Bullets: Liars, Leonardo, and space experimentation
Some quick morning bullets.
- A UK heart surgeon, Mr. Francis Wells (anyone else find it strange that he goes by the title “Mr.” rather than “Dr.”?) has pioneered a new way of restoring normal mitral valve function by studying the heart diagrams made by Leonardo da Vinci. His technique allows him to avoid some of the drawbacks that current repair operations introduce. Mr. Wells has successfully treated 80 patients with the technique. Three cheers for Leonardo?
- Pathological liars often have anatomically different brain structures which allow them to create complex lies quickly, with relatively little inhibition. Excess white matter in the prefrontal cortex (used for high-level thought) and decreased gray matter (which mediates inhibitions) giving them an edge over anti-social people and normal control subjects.
- Yesterday, I wrote about Gary Olsen, the third “space tourist,” and how calling him simply a tourist was unfair. As a materials scientist, it stands to reason that he’ll conduct experiments on himself. He’ll be investigating space sickness, lower back pain, and be collecting data on microorganisms inside in the ISS.
I find the commentary on Leonardo da Vinci interesting. It’s been said that some of the best doctors come from backgrounds outside medicine: particularly engineering because they bring a different mindset and way of looking at problems with them when they go to medical school. With no formal background in medicine, da Vinci brought an engineering perspective to the table when he looked at the body and drew his illustrations and diagrams. I think it’s all sorts of cool that even today, people are learning from his work.
Soyuz hangups and space tourists
American millionaire Gary Olsen became the third private citizen in space on October 1 when his rocket blasted of from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Nine minutes after liftoff, the rocket reached its initial designated orbit with the 60-year-old founder of an infrared-camera company based out of New Jersey onboard.
Then yesterday, the Soyuz spacecraft docked with the International Space Station five minutes ahead of schedule on day 2 of its 10-day mission. Olsen reportedly paid $20 million to be a part of the re-supply mission to the ISS. Olsen and the other two cosmonauts will perform experiments while they are there in addition to supplying the space station.
Space “tourism” is a bit of a misnomer in this day and age, simply because it’s not a matter of writing a check and going for a ride. Olsen had to pass rigorous health checks and be trained before strapping into the Soyuz capsule. Indeed, Olsen says he prefers the term “space flight participant” to “space tourist,” and the term is probably more apt since he’s not just along for the ride. (There simply isn’t the resources to allow someone to literally just go for a ride into space.)
Russia has turned to space tourism in recent years to finance their largely-broke space program. The first civilian in space was Californian Dennis Tito, and Mark Shuttleworth of South Africa was second. Currently the United States is dependent on the Soyuz program because of the problems with the Shuttle program. But now there are legal issues to contend with because of a law passed in 2000 prohibiting space-station-related payments to Russia because they helped the Iranians build a nuclear power plant. In theory, this could mean no more continuous American presence on the ISS, though this seems unlikely.
William McArthur, another American alongside Mark Olsen is scheduled to remain on board the ISS when Olsen leaves. With this law in effect, it is unknown whether McArthur will be able to return home, as the Russians are under no obligation to fly him home if the US doesn’t pay. (Which seems perfectly reasonable, not that I think they’d leave him there.) NASA would like to replace him in the spring, but again, the Russians are not obligated to fly a replacement there, or return McArthur at that time. Fortunately for all parties involved, the US Senate agreed unanimously to lift the ban on purchasing Soyuz seats until 2012.
Once again, I think a mandatory expiration date for all laws is in order, here, to prevent silly situations like this from happening in the first place.
Partial solar eclipse
Living in the US, I’m usually plugged into things that happen to the north-western hemisphere, unless it’s a breakthrough that affects the world as a whole. Nonetheless, things like solar eclipses don’t usually escape my notice, but regrettably, this one did. (Not that I have many non-US readers.)
A partial solar eclipse took place today, viewed by millions from Portugal to India where the moon took a chunk off the top of the sun. The moon’s orbit was too far out to create a full eclipse, but the event is pretty cool nonetheless. I remember going outside during school hours to view a solar eclipse — they’re way more interesting than lunar eclipses.
I wish we could have seen it here in the US.
The Shuttle program under the microscope
I’m not going to recap this article, except to quote one thing, and say that it’s really good, and that if you’re a space/NASA fan, it’s well worth your time to read.
Future archaeologists trying to understand what the Shuttle was for are going to have a mess on their hands. Why was such a powerful rocket used only to reach very low orbits, where air resistance and debris would limit the useful lifetime of a satellite to a few years? Why was there both a big cargo bay and a big crew compartment? What kind of missions would require people to assist in deploying a large payload? Why was the Shuttle intentionally crippled so that it could not land on autopilot? 1 Why go through all the trouble to give the Shuttle large wings if it has no jet engines and the glide characteristics of a brick? Why build such complex, adjustable main engines and then rely on the equivalent of two giant firecrackers to provide most of the takeoff thrust? Why use a glass thermal protection system, rather than a low-tech ablative shield? And having chosen such a fragile method of heat protection, why on earth mount the orbiter on the side of the rocket, where things will fall on it during launch?
It’s cynical, funny, educational, and engaging. In short, it’s well worth reading. I learned a great deal from it, and was highly entertained. Lest you think that it’s merely one person’s opinion, NASA chief Michael Griffin agrees. Check it out.
A supernova wiped out the large mammoths?
Color me skeptical, but this story on Discovery Channel News suggests that a supernova was the ultimate cause for many of the large animals that are extinct today: mammoths, mastodons, sabre-toothed tigers, etc. Apparently the key piece indicating the explosion is a set of 34,000-year-old mammoth tusks riddled with tiny craters.
The researchers believe that in the sequence of events following the supernova, first, the iron-rich grains emitted from the explosion shot into the tusks. Whatever caused the craters had to have been traveling around 6,214 miles per second, and no other natural phenomenon explains the damage, they said.
They think the supernova exploded 250 light-years away from Earth, which would account for the 7,000-year delay before the tusk grain pelting. It would have taken that long for the supernova materials to have showered Earth.
These iron grains were traveling at exactly 6,214 miles per second, I’m sure. Somehow the leap from tiny craters in mammoth tusks to a supernova to iron grains traveling at exactly 6,214 miles per second seems a little… I dunno… HUGE to me.
Then there were storms similar to those in The Day After Tomorrow caused by a comet-like shower of debris (similar to a nuclear winter, I would suspect) which caused superheated hurricanal winds in the atmosphere that then rolled across North America
The debris is supposed to have killed all the large animals but saved the small animals who escaped by going underground.
In addition to the tusk evidence, the scientists said arrowheads from North America’s prehistoric Clovis culture, which went extinct around 13,500-13,000 years ago, Icelandic marine sediment, as well as sediment from nine 13,000-year-old sites in North America, contain higher-than-normal amounts of radiation in the form of potassium-40 levels.
[...]
Magnetic particles also were unearthed at the sites. Analysis of these particles revealed they are rich in titanium, iron, manganese, vanadium, rare-earth elements, thorium and uranium.
These elements all are common in moon rocks and lunar meteorites, so the researchers think the materials provide additional evidence that North America was bombarded 13,000 years ago by material originating from space.
I buy the space-bombardment, but I have difficulty making the leap from tiny tusk craters to superheated hurricanes destroying North America. A lot of scientists seem excited about the idea, so maybe I’m the only one having this difficulty. I would think that looking at the night sky would show up a location 250 light years from Earth where a supernova could have occurred. A black hole, perhaps. I’d like to hear from the astrophysicists now, I think, because frankly, this theory sounds a little like an Ice Age sequel than a solid scientific theory.
Building a space elevator
Once again, the civilian sector is moving into space. Several months ago saw Burt Rutan & Co. win the X-Prize, and now another private group is working on constructing a space elevator. Their proof of concept model successfully tested a robot climber which climbed up a ribbon simulating a future nanowire space elevator.
The test, which was conducted in a secret location (for privacy and safety’s sake) in Eastern Washington, involved a 12′ diameter balloon, a 23lb robot climber, and a long foot ribbon made of composite fiberglass. The lifter is the LiftPort Group’s 18th version(!), and its best altitude was 1,000 feet
Laine said that the Federal Aviation Administration has been very supportive and helpful in orchestrating their test flights.
“We are cleared up to 1 mile high, off of a tethered helium balloon,” Laine said. “Our series of tests are designed to gain in altitude as we go, as we test our communications, range sensors, global positioning system satellite gear, along with temperature and camera systems.”
The company has also created LiftPort Nanotech in New Jersey focusing on mass production of nanotubes to eventually create the super-strong thread of a space elevator.
Along the same lines, the Spaceward Foundation of Mountain View, CA has announced a competition in two parts: the Tether Challenge to create strong nanotube-based materials and the Beam Power Challenge which is a competition to create a climber that can climb 200 feet powered by a high-intensity light source. The competition is sponsored by the NASA Centennial Challenges program.
Supermassive black hole powers the Andromeda galaxy
A massive black hole with the mass of 140,000,000 suns(!) has been found at the center of the Andromeda galaxy, surrounding by fast-orbiting, hot, blue stars similar to Sirius, which is the brightest visible star in our own night sky. These blue stars are orbiting so quickly that their speed can only be explained by the existence of a massive black hole. By calculating the speed of their orbit, scientists have determined the mass of what they are orbiting.
It has been suspected that a black hole existed at the center of Andromeda, but other theories have suggested that it was inhabited by dead and dying brown dwarf stars. However, the measurement of the speed of the blue stars’ orbit has laid that theory to rest. The measurements were made using data from a now-defunct spectrometer on the Hubble Space Telescope — which is an unusual use for a spectrometer.
It is suspected that there are 35 other galaxies with supermassive black holes at their centers, though only two have actually been confirmed: our own Milky Way, and M106. It is doubtful whether black holes in the other 35 galaxies will ever be confirmed because they are so far away. (Though personally I believe determinations will be made in the next 50 years, with the rate that technology is progressing.) Andromeda is the closest galaxy to our own, and it is easier to look into than the Milky Way due to its orientation: we are on the outskirts of the Milky Way, and looking towards the center of our galaxy is difficult. Because Andromeda is removed somewhat, studying it is easier.