I *Really* Love Science!
 

This week's NOVA episode is excellent! "Earth From Space"

Video: Earth from Space | Watch NOVA Online | PBS Video

A friend gave my family the DVD set of "Wonders of the Solar System" and "Wonders of the Universe" hosted by Brian Cox. It is a BBC series, and I don't think it is available online. If you get a chance, watch it.

This is all the tectonic plate movements since Pangaea and then projected out to 100 million years from now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=uGcDed4xVD4

What science gives you a kick? Neanderthal DNA is kewl... So is a dinosaur with FOUR wings. Why is water the only material to expand when it freezes? Do you know where elements heavier than iron come from?

Have you heard of the frog that can be frozen alive?

Did you know that due to a bulge around the equator, Ecuador's Mount Chimborazo is, in fact, closer to the moon and outer space than Mount Everest.

The 'Highest' Spot on Earth? : Krulwich Wonders... : NPR

The tube worms that live next to the "smoker" vents on the ocean floor (which are about 450C) do not have a mouth or an anus? They have symbiotic bacteria inside their body just like we do, though.

Why does the moon rotate on it's axis almost exactly the same time as it takes to orbit the earth? Did you know that a day at the beginning of the earth was about 22 hours long? On Venus, a day is longer than a year...

I worked at Argonne National Laboratory for 21 years as a fleet mechanic. The last bunch of years I was there they opened the Transportation Technology R&D Center Argonne Transportation Technology R&D Center - Lithium-ion Batteries, Hybrid Vehicles, Alternative Fuels, Engines, Fuel Cells, PSAT, GREET, TRACC,PHEV, HEV.

In the mid eighties, when the TT R&d Center was first being established, we had side by side gasoline VS CNG, E85, & M85 test fleets. M85 was some nasty stuff.

I got a job offer for more $$ doing fleet maintenance with a major utility and left there in 2001.

Click the link and take a look around. Some pretty amazing science going on there.

The near-miss with the asteroid (about 150 feet!) that is passing the earth only about 17,500 miles away (!!) along with the meteor hitting in Russia pose an important question: how's that space program going?

Reminder: An Asteroid Buzzes By On Friday (But NASA Says Don't Worry) : The Two-Way : NPR

'No Link' Between Meteor That Hurt Hundreds And Asteroid About To Fly By : The Two-Way : NPR

Back on the NOVA program "Earth from Space", I was hoping that they would discuss the GRACE satellites and the gravitational pull of the largest bodies of ice and the effect on the seal level. This is why Mount Chimborazo is closer to space but is not counted as being taller than Mount Everest, and it has a big affect on the tectonic plates, as well.

Or any other mountain peak on Earth. I learned that in 1985. From "Powder" magazine. Skiers know stuff about mountains. :)

Yup - and do you know why it is pear shaped? And why isn't the level of the sea actually level?

No, the tectonic plates are a symptom, like sea level. The earth's rotation makes it into an oblate spheroid (rather than a pure sphere) and the Antarctic ice is so massive, that it not only presses the land underneath it down by almost a HALF A MILE - but it also increases the gravitational pull, and this is what pulls the bulge from the rotation southward.

And yes, underwater topography also affects the sea level. But additional gravity of mountains and land ice pull the sea level up around them. Greenland and other large masses of land ice affect the sea level near them, too, along with Antarctica. Another cause of sea level variability is the temperature of the water - warmer water is less dense and it expands, while maintaining the same weight.

Can you imagine what will happen to the tectonic plates if the land ice melts? And expanded sea water spreads out, so it is likely to also affect the tectonic plates.

Actually it does. See e.g. Thermohaline circulation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia for an introduction.

Parts of the Arctic does have similar things called thermohaline columns - to the north and east of Greenland. These are the driver of the Gulf Stream current.

Yeah, "Earth From Space" was beautiful. It even kept my first grader and my four year old riveted.

There's also a great new series "Strip The City" on the Science Channel. It helps that my wife got the kids into disaster movies and the first episode was about San Francisco.

[Scrubs] - Wrong wrong wrong wrong! - YouTube

Sir Bedevere: ...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped.
King Arthur: This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes.

[Monty Python's "Quest for the Holy Grail"]

Very interesting stuff!

Frank Lee, how did you include the video?

Most animals have red blood with hemoglobin that is iron based. What animal has sky blue copper based blood?

Hint: this animal's blood is worth $15,000 a quart! Extra points if you know why it is worth so much?

Is it worth $15,000 a quart for the copper? :D

Yes, the horseshoe crab is either used as bait OR it is partially bled in labs and collected. Figure that out...

What purpose is horseshoe crab blood used for that makes it so valuable? ALL of us have probably directly benefited from this use... (And no, it is not the copper!)

They lubricate muffler bearings with it?

Ding, ding, ding! Horseshoe crab blood has an autoimmune reaction to any contaminates within about an hour, so it is a very quick and reliable way to check medical drugs for contaminates. They used to use live rabbits (I think?) and this process took like 2-3 days, so this is why horseshoe crab blood is so valuable!

By the way the horseshoe crab species is about [350 million] years old. Many, many other species depend on them to survive.

Video: Crash: A Tale of Two Species | Watch Nature Online | PBS Video

I thought the horseshoe crab species was at least 350 million years old.

My mistake - thanks for the correction. I knew this but went from memory...

I have pretty much everything that Brian Cox has done on TV downloaded or on DVD - we are just watching his Wonders of life series here on Sundays - well shot, well explained, science in action.

I think the Beeb is lining him up to replace David Attenborough.

And he used to be a band member of D:ream too - although we should not hold that against him, or indeed his support of Oldham Athletic.

Yeah, he looks a bit like a musician. ;-) David Attenborough has done a retrospective, and he is obviously getting close an age when he can't do all the travel etc.

This was a cool report - bumble bees can "see" the positive charge of flowers!

Honey, It's Electric: Bees Sense Charge On Flowers : NPR

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/ea...0-a4301f1cfddf

Remember - plants generate electricity at the cellular level - this is how they do photosynthesis. So, this is probably how the flowers become positively charged; and the bees themselves are negatively charged (caused by their flying), and the pollen is attracted to them. Cool stuff.

If you watch this, you will probably learn something about the jet stream:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nzwJ...layer_embedded

True that...

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphot...60659368_n.jpg

The BBC did a series, I think it was something like "the history of physics" where they covered the conference where that photo was taken, the guy fronting it actually stood in the courtyard in the picture.

Wish I could find it but I didn't have the BBC download skills I have now :D I'll wait for BBC Four to repeat it, I'm sure they will.

Rogue Planets!
 

Have you heard about rogue planets?

Living on Earth: Superman of Astrophysics

So, there is a fairly good chance that there is life on a large rogue planet that has a totally different reference point for time than those lifeforms like us who live on an orbiting planet - they have no day and night, no seasons, no years - but they do have an ever changing view of the stars.

If that doesn't expand your mind, I don't know what would!

Antarctica seen naked for the first time!
 

http://media.treehugger.com/assets/i...crop-smart.jpg
(click on image for link)

The BBC (home of Mr Cox) is currently showing "The Trials of Life" which is a very good bit of mr Attenborough in his prime.

BBC iPlayer - The Trials of Life: Growing Up

Unfortunately, the BBC player is blocked for those of us outside the UK.

My brother recently had his DNA done for the purposes of genealogy and it is mind blowing how much we can learn about our ancestors, and how much of human history we have a glimpse of through the information contained in our living cells. I had not even heard of Denisovans, let alone that we now have a single DNA sample that came from the pinky bone of a 5 year old girl who lived ~40,000 years ago in the area we call Siberia.

Folks - virtually all of us who who ancestors came from outside Africa have 1-4% Neanderthal DNA, and in some cases may have a similar proportion of Denisovan DNA. People who's ancestors have always lived in Africa are 100% homo sapiens.

Try a proxy, getiplayer might also work outside the UK - there is a lot of good stuff on the iplayer, the radio science is really cool too.

I mentioned this in the Minimal computing thread - the Raspberry pi in space by kids

BBC: Cracking the Code | Raspberry Pi

(you may also need a proxy too)

And a girl (13) who has programmed one and done a TED style presentation.

EDIT - Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=a35XINnYFtA#!

Hi folks,

I found these articles just today on the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes:

German researchers publish full Neanderthal genome

Entire genome of extinct human decoded from fossil

DNA scan sheds new light on mankind's mysterious cousins (Update)

Fossil finger bone yields genome of a previously unknown human relative (w/ Video)

So, some more information will be available on both genomes.

Science is so cool!

You can watch the latest NOVA a learn more about the latest meteor to hit the earth:

Video: Meteor Strike | Watch NOVA Online | PBS Video

I think we need to invest in the infrared sensing satellite to look for these smaller and medium sized meteors, as well as the really huge ones that we can see fairly well already.

BBC did this on 7th March

BBC iPlayer - Horizon: 2013-2014: The Truth About Meteors: A Horizon Special

Ah well, nice to see NOVA keeping up. :D We (BBC science watchers) are already looking for the next one, and not seeing any have decided to look more at Pompei.

A Junior is going there with his school next year, if we can afford it...

Double post - (Sir) Terry Pratchett looks at the extinction of some animals

BBC iPlayer - Terry Pratchett: Facing Extinction

A superb program for nature lovers, if you can get a proxy go for it.

Inside Nature's Giants - The Camel is Ecomodded for Hot Deserts!
 

This is not for the squeamish - but you will be surprised with the elegance of design that evolution as wrought:

Video: Camel | Watch Inside Nature's Giants Online | PBS Video

BBC Radio is doing a series called Medical Detectives - doctors trying to work out how and why people get sick.

BBC iPlayer - The Medical Detectives: Death in the Parish

EDIT - I meant to add, these are historical plays about how doctors and scientists worked out how illness happened.

Here's a brilliant young scientist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROW9F...layer_embedded

Who built the first computer?

Video: Ancient Computer | Watch NOVA Online | PBS Video

The ancient Greeks...

If you watch the NOVA program I linked to above, I think you will be blown away.

Incredible stuff. Truly.