David Bradley – Page 304

A Good Delusion

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins continues to wow them Stateside with his book The God Delusion. Recently, he appeared on Stephen Colbert’s show to discuss the fundamantal differences between a rational scientific perspective of the universe and the nature of reality and the irrational viewpoint Colbert supports.

Dawkins, with good humour, attempts to argue his corner with Colbert who stubbornly insists that invoking God provides a much simpler explanation of the universe and man’s place in it than a Big Bang and Darwinian evolution. Dawkins points out that, “You get to complex like a human being by slow gradual degrees, and that’s the only ultimate explanation that will work. You can’t just suddenly magical complex things like God into existence,” he adds.

Life is not due to random chance, that’s the one thing it isn’t, because Darwinian natural selection is the exact opposite of random chance, it’s a highly non-random process, Dawkins further explains, “The big thing that everybody misunderstands about Darwinism is that it’s not an accident, it’s too complex to be an accident.”

Egg in a Bottle

Egg in a bottle Ever fancied squeezing an egg into a bottle? No? Well, it’s a kind of perennial physics demonstration that science teachers the world over love to do. I could simply describe how to do it and the results you might expect, but that would be no fun at all. Instead, I spent a good ten minutes scanning videos on the net where individuals attempted to carry out this experiment, some of them more successfully than others. Most handling naked flames and solvents (methylated spirits and the like) in a non-laboratory setting with absolutely no safety equipment (not even goggles) in sight.

More importantly though, most of these experimenters managed to get most of the egg in the bottle, but usually the egg split and simply splurted into the bottle rather than squeezing through the neck and plopping into the bottle intact.

In this video, the “researchers” succeeded in getting a nice squeeze and plop (far better even than the Brainiac team in their attempt).

The key to their success is apparently using a bottle with a nice wide neck. Most of the other videos try to use a beer bottle or something similar which constricts the egg as it squeezes through the opening and splits it.

So, how does it work? What mysterious force is pulling the egg into the bottle? Well, the answer is there is no mystery it is simply air pressure pushing down on the egg. But, wait a minute, what’s the burning paper got to do with air pressure?

Okay, here’s the short of it. Dropping a burning spill (or burning piece of paper into a bottle) and the air in the bottle will quickly expand and a small volume escapes. When the hard-boiled egg (with the shell removed) is placed into the opening, the spill goes out, the remaining gas cools and contracts and the greater outside air pressure pushes the moist flexible egg into the hole nicely.

If you use a nice moist egg and a bottle with a wide enough neck you’ll get a nice squeeze and plop. Anyone who has a use for a hard-boiled egg covered in burnt paper stuck in a bottle is welcome to contact us at Sciencebase with their ideas. Additionally, if you know how to get the egg out again without breaking the bottle leave us you thoughts in the comment form.

Bottled seaside air

Seaside Beach Huts Bottled seaside air! It almost sounds like a scam from the Victorian era when the bracing “ozone” of fresh air at the British seaside was said to cure all kinds of ailments and led to a boom in seaside resorts and continues to ebb and flow.

But, it’s not a scam. Researchers at the University of East Anglia have been plucking bacteria from the North Norfolk coast at a little village called Stiffkey (pronounced Stoo-Kee) and fermenting them to reproduce the marshy smell of the seaside in the laboratory.

Andrew Johnston and his team isolated the bacterium from the mud at Stiffkey saltmarsh and have identified the single gene responsible for the emission of the strong-smelling gas, dimethyl sulfide (DMS).

“On bracing childhood visits to the seaside we were always told to “breathe in that ozone, it’s good for you’,” said Prof Johnston. “But we were misled, twice over,” he adds, “First, that distinctive smell is not ozone [a highly toxic allotrope of oxygen], it is dimethyl sulfide. And secondly, inhaling it is not necessarily good for you.”

DMS is a little known but important gas. Across the world’s oceans, seas and coasts, tens of millions of tonnes are released by microbes that live near plankton and marine plants, including seaweeds and some salt-marsh plants. The gas plays an important role in the formation of cloud cover over the oceans, with major effects on climate.

Intriguingly, DMS acts as a homing scent for seabirds, almost like the odour of Brussels sprouts at a festive dinner table – it helps birds sniff out food in the lonely oceans, even at astonishingly low concentrations. Understanding the role of microbes in producing this key chemical is important in understanding a whole range of ecosystems.

The discovery adds to the diverse list of Stiffkey’s claims to fame. The small coastal village is renowned for its ‘Stewkey Blue’ cockles and was also the home of Henry Williamson, author of “Tarka the Otter”. It’s also known for its infamous rector, Reverend Harold Davidson, who was defrocked in 1932 after allegedly “cavorting with” London prostitutes. The pronunciation of the village’s name itself is even controversial with the older locals preferring the archaic Stoo-Kee, while the incomers often prefer the posher sounding and phonetic Stiff-Key. (Incidentally, my photograph of beachhuts at the head of this article was taken along the coast at Wells-next-the-Sea.

Music and exercise

Workout music Over on Alex King’s blog, they’re offering suggestions for his workout playlist. Dozens of comments have rolled in with music ranging from Eye of the Tiger to Linkin Park to Pussycat Dolls and everything in between.

One suggestion I don’t think I saw in the comments was simply not to listen to music at all while working out, or watch TV screens, or read or do anything else distracting, but simply to do your workout.

There has been a lot of sports science research done to suggest that distractions while working out inherently lower the intensity and so efficacy of exercise, even though they might help you keep going or feel like you’re punching harder or whatever. e.g. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2006 Sep;46(3):425-30.

In that paper, the researchers conclude that “music evokes a ”distraction effect” during low intensity exercise”. They suggest that when jogging or walking at comparatively low exercise intensity, “listening to a favorite piece of music might decrease the influence of stress caused by fatigue” but that it does not affect the autonomic nervous system. As such, music can increase the ”comfort” level of performing the exercise and allow you to keep going longer (or until you’re bored with the music).

However, in my trawl for the original paper I wanted to cite, I found some very recent research in the journal Ergonomics that suggests the exact opposite of my claim that no music is good for your workout (Ergonomics. 2006 Dec 15;49(15):1597-610). In this paper, the researchers attempted to assess the effects of loudness and tempo on peoples’ workout intensity. They found that “Significant effects and interactions were found for running speed and heart rate across the different music tempo and loudness levels.” But more critically from the point of view of disproving my hypothesis, they found that a “More positive affect was observed during the music condition in comparison to the ‘no music’ condition.” So, I guess I’m wrong. That said, the latter study only had 30 volunteers so whether that’s truly statistically significant or enough to prove anything I cannot say.

It’s a complicated issue that might take a little more research to come down on one side or the other. Personally, I don’t mind a bit of talk radio in the background when I’m at the gym, but the young persons’ music that’s often playing I cannot abide, puts me right off my stride. Now, a bit of Zeppelin or Floyd would be a different matter.

As with most things in life though, there’s probably a balance point that you need to find to get the best out of your workout. So, keep taking those mp3 players to the gym. But, make sure you’ve got Wish You Were Here or Led Zep II on there.

Global warming ad

A TV public relations campaign is set to air at the beginning of February. The ad campaign sponsored by Avaaz.org is set to demand that G8 leaders put climate change, or global warming as we used to call it in pre-euphemistic times, at the top of the next Summit agenda in June.

Avaaz says this is the first such advocacy campaign and will demonstrate how citizens of every country might take the necessary concerted action on urgent global problems, such as climate change, poverty, and the Middle East crisis to persuade world leaders of the need for decisive steps towards finding solutions. The organisation anticipates a campaign launch with 880,000 participants from 168 countries.

‘Our political leaders are moving at sluggish pace as we approach a point of no return in global warming’ said Ricken Patel, the Canadian-British Director of Avaaz.org. ‘Global public opinion has been called the ‘new superpower’, but there is a huge gap between the world that most people want, and the world we have. The lack of action on climate change is a powerful example of that gap, and Avaaz.org will work to close it.’

Climate change is not a new issue, it’s not forty years ago that we were being warned that we were heading for a global ice age, we have had poverty ever since the first human traded an animal skin for food, and the crisis in the Middle East is as old as the cradle of civilization itself.

Can global citizens really stand up and be counted when it comes to such political activities? Or, are we doomed to repeat the same errors we see throughout history again and again?

Potato Powered mp3 Player – Not!

Sweet potato battery Fed up with using up so many batteries? Rechargeables giving you poor mileage? Then why not try a couple of sweet potatoes instead.

In this “video tutorial”, you’ll learn how to use a couple of galvanized (zinc coated) nails, some bare copper wire, a pair of mini crocodile clips, AND two sweet potatoes, to power up your mp3 player with not a conventional battery in sight. Great video and the music’s sweet too.

The Hole – video powered by Metacafe

This appliance is, of course, closely related to the lemon battery (or more formally lemon cell) familiar to anyone who’s searched for a high school science project. Two different metallic objects dipped into a conduction solution (an electrolyte) will produce an electrochemical reaction the byproduct of which is electricity. A single lemon is usually enough to illuminate a flashlight bulb, but two sweet potatoes are apparently required for an mp3 player. Yes, it reduces the portability of your player, but just think…no more buying batteries! Of course, things might get a bit smelly as those sweet potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) start to go off.

Green Laundry Detergents

Retailers and industry have tried to paint themselves green through the marketing of so-called “green” laundry detergents. The January 29 issue Chemical & Engineering News claims that this represents parties having “taken the leading role in a new effort by retailers and industry to market mainstream, environmentally friendly consumer products.”

The cleaning products industry has apparently embraced sustainability, with various innovations, including energy-efficient laundry detergents that work without hot water and other products that degrade once they go down the drain.

Report author Michael McCoy says that, “Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has been a major catalyst in the green detergent revolution. Using its purchasing power as the world’s biggest retailer, Wal-Mart launched an environmental initiative last October to encourage its suppliers to manufacture more environmentally friendly laundry detergents. Laws and regulations in the United States and the European Union are giving industry additional regulatory incentive to go green with mainstream consumer products,” he adds.

A consideration that is missing from the notion that any laundry product can be “green” is the fact that even the most modern and efficient washing machines and dryers still use huge amounts of energy and vast amounts of water. There is nothing “green” about washing clothes, especially given the common western notion that one wear means an article of clothing is dirty and must be washed.

Now I’m not advocating a return to washboards, mangles, and a weekly bath in front of the hearth, but those in the developed world cannot possibly hope to be “green” as long as we’re using water and energy to wash and dry clothes. In many parts of the world (and coming to a town near you, any time soon) there are millions of people who live day to day with minimal water. An aboriginal Australian told me on a trip to the outback many years ago that he simply couldn’t understand why we’d waste water in such a way when it is such a precious commodity.

Singling out molecules

tip enhanced raman spectroscopy Swiss chemists have devised a new approach to the familiar analytical technique of Raman spectroscopy that allows them to investigate the structure of individual molecules.

The full story is available today in advance of publication on SpectroscopyNOW’s Raman channel for Sciencebase readers only.

According to research team leader Renato Zenobi, there are two potentially very important applications of this new high-gain Raman technique:

Molecular electronics – This is a field where individual molecules are being used as electronic elements (diodes, transistors, logic gates, etc.). One can, for example, imagine that a molecule would “switch” a current by a change in conformation (shape), which would of course be immediately reflected in a change of the Raman spectrum. Molecular diagnostic / analytical methods for this emerging field are largely missing so far. Here this methodology could make an important contribution, Zenobi told me.
Cataysis – In catalytic conversions, A -> (B) -> (C) ->D , where A is the reactant, B and C are intermediates and D is the product, reactions are accelerated by a catalyst, by activating the molecules. Usually this happens on the surfaces of finely dispersed metal on a support material, i.e., it is generally surface process. Catalysis is employed in many industrially important chemical reactions, but – surprisingly – often the exact course of the reaction / the nature of the intermediates is not known. Again, identification of small numbers of molecules in tight spaces (= the nanoscale metallic “active sites” on catalysts) could be achieved with our methodology.

Nuclear assured destruction

Radiation damage Advocates of nuclear power point to recent advances in waste storage materials that could allow the radioactive byproducts of the nuclear industry to be stored safely and indefinitely in ceramics rather than glass. Whereas those not in favour of splitting atoms to produce almost limitless energy point out that even vitrified nuclear waste will represent an ongoing problem for thousands of years.

Ceramics have come to the fore as an alternative storage medium. However, a recent study by researchers at Cambridge University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory using NMR spectroscopy suggests that storing high-level nuclear waste (plutonium) without leakage over thousands of years might not be possible even with those materials. The NMR study reveals that alpha particles emitted by the plutonium, while only travelling a short distance through the ceramic wreak havoc with the ceramic’s structure and so could lead to long-term stability problems.

I spoke with Cambridge’s Ian Farnan about the research for the February 1 issue of the NMR channel on SpectroscopyNOW.com. He explained that silicon-29 NMR spin counting experiments on samples with activities greater than 4 GBq was used for the first time to demonstrate how decaying plutonium knocks atoms in the ceramic out of kilter. The findings do not preclude the use of zircon ceramics in the storage of radioactive waste but provides a stronger basis in long-term stability on which to make nuclear waste disposal decisions.

Brits mass debate over science

sciencehorizons (all lower case, apparently) launched today to answer questions like:

“Will we all be sprinting at 80?”, “Sitting in self-driving cars?”, “Will robots be serving us breakfast?”, “Will our fridges be talking to our shopping trolleys?”, “Will organ donors be a thing of the past?”

The idea, funded by the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), is intended to engage the public in the mass debate on what science can and cannot do and what we should let it do and not do. According to Malcolm Wicks, Minister for Science and Innovation, discussions will look at how science and technology could affect our lives over the next 15-20 years.

He said: “What’s important about sciencehorizons is that we’re inviting anyone and everyone to get involved in the discussions, not only the scientists. We want discussions about science to involve the whole community.

“Over the coming decades, we’re going to have some huge ethical debates about science as new discoveries are made and new technologies emerge. We will all need to be part of making informed
decisions about how we develop and use scientific and technological advances.”

Of course, if you’re already approaching 80 and have not been on the sports track for many years, then the answer to that first question is likely to be a resounding, “No!”, but who wants to be sprinting at 80 anyway? I’d be quite keen to have a robot that could serve my breakfast, but surely such a device is going to require electrical power and if they still haven’t fixed it by then to have a decent daily dose of solar power in England to charge it up, then it’s simply going to be yet another source of carbon emissions for everyone to offset by planting a tree.

And as to fridges talking to shopping trolleys…if we’ve got robots serving us breakfast then surely we won’t still be pushing shopping trolleys around supermarkets by then, although with the advent of the senior supermarkets in Germany (the Kaiser Senioren Supermarkt in downtown Berlin) such questions will put a whole new slant on a supermarket sprint!

Are initiatives like this worthwhile, does the public really care about science policy and debate? It seems that the only real coverage science receives in the media is when things are going wrong, or the scientists are “playing god” again.