Partial Perspective Vortex

Not too long ago I was playing around with the Google Sky Map app on my phone (a valid reason to get a smart phone in itself), looking at where the stars would be if I didn't live in light pollution land.  I noticed a little spot called "Hubble Ultra Deep Field."  I had heard about this.  It's a spot in space where scientists had aimed the big telescope and looked farther in space and time then anyone had ever looked before.  It got me thinking, and it got me looking around, and eventually I bumped into this video:



This is a couple of years old, so you've probably seen it already.  It's just that it is a little tiny bit mind blowing and at the moment it is as close as we're going to come to Douglas Adams's Total Perspective Vortex.  So, if you haven't seen it already, and you'd like a glimpse of just how tiny we are compared to the vastness of the cosmos, give it a click.

Be Seeing You

A friend of mine has a disease called retinitis pigmentosa. That means that when he was a kid his vision started to deteriorate. By the time he was a teenager he was “legally blind.” That meant that he would never drive a car and never do the things he had dreamed of doing just a few years before. It also meant that he would continue to lose his sight. Every year it would be just a little bit worse, until his vision would be gone completely. Years would pass, decades would pass, but there would be no light at the end of this tunnel. Only tunnel.

So I'm pretty excited by this news out of Germany that scientists have developed an implant that could give my friend back some of his vision, possibly enough to read. We do, perhaps, live in an age of miracle and wonder.

Geek-in-Chief

As you and most of the free world have probably heard by now, President Obama will appear on an upcoming episode of MythBusters. At first I wondered why. What is his hidden purpose? Then I heard the details. The arch-liberal has ordered Adam and Jamie to retest the Archimedes death ray. Clearly this is all part of a plan to replace our nuclear weapons with a solar powered alternative. Well that didn't work when Jimmy Carter tried it, and it won't work now!

I wonder if we can get people to start spreading that around the interwebs as a serious conspiracy theory? That'd be cool.

As soon as I heard that the president would be on MythBusters I knew we'd start seeing the Obama-haters making the usual idiotic comment about “more important things to do.” What some so-called patriots don't understand about the American system of government is that the president has two constitutional roles. He is the head of government and the head of state. In most of the world's nations these roles are separated. In the UK the head of government is the prime minister, the head of state is the monarch. In Germany the head of government is the chancellor, the head of state is the president. In Finland the head of government is prime minister, the head of state is the president. In America both jobs go to one person. As head of government he does important stuff like propose legislation, veto bills, run the executive branch, and command the armed forces. As head of state he is the embodiment of our national spirit. Like a walking, talking flag, he is the symbol of what we think of as American virtues. He hands out awards to writers and artists. He poses for pictures with Boy Scouts and astronauts. He calls the winner of the Superbowl and meets the World Series champions in the Rose Garden. And this president encourages math and science.

According to what I've read, the announcement occurred during the first ever meeting of a president with science fair winners. If that is so I am astounded. It seems the most reasonable thing in the world that the president would boost American science education in this way. If Mr. Obama is the first to do this then he deserves high praise for this wise and proper exercise of his office. And what better way to get lots of young people excited about science than to appear on the most popular of science popularizing TV shows, MythBusters?

Will a pro-science president encourage learning and lead to a generation of more educated Americans? It's plausible. And if things work out, we might even end up with a solar powered death ray.

Kitchen Science!

I recently did a bit of science in my very own kitchen. The purpose of the great experiment was to see if I could carbonate water at home. I pretty much live on soda water so the practical nature of this experiment is obvious. If I could introduce bubbles into my own filtered tap water I'd save money, save the planet by not using so many plastic bottles, and save my back from hauling all those liters home.

It's a simple procedure. All I needed was a couple of bottles and a tube with air-tight caps. One bottle was filled with ordinary water. The other bottle was where the science would happen. First I poured in white vinegar. The plan was that I would then introduce sodium bicarbonate to the vinegar. The mix of acid and base would produce carbon dioxide. I would seal the bottle with a tube running into the other bottle, forcing the gas into the water and making a lovely fizzy drink. What could possibly go wrong?

In my research on this subject it was suggested that the experimenter must be careful when initially mixing the chemicals. If they meet too quickly the experiment might not be successful. This was good advice, but it failed to take into account my butterfingered condition. The vial of of powder that I meant to gently place in the bottle somehow slipped from my hand and dropped into the bottle. The result was instantaneous and not at all what I intended.

The bottle I was standing over erupted into a small but spectacular geyser. My first reaction was to jump away, but as the geyser continued to spurt I grabbed the bottle and quickly maneuvered it into the sink. With the crisis over I took a moment to survey the result. I had managed to spray a vinegar and baking soda mixture over every surface of my kitchen, including counters, pots, pans, appliances, utensils, floor, and, of course, me. As vinegar dripped from my hair, over my glasses, and down my neck, I reflected on the harsh mistress that is science. All I had wanted was a refreshing beverage. Instead I had just douched my face.

Would this little setback stop me? If it did, then what would become of man's search for knowledge? I pressed on, using the remainder of my vinegar in a second attempt. This time I was considerably more careful mixing my chemicals. I am pleased to report that the second reaction was under control. I would call it a great success if it wasn't for the fact that the target water remained pretty much unchanged. It might have been a little bit bubbly with an almost undetectable carbonation, but for the most part it remained still.

I am, however, undaunted. I will make another attempt, just as soon as I finish cleaning the kitchen. And my girlfriend stops laughing.

Do Not Try This At Home

Amazing Colossal Man Myth?  Plausible.

This could totally happen.  The enraged Hyneman is nearly impossible to contain.

Via.

Bionic Kitty

Happy Caturday, and it is a very happy Caturday for Oscar. He just became the first bionic cat. When I first heard about this I assumed that he had been given superpowers. Faster than a speeding bulldog, able to leap tall scratching posts in a single bound, that sort of thing. I was wrong.

Excuse me, I've got something in my eye.

The best headline of the year award goes to AP for Bionic British Cat Gets Faux Paws.

Life on Titan

Sensors show life signs on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. We should beam down to the surface and try to establish contact. Phasers on stun.

In the real world signs of life don't necessarily mean life, but the data are intriguing. In 2005 a NASA scientist speculated that microbial methanogenic life could exist on the oxygen poor moon. These critters would breath in hydrogen, consume acetylene, and excrete methane. Now comes the Cassini space probe showing us that there is less hydrogen and acetylene at the satellite's surface than there should be. It's almost as if there is something down there that is consuming it. Whoa.

Have we really found evidence of extra-terrestrial life? Maybe, maybe not, but it will be a long time before we can be sure. NASA isn't funded for anything beyond low-earth orbit anymore, so the universe will just have to wait.

Scientific Heresy?

Here's an opinion piece in New Scientist that posits what has become a radical notion: that questioning science is not blasphemy.

I should have thought this obvious, but it clearly is not. Those who raise serious questions about received wisdom are ostracized, insulted, and tarred with the epithet “denier,” a word that carries the moral baggage of “holocaust denier.” The question is not addressed; the questioner is attacked.

If those who hold opposing views are treated as if they are heretics, and if great scientists like Freeman Dyson can step out of the mainstream and be treated as vile apostates, then science is becoming our culture's newest religion. And not the open, welcoming religion of the vibrant, loving church down the street, but the oppressive closed-minded religion the like of which persecuted Galileo. Which is, if this isn't too obvious, rather ironic.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “the faith that stands on authority is not faith.” I would say that the science that stands on authority is not science. Science is supposed to be a method of seeking truth. Those who engage in that pursuit must be free to question, to dissent, and yes, to be wrong. Otherwise, science is not science at all.