[Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for December 2006

[A Monthly Update on the World of Science]

The UnMuseum Newsletter for December 2006

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

*Leonardo's Finger Points to Middle-East - Researchers at the University of 
Chieti have extracted the fingerprint of the great artist and scientist, 
Leonardo da Vinci, from his works. According to anthropologist Luigi 
Capasso, leader of the team, this fingerprint is the only known physical 
remains of the artist and suggests he had a middle-eastern heritage. The 
project began in 2002 when it was discovered that many of Leonardo's papers 
had fingerprints on them. Since some the prints could have belonged to 
assistants and others who handled the materials, the team examined 52 of his 
papers and some of his paintings looking for consistent prints. The team put 
together several partial prints to construct an entire fingertip, which they 
believe belongs to the artist's left forefinger. According to Capasso, "The 
fingerprint features patterns such as the central whorl that are dominant in 
the Middle East. About 60 percent of the Middle Eastern population display 
the same dermatoglyphic structure found in the fingerprint." This would 
support the idea that Leonardo's mother was not a local peasant girl as was 
previously assumed, but might have been a Middle Eastern slave.

*Yacht Discovers New Island - The crew of the Maiken, a yacht sailing near 
the Tongan islands group, has reported discovering a new volcanic island 
which has just risen from the sea. The ship first noticed "pumice rafts"- 
light, porous volcanic stone floating in the water - while sailing toward 
Fiji. "We were so fascinated and busy taking pictures that we plowed a 
couple of hundred meters into this surreal floating stone field before we 
realized that we had to turn back," wrote a crewman in the ship's web log. 
The crew reported seeing the island itself the next day. "One mile in 
diameter and with four peaks and a central crater smoking with steam and 
once in a while an outburst high in the sky with lava and ashes," said a 
crewmember, adding, "I think we're the first ones out here."

*Recycling Space Probes - Scientists at NASA are working on recycling old 
space probes and giving them new missions. The agency has approved two new 
missions for the Deep Impact probe which blasted a hole in comet Tempel-1 
back in July of 2005 and one mission for Stardust, a probe which returned 
samples of Comet Wild-2 earlier this year. The reuse of these existing 
probes allows scientists to conduct new science at a fraction of the cost of 
building and launching another probe. Deep Impact will do a fly-by of a 
comet named Boethin to get a closer look. Scientists are very interested in 
comets and the part they may have played in depositing water on early Earth. 
On the way to Boethin, Deep Impact's cameras will also be used to look for 
Earth-like planets around stars in other solar systems. Stardust will be 
redirected to Deep Impact's original target, Tempel-1, to see what it looks 
like after it was hit by Deep Impact's projectile.

*Spacecraft Observes Hurricane - NASA's Cassini spacecraft has discovered a 
storm about two-thirds the diameter of Earth across Saturn's southern pole. 
The probe clocked its winds in the storm at speeds of 350 mph. "It looks 
like a hurricane, but it doesn't behave like a hurricane," said Andrew 
Ingersoll, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology in 
Pasadena. Scientists estimate that the clouds tower 20- to 45 miles above 
the center of the storm. That's several times higher than the clouds that 
surround the eye of a hurricane on Earth. Scientists believe the storm can 
grow much taller because the planet's hydrogen-helium atmosphere is much 
less dense than Earth's at comparable pressures.


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What's New at the Museum:

*From The Curator's Office: Santa Tracking - What is the real reason the 
U.S. Government is interested in keeping tabs on the jolly old elf? 
(http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/santatracking.htm)

*AKA Santa Claus - Every December 24th millions of people are visited by a 
short, fat guy in a red suit. Where did he come from, why does he do it, and 
how does he accomplish this seemingly impossible task? (An encore of our 
popular feature) (http://www.unmuseum.org/santa.htm)


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Ask the Curator:

*Can Light Slow Down? - I heard that light never stops or slows down. The 
beam from your flashlight only seems to dim in the distance because the 
light waves are spreading out so you can't see them as well. If that is 
true, couldn't you "fill up" a sealed room with light. If the light waves 
just keep bouncing around the room and you keep adding more from a bulb, 
wouldn't the room just get brighter and brighter or where would the light 
go? - Wick W.

In a vacuum, like out in space, light always travels at approximately 
186,000 miles a second. However, if light travels through some other medium 
it can slow down. You can see this with a lens, a prism or a glass of water. 
When light hits a denser medium at an angle, part of it slows down sooner 
than the rest. This causes the light to change direction. This property, 
called refraction, allows a lens to focus light to a point. Because 
different wavelengths also travel at slightly different speeds in a medium 
like glass, a prism can be used to change the angle of each color 
differently allowing normal white light to be split up into is component 
colors. If you put a straw in a glass filled with drinking water it will 
look as if the straw is bent because as the light passes into the water it 
slows down and bends making the straw look out of position.

In addition to just slowing it down, scientists have even managed to stop 
light completely in recent experiments where they channeled light through 
special materials. They hope to harness this capability to make ultra-fast 
quantum computers.

While a beam of light will get faint in the distance because the light is 
spreading out, it also loses strength because it is being absorbed and 
reflected by dust, water vapor and other materials floating in the air. In 
fact, the only reason you can see a light beam in the air is because part of 
it is reflected off of material floating in the air back to you. In a 
perfect vacuum light is invisible.

Putting a flashlight in a sealed "clean" room empty of air and dust would 
remove that problem, but the walls of the room would still absorb much of 
the light as the beam bounced against them. You could replace the walls with 
mirrors so that the light would be reflected and bounced around the room, 
but no mirror is perfect and a little light would still be absorbed with 
each reflection so the room would never "fill" with light.


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In History:

*Lucky Escape - The day after Christmas, 1950, a Scottish man driving his 
car near Dumbarton had a brush with death when a mass of ice, estimated to 
weigh 112 pounds, fell out of the sky nearly hitting him. This was just one 
of several incidents of unexplained ice falls in Great Britain at that time. 
No explanation has ever been found for the event.


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In the Sky:

*Three Close Planets - In the early morning hours of Sunday December 10th 
you will be able to see the most compact gathering of three naked-eye 
planets since 1925. Jupiter, Mercury and Mars will be low on the ESE horizon 
just one hour before sunrise. Three naked-eye planets will not be this close 
togeather again until 2053. If you are busy Sunday morning, the view is 
still pretty good the day before or after.


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Observed:

*UFO Movie Hoax Causes Confusion - "The Top Secret UFO Project," is 
filmmaker R. J. Thomas' mockrumentary of UFO TV shows that has caused some 
confusion among flying saucer enthusiasts. Some have apparently believed 
that the parody of cheesy UFO documentaries of the 70's like "Overlords of 
the UFO," and of TV programs like "In Search Of" was for real. The program 
chronicles the UFO-related events experienced by Jasper, a tiny Colorado 
hamlet some 75 miles south of Denver. According to the film, the town dealt 
with one unusual event after another in the summer of 1956. After a farmer 
spotted a flying saucer zipping over his property, scientists rushed into 
Jasper to investigate, reporters rushed in looking for stories, and 
government officials rushed in to keep it a secret from the world. "I've 
received phone calls. I've received e-mails. Bloggers are arguing about 
whether it's a fake or not," Mr. Thomas said. Despite this Thomas contents 
people should not really be fooled. "I don't think anybody's going to walk 
away from this movie thinking that it is real," Mr. Thomas said. "It's a 
joke, a spoof, a parody. It is told with a straight face, but it's just 
meant to be entertaining. Even the folks who are dead serious about UFOs can 
get a laugh out of this."


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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.

*Wave That Shook the World - Experts reconstruct the 2004 Indian Ocean 
tsunami in an effort to prepare for the next big one. On PBS: December 19 at 
8 pm; ET/PT

*The Mystery of the Jurassic - A remote plateau in Patagonia, Argentina 
reveals an incredible dinosaur graveyard that scientists believe could be 
the most significant find ever. This area reveals fossils from the Middle 
Jurassic, the most mysterious period in dinosaur history. On The Science 
Channel: DEC 04 2006 @ 08:00 PM DEC 04 2006 @ 11:00 PM DEC 05 2006 @ 03:00 
AM DEC 05 2006 @ 09:00 AM DEC 05 2006 @ 01:00 PM DEC 09 2006 @ 04:00 PM; 
ET/PT.

*The Search for Khan's Tomb - Legend has it that after Genghis Khan's 
funeral, 2,000 servants were killed by 800 soldiers, who were in turn killed 
by a handful of generals to preserve the secrecy of the tomb site. Now, 
archaeologists believe they have discovered this hidden treasure. On The 
Science Channel: DEC 11 2006 @ 08:00 PM DEC 11 2006 @ 11:00 PM DEC 12 2006 @ 
03:00 AM DEC 12 2006 @ 09:00 AM DEC 12 2006 @ 01:00 PM DEC 16 2006 @ 04:00 
PM; ET/PT.

*Big Science: Giant Squid: Caught on Camera - The first photographs ever of 
the giant squid - one of the world's largest and most mysterious sea 
creatures. On the Discovery Channel: DEC 10 2006 @ 10:00 PM DEC 11 2006 @ 
02:00 AM;

*Extreme Engineering Space Tower - The tallest skyscraper in Spain is under 
construction! The 700 foot tall Torre del Espacio (Space Tower) is unlike 
any other tall building. Danny will ascend to dizzying heights to join the 
crew in a week-long struggle to repair one level of the building. On The 
Discovery Channel: DEC 27 2006 @ 08:00 PM DEC 28 2006 @ 12:00 AM DEC 30 2006 
@ 02:00 PM; ET/PT.

*Seven Wonders -The Great Pyramid of Giza, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, 
Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Colossus of Rhodes, Temple of Artemis, Hanging 
Gardens of Babylon, and the Pharos of Alexandria. Of the Seven Wonders, only 
the Great Pyramid remains. Why did ancient scholars select these sites? What 
can the crumbled remains say about those who built them? On History Channel: 
Thursday, December 07 09:00 PM Friday, December 08 01:00 AM 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)

Copyright Lee Krystek, 2006.