Oh Joy! The wonders of Science.

Being trained as a scientist, I'm able to work with exponents pretty well - as math is the language of science. When we get to exponents of "10 to the -7" in measuring the distances between peaks in a wave of light, it is easy to manipulated. When we are thinking of light traveling at huge speeds 3 x 10 to the 8th meters per second, it is easy to scratch it out on paper.

Some (albeit very few) are getting excited about the possibility of having a few weeks of a second sun made by an exploding star 640 LY (light years) away. Betelgeuse is nearly at SuperNova stage. Any minute now. Then, of course, if it happened this minute, I'd have to wait 640 years to see it. Too long to wait.

Now I will grant it to the excited few among us, it would really make for a marvelous event - especially if it happened to coincide with the nighttime position (Earth in between Sun and Betelgeuse). I must admit that my first thought in reading this was "Oh dear, what is the observant Muslim to do if this happens during Ramadan?" My next thought was "Short the stocks of vitamin D manufacturers".

But I'd put the chances of seeing such a thing in my lifetime are 1 to 10 to the -100th power. Not likely.

Americans' Beliefs about the Universe's Origins

40% of Americans still believe in a "Young Earth". (Think this: the earth is less than 10,000 years old. Think this: Adam and Eve living in a literal Garden of Eden.)

This represents some of the findings of a new poll conducted by Gallup. The remaining opinions were: A God-guided evolution (38%), and a godless evolution (16%). No word on the remaining 6% - maybe they believe that the universe is imaginary!

I remember back in my Teacher Training days, in my Science Education class when I presented on this subject. I pleaded with my fellow teacher-wanna-bees not to be prejudiced against the Young Earth Creationists. While I myself am not in that camp, I was at one time, and I remember the confusion and heartache of the worldviews in collision. That can be hard to take for a teenager. It wasn't received well. One tried to tie a Creationist mindset to the mindset of a Nazi. I made him regret that comment. Science teachers can be very intolerant of competing perspectives on truth. By extension, so can scientists.

Holy Astronomical Collision Batman

For the first time in many hundred years, a Lunar Eclipse will match up with the Winter Solstice. (Those who write horoscopes must be going nuts!) Starting Tuesday, just after midnight, the moon will start to hide in the shadow of the Earth - full moon to no moon. It will take a few hours for the hiding to the Peek-a-boo on the other side to complete. And whatever else is happening, it promises to be cold in MN. So find a warm spot inside the house or car with some people or things to keep you awake, and you may well be able to see this "once-in-four-hundred-year event". Then, of course, you could otherwise try and get a good night's sleep.

I wonder if there is a lottery drawing on Tuesday, I read that that was supposed to be my lucky day!

More here, but you'll have to slog through a short interview with a Wiccan.

If Only . . . (science post)

It has been discovered that fulvalene diruthium (Ruthium is element #44 - and quite rare). Umm, let me start again.

It has been discovered that this rare molecule has a wondrous property - it can store heat! What does that mean? Everything can store heat! True, but this is different. This molecule can store heat and lock it away - the heat doesn't "bleed away". The heat is locked away chemically and stored in the chemical bonds as the heat changes those bonds. Then, to unleash that heat, a simple nudge is required and the heat is released.

So when winter comes to MN - and it will very soon - I could call my parents and ask them to send some of that Florida heat up to Minneapolis. If they had some of this stuff, they could just set it out in the sun for awhile, bottle it up, and send it to me. Oh joy.

Regretably, the Ruthium is quite rare. It is found along with Platinum. (Smart people would take the platinum and leave the Ruthium.) It is also a byproduct of the nuclear fission of Uranium. So it could be 'mined' from spent fuel rods.

Even so, it is exciting to have such a 'game-changing' technology possibly close at hand.