Science & Technology

Stop the bleeding NOW

A few minutes have different meaning depending if you are at the office, or trapped in your wrecked car after a multi-car accident on the way home.  You were hit by a fully-loaded truck and would have been killed instantly except for the high-strength cabin of your modern car. But your liver is cut and in the time it takes to open that same cabin with Jaws Of Life, you will be a highway statistic. You are bleeding to death, fast.

The determined EMT reaches into the wreckage and inserts a tube into your wound, squeezing in a clear liquid from an envelope.  Your bleeding stops immediately. Despite the severity of the accident, you’re going to make it. 

When you are in recovery, you find out that the clear liquid contained a synthetic peptide that turns into a gel in the presence of blood, acting like a perfect bandage.  The gel even makes a good matrix for healing and is used in brain surgery too.  Be grateful to MIT where the discovery was made, and to Arch Thereputics, the startup company that is turning it into a product that can be used in surgery and emergency medicine.  This is HUGE. 

(By the way, I am available to write ad copy for a reasonable fee.  Or scripts for hospital soap operas.  Have your people call my people, Dr. Ellis-Behnke)

One other thing: the next time you see Ben Stein saying “Science leads you to killing people”, tell him we want all our stuff back. Science isn’t required for genocide to happen. There are endless examples of science doing exactly the opposite. The guy in his lab coat experimenting with synthetic peptides may not be thinking about emergency medicine; it’s in the application. 

Posted by George on 05/12/08 at 03:50 AM
Science & Technology • Safety & Health • (4) Comments • Link

Volcano geeks

Growing up in Central Washington I always found volcanoes fascinating.  It was fun to climb basalt cliffs, but just as much fun to contemplate the multiple enormous lava flows that piled up 3,500 meters of basalt in some places.  It was a blast to have all that igneous geology laid out where you could hike on it, touch it, and sense the scale of it all.  Yes, that’s a bit geeky, so how have I missed The Volcanism Blog until now?

The images of the pre-eruption lava dome in their 07 May post, and the river valley between it and Chaiten town (think pyroclastic flow) really make you wonder about the sanity of the few holdouts who are refusing to evacuate.  Getting roasted to death in a pitch-black cloud of superheated volcanic ash does not sound like a good way to go.  Anyway, here’s some video:

Given the scale of the images, it’s difficult to imagine how fast the gas plume is erupting.  Most things that are miles away appear to be moving pretty slowly even if they’re moving pretty fast.  The flow appears to be moving fast, which means it’s moving really fast.  When it blows laterally instead of vertically, I think people imagine they could run away in their cars or something. Well, ... not.

When Mt. St. Helens pulled a similar stunt a few years ago my brother sent me a bag of volcanic ash that fell on Ellensburg, 45 miles to the E/NE.  It’s super-fine, very abrasive and very heavy.  People were wrapping panty hose around their cars’ air cleaners, and went through a hell of a lot of windshields.  A few roofs collapsed closer to the volcano, from the weight of the ash.

Continued...

Posted by George on 05/08/08 at 05:30 PM
Science & Technology • (2) Comments • Link

“A little thrill in learning”

It’s the fun surprises you find on the Interwebs:


The big switchoff

Most people don’t think much about what’s inside a switch.  If you take one apart, you’ll see some kind of spring-loaded contacts, usually copper.  The plastic body hides a small spark that happens every time you throw the switch. Then there are self-operating switches; circuit breakers that switch off automatically when the load exceeds a preset number of amps, say ten or twenty. 
But what if the breaker has to break a circuit carrying a thousand or two thousand amps, and maybe ramp up the voltage to, say, 35,000 volts?  Then there’s the possibility of very rapid erosion or even explosive vaporization of the contacts. Cajun published a picture of one such breaker switch and I asked him “How does that thing work?” His response was a fascinating post ’You ask, we answer‘.  Be sure to click through to the original post with the pictures too.  (Some innovative broom repair techniques thrown in at no extra charge) If you’ve ever stood looking through the fence at a power substation and tried to dope out how it all works you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. 

That thing you have seen all your life and always wondered about

Les at Stupid Evil Bastard says; “I always get a little thrill from learning the history of things like the Giant Tire. It’s been there my entire life and I never fail to think about it whenever I drive past it, but only after 40 years have I ever been in a spot to learn about it.”
Yes, a giant tire!  And by ‘giant’, I mean big enough to hold a ferris wheel inside.  See his post; So that’s what the Uniroyal giant tire once looked like!

It’s my contention that what’s missing from our politically-correct, NCLB-driven schools today is pretty much any possibility at all of ‘a little thrill in learning’.  It happens, but good teachers have to wedge it into the cracks where they can.  Yesterday morning I was surprised by an article about math education and I’m still turning it over in my head.  Will post about it tomorrow morning after breakfast.

What kind of things do you look at in everyday life, and wonder about?

Posted by George on 04/25/08 at 07:20 AM
Science & Technology • (6) Comments • Link

Go for a walk today

image

I always appreciate seeing people move under their own power, however they do it.  One student at the College Of Business even carries a skateboard around.  Wouldn’t it be fun to see corporate executives riding to work on skateboards, rollerblades, bicycles?  We have muscles, folks; let’s use ‘em!

Posted by George on 04/22/08 at 06:45 AM
Science & Technology • Environment • (3) Comments • Link

We’re OK… really! (Earthquake)

A friend emailed MrsDoF from Florida (land of mammoth hurricanes) to see if we were OK.  Central Illinois had an Earthquake a few hours ago - a 5.4.  That’s enough to rattle windows, wake a few people up but most buildings are up to the challenge.  The quake was felt as far away as Wisconsin and Ohio.  But I must have been snoozing because I didn’t know about it.  Lucas is down in Urbana, a little closer to the epicenter; maybe he’ll give us a report.

Our region has had one real smack-down of a quake, though, in 1812.  (Actually two big quakes followed by one staggeringly enormous one) Estimated at an 8.0 on the Richter scale, it cracked sidewalks in Washington, DC and rang church bells in Boston.  Around here it changed the course of the Mississippi and even toppled resilient buildings like log cabins.

I can’t remember exactly how the Richter scale works and right now instead of geeking out over it I have to rush off to work.  But the New Madrid quake of 1812 was several thousand times as powerful as today’s quake. If the same quake happened today…

Anyone notice the quake?  Or been through another quake?  Tell us about it!

Notes & Updates:

Posted by George on 04/18/08 at 06:45 AM
Science & Technology • Environment • (10) Comments • Link

Of no small importance to New Orleans, I would think

We have been getting some serious tonnage of water in our county.  Luckily, McLean county drains well, but that’s not so lucky for our neighbors downstream.  The ground is saturated, lakes are full (and I wish we could send that water to Alabama!  They really need it.)

Robert E. Criss, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, says MidWesterners have not learned “the lesson of geologic reality”.  He says levees that support an unrealistic expectation of security when building on flood plains.  I bet he doesn’t get invited to many urban developer Christmas parties but someday people will ask; “Why didn’t we listen to him?!”

Posted by George on 04/13/08 at 04:40 AM
Science & Technology • Environment • Link

The concept of shifting baselines

We humans are not good at observing gradual change.  Things tend to sneak up on us: it’s how a lean, healthy 20-year-old becomes an obese, arthritic 50-year-old.  The same is true in our perception of the natural environment.  We look out across the bay and it looks pretty, so we assume everything is OK.  But what if there are less than ten percent of the fish remaining from 50 years ago?  We can’t see the fish, and we didn’t know there were so many there in the first place…

(Hat tip to: Shifting Baselines)

Posted by George on 04/12/08 at 11:11 AM
Science & Technology • Environment • (2) Comments • Link

Food colorings found related to hyperactivity

This will not be news to any parents or teachers.  Seems a UK study of 300 children found that certain food colorings had “significantly adverse” effects on behavior and attention span. 

No, really?  But the food-coloring industry has been denying that for years!

Posted by George on 04/12/08 at 10:45 AM
Science & Technology • Safety & Health • (1) Comments • Link

Dusty Death

I notice it all the time: a construction worker with a jackhammer or a diamond saw, cutting through concrete in a cloud of dust illuminated by the morning sun and looking like an ad for OshKosh or McDonalds.  Very seldom any breathing protection.  And then I start remembering…

Back in ‘79 I landed a pastoral internship at a small church in Western North Carolina.  One of the duties of a pastor is to visit the sick.  I remember one fellow - a former construction worker - to whom I took communion every week.  Even with an oxygen mask he wore the pallor of suffocation.  He was dying a millimeter at a time, his lungs destroyed by silicosis.  He could not speak but his eyes conveyed a continually panicked expression as he struggled for every breath.  I wondered if I was evil for wishing that his end would come sooner.  A year later, he was still going as I left the area.

Watching construction workers breathing that stuff is a helpless feeling.  Apparently I’m not alone in that observation, as Christina Morgan at The Pump Handle asks; ”Everyday construction hazards; why can’t we do better?”

Posted by George on 04/06/08 at 09:38 AM
Science & Technology • Safety & Health • (2) Comments • Link

Friday Technology Funnies

I love failed failed projects, from the FBI’s $170m computer-system scrappage, to baggage-handling systems that don’t work in Denver and London, to the International Space Station (cost $Bns & counting, while they produce soap-bubbles and boomerangs up there).  To say nothing of the Illinois State Building in Chicago.  They just make me feel better when I buy a piece of software at work that doesn’t pan out. 

MrsDoF knows about my weird fascination with failure and sent me; Fancy computers spell trouble for 2010 census.  It seems the Harris corporation was awarded a $600m contract to produce handheld computers and the operating system for the census. 

Woah! Stop right there, mister government project-manager!  Handheld computers already exist, you can buy them on Amazon.  I bet you could get the operating system for a million bucks - just make it an X-Prize for the Open-Source community - and it would be bulletproof.  Let Google review the interface for simplicity.  Or look around and see if any other countries are running successful digital census’ programs and steal their ideas.

Anyway, back to the highly entertaining article:

“What we’re facing is a statistical Katrina on the part of the administration,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-New York.  “Will they leave this mess for the next administration?”

Yes, Carolyn.  Yes they will.  It’s what they do. 

And may I compliment you on the introduction of a new unit of measurement: “The Katrina”.  It’s a unit of bureaucratic screw-uppage, like the “football-field” is a unit of distance and the “crashing 747” and “9-11s” are units of fatality from whatever hazard of the day.  The current administration, with it’s apparent total disinterest in competence as a criteria for contract-granting, is a rich source of ‘Katrinas’.

The computers proved too complex for some temporary workers who tried to use them in a test last year in North Carolina. Also, the computers were not initially programmed to transmit the large amounts of data necessary.
“This is a management problem. It’s an organizational problem,” Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in testimony this month before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

No, Carlos, it’s a “stupid” problem.  As in: “It was a stupid idea to build a special computer for this.”

Most people have trouble programming their VCR’s to tape this week’s episode of “American Idol” and you’re going to teach more than a half-million temporary workers to operate a made-to-purpose data-gathering computer?  But here’s my favorite part, the contractor’s denial that there is really a problem:

Harris Corp. spokesman Marc Raimondi said the company is committed to working with the Census Bureau to resolve any issues involving the handheld computers or the operating system.

He also said the computers actually are easy to use, with a failure rate of less than 1 percent when tested in the field.

“After you spend about 30 minutes to an hour familiarizing yourself with it, it’s as easy to use as a modern cell phone,” Raimondi said.

ROTFL - Stop it!  You’re killing me!  Most people can’t use ten percent of the features of their cell phones!  BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!....

Congress is trying to figure out what to do now.  Suggestions include “scaling back” the use of the computers themselves, or going entirely to pencil and paper.  Op-Scan forms are very simple and extremely reliable.

Posted by George on 04/04/08 at 06:12 AM
Science & Technology • Friday • (6) Comments • Link

Out like a lion

image

 
 
 
 
 
Notice the wind

I’m starting to think the two grand I spent last summer to take out three rickety old trees to the South of our house… was a good investment.

Posted by George on 03/31/08 at 05:37 PM
Science & Technology • Weather • (3) Comments • Link

Commuting

My friend Pete has been commuting on a bicycle for one year.  Here’s a sample:

  • I’ve noticed the seasons a bit more. Nuances in the way Summer slips into Fall and Fall slips into Winter are just stunning.
  • I’ve lost a bit of weight. I’m down at least 10 pounds due to biking…

There’s also a pic of his bike after a year’s commuting in all weather; it’s holding up very well ("Friends don’t let friends ride junk") and so is he.  If you’re thinking about ditching the car, check it out.

Posted by George on 03/28/08 at 07:40 AM
Science & Technology • Transportation • (0) Comments • Link

Guest post by Lucas:  Kurzweil, “exponential thought”, and gee-whiz numbers

Ok, you can call me pedantic, but this article on Ray Kurzweil (link at end) has an error which should have been caught at the copyediting stage:

“But Kurzweil had a special confidence that grew from a habit of mind he’d been cultivating for years: He thought exponentially. To illustrate what this means, consider the following quiz: 2, 4, ?, ?.

“What are the missing numbers? Many people will say 6 and 8. This suggests a linear function. But some will say the missing numbers are 8 and 16. This suggests an exponential function. (Of course, both answers are correct. This is a test of thinking style, not math skills.) “ [It’s probably more a test of how much experience the reader has with computers. -LW]
...
“Look at it this way: If the series of numbers in the quiz mentioned earlier is linear and progresses for 100 steps, the final entry is 200. But if progress is exponential, then the final entry is 1,267,650,600,228,229,400,000,000,000,000. Computers will soon be smarter than humans.”

Based on that mistake, maybe not.  He probably calculated this in some calculator program, which gave him a result in scientific notation.  Instead of just saying “...is approximately 1.26*10^(whatever),” he decided to write that the entry is that number.  This number is clearly divisible by 10, and no power of two is divisible by 10.  Of course, his computer did *exactly what he told it too*, and nothing more. It wasn’t smart enough to realize “Oh, I’m being asked this so that my owner will have a lengthy number to write down verbatim to prove a rhetorical point.  I surmise that he wants this number in arbitrary precision rather than the customary approximation I would normally give his feeble human mind.”

According to my Python interpreter, the correct answer is exactly:
1267650600228229401496703205376L

Wait, “L” isn’t a number.  Oh well, I guess the computer knows what it’s doing… (L stands for “long”, the data type Python uses to handle integers that are longer than a certain number of bits.)

I swear, every article written about Ray Kurzweil pisses me off.  The blog that linked to it had this quote:

“Many computer scientists take it on faith that one day machines will become conscious. Led by futurist Ray Kurzweil, proponents of the so-called strong-AI school believe that a sufficient number of digitally simulated neurons, running at a high enough speed, can awaken into awareness. Once computing speed reaches 10^16 operations per second — roughly by 2020 — the trick will be simply to come up with an algorithm for the mind.”

The blogger commented: “Which is a bit like saying “once we have the technology to travel to another galaxy, all we have to do is get there"." Not the best analogy, since it makes it sound like computers are like the technology to travel to another galaxy.  I would say that this is more like saying “Once we can make enough aluminum to build a rocket, we can go to the moon.”
- Lucas

Posted by Lucas on 03/27/08 at 07:47 PM
Science & Technology • Friday • (4) Comments • Link

Maglev derailed

This just in from the “Department of flying cars"… German plans for maglev derailed.  Apparently they were too expensive.  Can anyone explain to me what pressing issue is solved by maglev trains that is not solved by trains with wheels?  I mean, the wheel’s been around a long time for a reason.

Posted by George on 03/27/08 at 01:07 PM
Science & Technology • Transportation • (3) Comments • Link

Can we admit corn ethanol is a mistake?

Here in Illinois there are signs by the road touting the value of corn ethanol.  But there are a lot of reasons why hardly anyone outside the corn lobby thinks it’s a good idea to make fuel from food.  One is that it screws up food markets around the world.  Uber-conservative high-energy technologist Cajun skewers the unintended consequences of food-to-fuel economics: 

“...And people will starve… Doesn’t that make you want to go find your nearest E85 pump?”

But there’s another way that corn ethanol screws with food markets, which Cajun doesn’t mention and which directly affects his neck of the woods in Louisiana - record high corn prices equals more marginal land being pushed into corn production, with more nitrogen runoff. Which leads in one short step to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, an ever-growing anoxic region of the Gulf where there’s no shrimp, no crab, no fish.  Just algae and bacteria.

Chris Mooney, writing on science policy vs. the corn lobby, says:

“We Need Sound Policy Before the Science Gets Hijacked...The future of biofuels does not lie in corn, even if the future of many U.S. companies and politicians might.”

Politicians have never been able to tell the difference between a lobbyist and a scientist.  But here’s a hint: the scientist usually doesn’t try to bribe them; they don’t make enough money. 

No Illinois politician dares to question corn ethanol.  But it’s a bad idea, and a good example of why it’s also a bad idea for the government to be pushing specific technologies instead of specific results.  Funding research is fine, even essential.  But the government ought to be pushing for specific outcomes - carbon neutrality, energy independence, clean water and so forth.  You put a tax on carbon emissions, levy fines for water pollution, and fund research into alternatives, and corporations will figure out what to do from there.  It might help us go down fewer blind alleys like corn ethanol. 

Posted by George on 03/14/08 at 05:57 AM
Science & Technology • Energy • (6) Comments • Link
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