning more about the process of wine aging, others are taking advantage of that knowledge to “fake” bottles of old wine.  This story is a fascinating example of how good science can be manipulated to both good and nefarious purposes.

I mentioned one of my favorite stories: “Lewis and Clark and the grizzly bears“!  When Lewis & Clark set off in 1804 on the first transcontinental expedition, they were tasked with collecting scientific information as well as commercial.  As they progressed west, they were warned by natives that the bears in that direction were different — and far more dangerous than any others they had encountered.  L&C dismissed these views at first, until they started to have encounters with the highly aggressive and nigh-indestructible creatures.  One spectacular incident involved a group of the explorers being charged by a grizzly that shrugged off their gunfire; the men leaped off a 20-foot cliff to escape — and the bear cannonballed in after them!  Even after their first few harrowing encounters, Lewis wrote, “I find that the curiossity of our party is pretty well satisfyed with rispect to this anamal.” To me, this story gives at least two good lessons about science: the significance of native knowledge (Lewis & Clark should have paid more attention to the natives’ warnings) and the dangers of technological hubris (L&C were confident that their guns would easily handle any threat they encountered.)  I’ll blog more about “Lewis and Clark and the grizzly bears” in the near future…

Romeo Vitelli followed up with another anecdote about Lewis & Clark.  The explorers brought with them a large quantity of dubious emergency medicine: the Bilious Pills of Dr. Benjamin Rush.  Hawked as a cure-all, the pills in fact contained large quantities of mercury, now known to be toxic!  (To me, this story highlights how little we understood about medicine and health even such a short time ago.)

Greg Laden provided an anecdote about German refugee Gunter Holzmann, whose rheumatoid arthritis began acting up in the Bolivian jungle in the 1970s.  He was told by the natives to go get bitten by some ants, and this helped immensely with the pain!  Again we learn the importance of native knowledge.  Furthermore, Greg pointed out that such discoveries show what we can lose when native languages disappear: the medical/scientific knowledge contained in those languages can vanish along with them.

Maggie Koerth-Baker shared an amusing and enlightening story about Thomas Edison’s early implementation of electrical power!  In 1882, a faulty junction box turned one New York City intersection into a gigantic joy-buzzer for horses.  Edison was actually approached by an entrepreneur the next day who wanted to install a similar system in his horse stalls, to make old nags seem like thoroughbreds!  To me, this story shows how new technology can have unintended consequences, and surprising applications (though, thankfully, it does not seem that Edison helped out the man with his electric stables).

Thinking of Edison, Brian Malow brought up the (in hindsight) amusing and hostile rivalry between Edison and Nikola Tesla to dominate the electrical power industry, in what is now often referred to as the “War of the Currents“.  One quote stood out: Tesla, bashing Edison’s style of research, commented, “If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”  To me, this is both an illustration of how strong personalities can shape the nature of scientific discourse.  It is also a good illustration of how different styles of research can produce equally effective results (despite Tesla’s gripes, it is clear that Edison and Tesla were both very successful scientist/engineers).

Next, Amy Shira Teitel shared with us a wonderful story that she has recently uncovered about the space race: the problem of swearing astronauts!  Those pioneers traveling to the Moon were often overwhelmed by the amazing sights they were seeing, and bad words would slip out.  This was bad because their communications with mission control were being broadcast live around the globe.  One astronaut was so accustomed to cursing when his mind wandered that NASA had to take more elaborate steps to keep him in check — read the post to see what!  This story really puts a human face on those brave folks who traveled at great risk to explore the reaches outside of our atmosphere.

Marriane (whose twitter handle I did not get) shared an anecdote about a female researcher who did very good research on cockroach biology.  She chose this particular creature to study because they were in abundance in the basement of the research lab!  This tale both highlights the challenges that women in science have had to face throughout the years, and also shows that research is often guided by what is convenient, or possible.  There’s a lesson here about making more science funding available, I’m sure…

Cedar Reiner brought us back to the influence of Thomas Jefferson on science (Jefferson also sent Lewis & Clark off on their expedition) and told the story of “Jefferson and the Giant Moose“!  In the early years of the United States, Old World naturalists were convinced that the natural flora and fauna of the New World was “degenerate”, or inherently “weaker” than magnificent Old World life.  Jefferson sought to counter this by sending a giant specimen of a bull moose to the Comte de Buffon!  This story illustrates the power of backyard citizen science (the hunt for the giant moose) as well as the significant influence that science and politics can have on one another.

Dr. Rubidium brought us back down to Earth a bit with the sad story of Fritz Haber, 1918 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry but also the “father of chemical warfare”.  Haber’s wife and son would commit suicide over his work on such hideous weapons, and the Nazis expanded his research in the development of Zyklon B, used in the gas chambers of the Holocaust.  Haber’s sad story is a reminder that the life and work of many scientists is complicated: we should be careful about putting scientists “on a pedestal”.

David Manly introduced us to some current research, with lessons of its own!  The axolotl is an amazing species of salamander that can regrow limbs and skin, and recover from spinal damage seemingly without limit, and is furthermore incredibly cancer resistant.  Does this research bode well for human regeneration?  The researcher himself is somewhat doubtful that the work will go that far.  Then why do it?  ”Because it’s cool!”  Lots of great science is done simply for the fascination of it, though one never knows where it might lead.

Henry Reich brought us back to the past with a tragic but fascinating story of invention.  In 1949, a group of smokejumpers parachuted into the Helena National Forest in Montana to fight a fire that had been sparked in Mann Gulch.  The fire surprised the men, jumping the gulch and burning rapidly uphill towards them.  Only one man, Wagner Dodge, realized that they would be unable to outrun the fire, and he started what could be considered the first “escape fire” in modern times, burning a region free of brush that he could lie in to survive unscathed.  Though he said the idea just “came to him”, it turns out that plains Indians had used similar techniques for centuries.  Again we have a situation when native knowledge was well ahead of modern thinking!

All this talk of history, however, can make us lose site of the fact that history is being made around us all the time in science!  This was the point made by Emily Finke, who noted that amazing things are being done at places like NASA and the LHC every day, and many of these will be looked back on as historical moments/discoveries.  This was backed up by Michelle Arduengo, who shared an anedcote about the “discovery” of PubMed by her advisor (“hey, have you guys seen this?”), a tool which has transformed medical research but went unnoticed by many at its inception.

James (twitter handle?) brought up another figure who has, unfortunately, already earned himself a place in the history books!  Newt Gingrich gets a lot of credence as a “science guy” these days even though he’s basically wrong about everything he says on the subject!

Another anecdote shared was the catastrophic mistakes made by early explorers in attempting to traverse the Northwest Passage.  Poor packaging of food and an incomplete understanding of the relation between fresh fruit and scurvy led to catastrophe on more than one occasion, most infamously in the Franklin Expedition of 1845.

As a counterexample to Emily and Michelle’s earlier observations, Michelle Banks noted that some science and technological history is appreciated as it happens!  For instance, just look at twitter when Apple is announcing/releasing a new product.

Michelle Banks also shared some art history related to science with us: in early painting, Jesus was depicted without a belly button!  This is presumably because his mother was a virgin, but this explanation does not quite make sense, since she still gave birth to him.  Here we have an interesting collision of scientific ignorance and bad logic.

Greg Laden noted another interesting historical symptom of scientific ignorance.  We now know that the sea-level can vary by as much as 200 meters, depending on the behavior of the world’s glaciers.  Early naturalists were unaware of the possibility of dramatic sea level change, and instead attributed variations in coastlines and waterways as the result of variations in land height.  This is obviously wrong to modern scientists, but it took quite some time for the correct interpretation to appear.

Kaitlyn (not sure of twitter handle) took aim at a commonly-used phrase in the history of science — “On the shoulders of giants” — and noted that this phrase has a much older history than Isaac Newton — and that Newton himself was likely using it as a slur against Robert Hooke!

David Manly brought us back one more time to a discussion of the Current Wars of Tesla and Edison, and noted that Edison went so far as to electrocute animals with AC power to demonstrate the dangers of Tesla’s technique.

Finally, we had Jessica (twitter handle?) note the unusual attempts to apply penicillin soon after its discovery, including applications directly to the eyes.

All in all, it was a wonderful session — in the spirit of Science Online being an “unconference” in which the audience is expected to participate just as much or more than the moderators, we did very well!  Considering I love to hear myself talk, I was almost disappointed that there wasn’t time for me to lecture on about some of my other favorite stories!

Hopefully this summary gives an idea of the variety of stories that are out there in the history of science, and gives some indication of the lessons that can be learned from them, other then the familiar stereotype that “scientists are weird!”

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Some participants in the session I was unable to get their full names or twitter handles; if you know them (or are them), please let me know and I’ll fill in the details.

What follows is a crowdsourced list of books that tell fascinating and educational stories about the history of science.  These books are all great examples of how science history can teach us more about science, doing science, and the scientists themselves:

Sam Kean, The Disappearing Spoon

Deborah Blum, The Poisoner’s Handbook

Thomas Levenson, Newton and the Counterfeiter

Timothy Ferris, The Science of Liberty

Holly Tucker, Blood Work

Rob Dunn, Every Living Thing

Richard Holmes, The Age of Wonder

Richard Conniff, The Species Seekers

Thomas Blass, The Man Who Shocked the World

Michael Faraday, The Chemical History of a Candle

John Grant, Discarded Science

Steven Johnson, Invention of Air

Mary Roach, Bonk (and others)

Any of Isaac Asimov’s books on basic science!

Any other suggestions?  Let me know in the comments!

676. Jan 18: Cows kill more people nationally every year than sharks do worldwide.  This one came from Science Online keynote speaker Mireya Mayor!  (h/t @maggiekb1)

677. Jan 19: #weirdscifacts at a bar, via @SFriedScientist : no domestic turkeys can have sex!

678. Jan 20: Sea monsters: misidentified whale penises?  I’ve heard it speculated plausibly before that many sea serpents were misidentified giant squid, but this post by @scicurious give an… alternate… interpretation to some sightings!

679. Jan 21: #weirdscifacts via @naturalsciences: the shrimp Acanthephyra purpurea “vomits” bioluminescence to blind predators! (Post by @laelaps!)

680. Jan 22: The mysterious elliptical “Carolina Bays“, of not-quite-certain origin!  (h/t @naturalsciences)

681. Jan 23: #weirdscifacts of @naturalsciences: Bladderwort, a carnivorous plant that essentially vacuums up prey through roots!

682. Jan 24: #weirdscifacts via @naturalsciences: Red-cockaded woodpecker uses tree sap to make nests too sticky 4 snakes 2 enter!

682a. Bonus #weirdscifacts via @astVintageSpace: how to keep an astronaut from swearing on the Moon?  Communication with mission control was publicly broadcast — this was a problem when one astronaut was an uncontrollable cusser!

(I posted my facts one day late this week, in solidarity with those in opposition to the very stupid SOPA/PIPA bill, for what it’s worth.)

669. Jan 11: Teletanks: the radio-controlled Soviet tanks used during WWII!  With all the recent excitement and controversy about surveillance and predator drones, it is somewhat surprising to realize that remote controlled vehicles were used so long ago.  (h/t @tobascodagama)

670. Jan 12: Parrondo’s mathematical paradox, “a losing game-playing strategy that wins”.

671. Jan 13: Granular convection, aka “Brazil nut effect“: why the biggest nuts end up on top of the pile!

672. Jan 14: The 1953 Flint-Worcester tornados — blamed by congressmen on nuclear testing.  This horrific tragedy was the result of such atypical weather that congressman incorrectly blamed it on recent nuclear testing.  (h/t @patrickneville)

673. Jan 15: The Collatz conjecture: another odd and unproven mathematical hypothesis.  (h/t @patrickneville, again!)

674. Jan 16: Icebergs can melt enough to flip over, creating big waves! This is somewhat obvious, when you think about it — a sudden collapse of a side of an iceberg can upset its balance, making it flip over.  (h/t @discoveryplace)

675. Jan 17: While imprisoned, physicist Arago relied on monkeys to groom him & keep him lice-free.  Arago was captured by the Spanish while on a ship that was transporting exotic animals to Napoleon.  He was incarcerated in a broken windmill with the animals, but they turned out to provide an important service!  (from my blog post!)