Oh, the Possibilities!

Arctic Microbes Sleep for 100 Million Years

Sometimes I read an article online that is factual, but seems so fantastic that it belongs in the plot of a science fiction novel.  The above linked story is a perfect example of this phenomenon.

Apparently, microbes are waiting far under our feet for the climate to change, so they can rule the world.  Ok, so that last part is a little made-up.  Maybe.

"[T]he bugs were flourishing in temperatures far beyond anything they'd see in the frigid confines of the Arctic Ocean."

With the earth warming at increasingly alarming rates, the temperature threshold for these microbes to thrive may just be reached.  Who knows?  We all could be the descendants of microbes that went through a similarly long hibernation.

If I were a better fiction author, I would run a marathon with this idea.
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9/22
Earth's Pulse Felt at Hot Spots:  Discovery News

What are the chances that, two days in a row, I would have found an incredible article about the earth?  Paired with the arctic microbes from yesterday, the plot for an intriguing story is slowly unfolding.  A terrestrial pulse, affecting various locations of the earth's surface simultaneously, and generated from the boundary between the mantle and the core, definitely seems like the stuff of science fiction. 

 "The discovery of the co-pulsating hot spots came after geologist Rolf Mjelde of the University of Bergen in Norway, and colleagues looked at the timing of eruptions at all the major hot spots that are thought to be caused by plumes of heat from the depths. These include Hawaii, Easter Island, Iceland, La Réunion, Tristan, the Galápagos, Samoa, Ontong Java, Tasmantid, Society Islands, the Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands, Cape Verde Islands, St. Helena, Kerguelen in the Indian Ocean, as well as Afar-Kenya, Yellowstone, and some European hot spots as well."

"The team found eruption peaks at 10, 22, 30, 40, 49 and 60 million years ago. They also found a secondary series of eruptions at four, 15, 34, 45 and 65 million years ago. Analyzing those dates suggests a main eruption pulse period of approximately 10 million years, with a secondary period of about five million years."

The above quoted paragraphs read like a conspiracy theory:  The Heartbeat of the Earth.  I always tell my husband that the truth is stranger than fiction.  That is why I prefer to write the former.
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9/24
Scientists recreate extreme conditions deep in Earth's interior

To better understand the internal workings of the Earth, scientists conducted an experiment using a diamond-anvil cell.  (This contraption resembles a hurricane lamp with a clamp in the middle, and a metallic, bolt-infested top.)

"The researchers, led by Yale post-doctoral fellow Lowell Miyagi, a former UC Berkeley graduate student, used a diamond-anvil cell to compress an MgSiO₃ glass to nearly 1.4 million times atmospheric pressure and heated it to 3,500 Kelvin (more than 3,000 degrees Celsius, or nearly 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit) to create a tiny rock of post-perovskite. They then further compressed this to 2 million times atmospheric pressure and zapped the substance with an intense X-ray beam from the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to obtain a diffraction picture that reveals the deformation behavior of post-perovskite."

Increasing the pressure and heat on a small piece of stone to extreme levels allowed the researchers to recreate conditions near the center of the earth.

"If scientists can gain a better understanding of the core-mantle boundary's behavior, it will give them clues as to how Earth's internal convection works there, where cool tectonic plates descend from the ocean floor through the mantle eventually nearing the dense, liquid-iron outer core, heat up, and begin moving upward again in a repeated cycle that mixes material and heat through the mantle."
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9/29
Earth-Like Planet Can Sustain Life

Although the news that scientists have found a planet that they are "100%" certain contains life should excite me, it really doesn't.  I have believed this day would come for all of my life.   There are some very interesting aspects about the planet that deserve mentioning, however.

Like our moon, Gliese 581g (its official name) has a tidal relationship with its sun.  This results in half of the planet being exposed to perpetual sunlight, while the other is in a state of perpetual darkness.

The possibilities for a science fiction novel related to this discovery seem intriguing to me.  For example, wars could literally take place between the dark and the light.  Or, if the planet is peaceful, aliens could be taking vacations to the "night."  The very nature of the aliens would probably be determined by the place of their birth.  Light aliens have little beady eyes, while dark aliens have huge, imposing orbs sticking out of their heads.  The possibilities are endless!
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10/4
Top 10 Uses for Invisibility Tech  (Discovery News)

For the handful of you who have been following my blog since the beginning, you may remember my post, "Where I would go with an Invisibility Cloak."   I will admit, it has been a while since I have thought of any new and exciting places I would like to visit when my dream of hiding in the open finally comes true.  Apparently, I have lots of time to think about it.  According to the above linked article from Discovery News, scientists are going to need at least another decade to put the finishing touches the technology.

The key new technology used in creating invisibility cloaks will probably be metamaterials.  From photonic computer chips, to sound bullets, just about every conceptual use for metamaterials sounds like it belongs in a science fiction novel.  If I ever need to get inspired about futuristic engineering feats, the above photo gallery would be an excellent place to start!
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10/15
Science Too Good to Be True Slide Show  (Discovery News, by Eric Niiler)

Back in grade school, I remember learning the four basic steps of the scientific method.  In junior high, I learned a more complex version, and in high school, an even more detailed one.  By college, my notion of the scientific process had a dozen steps, each with a number of sub-steps essential to accuracy.  But there was one thing in common between even the most rudimentary version I learned back at St. Matthews Grade School, and the one I later studied in chemistry class at North Central College:  they all ended in testing the results to make sure they are reproducible.

In today's world of 24-hour news cycles, and ultra-expensive experiments requiring massive contributions from donors, this final, yet essential step of the scientific method has too often been forgotten.  When retractions and critiques do circulate, sometimes years after the fact, the general public rarely hears about it. The above linked slide show is a reminder of this fact.

Some falsified claims are harmless.  The finding that the habitable planet publicized by American scientists just two weeks ago is a fraud, (the planet cannot even be located by Italian scientists) doesn't really hurt anyone.   It just serves to remind us that, though we wish the truth to always be stranger than fiction, sometimes it is simply fiction.

But other shoddy scientific publications, like the 1998 article that supposedly exposed a link between vaccines and autism, do have real-world consequences.  "Public health officials say that paranoia over vaccines has led to fewer children getting their shots and caused some disease outbreaks."

I think the take-away from this story can best be surmised in the following quote from the first slide by Art Captain, a bio-ethicist at the University of PA:

"We all long for breakthroughs in all areas of science, but in reality there are no breakthroughs; there are only important claims that await confirmation."
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10/29
Bushels of Buckyballs Found in Space  (Discovery News, by Irene Klotz, 10/28/2010)

I remember reading about buckyballs in chemistry class.  Besides the fact that they are made of carbon atoms arranged into Epcot-like domes, however, I didn't remember much else until I came across the above linked article this evening.  The reason they have made their way into this thread is because of their potential to transport atoms and molecules across the universe.  Strong, resilient, and, most importantly hollow, astronomers are finding that buckyballs may be the perfect interstellar delivery service for tiny, and sometimes unexpected packages.   "Astronomers point to meteorites where buckyballs have been found holding gases that don't match what's found in our solar system..."  If that isn't the stuff of a great sci-fi novel, I don't know what is!
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11/28
Cosmos may show echoes of events before Big Bang  (BBC, by Jason Palmer, 11/27/2010)

What if there were multiple big bangs; if universe creation was a cyclical, rather than linear process?  If inflationary theory proves to be true, the big bang we have known about for a century may be just one ripple in a vast pond.
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9/23/2011

You know how the sun always rises in the East? And Thursday follows Wednesday?  And nothing can travel faster than light? 

The last truism may not be so true after all.  E may not equal mc squared.  Einstein may have been wrong.

According to this article from MSNBC.com, scientists in Europe have clocked particles known as neutrinos going faster than light by a statistically significant amount, even given the margin of error.  The implications of  this finding, if it is confirmed to be true, are mind-boggling.

Fermi Lab, on the verge of losing all of it's elite scientists to the larger collider in Europe, may have just been dealt a final lifeline.  Confirmation of the European results are vital to assuring no error was made in the original experiment.  And, with Japan's collider still suffering some damage from the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year, the world's scientists are once again turning to Fermi to save the day. 

This entire situation makes me wonder what other supposedly proven theories should be challenged.  And, more importantly, what kind of real world applications may come from such discoveries. . . Oh, the Possibilities!