[Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for January 2006

Mon May 8 15:52:20 EDT 2006

The UnMuseum Newsletter for January 2006.

Science Over the Edge
A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month
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In the News:

*New Carnivore Found - Researchers from the World Wildlife Fund are setting 
traps on the island of Borneo hoping to capture a mysterious new species of 
carnivore that so far has only been seen in photographs. The animal, which 
looks like a cross between a cat and a fox, is thought to live in the 
densely forested mountains of that Indonesian island. The unknown mammal 
appears to be slightly larger than a cat with red fur and a long tail. It 
has been photographed twice by an automatic camera. If researchers can 
establish that it is a new species, it will be the first time in a over a 
century that a new carnivore has been discovered on that island.

*Japanese Monkeys may have Accent - Human beings aren't the only species 
that have accents according to a study released in the German scientific 
journal Etholog. Researchers found that two groups of Japanese Yakushima 
macaque monkeys, the first located on the southern Japanese island of 
Yakushima, and the other group relocated to Mount Ohira in 1956, had 
developed slightly different calls. The island group's calls had a tone 
about 110 hertz higher on average than the group in central Japan. 
Scientists believe that this is due to the higher trees on the island which 
block lower tones. This causes the scientists to speculate that the 
differences in voice tones are not just caused by genes, and may lead to a 
clues to the origin of human language.

*Voyager Saved from Budget Cut - NASA has decided to continue funding the 
monitoring of the Voyager spacecraft. The program had been one of those 
slated to be terminated to help NASA with budget problems. The Voyager 1 & 2 
probes were launched from Earth almost 30 years ago and Voyager 1 is the 
first man-made object to reach the heliosheath which is the final layer 
between our solar system and interstellar space. "It will be our first 
sample of material that is non-solar system in origin," said Tom Krimigis, a 
Voyager investigator with Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics 
Laboratory. It costs NASA between $4 million and $5 million a year to 
operate the spacecraft and fund the science teams.

*Date of Moon Birth Established - Scientists using new techniques to study 
the rocks brought back from the moon by Apollo astronauts, say that they 
show the surface of the moon became solid more than 4.5 billion years ago. 
If this is accurate it would put the formation of the moon at about the same 
time as the solidification of the Earth's crust. This would booster the 
theory that the moon was created as the result of a collision of a 
Mars-sized body with early Earth in which a part of the Earth's crust was 
flung into orbit and later coalesced into the moon.

*Mass Extinction Theory - An article in the December issue of journal 
Geology suggests that the mass extinction of life at the end of the Permian 
era, 250 million years ago, was caused by a massive volcanic eruption in 
what is now Siberia. The eruption released gas that depleted earth's 
protective ozone layer, made the land and sea more acidic, and killed all 
the land plants. The death of the land plants led to massive soil erosion 
which clouded the sea and disrupted the ecosystem there. If the theory is 
right this led to the worst mass extinction in the Earth's history.

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What's New at the Museum:

*Watch Out! Quicksand! - Being sucked into quicksand is a staple of many 'B' 
movies, but is this phenomenon of nature really as dangerous as it is 
portrayed? > http://www.unmuseum.org/quicksand.htm

*Chapter Four of Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World - Follow the expedition 
members in our graphic novel version as they try to avoid being eaten by 
hungry dinosaurs while finding a way to get home. > 
http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/lostw/index.htm

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Ask the Curator:

*Suspended Animation - Is it possible to deep-freeze your body (brain, 
heart, etc. ) and restore your body in a later time? For example a person 
freezes and wakes up 1,000 years later - Rowell

The idea of cryogenically preserving by a person and thawing them out later 
- sort of like a frozen dinner - has long been a staple of science fiction, 
but so far scientists have not figured out how to make it work. The reason 
is ice. Most of the human body is water and water expands when it freezes. 
This is the reason the pipes in your house will crack open if they are 
filled with water and your heater fails in freezing temperatures. The 
expansion of the water in a human body systems wrecks the delicate structure 
of cell tissue throughout the body. Scientists have tried to counteract this 
by mixing substances like glycerol in with body fluids to act as sort of a 
biological antifreeze, but the results have not yet been fully successful. 
If such a system could be developed it could, in theory, be used to freeze a 
human indefinitely.

Another, perhaps more promising approach, to the problem is not to literally 
"freeze" a person, but to put them into hibernation. Many animals, including 
bears, hibernate by lowering their body temperature and metabolism. Just 
recently scientists have demonstrated the ability to put mice into a state 
of "suspended animation" by having them breath air laced with hydrogen 
sulfide. While high concentrations of this gas would be fatal, just the 
right amount seems to put the mice to sleep and their metabolic rates 
dropped by 90%. They were revived by simply returning the air they were 
breathing to normal. As metabolism is not stopped with this method, but just 
slowed, it could not be used to preserve humans indefinitely.

There would be many uses for such a state of suspended animation. Currently 
trips to other planets in our solar system, or beyond, could take many 
months or years and the trip would be made much simpler - less food, drink 
and psychological stress - if the astronauts slept most of the way. The 
technique could also be used to preserve organs for transplantation or have 
critical patients hibernate through operations or recovery.

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In History:
*Strange Encounter on the Slopes - It was in the afternoon on January 7, 
1970 that two skiers in Finland reported they encountered a strange red fog. 
As they approached it they noticed that the fog seemed to be created by a 
domed, hovering disc at the center of the cloud. Standing under this object 
appeared to be a three-foot high man with pale skin and no eyes. The fog 
suddenly thickened and when it dissipated the disc and the creature were 
gone.

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In the Sky:
*Meteor Shower - The Quadrantid Meteors are hard to see, but fascinating if 
you can catch them. The meteor shower is short and you will have to be 
looking near the bright star Arcturus in the constellation of Bootes right 
before sunrise on the 3rd of November (North America) to see them. Most are 
very faint and have a distinctly blue color.

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Observed:
*Roswell Incident Figure Dies - Former Army lieutenant Walter Haut, who was 
responsible for putting out the news release that started the rumors of a 
crashed flying saucer near the tiny town of Roswell, NM, died last month at 
the age of 83. It was his actions as a spokesman for the Roswell Army Air 
Field that set off a controversy about what happened there that still 
continues today. Haut released a story that was carried in the local 
newspaper under the title of "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in 
Roswell Region." Later that same day the Army retracted the story saying 
what they found was only the wreckage of a weather balloon. The incident 
converted Haut into a believer, however, and he went on to found the 
International UFO Museum in Roswell in 1991. Due in part to his influence 
the even town boasts an annual UFO Festival

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On the Tube:

Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these 
programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations.

*NOVA - The Mummy Who Would Be King - Could a mummy exhibited for 140 years 
at an obscure museum in Niagara Falls be the remains of a long-lost Egyptian 
pharaoh? On the PBS: January 3 at 8 pm ET/PT

*Fireballs From Space - Asteroids and comets roar across the solar system 
threatening to smash into distant planets and occasionally the Earth. Probes 
like Deep Impact are watching these dangerous space rocks. Some probes are 
attempting to land on these alien terrains. On the Science Channel: JAN 15 @ 
10:00 PM; JAN 16 @ 01:00 AM; JAN 16 @ 05:00 AM; JAN 16 @ 11:00 AM; JAN 16 @ 
03:00 PM; JAN 22 @ 09:00 AM ET/PT

*Einstein's Beautiful Equation - Scientific genius can change the world, but 
at what price? Albert Einstein's theory E=mc2 ultimately led to creation of 
a weapon of mass destruction. He considered the atomic bomb his biggest 
blunder and spent years promoting disarmament and peace. On the Science 
Channel: JAN 08 @ 09:00 PM; JAN 09 @ 12:00 AM JAN 09 @ 04:00 AM; JAN 09 @ 
10:00 AM; JAN 09 @ 02:00 PM; JAN 14 @ 09:00 AM ET/PT

*Valley of the T-Rex - In the arid badlands of Montana, paleontologist Jack 
Horner found five T-Rex dinosaurs in a single summer, exposing clues to a 
lost world. Unearthed is a 90 percent complete, never before seen, juvenile 
tyrannosaur, called Daspletasaurus. On The Science Channel: JAN 09 @ 09:00 
PM; JAN 10 @ 12:00 AM; JAN 10 @ 04:00 AM; JAN 10 @ 10:00 AM; JAN 10 @ 02:00 
PM; JAN 14 @ 05:00 PM ET/PT.

*Killer Waves - Recent disappearances of huge cargo vessels at sea have 
breathed new life into an old mariner's tale of single, massive waves 
capable of sinking a ship in one hit. Investigate evidence that suggests 
these towering waves really are out there. On The Science Channel: JAN 26 @ 
09:00 PM; JAN 27 @ 12:00 AM; JAN 27 @ 04:00 AM; JAN 27 @ 10:00 AM; JAN 27 @ 
02:00 PM; JAN 28 @ 02:00 PM; ET/PT.

*Killer Ants - Over 8,000 species of ants cover the planet. Most are 
harmless, but some have a violent streak. African driver ants have eaten a 
horse in a day and suffocated a human, and the army ants of South and 
Central America can wipe out entire ecosystems. On The Discovery Channel: 
JAN 19 @ 10:00 PM; JAN 20 @ 02:00 AM ET/PT.

*Egypt Untold: Secrets of the Rosetta Stone - Napoleon's invasion of Egypt 
in 1798 ignited the rediscovery of an ancient civilization shrouded in 
mystery. Europe was astounded by what they found. Jean-François Champollion 
deciphered the inscriptions which held the secrets of ancient Egypt. On The 
Discovery Channel: JAN 13 @ 09:00 PM; JAN 14 @ 01:00 AM; JAN 16 @ 12:00 PM 
ET/PT.

*Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery - In one of magic history's rarest events, a 
private collector auctioned off the largest collection of personally-owned 
Harry Houdini artifacts and memorabilia, providing an unprecedented peek 
behind the curtain at the world's great showman and magician. In a 2-hour 
special, hosted by renowned magician Lance Burton, we explore the life and 
magic of the great escape artist through his most prized possessions: the 
Chinese Water Torture Cell, the Milkcan, his straitjackets and handcuffs, 
and lockpicks that were "key" to his handcuff escapes, revealed to the 
public for the first time. We also unlock secrets of the man--brash showman, 
fierce competitor, loyal son and husband. With expert commentary, including 
a great-nephew and the last surviving member of his magic troop. On History 
Channel: January 2 @ 8pm ET/PT.

*Giganto: The Real King Kong - An exploration of the Giganto (King Kong) 
legend using modern science, technology, and historic eyewitness accounts. 
Gigantopithecus (the Latin term for "Giant Ape") is believed to have existed 
9 to 5-million years ago and supposedly was around 10-feet tall. Some fossil 
evidence shows that it may have lived in China or India. Scientists of 
varying fields will attempt to genetically connect Giganto to modern-day 
creatures from around the world. Could Bigfoot be a relative? Forensic 
testing, extensive scientific research, 3-D animation, and body 
reconstruction will help determine the true mystery behind this prehistoric 
ape. On History Channel: January 8 @ 6pm, ET/PT.

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*LGM: Check out the antics of Meep and Zeep as they try to find their flying 
saucer! (http://www.unmuseum.org/soearch/over.htm#lgm)