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Science Buzz - Science Museum of Minnesota [and Best of the Web]
Supermoon shows its face
June 24, 2013 - 2:25am
Supermoon above MinneapolisCourtesy Mark RyanThe skies over Minneapolis cleared yesterday just in time to see last night's supermoon. So-called supermoons occur when the Moon is at the closet point (perigee) in its elliptical orbit around Earth during a full moon phase. The Moon at that position can be up to 14% closer and 30% brighter than a full moon at apogee (at its farthest point in Earth orbit). In astronomy circles, supermoons are known as "perigee full moons", and aren't really as rare as recent media reports have been making last night's event out to be. A supermoon occurs about once every 14 full moons in a full moon cycle. The last supermoon was just last month (but this month's was the biggest of the year). The next supermoon will be in August of 2014, and one of the largest supermoons in a long time to come will take place in November of 2016. The shot seen was taken last night from the bridge on the west side of Lake of the Isles. The top of the Uptown Theater's marquee tower can be seen beneath the lunar disk.
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Sounds of silence
June 21, 2013 - 5:51pmTired of the constant din and bustle of modern life? Is the noise of screaming children or the neighbor's yapping miniature collie turning you into a nervous nelly? Maybe what you need is a place where you can go for some real top-notch peace and quiet.
That place could very well be the special anechoic chamber located at Orfield Laboratories right here in the Twin Cities. The chamber, which is hidden behind two vault doors, has 3.3-foot-thick fiberglass sound-deadening fiberglass acoustic wedges covering all of its flat surfaces, so instead of bouncing off the walls, ceiling, and floor as in a traditional room, any sounds are absorbed. I'm talking absorbed almost completely - the double-walled steel and concrete room is, in fact, 99.99 percent absorbent. That's a lot of quiet! Humans can't detect any sound registering below 0 dBA, and the Orfield chamber has a decibel rating of −9.4 dBA! The space is so soundproof it's listed in the Guinness Book of World as the "Quietest place on the planet."
Of course, there are some side effects to being thrust into utter silence. One is that the sounds inside your own body, your breathing, stomach gurgles, and of blood rushing through your veins become quite pronounced. "In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound," says lab president and founder Steven Orfield.
Be aware that it's not that easy being in a totally silent environment. The longest anyone has been able to withstand the sensory deprivation of the chamber is 45 minutes. And even short spells of dead silence can trigger hallucinations. The brain just doesn't like being deprived of sensory input.
Orfield's anechoic chamber has been used by several industries, including Harley-Davidson, Whirlpool, and airlines to test product sound levels, and by NASA to test the ability of astronauts to function in the extreme silence of space where, as they often say, no one can hear you scream.
SOURCE and LINKS
Story at Geek.com
Sensory deprivation causes hallucinations
Frequency range of the human ear
Gizmodo story
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Maya city uncovered in Mexico
June 21, 2013 - 12:55pm
Maya mask: Maya is making the news everywhere, from Minnesota to MexicoCourtesy Wolfgang SauberYou've likely seen the promotional announcements that the Science Museum of Minnesota today opens a huge, new exhibit on the Maya culture – Maya: Hidden Worlds Revealed. And coincidentally, archeologists today announced the discovery of another hidden Maya city buried in jungle undergrowth in southern Mexico, including a 75-foot-tall pyramid and housing to hold up to 40,000 people.
Want to learn more about SMM's new Maya exhibit? Here's a link to coverage in the Star-Tribune and also a piece by Minnesota Public Radio.
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Nanotechnology Through History
June 21, 2013 - 10:56am
Smudgy Potential: Carbon nanotubes are great for making beautiful cave art......and space elevators.Courtesy Prof saxxAn interesting look at the progression of nanotechnology - from our early ancestors using nanoparticles completely unwittingly, to scientists and researchers today being able to manipulate them to create a desired outcome. The tiny particles have always been here, we've just recently been able to start taking advantage of their unique properties.
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
20 years later, a scorecard on 'Jurassic Park' hits and misses
June 18, 2013 - 6:38pm
Jurassic Park: Logo of the film.Courtesy Tkgd2007The first "Jurassic Park" movie debuted 20 years ago this month. Here's an interesting analysis of in the time since, which paleontology science depicted in the films has been shown to be correct, or false. Can we expect to clone dinos any time soon?
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
High heels: Look at an X-ray and reconsider wearing them
June 18, 2013 - 1:47pm
Foot problems waiting to happen: High-heeled shoes can make a dramatic fashion statement, but can also lead to dramatic foot problems.Courtesy Frank C. MullerYears ago on Saturday Night Live, Billy Crystal played a recurring character – Fernando – who loved to say, "It's better to look good than to feel good."
That might be a common attitude with women who choose to wear high-heeled shoes, but foot doctors have some words of caution. They share their concerns in this Washington Post article, which includes a pain-inducing photo of what a foot in high heels looks like when X-rayed. In a high enough heeled shoe, the ball of the foot can be at a 90-degree angle to the rest of the foot. Ouch.
Here's the quick list of foot problems high heels can cause:
• Calluses and corns, caused by weight being borne by a small amount of skin on the foot's bottom.
• Inflammation of connective tissue around the foot.
• Capsulitis, a painful inflammation of the joints where the toes attach to the foot.
• Pinched nerves, where pointy high heels squeeze the toes.
• Stress fractures, or cracks in the bones of the feet.
If the conditions become severe, the incredible pain can be treated with a corticosteroid shot. And doctors can also prescribe lower, wider shoes to relieve the pain.
Still want to keep wearing those hot shoes? Doctors say the best compromise is to wear lower shoes when you're primarily walking and keep the high platforms for less strenuous activity. But to be completely safe and foot healthy, doctors still recommend not wearing heals that are more than two inches high.
Does any of this information change your feelings about fashionable footwear?
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
The eyes have it: new layer in human cornea discovered!
June 15, 2013 - 3:11pm
The human eye: a new layer of tissue has been discovered in the cornea.Courtesy Mark RyanRemember when your cornea- that clear front cover on your eye - had only 5 layers of tissue: the corneal epithelium, Bowman's layer, the corneal stroma, Descemet's membrane, and the corneal endothelium? Well, those days are over. Scientists have just discovered a sixth layer, and christened it: Dua's layer.
It was identified by a team of researchers led by Harminder Dua, professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Nottingham so he got to put his name on it.
Although only 15 microns thick, Dua's layer is extremely durable and is located between the corneal stroma and Descemt's membrane near the back of the cornea. It's thought that several corneal diseases could be due to damage to or absence of the Dua's layer.
"From a clinical perspective, there are many diseases that affect the back of the cornea which clinicians across the world are already beginning to relate to the presence, absence or tear in this layer.“ --- Professor Harminder Dua
The discovery was published in the journal Ophthalmology and could greatly improve surgical success rates for corneal grafts and transplants.
SOURCES and LINKS
University of Nottingham press release
EarthSky.org
Cornea and corneal disease facts
Human eye anatomy
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Warm seawater is dissolving Antarctica's ice shelves
June 14, 2013 - 1:40pmNot surprising, I guess, but still troubling. The new study appears in the journal Science, and a report on it appears at Smithsonianmag.com.
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
SCOTUS rules no go on human gene patent
June 13, 2013 - 5:00pmThe US Supreme Court ruled unanimously that individual human genes can not be patented because they occur naturally and aren't patent eligible. Gene sequences, however, according to the court ruling, could be patented. Read more at The Scientist magazine website.
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
China: “Fine! We didn’t want to be part of your lousy space club anyway!”
June 13, 2013 - 1:56pm
Bang, zoom! Straight to the Moon, Alice!: Actually, not to the Moon. Straight to space, though. This is one of China's Long March rockets, which carried the Taikonauts to Tiangong-1 yesterday.Courtesy AAxanderThe International Space Station, the pride of low Earth orbit, lives up to its name for the most part—work there is the joint effort of a fifteen-nation partnership. So it’s not just NASA up there, there’s also the Russian Federal Space Agency, and, uh … probably some other things too. (JK. The Japanese, European, and Canadian space agencies are all involved.)
When the partnership built this cool orbiting clubhouse, however, they hung a sign above the rope ladder, reading “No guRlz aLoud!!!” Except instead of “gurlz” it said “China,” and presumably the spelling was a little better. Also, there was no sign or rope ladder, because that would be ridiculous. But the sentiment remained: China is not part of the ISS partnership, because Congress has banned NASA from any contact, collaborations or partnerships with China, because of concerns over technology transfer.
In response, China has gone ahead with a space station program of their own. China has plans to build a full size space station in the not too distant future, but for the time being, they already have an orbiting module—sort of a mini space station. The module, “Tiangong-1,” has actually been in service for almost two years already, and China launched a three-person “taikonaut” crew to practice docking with the module yesterday. This will be China’s fifth manned mission to Tiangong-1, and it includes the second woman from China to travel into space.
What do y’all think? Exciting news? Would we be better off collaborating with China in space? Or are you all for a little competition? What’s the coolest name: astronaut, cosmonaut, or taikonaut? Let everyone know in the comments!
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Tigers in captivity outnumber those in the wild
June 12, 2013 - 12:31pm
Siberian tiger: New legislation deals with private ownership of large cats.Courtesy Mark RyanAccording to the World Wildlife Federation there are now literally more tigers in captivity in the United States than exist in the wild. That's about 5000 captive tigers versus 3200 wild ones. You might think, well sure, that's not surprising, there are a lot of zoos in America. But tigers held in zoos aren't even included in the estimate. The WWF is referring to tigers as exotic pets, held in American backyards, urban apartments, sideshows, truck stops and private breeding farms.
The "Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act HR 1998" is new legislation introduced on May 15, 2013. The bill would prohibit private possession and breeding of not only tigers but also lions, cheetahs, cougars, leopards and other large, dangerous cats that could threaten public safety. The bill would not affect public zoos or wildlife sanctuaries, and would allow current private owners to keep their cats provided they register them with the US Department of Agriculture.
SOURCE
WWF story
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Osprey action 24-7
June 10, 2013 - 4:30pmThe Minnesota Arboretum has a very cool webcam aimed at an osprey nest on its grounds. You can access it here. The osprey couple is taking turns sitting on the two eggs and protecting them from nefarious mischief. When those chicks hatch, they'll be hungry, consuming 1-3 pounds of food each day rounded up by their parents.
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Earth from orbit
June 10, 2013 - 10:51amI love these kinds of videos! These images and data gleaned in 2012 from satellites orbiting the Earth are both fantastic and beautiful. Enjoy!
MORE INFO
NASA's Visualization Explorer page
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Resonance patterns
June 8, 2013 - 1:23pmWe featured an earlier post about this subject back in 2007 but it's well worth watching this recent demonstration of Hans Jenny's wave phenomenon experiments (cymatics) using sand, a metal plate, and changing vibration frequencies.
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Some of us still possess ape-like feet
June 5, 2013 - 12:13pm
Does this make my feet look baboonish?: Some folks among us have more ape-like feet than others.Courtesy Mark RyanA recent study of visitors to the Boston Museum of Science has revealed that some humans - about 1 in 13 - have feet that are ape-like in their structure.
Our great-ape cousins such as chimpanzees have feet that are very flexible in their middle region due to something called the midtarsal break that allows their feet to bend in the middle, enabling them to grasp at branches for easier climbing through trees. So when a chimp lifts his foot off the ground, it just flops about - there's nothing to hold the bones together. Most humans, on the other hand (or should I say foot?), have the same joint but have ligaments that stretch across it making the foot more rigid and stable for upright walking. Australopithecus sediba, a human ancestor that lived 2 million years ago, has a foot structure that is more ape-like than human, so somewhere along the line our feet evolved probably to accommodate our bipedalism.
The study was done by Jeremy DeSilva, a functional morphologist from Boston University, whose main interest is the evolution of the human foot and ankle. In this recent study, museum visitors were requested to walk barefoot across a mechanized carpet while DeSilva's team observed their gaits and the structure of their feet as they walked.
The surprising results showed that 8 percent of the nearly 400 participants possessed a flexible midtarsal break in their foot, and displayed a pressure signature in their footprint that looked like that found in the footprints of non-human primates. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that those subjects who had the unusual foot-joint structure weren't even aware of it until DeSilva revealed it to them.
The study was published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
SOURCES
BBC.com story
Popsci.com story
Jeremy DeSilva cv
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Flyboarding: be like Iron Man by just adding water
June 3, 2013 - 4:42pmSo I saw a news report last night about this new recreational activity, flyboarding. All you need is a jet-ski and about $10,000 in specialized gear to soar above the water just like Iron Man, except without the iron. The video above is very cool. This link here explains the specific physics at work that makes this be so cool. When you get all this stuff and figure it out, invite me over. I wanna try this!!!
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Approaching asteroid sports an orbiting moon
May 31, 2013 - 12:52pm
Radar images of asteroid 1998 QE2Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR Radar images of asteroid 1998 QE2 reveal that the large space rock that's nearing Earth has its own satellite orbiting around it. The pictures were captured a couple days ago by the Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California. NASA has been tracking the asteroid since its initial discovery in August of 1998, but only recently discovered it had its own bright little moon.
The binary asteroid's primary body is estimated to be about 1.7 miles across while its orbiting satellite is estimated to be about 2000 feet wide. Only about 16 percent of the near-Earth asteroids larger than 200 meters in size are binary or triple systems, making them a fairly rare occurrence. By measuring the tiny moon's orbit, scientists can calculate the mass and density of the larger asteroid body, which can range from being a chunk of solid rock to a pile of rubble held together by gravity.
Thanks to these radar images, NASA scientists led by Marina Brozovic of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, are able to more accurately estimate 1998 QE2's characteristics and behaviors, such as the length its rotational period (about 4 hours), its size, shape, and surface features, as well as provide a more precise calculation of the system's orbit around the Earth.
Data and resolution will improve as the asteroid reaches its closest approach to Earth around 3pm (CDT) this afternoon. No need to worry, though, the binary asteroid will be a safe 3.6 million miles away and won't get any closer in the next two hundred years.
SOURCES
NASA/JPL news
NASA's Near Earth Orbit Program
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Let the cloning begin: Researchers find liquid mammoth blood
May 31, 2013 - 11:39am
Frozen baby mammoth: This image shows a frozen baby mammoth, on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, found several years ago by the same research team.Courtesy Matt HowryOn a remote Arctic island of northern Russia, researchers have found another fully frozen mammoth. And this discovery comes with an added bonus. The specimen has liquid blood. It's the biggest breakthrough for potentially collecting viable mammoth DNA to conduct cloning experiments to try to recreate the long-extinct pachyderms. The link above also has a nice gallery of photos showing this discovery and a vial of actual liquid mammoth blood. And here's a link to a previous Buzz post of discovering frozen mammoths, the potential for cloning them and the ethics of doing so.
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Of fossils and field trips
May 30, 2013 - 6:17pm
Brachiopod fossil in limestone matrix: Typical fossil found in the quarries at Lilydale and elsewhere in southern Minnesota.Courtesy Mark RyanIn response to last week's tragedy at the fossil quarries in Lilydale Regional Park, science writer Anne Brataas has written about the importance of continuing the practice of taking field trips outside the classroom, despite the inherent dangers real life can present.
Brataas is the CEO and founder of The Story Laboratory, LLC, as well as an instructional designer and science historian.
SOURCE
MinnPost article
Categories: News: Museum Blogs
Lion or Tiger: who would win in the Battle of Big Kitties?
May 29, 2013 - 4:44pm
Ho hum, another battle for supremacyCourtesy wynner3
Bring it!Courtesy ltshearsThey seem fairly evenly matched. I don't know why, but my money would be on the tiger. Who do you think would win? Smithsonian.com news
Categories: News: Museum Blogs