Hello again, science fans. Glad to have you along with us today.
Hallo nomal, Wüsseschaftsfans. Schön, dass si hüt bi ois sind.
[Schwyzerdütsch is a Swiss-German dialect]
CLIMATE
A large portion of the Birch Glacier in Switzerland broke free on Wednesday. Nine million tonnes of ice and granite plunged into the Lötschental valley destroying most of Blatten, a village of 300. The residents and their animals had been evacuated 9 days earlier. Current global warming loosened the permafrost and ice that held the Kleines Nesthorn peak and the Birch Glacier in place likely for more than 60,000 years. Similar rockslides are happening around the world at an increasing pace.
Melting permafrost is affecting many arctic communities, such as Tuktoyaktuk on the shore of Lake Tiktalik in Canada. [¿Does Tiktalik sound familiar? Tiktaalik could be our fishapod ancestor.]
Unparalleled wildfires rage out of control in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba forcing the evacuation of over 25,000 residents. Smoke is beginning to cover vast areas of the northern United States.
Here in the U.S., Federal agencies have been forbidden to track costs attributable to climate change. White House administrator Jeffrey B. Clark explained there are uncertainties whether “any supposed changes in the climate are actually occurring as a consequence of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.” His statement flies in the face of hundreds of scientific studies that concluded otherwise.
RAFFLE
We are offering a metal model kit of JWST: 10.5cm long & 7cm high (after assembly with stand). Just send an email before noon Friday to david.almandsmith [at] gmail.com with your guess of an integer between 0 and 1,000. Last time, Brian won a glass ball barometer. Of the 16 contestants, his guess of 79 was closest to the randomly-generated 58.
CHEMISTRY
I grew up thinking that “ironwood” came from a specific ironwood tree. As it turns out, there are over a hundred tree species that have wood denser than water and earn the sobriquet of ironwood. Now there is a literal ironwood: wood infused with nanocrystals of ferrihydrite. The result is a superior building material. After treatment, the wood is 127% harder and 260% stronger. ¿But will it rust?
Last April, the Biden Administration set limits on the maximum concentration of PFAS – polyfluoroalkyl substances – in our drinking water to go into effect in 2029. The current administration has changed the compliance date to 2031 for PFOA and PFOS, and removed limits on other PFAS chemicals: PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and PFBS.
PHYSICS
If you’ve been intrigued by the mysteries of the Big Bang or of Black Holes, let me recommend this article from Quanta Magazine: “Singularities in Space-Time Prove Hard to Kill.”
¿Have you ever been curious about the physics (and geometry) of hula hooping?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
If you want to know more about A.I., this 10-part series (with introduction & video) is the best i’ve found:
Science, Promise, and Peril in the Age of AI
AI Is Nothing Like a Brain, and That’s OK
The Strange Physics That Gave Birth to AI
A Glossary of Essential Terms in AI
When ChatGPT Broke an Entire Field: An Oral History
Why Language Models Are So Hard to Understand
How Can Artificial Intelligence ID a Cat?: An Illustrated Guide
Mathematical Beauty, Truth, and Proof in the Age of AI
What Happens When AI Starts to Ask the Questions?
GEOLOGY
Amazing! In addition to using seismometers to study earthquakes, seismologists are employing fiber-optic cable. Here’s what was done on the Peninsula (approximately):
- A tiny Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensor was located every 100 meters on a 10 km length of fiber-optic cable.
- The cable was buried along a 10km stretch of the Peninsula.
- An oven-sized piece of equipment called an interrogator continuously sent short light pulses from one end of the cable.
- The interrogator recorded the amount of time it took for a portion of each light pulse to be reflected back from each FBG.
- A change in length smaller than a micrometer anywhere along the cable was detectable.
As a seismic wave travels along the Peninsula, the buried cable is alternately stretched and compressed. The interrogator records that activity from each of the 100 FBGs. It was so sensitive, the seismologists were able to track the travel of CalTrains. The seismic wave from a small earthquake in Gilroy was neatly recorded as it travelled up the Peninsula. To record seismic waves from all directions requires that the fiber-optic cable be laid in up-down and side-to-side orientations.
FUN (?) NERDY VIDEOS
Breast Cancer – ScienceSaves – Jacqueline Held, Winner – 0.5 mins
Black Hole Shredding a Star – Bad Astronomer – 1.5 mins
AI and Automation at Berkeley Lab – UC Berkeley – 3 mins
Silly String: Fun & Life Saving – Show & Tell – Joe Schwarcz – 4 mins
Gravity Might Be a Force – Sabine Hossenfelder – 5 mins
Urine Is Not Sterile – SciShow – Niba – 6.5 mins
Addressing NASA Budget Cuts – StarTalk – Neil deGrasse Tyson – 8.5 mins
¿Impossible Precambrian Fossils? – PBS Eons – Michelle Barbosa-Ramirez – 9.5 mins
¿Why Does Fentanyl Feel So Good? – Kurzgesagt – 12.5 mins
Lunar Space Elevator Now! – Cool Worlds Lab – Emily Sandford – 15 mins
Searching for Planet Nine / NASA Budget Cuts – Dr. Becky – Becky Smethurst – 16 mins
¿Do Eukaryotes Answer the Fermi Paradox? – PBS SpaceTime – Matt O’Dowd – 20 mins
Gold – Tales from the Periodic Table – Ron Hipschman – 41 mins
Dissent Is Our Duty – We Can Reason Conference – Seth Andrews – 43 mins
How to Edit Your DNA – Huge Conversations – Cleo Abram & Jennifer Doudna – 53 mins
PFAS Forever Chemicals: Their Story – Veritaseum – Derek Muller – 54 mins
The videos by Neil deGrasse Tyson (8.5 minutes) and Becky Smethurst (16 minutes) offer perspectives on the current budget cuts to science programs.
Enjoy your week,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“Empathy is not pity nor is it compassion. Empathy is the ability to take on another’s perspective as if it were your own – if only for a moment – regardless whether you are comfortable with that perspective. With practice, we can expand our reach to experience empathy with anyone and any living thing. For those among us who strive for power, empathy can be a hindrance. For those among us who strive for a better world, empathy is vastly powerful.”
— Rufus T. Gumsby (1944 – )