Weird science facts, December 21 — December 27

Posted on December 28, 2011 by skullsinthestars

Time for a holiday edition of Twitter #weirdscifacts!  Alas, there’s nothing particularly holiday-themed about this collection of facts, but they are weird!

648. Dec 21: Scientific paper retraction by reason of insanity?  In 1951, an entomologist published a paper about “a mite infestation of her scalp that resisted all treatment and was undetectable to anyone other than herself”.  It is now thought that her infestation was imaginary, in what is referred to as “delusional parasitosis”.  (h/t @bonegirlphd)

649. Dec 22: The diamond weevil actually has diamonds (of a sort) on it!  The “diamonds” in question are not true diamonds made of carbon, but are crystals with the same sort of molecular structure.  (h/t @bug_girl)

650. Dec 23: Magnetic bacteria!!?? I actually forgot to include the link on this tweet originally!  Remarkably, a variety of bacteria contain magnetic nanoparticles that allow them to “swim” along magnetic field lines.  (via @boraz and by @labratting)

651. Dec 24: There is actually a beetle named after Robert Redford! (h/t @bug_girl!)

652. Dec 25: What is the psychology of a prisoner or prison guard? The 1971 Stanford prison experiment. 

653. Dec 26: Uranus is the coldest planet in the solar system: as low as 49 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero on cloud tops!  Most planets generate heat in their interior that, together with solar radiation, keeps the surface temperature relatively high.  Uranus is evidently missing that internal source of heat, and is consequently very cold.

654. Dec 27: The gentleman who “hacked” the wireless telegraph in 1903!  We tend to think of hacking as a very recent phenomenon, but during a public demonstration of Marconi’s telegraph the machine started printing out rude messages, seemingly of its own volition!  The culprit was a fellow wireless dabbler whose own research had been frustrated by Marconi’s stifling patents. (h/t @nickycast)

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Todd Strasser’s “The Wave”

Posted on December 27, 2011 by skullsinthestars

I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about any weird fiction for a while, and I thought I’d get back on the horse by discussing a short novel that technically isn’t “weird fiction”, but it definitely is weird and fiction!

This one has in fact been on my mind for quite some time: the very short young adult novel The Wave, written in 1981 by Todd Strasser.

The Wave tells the story of what seems at first to be an innocent high school classroom experiment.  When history teacher Ben Ross shows his class a movie about the Holocaust, his students can’t understand how ordinary Germans could be drawn into such an inhuman ideology.  Troubled by his inability to understand this himself, the next day in class he introduces “The Wave”: a new movement to inspire discipline and community. For the first lesson, he introduces them to the slogan “Strength through discipline”, in which they must follow the teacher’s commands in an efficient and unquestioning manner. The next lesson, “Strength through community”, teaches the students to sacrifice their individuality in the service of their greater community.  In the third lesson, Ross teaches the class “Strength through action”, in which they put their new-found discipline and community to use in achieving their goals.

At first, the experiment seems, counter to intuition, to be a positive one.  But soon “The Wave has taken on a life of its own, spreading to hundreds of students in the school, and Mr. Ross is being treated as an almost militaristic leader.  When sporadic violence erupts, in the name of “The Wave”, Ross’ brightest students (and non-“Wave” members) begin to worry that he has created a monster — and may not be willing or able to stop it anymore.

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A Michael Faraday Christmas: “Forces of Matter”!

Posted on December 25, 2011 by skullsinthestars

This post was written somewhat in conjunction with Jennifer Ouellette, who is posting at the same time at Cocktail Party Physics about Michael Faraday’s other classic Christmas lecture, The Chemical History of a Candle.  Check it out, too!

Ah, Christmas!  This is the time of year when I get together with family, exchange presents — and ruminate on the life and work of Michael Faraday.

It might seem an odd non sequitur to think about physicist and chemist Michael Faraday (1791-1867) during the holidays, but it is in fact highly appropriate.  In addition to being a master scientist who helped unify the forces of electricity and magnetism, as well as magnetism and light, Faraday was a master lecturer.  In 1825, in his new role as director of the laboratory of the Royal Institution, he instituted a yearly series of Christmas lectures to inform and educate the general public (especially young people) about science — these lectures are still ongoing today.  Between 1827 and 1860, Faraday personally gave the Christmas lectures nineteen times, speaking on a variety of subjects.

Faraday giving a Christmas lecture in 1856 (source).

Unfortunately, records of only two of these lectures have survived: A Chemical History of a Candle (first given in 1848) and The Various Forces of Matter and their Relations to Each Other (given in 1859).  Both of them are brilliant examples of clear scientific exposition, and in spite of how little was truly understood about physics and chemistry in the era they are still educational and even timeless.  On this Christmas, I thought it would be worth looking at some aspects of Faraday’s fascinating views on the “forces of matter” in 1859.

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Posted in History of science | 3 Comments

Weird science facts, December 14 — December 20

Posted on December 21, 2011 by skullsinthestars

Whew! It’s gotten quite tricky to turn up unused #weirdscifacts, even though I’m sure I’m hardly scratching the surface.  Nevertheless, I’m still going strong!

641. Dec 14: Dolphins playing with humpbacked whales??!!  We’ve seen interspecies cooperation in previous weird science facts, but this is the first one we’ve shown that involves different species playing with one another.  (h/t @edyong209)

642. Dec 15: This is amazing: first “smoke recordings” of human voice from 1860 reconstructed in 2008.  Amazing still isn’t a strong enough word: “awe inspiring” is the phrase that now comes to mind.  These smoke recordings represent the first recordings of the human voice, but it took nearly 150 years for these recordings to be played back.  To listen to them feels like listening to a ghost from the past.

643. Dec 16: New post: Sir Edmond Halley takes a dive! (1714)  This of course is my own post on Sir Edmond Halley, most known for “Halley’s comet”.  Way back in 1714, Halley had perfected the diving bell to the point where he could comfortably stay for an hour or more under 60 feet of water!

644. Dec 17: IPHAS named a nebula after Crown Prince of Spain as wedding gift.  (h/t @allinthegutter)

645. Dec 18: #weirdscifacts from last month: spiders dosing their web with poison?  (h/t @drrubidium)

646. Dec 19: ‘Vocal fry’ is spreading among young American women, thanks to pop music?  This ‘fry’ is a creaking sound used by pop stars to reach low notes.  It turns out that research shows it becoming trendy in normal speech, at least among American English speakers.   (via @moximer)

647. Dec 20: Is it possible to swim in the sand? The sandfish lizard can! “Sandworms.  You hate ’em, right? *I* hate ’em!”

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My 1000th skydive!

Posted on December 20, 2011 by skullsinthestars

Well, I finally did it — I made my 1000th skydive!  On the 18th of December, 2011, my friends came out to join me in celebrating this milestone.  The video is posted below.

We had done a practice jump (number 999) earlier, which didn’t go so great, so we opted to make number 1000 a relatively simple jump.  The goal was simply to get all nine of us together in a “round” formation, then to have me go in the middle and spin around, and finally have me return to the “round” before break-off.

Remarkably, we pulled it off!  I say “remarkably” because every previous “100 jump milestone” of mine has been a disaster, at least in terms of accomplishing the formation goals we set.

The video was done by my friend Terry Hopkins, and the others on the skydive were a combination of my regular jump friends and some new friends!

(Incidentally, if 1000 skydives seems like a lot, I should point out that there are people out there who have made 40,000 skydives!)

Posted in Personal, Sports | 8 Comments

The Giant’s Shoulders #42 is out!

Posted on December 17, 2011 by skullsinthestars

The 42nd edition of The Giant’s Shoulders, the history of science blog carnival, is up at PACHSmörgåsbord!  In it, you can see maps of the Moon that date back to the 17th century, how to write the square root of 2 in ancient Babylon, and a discussion of the “dancing fever”!  Thanks to Darin for once again putting together an excellent carnival!

The deadline for the next edition is January 15th, but we don’t have a host yet!  We desperately need hosts for all upcoming editions in 2012!  If you can help, please contact  Thony C at Renaissance Mathematicus or Dr SkySkull at Skulls in the Stars, or leave a comment here.

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Sir Edmond Halley takes a dive! (1714)

Posted on December 15, 2011 by skullsinthestars

ResearchBlogging.orgIf you study enough history of science, you learn that the things that scientists are most famous for are often not their only work of interest — or even the most fascinating thing they’ve done!  The significance of a scientist’s major discovery can overshadow and obscure things that are quite intriguing, and even more of an influence in contemporary times.  An obvious example of this is Albert Einstein: he’s known popularly for his work on the theory of relativity, but relatively few people outside of science are aware that he made important theoretical contributions to quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, as well — all three in the same year, in fact!

A less familiar example is Sir Edmond Halley (1656-1742).  You most likely know him for Halley’s Comet!  He was not the discoverer of said comet, but was the first to recognize that the comet that appeared in 1682 must be the same object that had also been observed in 1531 and 1607 , and he predicted its return in another 76 years.  This prediction, based on Newton’s laws of gravity and motion, was vindicated in 1758 by the German farmer and astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch.  Halley was in general a very successful astronomer, even becoming the second ever Astronomer Royal in Great Britain in 1720.

What you likely do not know about Halley, however, is that he spent extended periods of time deep underwater!  In volume 29 of the Philosophical Transactions, dated 1714-1716, Halley published the results of his experimentation in new ways to work comfortably underwater, titled suggestively: “The art of living under water”.  Halley’s work, in which he improved existing models of diving bells, turned out to be influential for years after its publication, and his techniques were implemented by many undersea laborers.

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Posted in History of science | 8 Comments

Weird science facts, December 7 — December 13

Posted on December 14, 2011 by skullsinthestars

Here we are again, with a week’s worth of #weirdscifacts!

634. Dec 07: Think your appetite is big? The black swallower can eat fish up to 3x its size! (h/t @sfriedscientist)  A picture of this nightmarish fish, with a full belly, is shown below (source):

635. Dec 08: Planet Neptune has wind speeds up to 1200 mph — roughly 10 times the speeds of hurricanes on Earth!  It is nothing short of amazing to see such high wind speeds on a planet that gets a fraction of the solar energy of Earth.  I’m going to blog about this one in the near future…

636. Dec 09: Biggest black hole yet discovered: mass of 21 billion Suns!!!  (h/t @jeffersonobama)

637. Dec 10: Story from a few days ago: the Cambrian predator with 16,000 eyes!

638. Dec 11: Louis Le Prince (1841-1890) would’ve been the father of movies had he not disappeared mysteriously.  Le Prince was planning to give a demonstration of his technology in the United States when he and his luggage vanished without a trace.   A century later, a photo of a drowned man that might have been him was found in an old police archive.  Foul play?  Others were able to capitalize on movie technology without Le Prince’s presence.

639. Dec 12: Nicolas Cugnot built a steam-powered car… in 1769? The original steampunk!!! It isn’t exactly a high-performance machine, traveling at best some 5 mph and probably not going even a mile before running out of steam.  In spite of its limitations, it was a full-scale “horseless carriage” over a hundred years before cars would truly come into their own!  Cugnot’s 1771 model is shown below (source):

640. Dec 13: Mustard gas — a deadly weapon in WWI whose properties led to it becoming the first chemotherapy drug.

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No “Weird Fiction Monday” this week!

Posted on December 12, 2011 by skullsinthestars

Once again, life & work have conspired to keep me from writing (or editing) fiction!  I’ll try and post some new weird tales next Monday.

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Mireya Mayor’s “Pink Boots and a Machete”

Posted on December 9, 2011 by skullsinthestars

In my studies of historical figures, I’ve reserved a special spot in my heart for those people whose lived their lives, for lack of a better word, “awesomely”.   My criterion for such “awesome” people is to imagine them arriving in the afterlife: would they get a standing ovation for how they lived?  It isn’t enough to have just been wildly successful in life, either; the people on my list have had a positive influence on others, going out of their way to make the world a better place.

Two examples come to mind. The first of these is Annie Oakley (1860-1926), the American sharpshooter who rose above a troubled childhood to become one of the most famed entertainers of her day.  She was also generous with her wealth, and promoted women’s rights and supported many orphans, widows and young women.  The second example is Josephine Baker (1906-1975), an African-American dancer and singer who started life in poverty but found massive fame in France and became the first African-American woman to star in a major motion picture.  She adopted numerous children to balance her own childhood, used her celebrity to work effectively as a spy against the Nazis in World War II, and supported the civil rights movement and the NAACP.

Both of these women led lives that just make you pause and go, “wow”.

It is premature and presumptuous of me to add someone to this list of awesomeness whose career is still ongoing, but after finishing Mireya Mayor’s memoir, Pink Boots and a Machete, I had that same “wow” moment.  Mayor has led a remarkable life so far, and her memoir is filled with events that are alternately fascinating, amazing, touching and horrifying!

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Posted in General science, Women in science | 6 Comments