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Science
Over the Edge
A
Roundup of Strange Science for the Month
Applet credit:
Ed Hobbs
January
2012
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In the
News:
 T-Rex Packs on Some Pounds - A new study suggests
that that the Tyrannosaurus Rex might have been 30 percent
larger than has been estimated in the past. Scientists scanned
the fossilized skeletons of several of the animals, including
Chicago Field Museum's "Sue," one of the most complete T-Rexs
ever found, into a computer. To this computer model that
added flesh creating several body types from extremely skinny
to plump. "These models range from the severely undernourished
through the overly obese, but they are purposely chosen
extremes that bound biologically realistic values," said
study co-author Vivian Allen of the Royal Veterinary College.
Estimates in the past have used scale models or extrapolations
from other living animals with very different body plans.
These methods were subject to many errors, however, that
should be eliminated with the computerized estimates. The
new calculations show the Sue, who was thought to weight
around 14,000 pounds probably actually weighed 18,000 pounds,
even with one of the slimmer body types. Another surprising
result of the study is that the animals may have gained
as much as 3,950 pounds annually during their fast-growing
teenage years.
Why Do We Have Any Hair? - Some scientists have
wondered why humans, among all the primates, lost their
hair. Others wonder about why we have any at all: we retain
a coating of vellus hair or "peach fuzz" over much of our
skin. Now a new study suggests that we keep this fine hair
because it helps ward off parasites. In the study Isabelle
Dean and Michael Siva-Jothy from the University of Sheffield
created a rectangles bounded by Vaseline on the skin of
their volunteers. One rectangle was shaved, the other was
not. When a bedbug was placed on the rectangles, the test
subjects more rapidly felt something crawling on them in
the unshaved areas. Also the bedbug took longer to find
a good spot to feed on the unshaved area. One theory is
that we lost our heavy fur pelts because in provided too
many places for parasites to hide. It appears that we have
retained the little hair we do have for to warn us of the
same parasites.
T-Rex: The Hunter - In the long running battle
between palaeontologists about whether Tyrannosaurus rex
was a ruthless hunter or shameless scavenger, the hunter
side has just struck another blow. A new study, published
in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological
Sciences, takes a look at all the dinosaurs that were
alive at the time of T-Rex, in the Late Cretaceous, and
decides that if he was only a scavenger, T-Rex wouldn't
have survived. It looked at the type of dinosaurs in the
environment, their sizes and act ivies and concludes that
by the time T-Rex lumbered to a kill that some smaller carnivore
had made, that animal would have been stripped of most of
its useful meat. "Given the distribution of carcasses and
the potential competition with other carnivorous dinosaurs,
it is extremely unlikely that an adult T- rex could use
scavenging as a long-term sustainable foraging strategy,"
the study says. So the authors conclude that T-rex must
have done at least some of its own killing.
Pigeon Math - Most people would think that pigeons
aren't particularly brainy, but a recent study indicates
that, in fact, they are math geniuses. Well, at least as
smart as rhesus monkeys. In the study, published in a recent
edition of the journal, Science, researchers were
able to show that pigeons could order numbers like 1, 2
and 3. They could also be trained to take a pair of numbers
and put them in ascending order. For example when presented
with images containing 8 or 5 symbols, they would peck at
the objects representing 5 first. The researchers suspect
that this level of ability may be widely spread throughout
the avian world as Alex, an African grey parrot used in
research, seemed to have similar skills. These numeric abilities
seem to be on par with a number of primates. The next thing
researchers would like to find out is if these math skills
somehow evolved independently in birds and primates, or
if all the animals in the evolutionary tree in between also
have similar capabilities, and that is going to mean a lot
more animal testing.
Beethoven's Music Changed by His Hearing Loss -
Scientists in the Netherlands have taken a look at that
progression of Beethoven's works and determined that his
continuing hear loss affected how he wrote music. Beethoven
first complained of not being able to hear higher notes
and voices in 1801 when he was 30 years old. By his death
in 1827 it is believed that he had become completely deaf.
The researchers divided his string quartets in groups based
on when they were written and determined that as the composer
lost his ability to hear higher notes he stopped putting
them in his music. Instead he used more middle and low-frequency
notes, which he could hear better when he listened to the
music. It wasn't until Beethoven was completely deaf, and
couldn't hear any of the performed work, that the high notes
returned to his works.
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Science Quote of the Month - "In
all science, error precedes the truth, and it is better
it should go first than last." - Hugh Walpole
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What's
New at the Museum:
The
Nostalgic BBS - For
almost two decades, from the late 70's through the mid 90's,
a subculture flourished throughout most of the United States
and parts of Europe and Asia. It involved thousands of mostly
young, technically-oriented people exploring the capabilities
of the newly developed personal computer to allow communication
and socialization in ways never seen before >Full
Story
The
Northern Lights- In
Norse mythology the Valkyries would come galloping across
the night sky upon their horses equipped with helmets, spears
and armor that would glow and shimmer in the darkness. These
lights, colored red, blue, violet and green, would spread
in curtains from horizon to horizon, amazing the mortals
below. >Full
Story
Mysterious Picture of the Month - What
is this thing?
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Ask
the Curator:
The Filthy Facts - What is dirt made of?
- John
By dirt I assume
you are referring not just to that stuff that we find under
our fingernails, but to that stuff that's under our feet
when we step outside our houses into the back yard. If so,
then more technical word for this material is soil.
Though the exact
ingredients change from location to location, soil is about
45% minerals, 25% water, 25% air, and 5% organic material.
The mineral portion is simply rock that has been broken
and crushed down to tiny particles over time. There are
a number of different processes that help break a large
boulder down into gains. The most obvious of these is water.
In a climate where the temperature drops below zero at night
for part of the year, water from rain or snow can work its
way into tiny cracks in the rock. When the temperature goes
down the water turns to ice and expands, cracking the rock.
This widens the fissures allowing more water into the rock
so that the process is repeated over and over again.
Plants can also
break rock apart. Even in rock newly created from cooling
volcanic lava, certain plants can find a foothold by locating
nutrient-bearing water in pores in the rock. The plant's
roots support a fungus called mycorrhiza that generates
chemicals that break up the rock. As the roots grow they
can also mechanically widen the pores to cracks, furthering
the process.
Both water and
wind can also act to erode rock and break it down by scraping
tiny particles against it like sandpaper. These broken up
gains of rock are known as "parent material" (With the parent
being the original rock).
Although organic
material only composes about 5% of soil, it's one of the
most important parts and absolutely necessary for plants
to grow. A single shovel full of topsoil can contain billions
of tiny plants, animals and microorganisms. These include
bacteria, fungi, and protozoa that can eat the minerals
and convert them to nutrients that plants can use.
Soil has definite
layers. Starting at ground level we have the area where
surface plants and animals live. When living material dies
up here it is attacked by bacteria and broken down and turns
into humus. Humus is simply organic material that has reached
a point where it can be broken down no further and will
remain just as it is for centuries.
The next level
is known as topsoil and this is where most of the organic
material in the soil, dead and alive is. Much of the topsoil
is in the form of the aforementioned humus.
The level below
that is subsoil. The subsoil has much less organic matter
than topsoil, but plenty of nutrients and water, so plants
shoot their roots down to this level to get these and pull
them back up to the surface.
Weathered parent
material is the next level. This has almost no organic material
at all and is composed of minerals broken down into small
particles. The parent material that created this isn't necessary
the same as the bedrock below this level as wind and water
may have displaced the granulated minerals from distant
locations.
The lowest level
is solid bedrock. The distance from the surface to the bedrock
varies a lot from location to location, but on average it
is about eight inches. It takes about a thousand years for
a half inch of soil to develop in nature, but this is dependent
of many factors like climate and the hardness of the parent
rock material, as well as whether soil itself is eroded
away by water and wind.
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History:
Sister Thedra's Bad Prediction - In January
of 1953 Dorothy Martin, who would later take the name Sister
Thedra, said she started getting messages from aliens via
a phenomenon known as "automatic writing" where the receiving
person's hand operates a pen or pencil not under their conscious
control. The messages warned her that the world would end
on December 21st, 1954, when a gigantic tsunami that would
wipe out Chicago. Only Thedra and her followers would be
evacuated by aliens and survive. Of course this didn't happen,
but the movement provided the opportunity for three Minnesota
sociologists to study Thedra's followers and write the book
When Prophecy Fails. Perhaps those predicting the
end of the world in December of 2012 might want to dig up
a copy.
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In the
Sky:
Quadrantids - The Quadrantids meteor shower can
be seen after midnight on the morning of January 4 this
year. It's one of the year's most active usually producing
80 to 100 shooting stars per hour. Viewing will be best
after 3AM when the moon sets. The forecast says that the
finest viewing will occur in eastern North America, the
North Atlantic Ocean and western Europe. The good way to
view a shower is to place a blanket on the ground and look
up so you can see as much of the sky as possible.
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Observed:
Space Junk Hits Africa - In Namibia authorities
were puzzling over some strange sphere shaped pieces of
metal that apparently came crashing down from space. Part
of an alien flying saucer? Well, not really, but they did
fall out of orbit. The objects turned out to be "Composite
Overwrapped Pressure Vessels" ( COPVs). These are tanks
used in to hold gases under pressure in a space environment.
The ones found in Africa were about 14 inches in diameter
and welded together. The tanks are also wrapped with super
strong carbon fiber or Kevlar which explains why they survived
a fierily reentry. Similar COPVs have been found in Australia
and Brazil. So far nobody knows what agency launched the
mission responsible for the African space junk.
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On
the Tube:
Please
check local listing for area outside of North America.
NOVA: Deadliest Volcanoes - From
Japan's Mt. Fuji to Yellowstone's buried supervolcano, how
can we best prepare for the most lethal eruptions?
On PBS: January 4
at 9 pm; ET/PT.
NOVA: Bombing Hitler's Dams - Experts recreate the daring feat of "dambuster" pilots who used bouncing
bombs to destroy two key German dams in WWII.On PBS Channel: January 11 at 9 pm; ET/PT.
NOVA: 3D Spies of WWII - With 3D graphics, NOVA reveals how the Allies used special aerial photos
to deal a dire blow to the Nazi rocket program. On The PBS: January 18 at 9 pm; ET/PT.
Ancient Aliens: Aliens and the Creation of Man - Why are humans so different from every other species on Earth? Did we
evolve from ape--or is our intelligence the result of contact
with an otherworldly source? Could unexplained advances
in human evolution be the work of interstellar beings? 10,000-year-old
petroglyphs link our ancient ancestors with star beings.
Might evidence of alien contact help unlock the mystery
of the Creation of Man? On The History Channel: Jan 03, 9:00 PM; ET/PT.
Hitler's Secret Weapon - As the Second World War began to draw to a close, the scientists and
designers of Hitler's Germany were employed in a frantic
race to create new ideas that would turn the tide of the
conflict. They developed some of the most sophisticated
and advanced weaponry of the age - the so-called Wunderwaffen
or Wonder Weapons. From missiles and enormous tanks, to
the biggest gun ever built and the prototype of a plane
capable of launching a suicide bombing raid on the skyscrapers
of New York On The National Geographic Channel: Jan 1, 03:00 PM &
8:00PM; Jan 2, 3AM; ET/PT.
The Truth Behind: Zombies- The Truth Behind Zombies explores the origin of zombies, their religious
roots and whether mutated virus strains could cause devastation
of zombie proportions. With commentary from zombie enthusiasts
and cult experts, virologists and mathematical epidemiologists,
this unique show separates the truths from the fiction that
surrounds one of popular cultures most tangible monsters..
On The National Geographic Channel: Jan 13, 2:00 PM &
9PM; Jan 14 1:00AM; ET/PT.
The World Heritage Special: Wild Russia : Kamchatka - A land of fire and ice, the volcanic peninsula of Kamchatka lies in
Russia’s far east. With the land constantly being reworked
by eruptions and landslides, this far-flung part of the
country is dangerous, but incredibly fertile. Heading right
into this magical land, this stunning film follows soaring
golden eagles, scavenging wolverines, young red foxes and
local brown bears partial to a dip in a natural hot spring
On The National Geographic Channel: Jan 4, 1:00 PM &
8PM; Jan 5 12AM; ET/PT.
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LGM:
LGM
Archive 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,
2008, 2009,
2010, 2011,
2012
Copyright Lee Krystek 2012. All Rights Reserved.
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