There are certain things in this world that we cannot avoid. Sleep, for example, sleep is something that we do not have the power to resist, no matter how hard we try. Oxidation is another process that occurs constantly...when we eat, we generate energy through oxidation...and that is why we must breathe, because oxygen is required for oxidative metabolism. Oxidation is the loss of electrons, and it is always paired with its closest friend, reduction, the gain of electrons. One molecule must be oxidized in order for another molecule to be reduced. It is rare that I will ever use the word "must"...I don't speak in absolutes. I tend to err on the side of caution and hedge my bets...but not in this case. If one molecule is to lose electrons, those electrons MUST go somewhere, and their only option is to go to another atom.
Metabolic oxidation and reduction reactions are essential for producing high levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a high energy molecule...did I say "a high energy molecule?"...I meant "the high energy molecule." Sorry. ATP is the man (or woman). It is used in most anabolic activities our cells can think of, those processes in which cells build things. "Hmmmm....I think I want to make a protein today," it says. Well, proteins don't just grow on trees, you know. The cell has to pay for the formation of new peptide bonds, energetically speaking. Well, then, you may ask, how does the cell "earn" its ATP? It does this partially through oxidation and reduction. There is a change in energy that occurs when a molecule gives up an electron. Sometimes moving an electron from one atom to another is extremely energetically favorable, which produces energy that can potentially be used in other ways. If losing an electron is energetically favorable AND if the cell is very clever (which it is) it can store that energy in a more useful form, which it ultimately does as ATP. Without oxidative metabolism, it would probably take me about four minutes and one second to jog the last mile of a marathon...and my heart rate might even reach 60 bpm. So yeah, you could say oxidation is pretty important.
Prehistoric cavemen (and women) were notoriously afraid of fire (another oxidation/reduction reaction)? This fear is well-founded because uncontrolled oxidation (and reduction) can be dangerous, not only in the case of fire, but also in the case of rust. Rust is the product of the oxidation of iron. Whereas iron is strong, rust is not. Unfortunately, many structures were built with iron because, in its original state, iron IS sturdy. After years of exposure to water and salt, oxidized iron, rust, replaces the sturdy iron, with a brittle, yet colorful material, which is more visually appealing than it is strong. According to this useful website: corrosioncost.com, rust costs the US about 276 billion dollars per year.
Respect oxidation. It created you, and it will destroy you. And as we have seen above, it is necessary and 100% unavoidable. It is part of aging, part of growing up, and part of life. And while I must now go to sleep, I leave you with a reminder from Neil Young, that rust never does:
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
A Problem of Inertia
Hello? Has everyone left? I wouldn't blame you if you had...there hasn't been much to see...at least on THIS website. As I was writing that sentence, I imagined what it would be like if, all of a sudden, everyone got bored of the internet, and just decided to do something else. It doesn't really matter what people chose to do instead...the first thing that comes to my mind is to lie down on the ground...preferably a grassy ground, not too damp. Once on the ground, it would be okay to just lie there. If there were a hill around, it would be nice to roll down the hill, but if there were sharp rocks at the bottom of the hill, perhaps it would be best to remain stationary.
The internet has come to occupy a space that does not exist anywhere, really. Just think! If people stopped using the internet, it would feel like a ghost town. The ebay items would sit gathering dust on the shelves of their owners. The music from Myspace pages would go unheard like the dusty old player piano in a saloon. And (many, but certainly not all) facebook and flick'r photos would go unseen...but not un-missed... like a stack of sepia-tinted gelatin prints on the nightstand in a house that was left in a hurry. And then there is Twitter. Nobody will miss Twitter. A significant portion of people's lives exists on the internet. If that portion does not exist ENTIRELY on the internet, then the "real life" version is at least duplicated or represented in some digital form and stored on some server somewhere.
There are two voids that would be palpable if the internet were to stop existing. 1) A functional void...without google and wikipedia, nobody would know anything...especially me. And 2) an emotional void...people depend on websites for happiness to some extent...for example this website makes me VERY happy. I depend on it like I depend on neurotransmitters to tell me I'm okay. (That is an exaggeration, but I don't feel as though I am overstating the fact that people derive great pleasure from many things on the internet...sometimes, but not always at the expense of their pleasure in the real world). I think that is really pretty incredible that something which has no substance has expanded to occupy such an important part of our emotional lives.
I think I might have just described one of John's nightmares. Sorry John. There there, John. I think I also might have described one of the internet's nightmares...don't worry internet...if I'm not here for you...I know that John will be. Sorry John...I don't mean to pick on you...but can you deny your love for this web of knowledge and communication? And finally, I apologize to all of you...any of you... the none of you who may have been emotionally injured as a result of my lack of communication in these past five (!) weeks. You see, from a scientific perspective, this can be explained by a little something I (and everyone else in the world) like to call "inertia." This video, I think nicely captures the relevance of inertia in terms of human behavior:
Finally, this is the force that pushed me into action...it is a nice music video for a song by Pepi Ginsberg. It just looks like fun:
The internet has come to occupy a space that does not exist anywhere, really. Just think! If people stopped using the internet, it would feel like a ghost town. The ebay items would sit gathering dust on the shelves of their owners. The music from Myspace pages would go unheard like the dusty old player piano in a saloon. And (many, but certainly not all) facebook and flick'r photos would go unseen...but not un-missed... like a stack of sepia-tinted gelatin prints on the nightstand in a house that was left in a hurry. And then there is Twitter. Nobody will miss Twitter. A significant portion of people's lives exists on the internet. If that portion does not exist ENTIRELY on the internet, then the "real life" version is at least duplicated or represented in some digital form and stored on some server somewhere.
There are two voids that would be palpable if the internet were to stop existing. 1) A functional void...without google and wikipedia, nobody would know anything...especially me. And 2) an emotional void...people depend on websites for happiness to some extent...for example this website makes me VERY happy. I depend on it like I depend on neurotransmitters to tell me I'm okay. (That is an exaggeration, but I don't feel as though I am overstating the fact that people derive great pleasure from many things on the internet...sometimes, but not always at the expense of their pleasure in the real world). I think that is really pretty incredible that something which has no substance has expanded to occupy such an important part of our emotional lives.
I think I might have just described one of John's nightmares. Sorry John. There there, John. I think I also might have described one of the internet's nightmares...don't worry internet...if I'm not here for you...I know that John will be. Sorry John...I don't mean to pick on you...but can you deny your love for this web of knowledge and communication? And finally, I apologize to all of you...any of you... the none of you who may have been emotionally injured as a result of my lack of communication in these past five (!) weeks. You see, from a scientific perspective, this can be explained by a little something I (and everyone else in the world) like to call "inertia." This video, I think nicely captures the relevance of inertia in terms of human behavior:
Finally, this is the force that pushed me into action...it is a nice music video for a song by Pepi Ginsberg. It just looks like fun:
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
A World Tangled in Wires...
What if...what if I were to tell you that there is a single cable that stretches all the way across the Atlantic Ocean? Would you be impressed? You might not be, if you are one of the few people who knows that the first Transatlantic Telegraph Cable was installed in the late 1850's. On the other hand, you might be even MORE impressed if you ARE one of those people, because that would demonstrate a healthy baseline level of enthusiasm for submarine telecommunications cables (the focus of today's post), which may not necessarily be present in all groups of people.
Again, I know, this topic is very literally "mundane" compared to lofty things such as the heliosphere, but as I hope to show you, submarine telecommunications cables are incredible AND we depend on them. I know for a FACT that my many MANY readers around the world rely on these relatively fragile pieces of cable for their monthly(?) dose of amazement. So now you may be asking, "who gave this crazy-person access to the internet?"...BUT I prefer to imagine that you are REALLY asking this question: "what, exactly, are we going to learn about these cables?" Well, first I will attempt to describe our dependence on ocean-spanning cables, then I will describe the cables themselves, and finally, I will show you how they are installed.
According to Wikipedia, as of 2006, only 1% of international communication overseas was mediated by satellites, and the rest, the rest being 99%, was carried out through undersea cables. Personally, I had always assumed that cell phone calls were carried via satellite...I assumed this because my cell phone is not connected to any wires, but clearly I was wrong. Another, similarly surprising statistic is one that I heard in a NOVA episode entitled "The Spy Factory": 80% of all communications from Asia (cell phone calls and emails but NOT postcards) is carried through fiber optic cables that span the Pacific Ocean and eventually lead to a "nondescript building in San Luis Obispo." Some cables are buried less than 6 feet underground where they come ashore. And the time it takes for a message to cross the Pacific Ocean? About 5 hundredths of a second!
In this map taken from an article in The Guardian, you can see the incredible web of wires that make it possible to rapidly transmit information almost anywhere in the world...except Antarctica. Antarctica is lonely.
Now you might expect that these cables are somewhat vulnerable...and they are. One of the most incredible things to me is that such a large percentage of our communications rely on submarine cables, and yet these lines of communication can be severed by things such as earthquakes, ship anchors and pirates. (!!!)
Because optical fibers themselves are fairly fragile, they are wrapped in a number of protective layers. The final diameter of a fiber optic cable is approximately 2.7 inches, and one meter of cable weighs 10 kilograms. Now, consider the SeaMeWe-3 submarine telecommunications cable, which extends from Norden, Germany to Keoje, South Korea and links 39 countries along the way. This cable is 39,000 kilometers in length, which means that the cable weighs 390,000,000 kilograms or 858,000,000 pounds. And to give you some perspective on this, I bench press about 1,000,000 pounds...so that's pretty heavy.
And finally, it would be my pleasure to share these two resources with you on the laying of submarine cables. The first is a video from the 1930s...so awesome:
And the second is a more recent movie, although the narration is slightly lacking compared to video number 1. It is, however more informative in terms of the actual process of laying the cable in the ground and the benefits of fiber optics as compared to coaxial cables. Notice how the cable is unrolled into the trench that is dug by the underwater plow:
Again, I know, this topic is very literally "mundane" compared to lofty things such as the heliosphere, but as I hope to show you, submarine telecommunications cables are incredible AND we depend on them. I know for a FACT that my many MANY readers around the world rely on these relatively fragile pieces of cable for their monthly(?) dose of amazement. So now you may be asking, "who gave this crazy-person access to the internet?"...BUT I prefer to imagine that you are REALLY asking this question: "what, exactly, are we going to learn about these cables?" Well, first I will attempt to describe our dependence on ocean-spanning cables, then I will describe the cables themselves, and finally, I will show you how they are installed.
According to Wikipedia, as of 2006, only 1% of international communication overseas was mediated by satellites, and the rest, the rest being 99%, was carried out through undersea cables. Personally, I had always assumed that cell phone calls were carried via satellite...I assumed this because my cell phone is not connected to any wires, but clearly I was wrong. Another, similarly surprising statistic is one that I heard in a NOVA episode entitled "The Spy Factory": 80% of all communications from Asia (cell phone calls and emails but NOT postcards) is carried through fiber optic cables that span the Pacific Ocean and eventually lead to a "nondescript building in San Luis Obispo." Some cables are buried less than 6 feet underground where they come ashore. And the time it takes for a message to cross the Pacific Ocean? About 5 hundredths of a second!
In this map taken from an article in The Guardian, you can see the incredible web of wires that make it possible to rapidly transmit information almost anywhere in the world...except Antarctica. Antarctica is lonely.
Now you might expect that these cables are somewhat vulnerable...and they are. One of the most incredible things to me is that such a large percentage of our communications rely on submarine cables, and yet these lines of communication can be severed by things such as earthquakes, ship anchors and pirates. (!!!)
Because optical fibers themselves are fairly fragile, they are wrapped in a number of protective layers. The final diameter of a fiber optic cable is approximately 2.7 inches, and one meter of cable weighs 10 kilograms. Now, consider the SeaMeWe-3 submarine telecommunications cable, which extends from Norden, Germany to Keoje, South Korea and links 39 countries along the way. This cable is 39,000 kilometers in length, which means that the cable weighs 390,000,000 kilograms or 858,000,000 pounds. And to give you some perspective on this, I bench press about 1,000,000 pounds...so that's pretty heavy.
And finally, it would be my pleasure to share these two resources with you on the laying of submarine cables. The first is a video from the 1930s...so awesome:
And the second is a more recent movie, although the narration is slightly lacking compared to video number 1. It is, however more informative in terms of the actual process of laying the cable in the ground and the benefits of fiber optics as compared to coaxial cables. Notice how the cable is unrolled into the trench that is dug by the underwater plow:
Thursday, December 17, 2009
One of the world's greatest mysteries...
I know, I know, why would you want to think about the world's greatest mysteries, when we could think about the UNIVERSE'S greatest mysteries? Well, my friends, I have two answers to that question: First, we live on earth, and it is therefore extremely relevant to our daily lives, and second, the earth IS part of the universe. Checkmate.
Also, I know for a fact that this is a question that has been on a lot of your minds. Some people lose sleep over it, although, I'm not sure who those people are. The question is: how are tower cranes built? Well, in order to answer this, we first need to review what a tower crane is, then we need to identify its important features, and then we NEED to watch an informational animation with a sweet/spicy techno soundtrack that I first discovered on my favorite crane blog, and arguably the best blog about cranes on the internet: http://www.craneblogger.com/
So what is a tower crane? What do they look like? You might be asking yourself, "have I ever seen a tower crane?" Well, if you live in Seattle, you have never NOT seen one...except while you are sleeping. Here are some stylish pictures of tower cranes:
The last picture is not a crane. That is the space needle. It is similar to a crane in that it is tall and also rotates, however, unlike cranes, it is not useful in the construction of skyscrapers.
So, what are the important features of a tower crane? For this I turn to the Visual Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
These are incredible machines because they seem as though they are impossible. They seem as though they should tip over...but they don't because they are heavily anchored into the ground, and because of the counterjib ballast. Great. So, now for the most important part: how do these things get built?
Well there are apparently two answers to this: initially, they are built by other, smaller, mobile cranes with telescoping arms. Eventually, however, the tower cranes become too tall, and at that point, what do they do? Well, clearly, they build themselves, using something called a "top climber!" According to the HowStuffWorks.com article on tower cranes, the top climber is installed between the last piece of the mast and the "slewing unit" which is the piece that allows the crane jib to pivot. When a new piece of the mast is ready to be installed, as you will see in the video, the jib and counterjib are balanced by picking up a weight on the hook. After this, the top climber pushes the jib, the operator's cab, and the slewing unit upward with hydraulic rams, which opens up a space above the old mast segment for the insertion of the newest piece of mast. Well, I feel as though I am not doing this justice, so I will let you see for yourselves:
Also, I know for a fact that this is a question that has been on a lot of your minds. Some people lose sleep over it, although, I'm not sure who those people are. The question is: how are tower cranes built? Well, in order to answer this, we first need to review what a tower crane is, then we need to identify its important features, and then we NEED to watch an informational animation with a sweet/spicy techno soundtrack that I first discovered on my favorite crane blog, and arguably the best blog about cranes on the internet: http://www.craneblogger.com/
So what is a tower crane? What do they look like? You might be asking yourself, "have I ever seen a tower crane?" Well, if you live in Seattle, you have never NOT seen one...except while you are sleeping. Here are some stylish pictures of tower cranes:
The last picture is not a crane. That is the space needle. It is similar to a crane in that it is tall and also rotates, however, unlike cranes, it is not useful in the construction of skyscrapers.So, what are the important features of a tower crane? For this I turn to the Visual Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
These are incredible machines because they seem as though they are impossible. They seem as though they should tip over...but they don't because they are heavily anchored into the ground, and because of the counterjib ballast. Great. So, now for the most important part: how do these things get built?
Well there are apparently two answers to this: initially, they are built by other, smaller, mobile cranes with telescoping arms. Eventually, however, the tower cranes become too tall, and at that point, what do they do? Well, clearly, they build themselves, using something called a "top climber!" According to the HowStuffWorks.com article on tower cranes, the top climber is installed between the last piece of the mast and the "slewing unit" which is the piece that allows the crane jib to pivot. When a new piece of the mast is ready to be installed, as you will see in the video, the jib and counterjib are balanced by picking up a weight on the hook. After this, the top climber pushes the jib, the operator's cab, and the slewing unit upward with hydraulic rams, which opens up a space above the old mast segment for the insertion of the newest piece of mast. Well, I feel as though I am not doing this justice, so I will let you see for yourselves:
Thursday, December 3, 2009
At the Edge of the Heliosphere
This is it. Back by overwhelming demand, it is time to dip our toes into the heliosphere. There are too many things to learn so we have to pace ourselves. Most of what we have to learn sounds like dialogue from a Star Trek episode...specifically, Deep Space 9...yikes! (I have never actually seen Deep Space 9, so I apologize if that offends anyone, namely, John, my only reader that I am aware of (thanks John!) and I also apologize if it is actually an awesome show, but it always looked slightly dorkier than The Next Generation, which is what I used to watch after school. THAT show was good).
Let's start with some key words and phrases for tonight (we will slowly expand this list over the next few days/weeks/years, so don't be surprised if you don't know what a heliosphere is by the end of this post (or ever, for that matter...I am still slightly doubtful that my brain can comprehend such a thing).
To begin, a vague definition of the heliosphere: A bubble which surrounds our solar system, which is generated by the sun itself.
Holy crap, this is going to blow your mind. I bet you thought you knew what the sun was right? You are wrong. I was wrong, at least. The sun is the star at the center of our solar system. According to Wikipedia, which is going to be the source of many of my Sometimes Facts, I'm warning you right now, the Sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system. And you know what it is made out of? Gas! About 73.5% hydrogen and 24.8% helium, with the remainder made up by a variety of elements. How is it possible for something that is about 25% helium to account for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system? I mean, helium floats; it's lighter than air. They put it in balloons. Sure.
Do you know how it's possible? The sun is HUGE, about 1,300,000 times the volume of the earth. This video explains it all (at least it's a good start):
Let's start with some key words and phrases for tonight (we will slowly expand this list over the next few days/weeks/years, so don't be surprised if you don't know what a heliosphere is by the end of this post (or ever, for that matter...I am still slightly doubtful that my brain can comprehend such a thing).
To begin, a vague definition of the heliosphere: A bubble which surrounds our solar system, which is generated by the sun itself.
Holy crap, this is going to blow your mind. I bet you thought you knew what the sun was right? You are wrong. I was wrong, at least. The sun is the star at the center of our solar system. According to Wikipedia, which is going to be the source of many of my Sometimes Facts, I'm warning you right now, the Sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system. And you know what it is made out of? Gas! About 73.5% hydrogen and 24.8% helium, with the remainder made up by a variety of elements. How is it possible for something that is about 25% helium to account for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system? I mean, helium floats; it's lighter than air. They put it in balloons. Sure.
Do you know how it's possible? The sun is HUGE, about 1,300,000 times the volume of the earth. This video explains it all (at least it's a good start):
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Saturday, November 21, 2009
A Starting Point...
An article published in Science on November 13th caught my eye. It was entitled, "Global Observations of the Interstellar Interaction from the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX)" (McComas, D.J., et al. 326(5955): 959-62). Typically, when I read something such as this, my brain stops listening to my eyes as they continue to scan over the letters. This is not to say that my brain isn't interested, but rather, it is intimidated and overwhelmed by the realization that I do not understand the majority of the words in a sentence that is written in my native language. I would like to think that these sentences are becoming increasingly rare as I grow up. This does seem to be the case, but why? Is it because I am slowly learning more of the necessary words that will allow me to decipher a title such as the one above? Possibly. But I think it is also likely that to a greater extent, I am limiting myself, such that I am only reading sentences that I understand. And I think this is true of many people.
There are SO many things in this world that I don't understand, and only a limited number of things that I do. But I would like to learn more. And you do too. Definitely.
This is where it starts. We must be patient, and allow ourselves the discomfort of not understanding. All of these mysteries can be learned, or at least appreciated, if not understood, but we can't just "turn off" when we encounter something that seems too complicated.
And so, from that title above, which I still don't yet understand, I have found a number of things that I want to learn more about...including: boundaries in outer space!
For example, what defines the edge of the earth's atmosphere and the beginning of outer space? According to the wikipedia article on the exosphere, the outermost layer of the earth's atmosphere, the upper limit of the exosphere is roughly 120,000 miles above earth, which is incredibly, half the distance to the moon! And although there is no clear boundary between the end of the exosphere and the beginning of outer space, the theoretical definition is simple and makes a lot of sense: our atmosphere ends and space begins when earth's gravitational pull is no longer strong enough to pull the atoms that make up the atmosphere inward.
Next...the heliosphere?
There are SO many things in this world that I don't understand, and only a limited number of things that I do. But I would like to learn more. And you do too. Definitely.
This is where it starts. We must be patient, and allow ourselves the discomfort of not understanding. All of these mysteries can be learned, or at least appreciated, if not understood, but we can't just "turn off" when we encounter something that seems too complicated.
And so, from that title above, which I still don't yet understand, I have found a number of things that I want to learn more about...including: boundaries in outer space!
For example, what defines the edge of the earth's atmosphere and the beginning of outer space? According to the wikipedia article on the exosphere, the outermost layer of the earth's atmosphere, the upper limit of the exosphere is roughly 120,000 miles above earth, which is incredibly, half the distance to the moon! And although there is no clear boundary between the end of the exosphere and the beginning of outer space, the theoretical definition is simple and makes a lot of sense: our atmosphere ends and space begins when earth's gravitational pull is no longer strong enough to pull the atoms that make up the atmosphere inward.
Next...the heliosphere?
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