Fancy A Very High Lift? January 7, 2008
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Technology.Tags: Solae, Taipei 101, tallest lift tower
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Mitsubishi Electric in Japan has opened what they say is the world’s tallest elevator testing tower. It’s called Solae and it practically owns the skyline at 567 ft (173 meters) high! Mitsubishi Electric plans to use this testing tower to test out new gears, drives, cables and various other lift systems. The tower will also be used to learn more about high-speed elevators.
Why is it important? Think about all of the super tall buildings, which just keep on getting bigger and taller. Mitsubishi Electric’s new elevator testing tower will help to ensure that elevators can continue to meet the rigorous demands of the enormous towers that penetrate the skyline.
Currently, the world’s tallest building is the Taipei 101, which stands in at 1,666 ft and 508 meters. The lifts in the Taipei 101 are among the fastest anywhere in the world, clocking in at a maximum speed of 17 meters per second, which translates to 61 kilometers per hour or 38 miles per hour. Even more technologically advanced is the fact they comprise a pressure control system that prevents your ears from ‘popping.’ The lifts themselves are also designed with a streamlined shape to reduce the whistling noise that can occur as the lift moves rapidly through a confined, narrow space. Imagine living or working in a building with one of these fast lifts? It would be like taking a roller-coaster ride every day! Sign me up!
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Honeybees Aren’t Always So Sweet January 3, 2008
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Animals, Easy As Pie, Insects.Tags: bees, hornet, wasps
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Credit: Papachristoforou et al. for New Scientist.
I have an interesting and sometimes rocky relationship with the buzzing creatures we call bees and wasps. Like some people, I retreat when I see the odd bee nearby – even as I take care to avoid being stung.
At one point in time, I even developed an intense fear of wasps. What triggered my fear? I lived in a top floor flat in Scotland for a year. During this time, a wasp’s nest emerged, which was likely somewhere near the building. Despite calls to my landlord – who had workers searching for the elusive nest – nobody could find the exact location of these persistent insects. For weeks, I (along with my similarly frustrated neighbors) had wasps coming in from every nook and cranny around the windows and vents. I remember sitting at my laptop, attempting to type up a laboratory experiment while wasps perched on my curtains, flew around my lights and generally had me grumbling at the presence of these new, unwanted flatmates. A visit from a local handyman resulted in duct tape all around any openings in the flat, which ultimately sealed me in the flat and kept the wasps out!
Fortunately, enough time has now passed that I am more fascinated than fearful of these little creatures. I saw this video recently and wanted to share it here on the weird science blog. In this video, loads of Cyprian honeybees swarm around a hornet to suffocate their enemy. Trust me – when I say swarm, I mean it!
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Some Like It Hot – Very Hot! October 30, 2007
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Human Body, Nutrition and Health.Tags: chile pepper, food, hottest, India
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Photo Credit: Paul Bosland.
Just how hot do you like it? It’s not the weather I’m talking about! I’m talking about your food. Lots of stuff can add a little – or a lot – of bite to your food but chile peppers are one of the most well known plants for giving food that extra something. For many of us, that extra something is a well tolerated pinch of heat but for others, it’s an intensely enjoyable, spicy burn that we relish in many of our favorite cuisines – from Mexican to Indian food, among others.
We Have A Winner
Researchers at New Mexico State University have discovered the world’s hottest chile pepper. Named Bhut Jolokia, it originates in Assam, India and has received the title of the world’s hottest chile pepper by the Guinness Book of World Records.
Dr. Paul Bosland of the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences collected seeds of Bhut Jolokia when he visited India in 2001. For three years, he grew Bhut Jolokia plants so that he could sample enough seed to do the necessary field tests to check out the heat rating of the chile pepper.
You might be wondering how researchers figure out which chile pepper is the hottest? Well, check this out – they use something called Scoville heat units (SHUs). Bhut Jolokia got a score of one million SHUs while the Red Savina, which is the previous holder of the world’s hottest chile pepper title, only scored a measly 577,000 SHUs. Mind you, the Red Savina is still very hot!
Be Careful!
Discovering hotter chile peppers means that food manufacturers and others involved in the industry can use less chile peppers to give foods a kick. So, a hotter chile pepper can be much more cost effective.
If you’re anything like me, you enjoy spice and heat in your food – perhaps just enough kick to give a bit of sting to your throat and a glimmer of sweat on your face. Still, I’m quite certain that Bhut Jolokia is capable of a lot more heat than my throat, taste buds and entire body could ever handle! Lets hope the food industry uses this chile pepper wisely!
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Meet An Ancient Clam Named Ming October 28, 2007
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Environment, Evolution, Ocean.Tags: clam, longest-lived, mollusc
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Off the coast of Iceland, a clam has been discovered that is thought to be the longest-lived creature. Researchers from Bangor University in Wales have coined the name Ming for the ancient clam, named after the Chinese dynasty that was in power when it was born. Scientists believe this particular mollusc, which is an ocean quahog clam, is aged between 405 and 410 years old! How did they figure out Ming’s age? Well, they counted the rings on its shell! It’s mind boggling to think of an animal being over 400 years old. Just imagine if that clam had eyes to see? It would have seen a lot of changes over the years! Also, think about the fact that the clam was a mere baby when Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and it was around when Shakespeare was busy at work writing his plays.
Scientists from the team at Bangor University – including the clam discoverers Paul Butler and James Scourse along with scientists Al Wanamaker and Chris Richardson – were also able to examine the clam and find out about the environment surrounding the clam through all of those years. Everything from food supply to water temperature can be figured out from the clam – so, we get an idea of what the clam’s life was like through its 400+ years.
Uh Oh, Competition
Previously, the Guinness Book of World Records stated that the longest-lived animal was an Arctica clam that was found in 1982 and was aged 220. So, it’s looking like researchers at Bangor University might soon be making it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
What This Means For You
So researchers have found an old clam – what’s the big deal, you ask? Well actually, the discovery of the clam can help us to unlock some of the mysteries around longevity. Scientists (and the public!) all want to know why some animals live to a ripe old age whereas others are very short-lived. It seems that the turnover rate of the clam’s cells differs from the turnover rate of cells in other animals who tend to be much shorter-lived. By understanding why it is some animals live to such incredibly old ages, we can perhaps look at ways of manipulating the aging process in humans. At the same time, don’t expect that Ming the clam is going to teach you how to live for over 400 years!
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What’s The Deal With Pluto? October 23, 2007
Posted by Weird Science Writer in Easy As Pie, Solar System, Space Exploration.Tags: Charon, dwarf planet, Hydra, Nix, Pluto
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When Lauren Tunnell heard that Pluto’s classification as a planet had been changed, she set out to discover just what was happening. She learned two things: scientists sure do like to argue and regardless of how we want to classify Pluto, it has some very cool and interesting features.
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Once upon a time, students were taught that there were eight planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Then, in 1930, a ninth planet was discovered and it was named Pluto. For 76 years, there were nine planets in the solar system. That is, until 2006, when it was decided that Pluto isn’t really a planet, and there are only eight planets in the solar system after all. So, what happened to Pluto? And why has it been demoted from planet status?
New Information About Pluto
Pluto isn’t being ignored. In fact, scientists are learning more and more about this distant world. We now know Pluto’s approximate size, mass, temperature, and chemical composition. !n 1978, Pluto’s largest moon, Charon was discovered, and in 2005, we learned that Pluto has two additional moons, Nix and Hydra.
Other Possible Planets
However, we have also learned about a lot of other celestial bodies. Most notably, Eris was discovered in 2005. Eris’ orbit is far away from the sun (three times farther than Pluto!) but it is slightly larger than Pluto. People started to wonder if Eris should be considered the tenth planet.
If that isn’t confusing enough – then more potential planets started to turn up. It was discovered that Pluto doesn’t orbit alone, but is actually a part of the Kuiper belt – a large ring of rocky objects encircling the sun (like the asteroid belt but much bigger!). Although Pluto is the largest of these rocky objects that has been discovered so far, it really isn’t particularly special or distinctive from the other Kuiper belt objects. Nobody knows how many of these Kuiper belt entities exist, but at least five with diameters of 500 km or more have been identified. Does this bring our total number of planets to fifteen? What about the worlds we haven’t even discovered yet? Could this mean that there may be hundreds, or even thousands, of planets in the solar system?
What Makes a Planet?
All of this newfound information has forced scientists to reconsider what is meant by the word planet, and they started to consider the qualities that the eight major planets have in common. Check out these quick facts:
- All eight of the major planets orbit the sun along the same plane. Kuiper belt objects, including Pluto, orbit on a different orbit that is diagonal to the orbit of the planets (Eris has an even more eccentric orbit than Pluto).
- The planets are pretty big! Even Mercury, the smallest of the eight, is many times larger than Pluto.
- The planets have their orbits all to themselves. None of the eight major planets have asteroids or other planet-like objects sharing their orbital path.
Credit: NASA. This image depicts Pluto in true color. Pluto is mostly brown, which according to NASA is thought to be from frozen methane deposits metamorphosed by faint sunlight.
So Yeah, What About Pluto?
Since Pluto fails to meet these criteria, it was decided that Pluto was, in fact, not a planet but something distinctly different. Pluto has now been reclassified as a dwarf planet, along with Eris and the asteroid belt object, Ceres. Over a dozen other celestial objects are also being considered for dwarf planet status (including Pluto’s largest moon, Charon).
It’s Not Quite Finished Yet
Of course, all of this is subject to change as we learn more and more about the solar system and require new words to describe the alien worlds we’ve discovered. One thing is for sure – there is still a lot we don’t know about the solar system but no doubt, scientists will continue to argue out the nuances of these discoveries as they are made!
Lauren Tunnell is an educator and freelance writer living in Houston, Texas.
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A Gentle Cat October 1, 2007
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Animals, Cats, Easy As Pie.Tags: extinct, lions, prey, sabre-tooth tiger
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Credit: Colin McHenry
If you’re like me, you are perhaps super fascinated by vicious beasts of the animal kingdom. At the same time, my vivid imagination means that I do cringe a bit (or a lot!) when I think about these beasts attacking their prey. But are these animals with long, sharp teeth really so ferocious? Nope – they’re not necessarily as ferocious as we think!
The North American sabre-tooth tiger – now extinct – had some enormous teeth. In fact, if you picture two long, sharp kitchen knives, you’ll have a general idea of just how intimidating the tiger’s canine teeth were! It turns out, however, that the scary look of the teeth is somewhat deceptive. The tiger’s bite is actually a lot more gentle than scientists initially thought. It might even surprise you to know that the tiger’s bite is gentler than the bite of a lion. Why compare it to a lion? Well, it’s because the lion is one living animal that is very similar to the sabre-tooth tiger.
Computers Are Cool
By using computers to compare the intricacies of the tiger’s skull with that of a lion, it was found that the sabre-tooth tiger – formally known as Smilodon fatalis – has a rather light bite. Colin McHenry of the University of Newcastle, Australia looked at the skulls of lions and fossilized sabre-tooth tigers using computed tomography (CT) scans. McHenry and his team created three-dimensional computer models for a lion and a sabre-tooth tiger, which were then used to determine the bite strength for each animal. The results can be seen in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
So, just how big of a difference was there? Well according to these models, a 250 kg lion can trigger a force of 3000 Newtons with its bite versus a 230 kg sabre-tooth tiger, which can produce a mere 1000 Newtons. A cool difference that researchers noted was that a lion can handle much more force generated by a struggling prey whereas a sabre-tooth tiger can’t withstand so much pressure and instead, would have been considerably injured.
Pouf, Be Gone
The ways that an animal kills its prey can lead to its extinction. How so? For the sabre-tooth tiger, it likely killed its prey by tackling it down to the ground, forcing its head down, immobilizing it and then snap – taking a quick bite to the prey’s neck. While a lion can capture smaller prey, the sabre-tooth tiger would not have been fast enough to conquer smaller, speedier animals. This means that when large prey were abundant, the tiger would be fairly well fed but when its preferred animals became scarce near the end of the ice age, the species soon became extinct.
Still, I don’t doubt that the sabre-tooth tiger could do some serious damage to its prey. It may have a gentle bite in comparison with a modern lion but I think I’ll stick with a cute, household cat. That’s one bite I can definitely handle!
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An Enormous Spider Web September 1, 2007
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Animals, Easy As Pie, Insects.3 comments
Most of us have probably seen the odd spider web glistening in the sun. Perhaps you’ve even walked into one and felt its fine, long threads tickling your face. If you’re one to shy away from spiders or are deathly afraid of them, you may not want to read on!
Welcome To Texas
A massive network of webs has been identified in Lake Tawakoni State Park, which is located in Texas, United States. So just how massive is this network of webs? Well, the spiders have been spinning their webs over several acres of trees in the park. One local insect biologist describes the occurrence as very unusual and explains that the main spiders found are long-jawed spiders. This is particularly unusual because long-jawed spiders aren’t social spiders, which are the ones who will normally build communal nests in other areas. Also, this kind of thing is more likely seen in the tropics, not Texas. The expansive webbing is similar to a canopy, spreading across trees in the park.
Figuring It All Out
For now, experts are analyzing the spiders to find out more about this enormous network of webs. So far, several species of spiders have been identified in the webs – not just the long-jawed type – including big garden spiders. Most of the experts agree that this is something none of them have ever seen before. It’s also not something one would necessarily want to walk under either. With my long, curly hair, a lot of those spiders could fall onto my head and I’d have a hard time finding them all! Eeeeek.
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A School Full Of Drugs August 20, 2007
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Alcohol and Illegal Drugs, Easy As Pie, Human Body, Nutrition and Health, Psychology and Behavior.add a comment
The presence of drugs in schools isn’t anything new, but the scope of the problem appears to be a lot bigger than initially suspected. A United States (U.S.) survey looked at attitudes on substance abuse. It was concluded that millions of teens across the country are students at ‘drug infested schools,’ where they regularly see drugs used, sold and stored on school grounds.
High School Students
The study was performed by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. The survey involved 1,063 students aged 12 to 17 years and 550 parents. It found that 31 percent of high school students – more than 4 million – have seen illegal drug use, drug dealing and high or drunk students at least once a week at school. On top of that, the number of students who go to schools where drugs are used, kept or sold has gone up 39 percent since 2002. In fact, 20 percent of that jump happened from 2006 to 2007. That’s quite a scary leap!
Middle School Students
The study also found that 9 percent – over 1 million – middle school students have seen their peers partake in drug-related activities at least once a week at school. Similar to high school students, there has also be an increase in the number of middle school students who go to schools where drugs are used, kept or stored. How much of an increase? It’s a huge one – 63 percent. As with the high school students, a big chunk of that jump happened between 2006 and 2007, where an increase of 35 percent was seen.
What Do Parents Think?
Ironically, only 11 percent of the parents surveyed think drugs are the biggest concern for their teens. On the other hand, twice as many teens said that drugs are their biggest worry. That’s a huge difference and I wonder to myself – what is it that parents are missing on this issue?
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Hip Hip Hooray August 18, 2007
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Science and Politics.add a comment
I couldn’t think of a more eloquent title than hip hip hooray for this blog entry. I realize that my readers are scattered around the world, but this blog entry is particularly relevant to my readers in the United States (U.S.). Why am I cheering? Well, the U.S. just got a very hefty cash boost for science education. How hefty? Try 33 billion dollars!
New Legislation
On the 9th of August, President George Bush signed legislation to do a number of very ace things over the next three years! These include the recruitment of thousands of new teachers, updating the skills of those already teaching and also providing initiatives to encourage science loving kids to start up careers in research. Better yet, the legislation also plans for major increases to the National Science Foundation’s annual 4.7 billion dollar research budget.
Science Education
While I don’t hide the fact that I am not generally a supporter of President Bush, I do support this new legislation and I appreciate the recognition of how important science education is for youth. So, although this is uncommon for me, I will offer another not-so-eloquent comment by giving an excited word up to President Bush!
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Scared To Be At School August 12, 2007
Posted by Mrs Weird Scientist in Easy As Pie, Human Body, Nutrition and Health, Obesity, Psychology and Behavior.add a comment
For some kids, going to school is a scary thing. Not because the work is hard or they detest a certain subject, but because they are teased for being overweight. This dread and fear of going to school can cause absenteeism. Worse still, a new study is showing just how much school overweight kids are missing compared to kids within a normal weight range. The results were supported by the National Institutes of Health and were published in the journal Obesity.
Weight And School Attendance
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University wanted to find out how weight affected school attendance. They looked at more than one thousand 4th, 5th and 6th graders. You may have heard of the body mass index (BMI). It’s a simple and general way to measure body fat based on weight and height. You can find out your BMI on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. The website has a BMI calculator for kids and teens or adults. Researchers compared kids with a BMI in the overweight range to those in the normal range. The verdict? Overweight kids were absent approximately 20 percent more often than kids who were of normal weight.
Common Indicators
There are already four indicators of absenteeism in schools – age, gender, race and socioeconomic status. This new research, however, is now adding a fifth one to the mix – obesity. In fact, BMI was a stronger indicator of absenteeism compared to the traditional indicators.
Health Problems
Given all of the media attention to obesity, most of us are now familiar with the health problems that stem from obesity, such as heart disease and diabetes. But even though kids aren’t likely to be experiencing these kinds of health problems just yet, they are still dealing with other damaging aspects of bullying. The social stigma of being overweight can be brutal, which may then lead to fear and ultimately, absenteeism. Also worrying are the effects of so much missed school because absenteeism can impact grades as well as the potential for future education. Comments by Andrew Geier, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences at Pennsylvania University, were provided in a press release:
At this young age, children are not necessarily experiencing the health problems that will likely confront them later in life unless serious intervention takes place. However, they are missing school at a greater rate than their peers, setting themselves up for the negative fallout that accompanies absenteeism. What’s keeping them from school, more than heath issues, is the stigma and the bullying that accompanies being overweight. Future research should explore this additional, very damaging side effect of being overweight.
I agree with that last part about future research. It’s important to investigate how being overweight not only affects school attendance, but also how it might impact future education, career and lifestyle. The more we learn and understand, the better we can find ways to address all of these factors related to obesity, particularly the social stigma. No child – including an overweight one – deserves to be bullied and sadly, the effects of bullying can harm many areas of a child’s life.
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