From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Fri Feb 2 09:13:27 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:13:27 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for Febuary 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for Febuary 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Author Collaborates with Scientists in "Mind Over Matter" Experiment - Tens of thousands of volunteers from around the world are being recruited to participate in a series of web-based experiments, making the largest mind-over-matter study in history. The experiments are the brain-child of science writer Lynne McTaggart, whose new book The Intention Experiment forms the catalyst for the trials. The first large-scale studies are being prepared by Dr. Gary Schwartz, psychologist and director of America's National Institutes of Medicine-funded Center for Frontier Medicine in Biofield Science at the University of Arizona. The study will conduct periodic large-scale experiments to determine whether the focused intention of readers has an effect on scientifically quantifiable targets in various laboratories around the globe. The targets are a specific living thing or a population where change caused by group intention can be measured. A pilot experiment, testing the idea and detailed in the book, was successful. McTaggart asked a group of 16 meditators based in London to direct their thoughts to four remote targets in Dr. Popp's laboratory in Germany: two types of algae, a plant and a human volunteer. The meditators were asked to attempt to lower certain measurable biodynamic processes. Popp and his team discovered significant changes in all four targets while the intentions were being sent, compared to times the meditators were 'resting.' Schwartz and McTaggart are preparing the target for the first intention experiment target, an enclosed 'mini-Gaia' with an artificially raised temperature. The plan is to ask the readers to attempt to lower it at a particular moment through focused 'intention.' *Did Viking Probe Kill Mars Life? - Once again astrobiologists are speculating that extreme forms of life may exist on Mars. This time they are claiming that the Viking probes of 1976-77 inadvertently killed the very life for which they were searching. "If the internal fluid of life on Mars were a mixture of water and hydrogen peroxide instead of water and salt, then indeed the experimental techniques employed by the Viking craft would have destroyed any such life that might have been present," states Astronomer Dr. Hugh Ross." The discovery of the remains of life on Mars does not prove that life spontaneously erupts wherever a tiny amount of water might exist," added the scientist noting such life might be transported from Earth to Mars on meteorites. *Scientists Discovery First Triple Quasar - Using ESO's Very Large Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory, astronomers at the Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne in Switzerland and the California Institute of Technology, USA, have discovered the first known triplet of quasars. This close trio of supermassive black holes lies about 10.5 billion light-years away towards the Virgo (The Virgin) constellation. "Quasars are extremely rare objects," says George Djorgovski, from Caltech and leader of the team that made the discovery. "To find two of them so close together is very unlikely if they were randomly distributed in space. To find three is unprecedented." The findings are being reported at the winter 2007 meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, USA. Quasars are extraordinary luminous objects in the distant universe, thought to be powered by supermassive black holes at the heart of galaxies. A single quasar could be a thousand times brighter than an entire galaxy of a hundred billion stars, and yet this remarkable amount of energy originates from a volume smaller than our solar system. About a hundred thousand quasars have been found to date, and among them several tens of close pairs, but this is the first known case of a close triple quasar system. *Meteorite Lands in Bathroom - Scientists have determined that a small iron meteorite was responsible for punching a hole in the roof of a Freehold, New Jersey, home last month. The owners, Srinivasan and Shankari Nageswaran, came home to find a hole in their bathroom ceiling and a small metallic rock the size of a golf ball on the floor. Two geologists from Rutgers University determined that the rock was a meteorite. As only 50 meteorites a year reach the Earth's surface, and most of them crash in the ocean, the space rock is potentially a very valuable find from both a scientific and financial point of view. The Nageswarans have not decided what they will do with the meteorite yet, but have said that they want it to serve an educational purpose. *Skull Suggests Neanderthal Mix - Scientists have unearthed a skull that may indicate modern humans and Neanderthals interbred. The fossil, found in a cave in Romania, seems to include features of both types of humans. It has the same proportions as a modern human head, but with frontal flattening, a large bone behind the ear and exceptionally large upper molars characteristic of Neanderthals. Scientists have long debated whether the two groups intermixed. Neanderthals are thought to have died out about 24,000 years-ago. Other scientists are not so convinced that the skull suggests a Neanderthal ancestor, noting that with no other skulls of this group to compare this one with, the traits may merely represent characteristics passed down from earlier human populations common to all members of this group. What's New at the Museum: *Bomarzo: Grove of the Monsters - Duke Pierfrancesco "Vicino" Orsini wanted to build a garden that would be like no other. He succeeded beyond his wildest nightmares. (http://www.unmuseum.org/bomarzo.htm) *What Happened to the Rocket Belt? - It's been around for over forty years. Why can't I fly one? (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/rocketbelt.htm) Ask the Curator: *The End of the Universe - Our small Earth and other planets are in space. It's a big area; can you tell me the total size of space? Will it have a beginning and an end? - J.R. One of the fundamental questions scientists have struggled with over the years is the size, shape and destiny of the universe. The prevailing theory is that the universe came into being about 13.7 billion years ago in what has been whimsically called "The Big Bang." It has been expanding (some people use the term "inflating") ever since. Gravity - the force that pulls all forms of matter toward each other - is working against the expansion. For a long time scientists debated over whether there was enough matter in the universe given its size (what we call the density) to bring the expansion to a halt and eventually reverse it. If there isn't, gravity will just slow down the expansion but never stop it. If the universe came back together it would end in a "Big Crunch." If it continued with a slow expansion it would just sort of slowly die out as all energy was expended and evenly distributed through out all of space. The scientists were blown away when recent observations showed that the universe is unlikely to either be pulled back together or just slowed down. The universe's expansion actually appears to be accelerating, for some unknown reason. Scientists have speculated that is due to an unknown force we can't detect which they have dubbed "dark energy." If this is the case, if the universe is accelerated enough it may end when it is actually ripped apart at the atomic level in some distance future. The shape of the universe is related to its density because higher density means more gravity. If the density is beyond a certain critical value, space, as seen in four dimensions, will be rolled up into the shape of a ball. If the density is just at the critical value, it will be as if the surface of the ball had been flattened out into a sheet. If the density falls below that critical point, it will be as if the sheet had been bent down on two sides and up on the other two forming a "saddle" shape. The shape of the universe, in turn, has an impact on theories about how large it is. For example, the observable universe (that is the part we can see) is about 92-94 billion light-years across. If the universe were a closed sphere, however, it could actually be quite a bit smaller than this because light traveling in a "straight line" would eventually follow the curve of the sphere and come back to its starting point. This means that if you used a telescope to look at a distance galaxy, you might be actually be looking at your own galaxy from the other side. It might seem that it would be easy to look at a distant part of space and see if the galaxies there matched up with any galaxies in opposite direction, but an experiment like this is extremely difficult to do. In reality the great distances involved mean that we are seeing the galaxies at different times in their history, so they may not look the same or be in the same position. Recent data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) NASA launched in 2001 suggests that the shape of the universe - at least the observable universe - is nearly "flat" with a minimum size of around 78 billion light years. However it is more likely that it is quite larger and may indeed be infinite. For comparison the diameter of the orbit of Neptune, our outer most planet, is a little more than one thousandth of a light year wide. In History: *Arrow of Flame - Unexplained "ghost lights" have been a part of folk legends for centuries. In February 1909 a newspaper reported that in Stockton, Pennsylvania, there appeared at night "an arrow of flame, which hovers over the spot on the mountain where the dismembered body of a woman was found in a barrel two years ago?" According to the account the light appeared every night and superstitious villagers thought it was the work of the woman's ghost keeping the memory of the murder alive until her killers were brought to justice. In the Sky: *Check Out Orion - This is a good time of the year to look for the constellation Orion. The three stars on a line that represent his belt are very prominent in the Southern sky as seen from the Northern Hemisphere this time of year. If you follow a line created by his belt to the southeast you will find Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Follow the belt in the opposite direction and you will get to Aldebaran, eye of Taurus (The Bull), and beyond that the beautiful Pleiades star cluster. Observed: *Pinning it on the Poisoners - The murderous antics of one of the 19th century's most infamous killers are the subject of a new book entitled Poison, Detection, and the Victorian Imagination. Victorian England feared a new form of homicide - criminal poisoning 'by science'. Anonymous and coldly calculating, poisoners were drawing on the advances made by modern science to inflict an insidious form of violence against their victims. To counter this threat, Victorian society looked to the emergent field of toxicology to enable poisoned bodies to tell their tales from beyond the grave by bringing invisible deeds to light by recourse to the test tube. Yet poison detection in practice was no easy matter and its findings were subjected to searching questions by an anxious, and often skeptical, public. At no time did these new scientific methods come under closer scrutiny than during the trial of William Palmer. Born in Rugeley, Staffordshire, in 1824, Palmer was a doctor with a reputation as a ladies man whose unhealthy addiction to gambling and the horses resulted in serious debt problems. Palmer was accused of insuring relatives or friends, then poisoning them to collect the insurance benefits. Palmer was hanged at Stafford prison on June 14, 1856, watched by some 30,000 onlookers. Author Dr Ian Burney is a medical historian at The University of Manchester. 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. *Sabretooth - Twice as heavy as a lion with teeth like daggers, the sabretooth cat was one of the most vicious and effective predators ever. Given their widespread distribution and repeated emergence throughout evolution, it's clear that these cats were built to kill. On The Science Channel: FEB 05 2007 @ 09:00 PM FEB 06 2007 @ 12:00 AM FEB 06 2007 @ 04:00 AM FEB 06 2007 @ 10:00 AM FEB 10 2007 @ 04:00 PM; ET/PT. *Who Killed King Tut: Case Reopened - Did King Tut's gleaming death mask hide an ancient homicide? Dead since 1323 B.C. and hastily mummified, Egypt's boy king lay in an unfinished tomb until its 1922 discovery. Modern forensics sheds light on what caused the blows to the King's skull. On The Science Channel: JAN 18 2007 @ 10:00 PM JAN 19 2007 @ 01:00 AM JAN 19 2007 @ 05:00 AM JAN 19 2007 @ 11:00 AM JAN 20 2007 @ 02:00 PM ET/PT. *Prophets Of Science Fiction - Examine the strange lives of the visionaries of science fiction. The secrets of their uncanny ability to foretell the future are revealed. On The Science Channel: FEB 14 2007 @ 09:00 PM FEB 15 2007 @ 12:00 AM FEB 15 2007 @ 04:00 AM FEB 15 2007 @ 10:00 AM FEB 17 2007 @ 07:00 PM FEB 18 2007 @ 02:00 AM FEB 18 2007 @ 02:00 PM, ET/PT. *Beyond The Solar System - Galaxy formation, black holes, the Big Bang and dark matter are among the many topics covered in this journey to the edges of the universe. On The Science Channel: FEB 06 2007 @ 03:00 PM FEB 06 2007 @ 06:00 PM FEB 20 2007 @ 09:00 PM FEB 21 2007 @ 12:00 AM FEB 21 2007 @ 04:00 AM FEB 21 2007 @ 10:00 AM FEB 24 2007 @ 09:00 PM FEB 25 2007 @ 12:00 AM FEB 25 2007 @ 04:00 AM FEB 25 2007 @ 05:00 PM, ET/PT. *Black Sky: Winning the X Prize - After a successful flight into space on September 29, 2004, Burt Rutan and his team prepare to make history by winning the X Prize competition. Follow the final preparations for the X2 flight by SpaceShipOne and ultimate victory in the competition. On The Science Channel:: FEB 13 2007 @ 03:00 PM FEB 13 2007 @ 06:00 PM FEB 27 2007 @ 10:00 PM FEB 28 2007 @ 01:00 AM FEB 28 2007 @ 05:00 AM FEB 28 2007 @ 11:00 AM; ET/PT. *Best Evidence: The Roswell Incident - The thrust of this episode is to test whether the materials in the debris, and the resulting debris field, could have been caused by Project Mogul. On the Discovery Channel: FEB 22 2007 @ 09:00 PM FEB 23 2007 @ 01:00 AM; *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: Thursday, February 01 08:00 PM Friday, February 02 12:00 AM ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *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, 2007. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Thu Mar 1 11:34:02 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:34:02 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for March 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for March 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Most Colossal of Colossal Squids is Caught - New Zealand fishermen have pulled in what may well be the largest colossal squid ever snagged. The fishermen were catching Patagonian toothfish when a squid that was eating one was pulled from the deep, according to a member of the crew. The creature is estimated to be 39 feet in length and weighs around 1,000 pounds. Little is known about Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, the Colossal squid, but they are thought to be able to descend as deep as 6,500 feet where they act as aggressive hunters. They are also believed to be slightly larger and heavier than the more well-known Giant squid. This specimen was frozen and transported to New Zealand's national museum to be preserved for scientific study. *"Hobbit" was Human - Scientists at Florida State University studying the "Hobbit" skeleton found on in Indonesia have declared it a new species closely related to Homo sapiens, but not itself human. A three-dimensional computer reconstruction of the brain showed that the skull was not of an abnormal man but that of a human-like species whose growth was on a smaller scale. Scientists skeptical about the existence of a group of hobbit-sized humans have argued that the skeleton represented a man ill with microcephaly, a virus which stunts the development of the brain. The new species -- Homo Floresiensis -- measured 3.6 feet in height. *Tornados Could Strike Cities - Scientists are concerned that a major tornado striking an urban area could cause death and destruction on a "Hurricane Katrina scale." A new study shows that there is no reason that tornados shouldn't touch down in big cities. "Fortunately 99.9 percent of tornadoes are happening in open areas," said tornado researcher Joshua Wurman of the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder, Colo. in a quote from Discovery News. Wurman and his colleagues who have studied the potential for disaster in the Chicago area have published an article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society with their concerns. Although the group looked at Chicago in detail, their observations probably also extend to other major cities in the Midwest including Dallas, Oklahoma City, St. Louis, Atlanta and Houston. Areas particularly in danger include the very densely populated older neighborhoods of wood frame houses in these cities. "We actually think that new apartment buildings are probably modestly resistant to these things," noted Wurman, "but who knows what will happen if it's hit by a 300 mph wind?" *Italian Police Find Looted Art Treasures - Italian police foiled an attempt to sell looted marble reliefs showing gladiators and other ancient art work to collectors in Switzerland. The objects were found buried in the garden of a house by a special squad of police designated to deal with illegal art transactions. The reliefs are 2,000 years old and were looted from a nearby tomb. "Under Italian law, those who found the panels would have earned a quarter of their commercial value had they delivered them to the archaeological superintendency. Now they will have to be happy with a trial," noted prosecutor Paolo Giorgio Ferri of the Italian police. *Chimps use Spears for Hunting - A group of scientists observed a female chimps using spear-like devices to kill a small animals so they could eat them. Researchers are surprised by this as they have been aware that chimpanzes have used tools in the past, but never in the context of hunting. The scientists, led by Iowa State University anthropology professor Jill Pruetz, saw chimps spears several bushbabies in Fongoli, Senegal, during observations made from March 2005 to July 2006. Scientists noted that the practice seemed most common among adolescent females who might be finding it difficult to compete for food against physically superior males. "In a million years I never would've predicted that I would've seen [hunting]," said Pruetz "I'm going to plug along and see what unfolds." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *Did the Nazis Build an Atomic Bomb? - In some secret, hidden laboratory did scientsts succeed in building an nuclear weapon for Hitler? >(http://www.unmuseum.org/nbomb.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *End of Magnetism? - If the earth's magnetic field collapsed would there still be magnets? - Anonymous Magnetism is one of those funny things we see everyday - use everyday - but never know how it works. As it turns out, it is the result of moving electric charges. Almost everybody has done the experiment of wrapping a wire around an iron nail in a spiral pattern, then connecting the wires to a battery to product a crude electromagnet. The current flowing though the wire (in the form of electrons) creates the magnetic field. This field then influences the iron nail to become a magnet also, adding to the strength of the effect, though it would work even without the nail. If you need a moving electric charge to make a magnetic field, how do permanent magnets work? After all there is no battery involved and no apparent electric charge. Well there actually is, however, a moving electric charge at the atomic level. The electrons orbit around the nucleus of each atom in the material. The electrons also have a quantum-mechanical property called "spin" which looks like a moving electrical charge. These two effects produce a tiny magnetic field for each atom. In most materials the magnetic fields of each atom are aligned in no particular order so they cancel each other out. In some special materials, however, the fields line up (or can be made to line up) in a particular pattern so that their strength adds up. That's why the nail in the electromagnet experiment above becomes a magnet when exposed to a magnetic field. The field created by the moving electric charges in the wire lines up the nail's fields properly and then those fields can add their own strength to the overall effect. If you want to see this at home take a paper clip and hang it from a permanent magnet. The paper clip isn't a magnet in itself, but will become a temporary magnet in the presence of a magnetic field. You can then hang a second paper clip from the first one and it will also become a magnet because of the field of the one before it. It is easy to construct a whole chain of paper clips this way. Detach the first one from the permanent magnet, however, and the whole chain falls apart as each of the magnetic fields fall apart one after another. For centuries scientists have puzzled about why Earth has a strong magnetic field. (The magnetic field of Venus is barely detectable.) They still don't understand the details, but they do know that the outer core of the Earth is mostly molten iron that moves in a convection pattern due to heat at the core. This movement, along with the Earth's spin seems to make the Earth into a big electromagnet. The magnetic field of our planet isn't as stable as we might think, however. There is evidence that the poles of this gigantic magnet have moved, changed intensity, and even reversed many times in past. If the magnetic field of the Earth went away would we still have magnets? Yes, because each magnet generates its own magnetic field independently. The Earth is just a big version of our experiment with the wire and the nail. A collapse in the Earth's magnetic field, however, would mean that compasses (which are just little magnets in the form of pointers that align with the Earth's magnetic field) would not point the right direction. This would cause problem not only for humans who depend on compasses for navigation, but also for animals that have developed internal compasses in their bodies for use in migration. Fortunately, though the Earth's magnetic field has weakened in the past 150 years, it looks like it will many centuries before a full collapse and reversal. In fact it may be just as likely that nothing will happen at all in the near future and the original orientation will regain its strength. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Hairy Colorado Bipeds - On the evening of March 28, 1987, a resident of Green Mountain Fall, Colorado, looked out his window to observe several hairy, two footed creatures "running down the road in front of my house?" After the story hit the newspapers in the area, other residents claimed they had also seen the beings. People who found tracks of these creatures and followed them, often through snow, claimed they disappeared into thin air. No explanation for these reports has ever been found. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Lunar Eclipse - On Saturday March 3rd observers in the Eastern United States will have a chance to see the end of a Lunar Eclipse as the moon passes through the shadow of the Earth. The moon will rise in a total eclipse which begins at 5:44PM EST. The total eclipse will end at 6:58 PM EST, but the moon will continue to glow a ruddy color for sometime as longer, redder wavelengths of light bend around the earth more sharply to illuminate the lunar surface. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *ESP Lab Closed - After 28 years of operation the extrasensory perception lab at Princeton University will be closing down. The lab, officially referred to as the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory has studied ESP and telekinesis. The research has embarrassed university officials and gotten little support from the scientific community. The lab's founder, Robert G. Jahn, said the lab was closing because of aging equipment and dwindling finances. "If people don't believe us after all the results we've produced, then they never will," Jahn, 76, former dean of Princeton's engineering school and an emeritus professor, told The New York Times. Princeton University had no official comment on the lab's closure. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: Mystery of the Megaflood - What unleashed a catastrophic flood that scarred thousands of square miles in the American Northwest? On PBS: March 20 at 8 pm; ET/PT. *Deep Space One - Deep Space One was a groundbreaking NASA mission that tested new technologies, including ion propulsion engines and automated pilot systems. Venture on a technological journey as scientists explain how the new systems will propel future missions. On The Science Channel: MAR 03 2007 @ 09:00 PM MAR 04 2007 @ 12:00 AM MAR 04 2007 @ 04:00 AM MAR 04 2007 @ 05:00 PM; ET/PT. *Mammals Vs. Dinos: The Age of Gigantism - Mammals vs Dinos begins with a look the first dinosaurs and mammals nearly 200 million years ago and the long evolutionary competition between the two groups. Through computer-generated animations, we see dinosaurs evolving into giant creatures. On The Science Channel: MAR 11 2007 @ 09:00 PM MAR 12 2007 @ 12:00 AM MAR 12 2007 @ 04:00 AM MAR 12 2007 @ 10:00 AM MAR 17 2007 @ 06:00 PM, ET/PT. King Tut's Mystery Tomb Opened - In the first tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 84 years, scientists find seven coffins, plus a golden infant-size coffin. One coffin remains sealed and the race is on to read the markings and lift the lid. On The Science Channel: MAR 12 2007 @ 06:00 PM MAR 19 2007 @ 09:00 PM MAR 20 2007 @ 12:00 AM MAR 20 2007 @ 04:00 AM MAR 20 2007 @ 10:00 AM MAR 24 2007 @ 04:00 PM, ET/PT. *Pre-Human: Riddle of the Skull - In 2002, a team of scientists uncovered a hominid skull seven million years old, possibly the remains of the earliest known human ancestor. Follow each step of the quest to unveil the truth about this skull and the origins of mankind. On The Science Channel: MAR 05 2007 @ 07:00 PM MAR 26 2007 @ 08:00 PM MAR 26 2007 @ 11:00 PM MAR 27 2007 @ 03:00 AM MAR 27 2007 @ 09:00 AM MAR 31 2007 @ 03:00 PM; ET/PT. *Noah's Ark: The True Story - Search for the truth behind the story of Noah and his ark. Find out how Noah could have built such a structure and whether or not a great flood took place on the earth. The search for remains of the ark continues today. On the Discovery Channel: MAR 04 2007 @ 08:00 PM MAR 05 2007 @ 12:00 AM MAR 08 2007 @ 08:00 PM MAR 09 2007 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT. *Secret History of the Freemasons - An unprecedented inside look into one of the world's most mysterious organizations- the Freemasons. Their inner workings, history, and secrets will be uncovered and centuries old rituals are filmed for the first time ever. On the Discovery Channel: MAR 04 2007 @ 06:00 PM MAR 22 2007 @ 09:00 PM MAR 23 2007 @ 01:00 AM; ET/PT. *Decoding The Past: The Real Sorcerer's Stone. - Today, the sorcerer's stone is seen as fiction off the pages of Harry Potter, but in the Middle Ages the quest for the sorcerer's stone was second only to that of the Holy Grail. The stone was actually said to have the power to transform base metals into gold and grant long life--even immortality. The ingredients were hidden in bizarrely coded manuscripts by alchemists who lived within their own secret society. The processes needed to combine them could be dangerous--even deadly. Today, we owe most of our modern lab equipment and experimental techniques to the efforts of these alchemists. Was their search for immortality really on sound scientific ground and did some, as is still rumored, actually succeed?On History Channel: Thursday, March 12 11:00 PM, March 13 03:00 AM ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *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, 2007. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Sun Apr 1 11:43:46 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Sun, 01 Apr 2007 15:43:46 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for April 2007. Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for March 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Yellowstone Caldera on the Move - A new study shows that the central caldera of the Yellowstone supervolcano rose 7 inches over the years 2005 and 2006. This is the fastest rise ever recorded at that location and is probably due to increased pressures of the magma and water underneath the ground. Robert Smith, an author of the study said, "I don't believe this is evidence for an impending volcanic eruption, but it would be prudent to keep monitoring the volcano." The caldera at Yellowstone has been studied by scientists for several decades and has both risen and fallen over that time period. Yellowstone is a location of one of the few so-called "supervolcano" on the earth. A supervolcano explosion could cover a continent-sized area with ash should it ever go off. *Mars South Pole Holds Ice - A new survey by a The Mars Express probe shows that the South Pole on that planet has enough frozen water to cover the whole planet with an ocean approximately 36 feet deep. "The south polar layered deposits of Mars cover an area bigger than Texas. The amount of water they contain has been estimated before, but never with the level of confidence this radar makes possible," said study investigator Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Mars Express is using the Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) to create virtual slices through the layered Martian surface to a depth of up to 2.3 miles. Scientists believe that layered deposits at the poles currently hold most of the known water on Mars. *Small Genome May Mean Fast Dinosaurs - A study, published Nature, suggests that dinosaurs had a relatively small genome. A genome is an animal's genetic information, including DNA and RNA. Scientists have estimated the genome size this by examining fossil remains of bone and measuring the cell sizes in the bone. It is thought that a small cell size means that the genome inside is also small. Animals with small genomes are generally also thought to be more active than those with large genomes. "There is a widely held idea that metabolic rate...may limit genome size, since maintaining a high metabolism would be most effective with smaller cell sizes," notes Andrew Shedlock, who contributed to the study. If this is true then movies like Jurassic Park that portray dinosaurs as quick, active animals are scientifically accurate. *Scientists Try to Quell Mud Volcano - Scientists trying to calm a "Mud Volcano" by dropping chains of concrete balls down its throat may have had some success. The "volcano," located near Surabaya, Indonesia, started spewing toxic sludge in May of 2006 after an local firm drilled an exploratory gas well nearby. The mud has swamped homes and threatened a nearby railway. Scientists have dropped 374 chains, each composed four concrete balls, into the crater hoping to slow the flow. For thirty minutes last month the flow slowed to a trickle, then started again. It is unknown if this was related the chains so far dropped into the crater. Some of the scientists claim the overall flow has lessoned and hope that an additional 500 chains may cut the spewing mud by up to 70 percent. *New Horned Dino Found - Scientists unveiled a newly found dinosaur that had horns over its eyebrows that were more than a yard in length. The 20 foot-long albertaceratops nesmoi lived about 78 million years ago and resembled the more famous triceratops. Triceratops lived approximately 10 million years after albertaceratops, however, and belonged to a completely different subfamily. The find is significant because it links early dinosaurs with a diverse group of horned dinosaurs that evolved later. Michael Ryan, curator of vertebrate paleontology for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, published an article in this month's Journal of Paleontology announcing the discovery. He found the creature six years ago in southern Alberta, Canada, while working as a graduate student. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Antikythera Mechanism - A mechanical computer that existed two-thousand years before the age of electronics. Who built it? >(http://www.unmuseum.org/amechanism.htm) *Notes from the Curator's Office: The Haunted Church of Gravity Hill - Is this tale a mystery or just a myth? > (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/ghill.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Quantum Physics Weirdness - I noticed on your site that quantum physics is mentioned often. I was wondering if you could explain its origins and why it's considered more reliable than the physics used prior to its emergence? (If that is so) - Robert D. Quantum Mechanics is one of the two great physics theories of the 20th century that replaced classical (Newtonian) physics. The other was General Relativity. Interestingly both were fathered by the same man: Albert Einstein. While he loved the one child the other was disliked. Einstein never felt comfortable with Quantum Physics. General Relativity is mostly used to describe how the world of big things work: The movement of planets, stars, rockets, etc. Everything down to about the size of an atom. Below that size scientists almost always use quantum physics to do their calculations. Both were needed as classical physics created by Issac Newton in 17th century couldn't predict how the things worked when dealing with extremely large objects (like planets and stars) or extremely small objects (like photons and electrons). While the rules of general relativity seem to make some kind of sense to us, the rules involved with quantum physics are bizarre and challenge our understanding of reality. Little in this realm is for certain. Everything is based on the probability of something happening. This is one of the reasons Einstein disliked it. He has often been quoted as saying, "He [God] does not play dice" with the universe. One illustration of the strangeness of quantum theory is the dual nature of light. Is light a particle or a wave? The experiment that scientists used to find this out is called the double-slit experiment. A barrier with two narrow slits is placed between a light source and a screen. If light is a stream of particles we could expect to see each particle pass through one slit or the other and create two separate lines of light on the screen behind it. This isn't what occurs, however. We see a pattern of light and dark lines all across the screen. This, known as an interference pattern, is the result of waves of light passing through the two slits, then interacting as they hit the screen with the wave crests reinforcing each other to make the light lines and the wave troughs making the dark lines. So I guess light is a wave them, huh? If you close one of slits, though, suddenly light starts behaving like a particle again. We see it piling up behind the open slit. Well, maybe light only behaves like a wave when a lot of light particles are moving together. Unfortunately this is not the case. When the double slit experiment is performed sending only one photon (light particle) though the barrier at a time the photon doesn't show up behind the slits. It can show up anywhere on the screen. In fact, as you send more and more photons though the experiment one at a time the interference pattern slowly builds up, just as before. Does that mean that each individual photon is a wave that interferes with itself? Yep. Does this mean that the photon passed through both slits at the same time? Indeed, this seems to be the case. When scientists have placed photon detectors at each slit to see which side the photon goes though a strange thing happens. Suddenly the interference pattern disappears and there are just two lines of light one behind each slit. The detector has somehow forced the photon to stop behaving as a wave and act like a particle again. Even if the detector is placed on the opposite side of the barrier, after the photon passes though the slits, the photon still acts like a particle. How did it know that there was going to be a photon detector on the opposite side of the barrier so it would behave like a particle and not a wave when it passed though the barrier? In the end, light is both a wave and a particle at the same time. If you think that doesn't make sense, you are right. However, that doesn't change the fact that it is true. If you can explain why all this happens and support your ideas with experimental proof, you're probably on your way to a Nobel prize. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Quantum Physics weirdness. As you get deeper and deeper into it what you find seems to make less and less common sense. You might try to argue that scientists simply have gotten the thing wrong except that quantum theory is one of the most successful theories of all time and is used in the design of such everyday things as TVs and cell phones. Experiments show that not just light is both a particle and a wave, so are electrons, protons and atoms. These maybe small things too, but remember we are just made of atoms. At some level are we just waves too? Scientists have grappled to figure out what this means in the real world. Some interpretations include the ideas like "nothing is real until it is observed" or that there are countless "multiple universes" each differing just slightly from the one next to it. There isn't room here to discuss all the ramifications of quantum theory, so I'm going to give you a couple links that may help. Prepare to see the world in a different light after reading these, or at least have an awful headache: http://www.thekeyboard.org.uk/Quantum%20mechanics.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mechanics -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Flying Humanoid - On April 14, 1897, newspaper accounts record that one-hundred citizens of Mount Vernon, Illinois, including the Mayor, saw something that resembled "a huge man swimming through the air with an electric light on this back." The incident is part of a larger flap that occurred across the United States that year involving the supposed sighting of a flying machine (http://www.unmuseum.org/airship.htm). This report is unusual however, in that in concerns a flying humanoid shape, rather than a cigar-shaped aircraft. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Meteor Shower- About 3AM on April 22nd will be the best time to catch the Lyrid Meteor shower this year. Look toward the east about 60 degrees above the horizon near the star Vega. Because the moon will be full only a few days before the shower, it may not be the Lyrids' best show. However, this shower has the distinction of being the oldest known with observation records going back in ancient China 2600 years ago. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Former Canadian Official Wants Alien Technology to Combat Global Warming - Former Canadian defense minister Paul Hellyer is demanding that governments around the world use the information they have gleaned through alien contact to solve the problem of global warming. According to the newspaper the Ottawa Citizen, Hellyner, 83, said that UFOs would have traveled vast distances to reach Earth, and so they must be equipped with advanced propulsion systems or used exceptional fuels. Such technology, he thinks, should be used to solve pressing environmental problems on earth. "We need to persuade governments to come clean on what they know. Some of us suspect they know quite a lot, and it might be enough to save our planet if applied quickly enough," he said. In 2005 Hellyer stated that he believed the reason that NASA was returning to the moon was to use that story as a cover for fighting alien invaders. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. *Kings of Camouflage - Meet the cuttlefish, one of the brainiest, most bizarre animals in the ocean. On PBS: April 3 at 8 pm; ET/PT. *Secrets of the Deep - For the first time ever, advanced computer graphics will light the infinite vistas of the ocean. The largest habitat on earth has remained impentrable, until now. On The Science Channel: APR 05 2007 @ 09:00 PM APR 06 2007 @ 12:00 AM APR 06 2007 @ 04:00 AM APR 06 2007 @ 10:00 AM APR 07 2007 @ 01:00 PM; ET/PT. *The Stuff of Light - This is the story of the extraordinary discovery of what light actually is, and how mankind learned to control light and use it for his own ends with potentially devastating consequences. On The Science Channel: APR 08 2007 @ 10:00 PM APR 09 2007 @ 01:00 AM APR 09 2007 @ 05:00 AM APR 09 2007 @ 11:00 AM , ET/PT. *What Really Killed the Dinosaurs - Until recently, most scientists thought they knew what killed off the dinosaurs - a giant meteorite crashing into Earth. But a small and vociferous group of scientists believes there is increasing evidence that the 'impact' theory could be wrong. On The Science Channel: APR 15 2007 @ 09:00 PM APR 16 2007 @ 12:00 AM APR 16 2007 @ 04:00 AM APR 16 2007 @ 10:00 AM , ET/PT. *Krakatoa: Volcano of Destruction - More than 30,000 people were killed when Krakatoa erupted in 1883. In 1927, another volcano began rising in its place. Based on survivors' stories and observations, scientists are looking into what damage the reborn volcano will do when it erupts again. On The Science Channel: APR 19 2007 @ 09:00 PM APR 20 2007 @ 12:00 AM APR 20 2007 @ 04:00 AM APR 20 2007 @ 10:00 AM APR 21 2007 @ 01:00 PM ; ET/PT. *Iceberg That Sank the Titanic - The dramatic story of the most famous iceberg in history casts a very different light on the familiar Titanic legend. Where it came from and the surprising and moving details of its 4000 mile trek, are revealed amid the stunning landscapes of the north. On the Discovery Channel: APR 07 2007 @ 08:00 PM APR 08 2007 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT. *Rogue Nature: Squid - Mexican fishermen call the Humbolt squid the "Red Devil" and tell tales of squid who pull fishermen from their boats and kill them. To get to the bottom of this legend, Dave dons a chain mail suit and scuba gear to catch these predators in action On the Discovery Channel: APR 17 2007 @ 10:00 PM APR 18 2007 @ 02:00 AM APR 20 2007 @ 08:00 PM APR 21 2007 @ 12:00 AM APR 28 2007 @ 05:00 PM ; ET/PT. *Meteors: Fire in the Sky - Meteors, comets, and asteroids cross the solar system to offer clues about our planet and universe. Can they destroy civilizations? Did they wipe out the dinosaurs? Have they brought life to our planet? And when will the next one hit? Aided by elaborate animation and live-action footage, we learn what these mysterious space rocks really are and imagine what likely happened 65-million years ago, when an object plowed into the Yucatan Peninsula. We see how certain spectacular meteor falls advanced our understanding of what they are and the danger that they pose. We talk to leading experts--astronomers and geologists including David Levy and Carolyn Shoemaker, co-discoverers of the Shoemaker-Levy comet that fell into Jupiter in 1994. And we talk to NASA scientists about recent missions to asteroids and comets and speculate on ways to move Earth-threatening asteroids and comets out of our way. Because it isn't a question of if but when the next deadly impact will take place.On History Channel: April 10 08:00 PM, April 11 12:00 AM; ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *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, 2007. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Tue May 1 20:11:51 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Wed, 02 May 2007 00:11:51 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for May 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for April 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *T-rex Cousin to a Chicken Little? - Scientists have established that the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex was a distant relative of today's humble chicken. Mary Higby Schweitzer, of North Carolina State University, was able to isolate some very rare soft tissue from the thighbone of a 68-million-year-old T-rex which John Asara, a Harvard Medical School researcher, used to determine amino acid sequences the animal possessed. Most of the amino acid sequences Asara found matched that of a chicken. In a separate study Schweitzer was able to show that extracts of T. rex bone reacted with antibodies to chicken collagen, further supporting Asara's results by demonstrating the presence of birdlike proteins in the dinosaur's bone. Scientists have long speculated that dinosaurs were close relatives of birds, but this is the first genetic proof for the theory. *Earth-like Planet Found that May Harbor Life - European astronomers have found a planet only 20.5 light years away so similar to Earth it might be able to harbor life. The planet, which circles the red dwarf star, Gliese 581, is only 1.5 times bigger than Earth with a gravity 1.6 times as strong. The temperature is very similar with an estimated range between 32 and 104 degrees F. According to theory this could mean the plant has a rocky surface covered with liquid water which scientists believe is the prerequisite to life. Though astronomers have discovered over 220 planets outside our solar system they have all been too hot, too cold or just plain too big and gaseous to make good candidates to host life. Though the new planet is very similar in to Earth in many ways, there are also some startling differences. The red dwarf that acts as its "sun" is much cooler and smaller than the real sun and the planet has a much closer orbit. The "sun" would appear to be 20 times the size of our moon and hang forever over one portion of the sky leaving haft the planet in perpetual darkness and the other half in perpetual daylight. The planet was discovered using a telescope at European Southern Observatory's telescope in Chile equipped with a special instrument that can detect wobbles in different wavelengths of light. *Higher Sea Levels May Could Affect Over a Half Million People - A new report shows that millions of people could be affected by a sudden surge in the sea level. The study, led by a U.S. Geological Survey team, indicates that a rise of just 16 feet would affect 669 million people and cover 2 million square miles of land. A rise of 100-feet would cover 3.7 million square miles of land worldwide. While scientists are concerned that sea levels are slowly rising due to global warming, of more immediate concern are storms surges and tsunamis that can temporary force sea level higher in a matter of minutes. In 2004 a tsunami forced sea levels nearly 100 feet higher in places and killed 230,000 people. "A 30-meter [100 foot] surge in Florida would leave the whole state covered except for a little plateau area," one of the authors of the study concluded. The study uses a new mapping technique that was previously unavailable and allows researchers to see how much land would be lost at various sea levels by just clicking a mouse. *New Fish Eating Dino Found - Excavations around a giant lake in Utah that existed some 200 million years ago have yielded the remains of an enormous, previously unknown carnivorous dinosaur, a new shark species and at least three other new fish all now extinct. The dinosaur, a relative of the crested Dilophosaurus, had long, sharp teeth at the front of the its mouth which suggest it specialized in catching and eating fish, including sharks and huge bony fish. The fish back then were armored and it would have been "like biting through chain mail," said James Kirkland a Utah state paleontologist. "The only other meat-eating dinosaurs with teeth worn like that are the spinosaurs Spinosaurus and Suchimimus from North Africa where large...fish dominated," he added. *Mammoth Goes for Record Price - The skeleton of a 12-foot-tall, 16-foot-long, prehistoric mammoth was sold by Christie's auction house last month for a world record sum of $421,200. The mammoth was just one of a number of archeological curiosities previously owned by private collectors sold during the special action. Other items sold included the 10,000-year-old skeleton of a 13.5-foot-long rhinoceros that sold for $162,000 and the remains of a 7.5-foot-high prehistoric cave bear from the Russian Urals which brought in $63,180. The Siberian mammoth nicknamed the "The President," had been expected to sell for only about $199,000. Altogether the auction grossed more than $1.53 million. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Mysterious Tower at Newport - In the center of one of the most popular and ritzy seashore resorts on the eastern shore of the United States stands a small tower. The vast majority of tourists that pass by it never realize that it has been the center of an archeological controversy that is over a century old. (http://www.unmuseum.org/newporttower.htm) *Notes from the Curator's Office: Home Movies - There was a time when home movies meant an eight millimeter black and white film of people's kids playing on the beach. Now technology is letting them create Hollywood productions in their backyards (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/homemovies.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Very, Very Cold - Is it possible to attain 0? Kelvin? -Feloxi Zero on the Kelvin temperature scale is often referred to as absolute zero. To get an idea of what absolute zero is, we first need to know a little bit about heat and temperature. All atoms and molecules "vibrate" with thermal energy. The more vibration, the more heat the atom or molecule has. As the atoms and molecules of a material are cooled, the vibration slows down and the energy decreases. The point at which all heat energy has been removed from a material is called absolute zero. This is approximately -459.67 ?F on the Fahrenheit scale or 0? on the Kelvin scale. According to the third law of Thermodynamics you can never completely achieve absolute zero but only approach it, but scientists have come darn close. In September of 2003 scientists at MIT managed to get a small group of sodium atoms down to 240 millionths of a degree above absolute zero. Larger objects are harder to cool, but another group at MIT managed to get a mirror about the size of a dime down to just 0.8 ?K above absolute zero. They did this by shooting laser pulses at it to "trap" and "damp" the molecular motion. These laboratory temperatures are just a bit colder than any reported in nature. The coldest known place is about 5,000 light years away from Earth in the Boomerang Nebula located in the constellation Centaurus. Astronomers think the temperatures there run around 1?K. If you ever visit it, better bring a jacket. Scientists are very interested in the behavior of objects very close to absolute zero. It may give them the chance to observe quantum physics effects that normally are too small to see because the are lost in the heat motion of the material. Just a final note: There is also something called a negative temperature (less then absolute zero on the Kelvin scale) but negative temperatures are actually hotter then absolute zero. Send your questions to: askCurator at unmuseum.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *A Whale of a Surprise - In 1937 whalers off the coast of Queen Charlotte Island in Northern British Columbia cut open the stomach of a Sperm whale a got a surprise: Inside were the semi-digested remains of a ten-foot-long, creature with a body like a snake and a head like a horse. Unfortunately, due to its poor condition, the strange animal, which also has a hump-like back, was thrown back into the sea. What it the long sought after sea-serpent? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *View Saturn - If you own a telescope this month is a good time to take a look at the planet Saturn just in the Southern sky after sunset. It will be at eastern quadrature, 90 degrees east of the Sun. Because of the angle the light is coming from the planet's shadow across its rings will look almost "three dimensional" in telescopes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Scientist Discovers Superman's "Kryptonite" - A mineral found by a geologist in Serbia has the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from the film "Superman Returns." Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum was analyzing the new material and did an Internet search to see if the formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide - turned up anywhere. "I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film 'Superman Returns,'" Stanley said. Unlike the movie version, Stanley's mineral is white and powdery, not the radioactive green crystals seen in comic books and movies. The substance, which has been confirmed as a new mineral after tests at the Natural History Museum, is on exhibit. Its official name will be Jadarite. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. *Newton's Dark Secrets - Centuries-old manuscripts reveal the hidden pursuits of a scientific genius. On PBS: May 1@ 8 pm; ET/PT. Starship Orion: The Future of Space Travel - NASA has taken the lead in designing the new space exploration vehicle, ORION, with which man will go back to the Moon; go on to Mars, and beyond. On The Science Channel: May 08@ 9:00 pm; May 09@ 12:00 am; May 09@ 4:00 am; May 09@ 10:00 am; May 12 at 10:00 pm; May 13@ 1:00 am; May 13@ 5:00 am; May 15@ 5:00 pm; May 22@ 10:00 pm; May 23@ 1:00 am.. *Riddle of the Polar Sky - Join a quest to unravel the mystery of the Aurora Borealis. Scientists and citizens working on the most current scientific theories live in six months of extended darkness. On The Science Channel: May 01@ 8:00 pm; May 01@ 11:00 pm; May 02@ 3:00 am; May 02@ 9:00 am; May 05@ 8:00 pm; May 05@ 11:00 pm; May 06@ 3:00 am; May 06@ 4:00 pm; May 08@ 5:00 pm , ET/PT. *What Really Killed the Dinosaurs - Sometimes a discovery forever changes what we think we know, altering our perspective and re-writing history. This is the story of a mystery dinosaur called Jane, that baffled the greatest minds in paleontology from the moment she was unearthed On The Science Channel: May 14@ 5:00 pm, ET/PT. *Moon for Sale - After forty years, man is going back to the moon. Across the world scientists are gearing up to take part in what's been called a second moon race. Behind it lies a prize some believe could change the face of the world. On the Discovery Channel: May 05@ 8:00 pm; May 06@ 12:00 am; ET/PT. *Killer Squid - In Mexico's Sea of Cortez fishermen talk of a monstrous carnivorous squid. These killer squids are among the most dangerous and least known of oceanic predators. Follow Scott Cassell and Jacquie Cozens on their quest to film these awesome killers. On the Discovery Channel: May 03@ 9:00 pm; May 04@ 1:00 am ; ET/PT. *Knights Templar - For nearly two centuries, the Knights Templar were the medieval world's most powerful order, a fearsome and unstoppable Crusader militia. Then came accusations of unspeakable crimes. Who were the Templars, really? How did they become so powerful, so fast, and why did they fall just as quickly? Evidence hints that the Templars excavated under Jerusalem's Temple of Solomon. What did they find there? Was it, as The Da Vinci Code suggests, the true identity of the Holy Grail--the bloodline of Christ? Or an unimaginable treasure, documented in the Dead Sea Scrolls, buried 1,000 years before Christ's birth? We explore the Templar's origin, how they lived, trained, fought and became a medieval world power, and the suspicious circumstances behind their sudden downfall. Plus, we reveal why these warriors, dead for seven centuries, and their treasure still populate Hollywood blockbusters. Narrated by Ed Herrmann and featuring preeminent Templar authors. On History Channel: April 10 @ 08:00 PM, April 11 @ 12:00 AM; ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *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, 2007. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Sat Jun 2 15:53:38 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Sat, 02 Jun 2007 19:53:38 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for June 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for June 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Rock from the Sky not a Meteorite - A rock that was originally identified as a meteorite that crashed though the roof of New Jersey home last January appears to be actually a piece of space junk. Analysis by experts at the American Museum of Natural History using a variable-pressure electron microscope revealed that the object that measures 3 inches by 2 inches is a stainless steel alloy that does not occur in nature. The origin of the object is still a mystery, but it is likely that it is debris from a satellite or rocket launch. The incident started when a Freehold, New Jersey, homeowner entered his second floor bathroom and found the object on the floor and a hole in his roof. *September Supernova the Brightest - Scientists have calculated that a supernova observed back in September of 2006 was the brightest ever seen. "The reason we're so excited is because it was so powerful we think it may require a new type of explosion mechanism that we've never observed before," said Nathan Smith, astrophysicist at the University of California at Berkeley. A supernova occurs at the end of the lifecycle of some stars when of most of the material within the star explodes. Most supernovas are only bright for a couple of weeks, but the supernova of last September got more brilliant for 70 days peaking with brightness comparable to 50 billion suns, much brighter than most other supernovas. Scientists believe that the supernova expelled many of its outer layers in an eruption before its violent collapse so that when it exploded, the pressure wave plowed into the cooler gases that had already been expelled, creating the most brilliant light show ever observed. *King Herod's Tomb Found - An Israeli archaeologist says he has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud Netzer, who has been working at the site since 1972, said the tomb was found at Herodium where Herod had built a palace compound. The tomb was discovered when a workers found the remains of a limestone sarcophagus. The location of the sarcophagus and appearance suggests that it is Herod's. "It's a sarcophagus we don't just see anywhere," Netzer said. "It is something very special." Experts are excited about the find saying that all signs indicate the tomb belongs to Herod. They caution, however, inscriptions need to be found to be sure. *Big Dinos Heard Low Sounds - A new study shows that dinosaurs were best at hearing very low tones. Scientists reached this conclusion by examining the anatomical ear structure among living birds, crocodilians and the fossil remains of dinosaurs. The results, presented this month at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, also suggest that dinosaurs produced noises like the sounds they could hear. "As a general rule, animals can hear the sounds that they produce," lead author Robert Dooling noted. The scientists found that an animal's weight is significantly correlated to the size of the its inner ear structure, which determines what frequencies that animal could detect. Dooling and his colleagues estimate large dinosaurs were restricted to low frequencies below 3 kilohertz. *At 13.2 Billion Star is the Oldest - Scientists have identified the oldest known star. The star, designated as HE1523-0901, is 13.2-billion-years-old and came into existence a mere half a billion years after the "big bang" that started the universe. The star's age was identified by examining its spectrum, which showed the presence of heavy elements like uranium and thorium. Heavy elements decay into lighter elements over time serving as a clock to measure how long the minerals in the star, has been around. There may be other stars out there that are just as old, but HE1523-0901 was born in a section of the galaxy heavily polluted with heavy elements, making it easy to identify. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *Benedict Arnold: The Father of Our Country? His name is synonymous with the word traitor, yet, if things had gone a little differently, could this infinitely complex man been the hero of the American Revolution? (Part 1) (http://www.unmuseum.org/barnold1.htm) *Notes from the Curator's Office: Revisiting the Big Three: Isaac Asimov- They had a huge impact on our world far beyond just science fiction. The first of three parts about these great authors of the 20th century. (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/b3asimov.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Big Packaderm vs. Little Sport Device - Could an elephant have the same momentum as a golf ball? - Anonymous. The easiest way of thinking about momentum is the force necessary to stop a moving object. It involves both the mass of the object and speed of the object. Technically, in classical physics, this can be expressed as the mass of the object multiplied by its velocity. The formula is: P = mv Where P is the momentum, m is the mass and v is the velocity. If we had and elephant that weighed 7200 Kg (about 15840 pounds) running at 1 meter per second, the elephant would have: 7200 kg m/s = 7200kg 1m/s That means that 7200kg is the mass, 1 meter/second (m/s) is the velocity and 7200 kg m/s ("kilogram meters per second") is the momentum. It is easy to see a trivial situation where any two objects, no matter the size of their mass, would have the same momentum. Any object that has no velocity has no momentum. So both an elephant and a golf ball would have the same momentum if neither were moving. There are also cases where the elephant and the golf ball could have the momentum even if they were both moving. Imagine our 7200 kilograms elephant from above and a golf ball weighing .046 kilograms. If we set up the equation with the elephant on the left and the golf ball on the right: MV = p = MV Or 7200kg 1m/s = 7200kg m/s = .046kg V m/s we just need to solve for the V, the velocity of the golf ball: 7200kg 1m/s = 7200kg m/s = .046kg 156521 m/s We can see that an elephant running along at 1 meter per second has the same momentum as a golf ball moving at 156,521 meters per second (around 351,000 miles per hour). So an heavy elephant moving along at a trot would have the same momentum as small golf ball going very, very fast. Now, a couple of additional considerations. This is the formula for momentum under classical (Newtonian physics). The formula under relativistic physics is slightly different and allows for objects like photons, which have no mass, to still have momentum. Also a complete description of momentum for an object includes the direction (or vector) of the motion. Send your questions to: askCurator at unmuseum.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Loch Ness Photos - In June of 1975 the Academy of Applied science released two pictures their automatic cameras had taken underwater in Loch Ness, Scotland. Though the pictures weren't clear due to the murky water, one seemed to show the upper torso and neck of a strange creature. The other seemed to show the animal's horse-like head. Various observers have thought these pictures showed a prehistoric monster, a dead stump, and a engine block with exhaust pipes. So far no explanation of the photos has satisfied all parties involved in the Loch Ness Monster mystery. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Catch Vesta - Want to try catching an asteroid? The asteroid Vesta (the fourth asteroid ever discovered) should be visible in the night sky this month to the naked eye, but you might find it helpful to use binocular. Look for Jupiter in the Southeastern sky rising after sunset. Vesta will be just seven degrees higher up (the full moon is 0.5 degrees wide). Vesta will appear in the constellation Ophiuchus. You may need to look for it over several nights. You will be able to tell it is not a star because it will change position each night compared with the rest of the night sky. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: Hoaxer Admits Creating Dead Aliens - John Humphreys, a sculptor and who worked on special effects for Doctor Who and created the character Max Headroom says he was responsible for the models of the Roswell aliens dissected in hoax footage that first appeared in 1995. His partner in the hoax, Ray Santilli, a London-based video distributor, had claimed he bought the footage from a retired American military cameramen. Humphreys says that in addition to creating the bug-eyed alien models that were filled with sheep brains and chicken entrails, he also appeared in the film as the chief surgeon. According to Humphreys it took four weeks for him to make the models from latex using clay sculptures and all the filming was done in London, not New Mexico. Humphrey's comments come in the wake of the release of the film Alien Autopsy, which is dramatic portrayal about the creation and impact of the original hoax footage. Alien Autopsy is currently in release in Great Britain. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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: Great Escape - Experts dig into World War II's most daring and technically ingenious prison break. On PBS: June 5 at 8 pm; ET/PT. *Robo Sapien: The Secret Revolution- What if you could think faster? Remember more? Wirelessly connect to the internet without a computer? Robo Sapien puts you on the cutting-edge of Neuro-Engineering where scientists are seeking ways to interface our brains directly with machines. On The Science Channel: Jun 07, 9:00 pm Jun 08, 12:00 am Jun 08, 4:00 am Jun 08, 10:00 am Jun 09, 1:00 pm ET/PT. *King Tut's Mystery Tomb Opened - In the first tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 84 years, scientists find seven coffins, plus a golden infant-size coffin. One coffin remains sealed and the race is on to read the markings and lift the lid. On The Science Channel: Jun 11, 9:00 pm Jun 12, 12:00 am Jun 12, 4:00 am Jun 12, 10:00 am Jun 16, 4:00 pm Jun 25, 10:00 pm Jun 26, 1:00 am Jun 26, 5:00 am Jun 26, 11:00 am Jun 30, 5:00 pm ET/PT. *Passport to Pluto...and Beyond - NASA's New Horizons mission is exploring the "new frontier" of the outer reaches of our solar system, solving the mysteries of Pluto and beyond. Meet the scientists who have waited their whole lives for this mission and see what surprises they'll reveal. On The Science Channel: Jun 19, 8:00 pm Jun 19, 11:00 pm Jun 20, 3:00 am Jun 20, 9:00 am Jun 23, 8:00 pm Jun 23, 11:00 pm Jun 24, 3:00 am Jun 24, 4:00 pm Jul 03, 10:00 pm Jul 04, 1:00 am, ET/PT. *Rise of the Feathered Dragon - Follow the work of paleontologists in remote northwestern China as they search for fossil evidence to the origins of modern birds. On the Discovery Channel: Jun 21, 8:00 pm Jun 22, 12:00 am; ET/PT. *Triassic Giant - Ichthyosaurs were swimming, air breathing creatures that resembled whales and dolphins. A team excavates the giant fossil from a riverbank in British Columbia that is believed to be the largest Triassic ichthyosaur ever found. On the Discovery Channel: Jun 21, 10:00 pm Jun 22, 2:00 am ; ET/PT. *The Universe: The End of the Earth: Deep Space Threats to Our Planet - Asteroids, comets, gamma ray bursts and the sun all combine to make the Earth a dangerous place to live. NASA's top brass and other scientists are arming themselves with the latest technology to pre-empt an apocalyptic attack. Watch and investigate bizarre, and terrifying apocalyptic scenarios and the ways that scientists are racing against the clock to develop technology to defend our planet. Rating: TVPG On History Channel: Tuesday, June 12 09:00 PM Wednesday, June 13 01:00 AM Friday, June 15 11:00 PM Saturday, June 16 03:00 AM; ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *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, 2007. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Fri Jun 29 22:52:28 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 02:52:28 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for July 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for July 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Scientists Recreate Ancient Rome - A group of researchers spearheaded by the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia have re-created ancient Rome inside a computer. The project, named "Rome Reborn 1.0" allows virtual time travelers to walk through the ancients streets of the city as if they were there in June 320 A.D.. The computer model allows visitors to navigate with complete freedom, moving up, down, left and right at will. They can enter important public buildings such as the Roman Senate House, the Coliseum, or the Temple of Venus and Rome, the ancient city's largest place of worship. The location and appearance of the buildings is based on archeological data gathered by scientists over the past five centuries. Diane Favro, a founder of the project said, "This amazing model allows us to appreciate individual buildings of ancient Rome within a broad urban context, and thus also to understand how the modern city took shape over time." Video clips and still shots of the model can be viewed at http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu. *Dinos Probably Contorted by Death - Fossilized dinosaurs that have died with their mouths wide-open, heads thrown back and tails that curved toward the head may be showing signs of asphyxiation and brain damage. Scientists have long thought that these dinosaurs had died in water and the currents pushed the bones into that position, or that rigor mortis contorted the body. "I'm reading this in the literature and thinking, 'This doesn't make any sense to me as a veterinarian,'" said Cynthia Marshall Faux, a veterinarian-turned-paleontologist at the Museum of the Rockies. Faux thinks that animals found in this posture may have suffocated in ash during a volcanic eruption or may have been contorted at death by disease, brain trauma, severe bleeding, thiamine deficiency or poisoning. One interesting observation is that modern animals found in this posture during death are almost those with high metabolic rates, giving support to the idea that dinosaurs were warm blooded animals. *Weapon Found in Whale Dates from 1800's - The tip of a lance over a hundred-years-old was found in the shoulder of a 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaska. The weapon, used to hunt whales around 1890, was launched from a heavy shoulder gun. Finding this object buried deep in the whales blubber allows scientists to get a better fix on how long whales can live. The 3?-inch arrow-shaped projectile is estimated between 115 and 130 years old. Scientists' think that this means the whale was at least 130-years-old. Researchers were unaware of exactly how long a bowhead whale could live, but other species of whale are estimated to be able to survive up to centuries in rare cases. *Ancient People Ate On-the-Run - A new study shows that the ancient residents of Pompeii may have a lot in common with today's families as far as eating fast food goes. According to archaeologist Penelope Allison of the University of Leicester, the majority people in the city ate "on the run." She noticed that may middle-class households in the ancient city lack of tableware and a formal dining or kitchen areas. Instead her examination found plates here and there around the household, such as in the sleeping quarters. "Similar to how children today bring a plate of food to their rooms before watching TV or playing on the computer, my guess is that Roman youths would tote food to certain areas where they possibly engaged in other activities," she said. *Mickey Back to the Future? - In a dig in Upp?kra in Sweden scientists have discovered a thousand year old bronze brooch that looks a lot like it should have been sold at a gift shop in Disney World. The object, which most likely was worn on the clothing of an Iron Age woman, bares a remarkable resemblance to Mickey Mouse. Is this a case of a modern souvenir falling into a time-warp? No, according to archaeologist Jerry Rosengren from Lund University the jewelry most likely supposed to represent a lion. Lions were important symbols to royals and warlords, said Rosengren, especially after Christianity was introduced to the Scandinavia. The broach was likely created by a French artist, who probably never had seen a lion in his entire life and came up with a fantasy version. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *Benedict Arnold: The Father of Our Country? Arnold saved the Revolution once, then he saves it again - before betraying it. (Part 2) >(http://www.unmuseum.org/barnold2.htm) *Notes from the Curator's Office: The Time Tunnel to Fourth Grade- An obscure 60's SciFi TV show bridges the generation gap. >(http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/timetunnel4th.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Before Big Bang - I'm a 60 year old scientist and I have a rock-solid understanding of the concept of entropy, including the idea of life as a temporary bump in the overall decline of order and organization in a system. All I want before I die is to know if there is any credible scientific theory about how the spring originally got wound 14-or-so billion years ago - Bob W. Let me re-phrase you question as, "What was there before the Big-Bang and where did all the energy it requires come from?" At this point I don't believe there are any "credible" theories to explain this as none of the ideas scientists have about this area can be tested by experimentation. In fact, there is not likely to be anything testable until scientists can first create a Grand Unified theory of everything combining Einstein's General Relativity with Quantum Physics. That quest, which has been pursued by physicists like the Holy Grail for almost a century, so far does not seem near a conclusion. So the best I can do is to throw out one of the more intriguing ideas floating around cosmology circles these days. This particular model comes out of string theory (One possible candidate for the Grand Unified Theory that says all energy and matter is composed of super-small vibrating loops of strings.) This idea was worked out by Paul Steinhardt (Princeton University) and Neil Turok (Cambridge University). They suggest our universe is part of a much larger universe. The model says that our universe exists on a three dimensional membrane ( or "Brane" in string theory lingo) and there are other branes close to ours, only millimeters away, but invisible. Every trillion years or so these branes are drawn together and when they collide a huge amount of energy is released making a "Big Bang" that creates a universe on the brane (other universes can be created at other locations of the brane that may collide at other times) This process of collision Steinhardt and Turok named ekpyrosis which is the Greek word for conflagration. In addition to creating a smaller universe, ekpyrosis also pushes the branes apart. Over the life of the universe some of the big bang energy turns into matter which becomes stars, galaxies and, of course, us. Eventually the energy involved in our universe spreads out as stars burn out and the universe grows cold. According to this idea, however, the branes which still contain the energy, and they are drawn back together again to collide and create another universe in an eternal cycle. They only problem with this, and alternate theories like it, is that there is no way to test these theories experimentally to know if there is any evidence that they are true. Even if this idea is true, however, we may have just moved the question back a little bit further: What created that greater universe and where did all its energy come from? Have a question? Go here to send it to the curator: (http://www.unmuseum.org/postmail.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Wisconsin Lake Monster - In July of 1892 two boys were fishing along the shore of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, when they were startled by the sight of the head of a serpent-like creature rising out of the water only about 75 feet away. According to the boy's story, the monster opened its mouth showing rows of sharp, hook-like teeth. The animal started toward them, but then made a sudden U-turn and headed out into the middle of the lake. The boys said the animal was at least a hundred feet long and three feet around. While this tale appeared in a newspaper at the time, lack of other supporting evidence suggests it was a hoax. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Color of the Stars - This is a good month to do some star comparisons. Early in the month, just after sunset, look directly overhead and try to locate a bright red-orange star. This is the star Arcturus, in the constellation Bootes. Now look low in the northeastern sky for a bright blue-white star. This is Vega. Why do they have different colors? The color is a direct result of the temperature of the star. Arcturus is a cool star and Vega a hot one. Our own sun gives off a yellowish color and is in between Arcturus and Vega in warmth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Big Foot Alive and Well in India? - Authorities are searching the jungles of India's remote northeast after a string of reports last month about "bigfoot"-type hairy giants roaming the area. Stories about these mysterious "Mande Burung" (translated as Jungle Man) have been around for decades, but a rash of recent sightings has made government investigate. "A team of wildlife officials and other experts will conduct a study to find out if there is any truth in the locals' claims about these hairy giants," declared a district magistrate in the West Garo Hills region. A local farmer who saw some reported, "The sight was frightening: two adults and two smaller ones, huge and bulky, furry. Their heads looked as if they were wearing caps, and their color was blackish-brown." One local group investigating the claims says it has hair samples of the creature and will send them for DNA testing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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. *Utah's Dino Graveyard - Follow the excavation and research of a new species of theizinosaur, the most primitive member of a bizarre group of feathered dinosaurs. They are believed to be most closely related to raptors-a group that became that became today's birds. On The Science Channel: Jul 09, 9:00 pm, Jul 10, 12:00 am, Jul 10, 4:00 am, Jul 10, 10:00 am, Jul 14, 4:00 pm, ET/PT. *Starship Orion: The Future of Space Travel - NASA has taken the lead in designing the new space exploration vehicle, ORION, with which man will go back to the Moon; go on to Mars, and beyond. . On The Science Channel: Jul 17, 8:00 pm, Jul 17, 11:00 pm, Jul 18, 3:00 am, Jul 18, 9:00 am, Jul 21, 8:00 pm, Jul 21, 11:00 pm, Jul 22, 3:00 am, Jul 22, 4:00 pm, ET/PT. *King Tut's Mystery Tomb Opened - In the first tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 84 years, scientists find 7 coffins, plus a golden infant-size coffin, but one coffin remains sealed. Now, in a Discovery exclusive, they race to reach it, read the markings, and lift the lid... On the Discovery Channel: Jul 15, 8:00 pm, Jul 16, 12:00 am; ET/PT. *Secrets of Egypt's Lost Queen - More powerful than Cleopatra or Nefertiti, Hatshepsut was Egypt's greatest female ruler. And then she disappeared. Egypt's preeminent archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, investigates several mummies that may well be the remains of this powerful queen. On the Discovery Channel: Jul 15, 9:00 pm, Jul 16, 1:00 am, Jul 21, 9:00 pm, Jul 22, 1:00 am ; ET/PT. *The Universe: The End of the Earth: Deep Space Threats to Our Planet - Asteroids, comets, gamma ray bursts and the sun all combine to make the Earth a dangerous place to live. NASA's top brass and other scientists are arming themselves with the latest technology to pre-empt an apocalyptic attack. Watch and investigate bizarre, and terrifying apocalyptic scenarios and the ways that scientists are racing against the clock to develop technology to defend our planet. Rating: TVPG On the History Channel: Tuesday, July 03 08:00 PM Wednesday, July 04 12:00 AM; ET/PT. *Rogue Waves - Join us for the amazing story of one of nature's most terrifying forces. With striking visuals from ships in storm-tossed seas, the special presents dramatic tales of rogue wave disasters throughout history, and explores the astonishing scientific discoveries surrounding this deadly phenomenon. Aided by mind-blowing CGI footage from the motion picture Poseidon by Wolfgang Petersen, director of The Perfect Storm, we reveal the awesome power of this ocean menace as it really is--a monster rising from the deep! Rating: TVPG. On the History Channel: Tuesday, July 10 08:00 PM Wednesday, July 11 12:00 AM; ET/PT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *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, 2007. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Wed Aug 1 00:54:21 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:54:21 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for August 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for August 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the News: *Pyramid at Chinese Tomb - Using remote sensing equipment archeologists have found what appears to be a 100-foot-high room above Emperor Qin Shihuang's tomb near the ancient capital of Xi'an in Shaanxi province, China. The strange pyramid-shaped chamber, which has not been opened, is unlike anything found in any other tomb in China. "Qin himself was very unusual, so it's not unexpected that his tomb should also be unique," said archaeologist Liu Qingzhu of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Scientists theorize it was built as a passageway for his soul. Qin's tomb already has been found to have some unique features. Qin commissioned an army of terra cotta soldiers to guard his tomb. Thousands of these buried figures were discovered more than 20 years ago by local farmers sinking wells. *Missing Mummy Mystery Solved - The mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's most powerful female pharaoh, has been identified by archeologists using a missing tooth. The tooth, which was in a jar with some of the queen's embalmed organs matches perfectly with a mummy discovered in 1903 in the Valley of the Kings. An analysis of the remains shows that the Queen was an obese woman, who died in her 50s, probably had diabetes and is also believed to have had liver cancer. She was one of the most prolific builders in ancient Egypt, commissioning hundreds of projects throughout the land. After her death, however, her name was obliterated from the records by her stepson as an act of revenge. *Mars Rover Taking Risky Plunge into Crater - The Mars rover Opportunity is making a risky trip into the heart of an ancient deep impact crater. The rover, which with its twin was originally designed to last only 90 days but has been operating for over three years, will attempt to descend into Victoria Crater. The crater is a half-mile across and about 200 to 230 feet deep. Scientists are concerned that the rover may not be able to climb back out, but deem the risk worth taking. By examining the walls of the crater they hope to find out more about Mars' geological history. Already Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have found evidence of rocks altered by water indicating that Mars had wet period long ago. *Dodo Skeleton May Yield DNA - A skeleton found in a cave will allow scientists to get the first DNA samples of the extinct dodo bird. "The geneticists who want to get their hands on this will be skipping down the street," Julian Hume, a paleontologist at Britain's Natural History Museum said. The skeleton has been nicknamed "Fred" after its discoverer. The dodo, a flightless bird, was driven into extinction by animals introduced by Europeans about 400 years ago. At some point scientists think that the creatures must have lived all over the Indian Ocean island. The DNA should allow scientists classify exactly how the dodo is related to other birds, though it is already known that it is basically, according to Hume, "?a giant pigeon." *Royal Mummies Called into Question - All of Egypt's royal mummies will get their identity checked, according to Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, after a researcher found that a body, thought to be King Tuthmosis I, has been misidentified for years. History indicates that Tuthmosis I died in his 60s. An examination of what was thought to be his mummy last June, however, showed it to be that of a young man who died of an arrow wound. "I am now questioning all the mummies," said Hawass in an interview with Reuters, "We have to check them all again." Scientists in Egypt will use recently installed computed tomography or DNA testing to confirm the identities of its royal mummies. By testing DNA researchers can use family relationships between the royals to confirm which mummy is which. Just recently the mummy of Tuthmosis I's daughter, Queen Hatshepsut, had been identified by matching her DNA to Ahmose Nefertari, her grandmother. "We will have to look for the mummy of the father now," said Hawass. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *War of the Worlds - Aliens invade the Earth! Check out the first chapter in our new graphic novel >(http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/wow/cover.htm) *Notes from the Curator's Office: The Big Three: Robert Heinlein - The second of three articles covering the "Big Three" science fiction authors of the 20th Century. >(http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/b3heinlein.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Elongated Night Reflections - If you look at the reflection of a street light from across a body of water, it appears long in one direction but not the other? Why? - Tariq Water, under the right conditions, reflects light just like mirror. Of course, a mirror is a usually composed of solid material (most commonly glass with a silver backing) and water is liquid. As long as the water is perfectly still and flat the image reflected is almost mirror-like, but should a breeze start to ripple the water, strange things start to happen. The ripples cause the shape of the surface of the water to change into a series of up and down curves. This means that the light normal reflected by the surface doesn't come straight to the viewer, but is distorted much like in a fun house mirror. While fun house mirrors are usually static - either making you look tall and thin or short and fat - the many ripples in the water are always moving and changing giving the reflected image a vibrating quality. Because a lake might have thousand of ripples between the viewer and a distant object on the other side of the lake each ripple as it moves is capable of picking a tiny bit of the light coming from the object and reflecting it back to the viewer (see diagram) making it look like the object is in thousands of different locations. During the day when everything is evenly lighted these bits of light are overwhelmed by all the other reflections involved and only contribute to the overall reflected image by making it look fuzzy. At night, however, when the most of the background is dark, all these tiny reflection become visible. They tend to appear to elongate the lighted object in the direction where the ripples appear spaced closely together from the viewer's perspective. That is vertically as you have observed. It is possible to see some spreading horizontally, however, depending on what direction the wind is blowing the ripples. Have a question? Click here to send it to the curator. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Hairy Biped in Indiana - In August of 1972 people near the tiny town of Roachdale, Indiana, reported seeing a hairy-biped creature running through their area. The creature looked like a gorilla and walked upright, but also ran on all fours. No tracks were ever found and the creature seemed uninjured even when hit by a shotgun blast. Forty people claimed to have seen the beast, but by the end of the month it disappeared, never to be heard of again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Stage Set for Meteor Shower - August is the time of year to catch the Perseid Meteor Shower. It will peak on the night of the 11th to the 12th, with the intensity of around one meteor per minute after midnight. If you haven't seen it before, this is the perfect time to watch the show. With no moon visible, it will be occurring this year under ideal conditions. Put a blanket out on the ground facing in whatever direction the sky is darkest for you and lay back and enjoy the spectacle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Rock May Show Ancient Star Explosion - A rock carving discovered near Phoenix, Arizona, may be the only record in North America of the observation of a supernova in 1006 AD. The carving, or "petroglyph," was discovered in White Tanks Regional Park in an area believed to have been occupied from about 500 to 1100 AD by a group of Native Americans called the Hohokam . The supernova, now referred to as SN 1006, is thought to be the brightest stellar event in human history and was recorded by many societies around the globe. The carving of the explosion also includes the surrounding stars making it easy to identify the event as SN 1006 by its location in the sky. If the petroglyph is confirmed to be SN 1006, it will help date many of the surrounding carvings. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *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, 2007. From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Fri Aug 31 22:49:26 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 02:49:26 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for September 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for September 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month --------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the News: *Biggest Planet Found - Astronomers have found what may be the universe's largest known planet, a giant ball of hydrogen orbiting a star 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Hercules. Scientists believe the planet is twice the size of Jupiter with a temperature of 2300 degrees and a density about half that of Saturn. Astronomers are bewildered at why the planet is so "fluffy." Scientists used the California Institute of Technology's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County and telescopes operating in Spain's Canary Islands to locate the planet. They suspect that this system may have a second planet orbiting its star and continue to search for it. *Europe's Largest Dinosaur Grave - An amateur paleontologist in Switzerland may have found what might be Europe's largest dinosaur mass grave. The find was made in the village of Frick, near the German border while the amateur paleontologist was looking at a construction site for a house. The hobbyist saw what he believed were the bones of two Plateosaurus. Scientists think that the Frick area, already known for dinosaur skeletons, may contain more than 100 Plaeosaurus, making it the largest dinosaur site in Europe. *A Really Old Footprint - Egyptian archaeologists have found what could be the oldest human footprint in history, said Zahi Hawass, the country's antiquities' chief. In an interview with Reuters he stated, "This could go back about two million years. It could be the most important discovery in Egypt." The footprint, imprinted on mud and then found in the rock will be tested to determine its exact age. The earliest human archaeological evidence from Egypt, before the footprint, dated to around 200,000 years. Scientists suggest that this recent find may go back as far as three million years. *Etruscan Tomb - A 2,000-year-old perfectly preserved Etruscan tomb was found in the hills of Tuscany, Italy. It was apparently filled with 80 objects including vases and mirrors in bronze and ceramic. It also included urns containing remains of about 30 people. The tomb, according to scientists, probably dates from between the 1st and 3rd centuries B.C.. It's quite exceptional to find so many objects in a tomb so small," said Andrea Marcocci, who was in charge of excavations at the site. The Etrscans were one of Italy's first and most mysterious civilizations which lasted just a millennium during the 7th and 6th century B.C.. *Dinosaurs Faster Than Humans - A new study estimating top speeds of dinosaurs gives the ferocious velociraptor, who was highlighted in the film Jurassic Park, a top speed of 24 miles per hour. The massive T-Rex was calculated to be slower, but still fast enough to overtake most humans at 18 miles per hour. The chicken sized Compsognathus was estimated to run at nearly 40 miles per hour. Scientists used a computer model to calculate the running speeds of the five dinosaurs based on the skeletal and muscular structure of the animals. Researchers then checked their method by getting data from a professional, human runner and seeing the program accurately come up with top running speed for a human. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *The Legend of the Lambton Worm - Worms were not always the little, squiggly creatures we are used to seeing. (http://www.unmuseum.org/lambtonworm.htm) *Notes from the Curator's Office: Houdini Lives! - Or at least he does in Scranton, PA. >Full Story (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/houdinimuseum.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *The Berkeley Horror - I have a book by Daniel Cohen called Worlds Most Famous Ghosts. In it is a chapter on something called the "Berkeley Square Horror" in London. It is something about a room at 50 Berkeley Square that if anyone stays one night in there they will either be dead or have gone insane. Supposedly this has happened several times. I have searched several sights including wikipedia.com and I have found nearly no info. It would be much appreciated if you could help me out. - Frank There are multiple stories about 50 Berkeley Square, many of them contradictory. The house was constructed in 1740 and for a number of years was the home to British Prime Minister George Canning. The source of the haunting stories starts around 1830 with either young woman who committed suicide by jumping from the top floor, or a Mr. Myers was preparing the house for the just new bride and went insane after he was jilted. Or maybe the haunting really comes from a Mr. Dupre, who confined his insane brother in an upper story room. Or maybe the story about the little girl who was tortured to death by a sadistic servant is what started it. Well, take your pick. According to the story after Mr. Myers/Dupre/young woman/little girl was gone and a new family had moved in, a maid was found in a third floor bedroom screaming and muttering she has seen something "horrible" there. The story continues next with a Captain Kenfeild, fianc?e, to the family's daughter (In other versions this is a young aristocrat named Robert Warboys) who decides to challenge the apparition by staying in the room overnight. He sees something that either kills him with fright (in some versions) or leaves him crazed. Another tale connected with the house brings the story into the 20th century with two sailors in 1943 who break into the long empty house to stay overnight and encounter a monstrous, shapeless, oozing mass in the third floor room. One sailor escapes to tell the tale while the other jumps out the window to his death (speared on the points of an iron railing) to avoid the horror. The house became famous for these stories and by the beginning of the 20th century and was listed by some authors as "the most haunted place in Britain." The current owners still get visitors from time to time curious about the house. The stories were also an inspiration for a 1947 movie "The Ghosts of Berkeley Square." As far as I am aware nobody has carefully researched the history of the house to determine if any of the 18th century stories are real. This could probably be done by checking records to see who owned the house, who died there, and going though police reports associated with the house, etc. Clearly there are problems with the 1943 story as it indicates the house was empty, but history shows that in 1938 Maggs Brothers Rare Books moved into the location. The company reports no ghostly incidents since they have been there even though there were many all-night fire watches held during the Second World War. You can visit the building, even the supposedly haunted 3rd floor, by going to the Maggs Brothers website and taking a virtual tour. So far nobody has reported any virtual horrors. http://www.maggs.com/maggstour/0/exterior.asp Have a question? (http://www.unmuseum.org/postmail.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Vanished Farmer Hoax - On September 23, 1880 David Lang, a resident of Tennessee, was walking in a field near his home when he vanished before the eyes of his family and several friends. Despite an exhaustive search he was never found. The legend of Lang's disappearance was considered an unexplained true mystery for many years until library researcher Hershel G. Payne investigated and found no evidence a Lang family had lived in that area. Further investigation by Payne revealed that the story was a journalistic hoax by a Joseph M. Mulholland who was responsible for several such tales during the late 19th century. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Harvest Moon - Ever wonder what the term harvest moon means? It refers to the full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox. This year in the northern hemisphere the harvest moon will occur on September 26th, with the equinox occurring on the 23rd. It gets it name from the habit farmers had of continuing the harvest even after the sun had seen under the light of this full moon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Washington Crop Circle - On June 29, 2007, a crop circle appeared on a field near Wilbur, Washington, USA. The circle, actually a set of 8 circles and a ring in an "X" formation, is 150 wide and deep. Crop circles are common in England, but less so in other parts of the world. They have been attributed, by those interested in them, to natural phenomena or extraterrestrial activity, but the only proven cause is known to be hoaxers. -----------------------------------------------------------------------*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, 2007. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Mon Oct 1 10:09:52 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 14:09:52 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for October 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for October 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month --------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the News: *Ancient Collision Started Dino Killing Meteorite on its Way - Scientists have managed to trace the path of the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs back to a collision in the asteroid belt some 140-190 million years ago. According to astronomers, a giant parent asteroid 105 miles across was orbiting the innermost region of the belt when it was hit by another asteroid that was just 37 miles wide. The collision shattered the larger object into 140,000 pieces each at least a half mile across. One of three pieces that were at least six miles across, was pulled into Earth's path by gravity and hit the planet 65 million years ago. The resulting impact changed the climate and is thought to have killed of the dinosaurs. Other pieces may have hit Mars, Venus and the moon creating the 52-mile lunar crater Tycho. Scientists came to this conclusion by using a computer program to simulate the movement of the asteroids after the collision. *Alex the Parrot Dies - A remarkable African gray parrot that helped revolutionize scientific thinking about the avian brain has died. Alex had been a research animal at Brandeis University with scientist Irene Pepperberg for 30 years. Over that period he had learned enough English to identify 50 objects, seven colors and five shapes. He could also count up to six, including zero. He even expressed his frustration with doing the repetitive research. Alex was discovered dead in his cage on September 7th. So far a cause has not been released. African parrots can live up to fifty years. *"Hobbits" had Ape Wrist - Scientists examining the "hobbit" fossil from Indonesia have discovered that it has a set of wrist bones more like that of an ape, than of a modern man. This provides support for the the idea that the "hobbits" (whose proper scientific name is Homo floresiensis) are another branch of hominin, not just a modern human with a with a physical disorder. When the specimen was discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, scientists argued whether the three foot-high creature was really a separate species or not. The remains found are about 18,000 years old which means that the hobbits lived on the planet at the same time as modern humans. It is unknown if they shared their island home with our ancestors. *Dinos not "All for One and One for All" - Scientists have taken another look at evidence for cooperative "pack" hunting among carnivorous dinosaurs and reached a completely different conclusion. The study, published in the Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, suggests that in at least one case, instead of working together to bring down a prey dinosaurs, the dinos were fighting over the carcass and even eating each other. The evidence comes from the remains of four Deinonychus type dinosaurs found surrounding their probable prey, an 8 to 10-foot-tall Tenontosaurus. This was originally thought to show that the dinosaurs were working as a pack to bring the animal down, and in the fight they had been killed. An examination of one of the "pack," however, shows that it had been bitten by one of its own kind. Researchers now think that the Tenontosaurus carcass may have attracted several Deinonychus, who then fought over it. One of the larger carnivorous dinosaurs may have decided to eat one of the smaller ones as it might have provided a more tasty meal than the Tenontosaurus which could have been sitting around for a while. The idea that dinosaurs were somewhat cannibalistic is supported by observations of some of their living relatives like Komodo Dragons, crocodiles and some predatory birds. *The Real Andromeda Strain? - In a story that echo's Michael Crichton 1969 thriller The Andromeda Strain, scientists have discovered that strains of a salmonella bacteria that spent almost two weeks in space last year as a part of an experiment apparently got more deadly because of their exposure to micro-gravity. The microorganism Salmonella typhimurium, which is often connected to food poisoning, was contained in a special growth chamber during its flight on the space shuttle and was then compared with control samples living back on earth during the same period. The space bugs appear to have become more virulent because of the trip. This information will assist researchers in understanding how bacteria is affected by environmental factors. It also suggests that getting a case of food poisoning on a space mission might be a very unpleasant experience. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *Oil and Triumph of Nazi Germany - Alternate History: Could the war have ended with the Axis powers ruling most of the world and America cowering on the other side of the globe? >(http://www.unmuseum.org/hitlerwins.htm) *War of the Worlds - The war begins! Check out the second chapter in our new graphic novel >(http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/wow/cover.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Weird Findings - What do you do if you find pieces of a creature unlike that of anything of this earth? - Charlie Probably your best bet, when trying to identify an unknown animal (extraterrestrial or not) is to contact a biologist professor at a local college or university. They will be familiar with animals in your area and can eliminate some possibilities of an unusual, but earthly species. Most scientists would jump at the chance to identify a new species (even an earthly one) if given the chance. If they find one, they get to write a paper on it and they become famous (at least within the biology world). This goes for fossils too. If you find a fossil, which you think might be something significant you can contact a geologist or paleontologist at a local college or university. It could be an important find. It has happened before: In 1974 a contractor working on a housing development in South Dakota came across some strange bones. His son, who was a college student, recognized them as fossils and contacted a university. Scientists came out and examined the location and immediately discovered the remains of at least four Columbian Mammoths. Later excavations revealed that the location was an ancient sinkhole which had trapped mammoths for centuries and was a treasure trove of important fossils. The housing project was abandoned and a museum built on the location: The South Dakota Mammoth Site near Hot Springs. It's great place to learn about mammoths while visiting South Dakota. Have a question? Click here to send it to the curator. (http://www.unmuseum.org/postmail.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Chicago Kangaroo - On October 18, 1974, two police officers in Chicago's northwest side came upon a most unusual sight: a five-foot-tall kangaroo. The officers attempted to bring it in by handcuffing it, but after giving one of the policemen several hard kicks on the shin, it escaped into the night. Following this incident kangaroo reports started popping up not just in Chicago, but all over the Midwest. Then all of a sudden the reports ceased and the kangaroos, which were never killed or captured, mysteriously disappeared. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Orionid Meteor Shower Makes a Showing - The Orionid meteor shower will be very visible on the night of October 20th. Best viewing may be after midnight when the quarter moon will have set. The Orionid meteors appear to emerge from the constellation Orion, but are actually debris left behind in the wake of comet Halley. You can expect to see 30 to 40 meteors per hour zoom across the sky during this appearance. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *New Analysis Shows Big Headed People Just a Little Bit Smarter - A new analysis of a 1939 study suggests there may indeed be a small correlation between head size and IQ. Jeremy Genovese, an associate professor of human development and educational psychology at Cleveland State University, did the new study by using computers to analyze data collected about 676 male inmates at the Concord Reformatory in Massachusetts. Using statistical methods unavailable to the original researchers, Genovese was able to establish a small, but definite relationship. Genovese admits that head size and IQ may not be dependent on each other, but linked to some other factor, like fitness, that might influence both. Scientists have long tried to connect some physical attribute like head size or head shape with IQ but have gotten mixed results. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Please check local listing for area outside of North America. *Nova: Secrets of the Samurai Sword- Examine the thousand-year-old art and science behind the making of a Japanese warrior's key weapon. On PBS. October 9 at 8 pm. *Ghost in Your Genes- Experts investigate how a mysterious "second genome" helps determine our biological fates. On PBS. October 16 at 8 pm. *Passport to Pluto...and Beyond - NASA's New Horizons mission is exploring the "new frontier" of the outer reaches of our solar system, solving the mysteries of Pluto and beyond. Meet the scientists who have waited their whole lives for this mission and see what surprises they'll reveal. On Science Channel. Oct 09, 9:00 pm, Oct 10, 12:00 am, Oct 10, 4:00 am, Oct 10, 10:00 am, Oct 14, 5:00 pm. *Pacific Abyss- In this real-life adventure, the ABYSS team's challenge is to journey to the bottom of Truk Lagoon, the watery graveyard for 5000 men -- the shipwrecks and sunken fighter planes of the Second World War. On Science Channel. Oct 18, 9:00 pm, Oct 19, 12:00 am, Oct 19, 4:00 am, Oct 19, 10:00 am, Oct 20, 1:00 pm. *Unfolding Universe - A team of astronomers and scientists try to pinpoint the location of a strange presence hidden deep in the core of the galaxy. What they find in this mysterious realm harbors clues to the origin of the world and a future course to the galaxy and universe. On Science Channel. Oct 27, 9:00 pm, Oct 28, 12:00 am, Oct 28, 4:00 am. *Lost Worlds :Al Capone's Secret City- Part of the Lost Worlds series. On The History Channel. Oct 03 09:00PM. *Lost Worlds :Lost Superpower of the Bible- Part of the Lost Worlds series. On The History Channel. Oct 10 09:00PM. *Special :Meteors: Fire in the Sky - Meteors, comets, and asteroids cross the solar system to offer clues about our planet and universe. Can they destroy civilizations? Did they wipe out the dinosaurs? Have they brought life to our planet? And when will the next one hit? Aided by elaborate animation and live-action footage, we learn what these mysterious space rocks really are and imagine what likely happened 65-million years ago, when an object plowed into the Yucatan Peninsula. On The History Channel. Saturday, October 13 08:00 PM; Saturday, October 13 08:00 PM; Sunday, October 14 12:00 AM; Thursday, October 18 08:00 AM; Thursday, October 18 02:00 PM -----------------------------------------------------------------------*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, 2007. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Wed Oct 31 21:07:52 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Thu, 1 Nov 2007 01:07:52 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for November 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for November 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month --------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the News: *Real UFO Under Development - The. Defense department is studying a real flying saucer to be used in tight urban combat situations. The prototype is radio controlled model but it could be scaled up to almost any size according to David Steel, director of GFS Projects which is designing the device for the military. The saucer has a propeller in the center surrounded by the fuselage of the vehicle. Fins along the exterior keep it the body from spinning a give direction control. Having the body surround the propeller keeps it from coming in contact with objects such as trees, cliffs or buildings. Rotor contact with such objects can cause a fiery crash with other hovering vehicles like helicopters. According to a GFS spokesman, this shape makes the craft more stable and easier to fly than a helicopter. Also because it has fewer moving parts than a helicopter, it's easier to build and maintain. *Luna Orbit Mystery Solved - A scientist has solved the mystery of the moons strange orbit. For many years now experts have wondered why the moon has an elongated orbit. Matija Cuk of the University of British Columbia has figured out that the gravity pull of Jupiter and Venus have been the cause. The pull of gravity from these distance worlds is tiny, but the effect has added up over the millions of years the moon has been around. It can be compared to someone pushing a child on a swing. Each push may be tiny, but the effect of a new one at just the right time adds up. These "resonance" effects has pulled the moon out of its circular orbit into an elongated one. Cuk's paper on this subject appears in the October 12 issue of the journal Science. *Workers Find Mammoth Bones - A construction crew working in Stockton, California, unearthed what has turned out to be mammoth bones. The workers were drilling foundations when they came across several large bones. A coroner was called to confirm that the remains were not human then archeologist Paul Hampson collected that bones which will be sent to U.C. Berkeley for examination. Scientists estimate that the remains are 10 to 20 thousand years old. *New Big Dino from Argentina - Scientists have unearthed what seem to be a giant new species of dinosaur in Argentina. The creatures appears to be 105 feet in length and has been given the name Futalognkosaurus dukei after the Indian words for "giant" and "chief," and for Duke Energy Argentina, which assisted in the funding of the giant's excavation. It is estimated the creature roamed the wilds of Patagonian some 88 million years ago. The giant plant eater was a sauropod dinosaur which sported long necks, long tails and walked on four feet. Patagonia also was boosts two of the other largest dinosaurs known: Argentinasaurus at around 115 feet long, and Puertasaurus reuili, which grew up to 131 feet. *Beach Party 164,000 Years Ago - Humans were having clambakes as far back as 164,000 years according to new findings at an excavation in South Africa. At a point bordering the Indian Ocean near Mossel Bay scientists found evidence that they harvested and cooked seafood, collected reddish pigment from ground rocks, and used small pointy technology. This indicates man was eating seafood about 40,000 years earlier than previously believed. The red pigment was probably used for makeup, one of the earliest reports of such use, as was the case with the small bladed tools. According to scientists the presence of all three at this location indicates that the people there were "almost modern." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Science Quote of the Month - "Now, my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose." - John Burden Sanderson Haldane (1892-1964) English geneticist. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *How to Build an Atomic Bomb- With a few parts from a hardware store and some know-how, it is possible to build a weapon of mass destruction. Well, as long as you can find a few of pounds of plutonium on Ebay to fuel it. (http://www.unmuseum.org/buildabomb.htm) *The Big Three: Arthur C. Clarke - The conclusion in our series about the "Big Three" Science fiction writers of the 20th century. (http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/b3clarke.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *Time Speeding Up? - Someone just said to me she thinks the last 3 years have aged everyone more than in the past because the actual minute itself (the unit of time) is speeding up. Can this be possible? - Jennifer E. I suspect your friend is referring to the insertion of "leap seconds" into the calendar in the last few years. If this is the case, it isn't so much that time itself is speeding up, but that the earth's rotation is slowing down. Of course, how you look at it depends on how you define time. We casually define our days as one rotation of our planet, hours as one 24th the length of that day, minutes as one 60th of the length of that hour and seconds as one 60th the length of that minute. If the Earth rotation slows (which it does due to the pull of the moon and sun's gravity on our oceans which create friction between the water and land) the days get longer by a few fractions of a second each year. While this tiny difference is unimportant to most people, it is of great concern to scientists who need to measure things carefully down to the thousandths of a second for many scientific experiments. If the length of a second is changing as the earth slows down it can't be used to compare the results of one experiment with a similar one done years earlier. To solve this problem scientists invented the "physics second." A physics second is length that the second was according to the rotation of our planet in 1900. Scientists then use atomic clocks (that measure time as a function of the change of states in the element cesium) to track time without having to refer to the earth rotation. When the atomic clocks slip out of sync with the rotation of the earth by about a second a "leap second" is inserted into the clocks tracking to keep it aligned with the astronomical day. If you thought of the real value of time as the length of the day, then indeed you might come to the conclusion that time is going faster - after all we are inserting extra fractions of a second into those days so time must have sped up, right? Well, not really. It is probably more accurate to think that time has stayed the same, but our days are getting longer. Have a question? Click here!->(http://www.unmuseum.org/postmail.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Ball Lightning Recollection - In the November 23, 1930 issue of Nature, British scientist Alexander Russell told of his experience with ball lightning: "?I saw two globes of lightning. They were reddish-yellow in color, and appeared to be rotating. One of them struck a building and burst with a loud report, causing the inhabitants to open the windows and look out to see what had happened, but as there was no trace of anything they looked bewildered. The other drifted away slowly. Globular lightning make a slight noise as it drifts about. It was been compared with the purring of a cat?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: Leonid Shower Returns - On November 17 and 18, The Leonid meteor shower reaches its peak on November 17 and 18. Watch for meteors coming from the constellation Leo with the best time to see them after midnight till sun up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: Hoaxer Fools Community with Remote Controlled UFO - A man has been fooling residents of Irvine, California, and the surrounding towns with his radio control model UFO for the last three years, according to The Orange County Register. Linn Murphy owns a three foot wide saucer shaped remote control model aircraft that has been mistaken for an extraterrestrial vehicle numerous times. Though the model only weights a pound, it resembles a huge flying saucer when hovering at 400 in altitude. Flights of the saucer have caused a number of calls to police departments in the area, but as one officer admitted, "There's no ordinance that says it is illegal to fly a super-double-secret gyroscopic UFO in county airspace." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Please check local listing for area outside of North America. Nova: Sputnik Declassified - Top-secret documents rewrite the history of the famous satellite and the early space race. On PBS. November 6 at 8 pm. 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 Science Channel. Nov 10, 8:00 pm Nov 10, 11:00 pm Nov 11, 3:00 am. Brainman - Daniel T. is a "super brain". He can calculate numbers to hundreds of decimal points in seconds and learn new languages in a week. Through a set of challenges against other "super brains," Daniel's amazing abilities are demonstrated. On Science Channel. Nov 03, 9:00 pm Nov 04, 12:00 am Nov 04, 4:00 am. Lost Worlds - Lost Worlds : Jekyll & Hyde - Part of the Lost Worlds series. One of the most frightening horror stories ever written was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Was this story, however, Robert Louis Stevenson's disturbing fantasy or was it based on a series of blood-curdling episodes that took place in the town of Edinburgh? Follow a team of historical detectives who use evidence from recent excavations and historical documents to look under the grand fa?ade of Edinburgh. Watch as an underworld of streets and houses with a blood-soaked history of grave robbers, body-snatchers and unspeakable crimes is uncovered. Computer graphics allows the viewer to fly over, enter the streets, walk through the halls and peer into the Edinburgh of long ago. On The History Channel. Thursday November 01 01:00 AM Lost Worlds : The Age of Airships - Part of the Lost Worlds series. Airships flew years before the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane, yet it has been almost forgotten. The largest aircraft ever built was an airship. The first aerial bombardment of one nation by another was conducted using airships and they still are the only airborne aircraft carriers ever built. Follow the rise and fall of the airship and discover the shining future of air travel that never was. On The History Channel. Wednesday November 07 09:00 PM MonsterQuest: Sasquatch Attack- Part of the MonsterQuest series. Does Canada have its own Bigfoot? Owners of a fly-in fishing cabin report attacks by an unknown creature. Can DNA tests on blood and tissue from the alleged beast reveal its true identity? The test results will surprise you. One-part history, one-part science and one part monster, discover the truth behind these beasts and take a scientific look at legendary creatures around the world. The best evidence available will be examined, from pictures and video, to hair and bones. Scientists will be brought in to tell viewers what the evidence reveals. Ultimately the evidence will reveal the truth....or in some cases continue the mystery. On The History Channel. Wednesday, November 07 10:00 PM Thursday, November 08 02:00 AM Friday, November 09 11:00 PM Saturday, November 10 03:00 AM . The Universe Episode: Beyond the Big Bang - Part of The Universe Series. The universe began with a massive expansion, billions and billions of years ago, and it continues to expand with every passing second. The idea that the universe, and man's very existence, began with a "Big Bang" is no longer a topic of debate among most scientists--it is essentially taken as fact. How has man come to this conclusion, and how has our knowledge evolved so that we can recreate the very first seconds of our universe and all that has developed since? Interviews with the world's leading physicists and historians are woven together with animated recreations and first-person accounts to explain concepts such as the formation of galaxies, the creation of elements and the formation of Earth itself.On The History Channel. November 10 08:00 PM Sunday, November 11 12:00 AM -----------------------------------------------------------------------*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) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Fri Nov 30 21:24:17 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 02:24:17 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] UnMuseum Newsletter for December 2007 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for December 2007 Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month --------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the News: *King Tut on Display - King Tut's mummy was put on public display for the first time last month, some 85 years after boy King's 3,000 year-old tomb was discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. Except for brief examinations by scientists, the mummy has spent most of that time hidden in its sarcophagus in its ancient tomb near the city of Luxor. Egyptian authorities, concerned that the mummy was deteriorating because of the humidity caused by thousands of tourists as they visited his resting place, decided to change the way the mummy is stored. It now will be visible to visitors in a climate controlled environment that will protect what is left of the pharaoh's remains. The mummy has been much damaged over the years, but the King's young face is still clearly visible. *Famous Signing Chimp Dies - Washoe, a chimpanzee thought to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the The Chimpanzee and Human Communications Institute in Washington. She was 42 years old. According to scientists that worked with her she used and understood 250 words of American Sign Language. The chimp first developed the skill in 1967 under the direction of Allen and Beatrix Gardner of the University of Nevada, Reno. Later Washoe in turn taught sign language to three younger chimps. The conclusion that she really understood sign language, however, has been questioned by experts such as MIT linguist Noam Chomsky who contents that she simply learned to perform to please humans and receive rewards. *Never to Young to Start Paleontology - A three-year-old boy discovered a 10,000 year-old mammoth tooth last month. According to WISN.Com, young Kaleb Kidd spotted an unusual looking rock on an outing with his grandfather near La Crosse, Wisconsin. His grandfather, Gary Kidd, knew that the object resembled a woolly mammoth tooth as he had found one himself ten years ago. The find was taken to the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center at the University of Wisconsin and they confirmed that it was a mammoth tooth. It measures 3 inches wide by 6 inches long and is between 10,000 and 30,000 years old. Mammoths were vegetarians and had large flat teeth, like cows, for grinding up grass. *Excavated Temple Shows Advanced Peruvian Culture - A 4,000-year-old temple discovered near Peru's northern desert coast suggests the early civilization there was more advanced that archeologists had previously thought. The Ventarron temple, a bit larger than a basketball court, had painted walls and a white-and-red mural of a deer hunt. The building's "harmonious" design is more like that of later temples according to Walter Alva, a prominent Peruvian archaeologist. He also noted that the temple shows the use of advanced materials like mud brick rather than just rock. Alva is also well known for his work at Peru's famous Moche Lords of Sipan tombs.(http://www.unmuseum.org/raiders.htm) *Was Indian Volcano the Dino Killer? - New evidence may support the idea that a massive volcanic eruption in India may have dealt the death blow to the dinosaurs, not a giant asteroid, as has been the prevailing theory. The Deccan Traps volcano in west-central India had its most massive eruption almost at the same time the famous asteroid hit in the Gulf of Mexico, according to an international team of geologists that has been examining lava flows from the event. The volcano also had a slightly smaller eruption 280,000 later, that may have slowed the recovery of life on the planet. In both cases the volcano would have belched massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the planet's atmosphere rapidly changing the climate. It is this change that scientists think may have driven the dinosaurs to extinction. Researcher Gerta Keller of Princeton University and her colleagues presented their findings to a meeting of the Geological Society of America last month. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Science Quote of the Month - "We know very little, and yet it is astonishing that we know so much, and still more astonishing that so little knowledge can give us so much power" - Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *Nessie of Loch Ness - Check out our new page on Nessie before going to see the new movie "The Legend of the Waterhorse" > (http://www.unmuseum.org/lochness.htm) *War of the Worlds: Thunderchild - The third chapter in our all new graphic online novel. (http://www.unmuseum.org/graphicclassic/wow/index.htm) *New Feature: Related Links- Check out our new Related Links feature on the right-hand side of most UnMuseum pages. Select from the titles here to find other great Museum pages with similar topics. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Silver Screen : *The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep - The Loch Ness Monster gets some screen time in this new fantasy film from Jay Russell based on the novel The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith. A Scottish boy finds a mysterious egg which hatches into a sea serpent. When the creature takes up residence in nearby Loch Ness, a legend is born. Before going to see it you should probably bone up on your lake monster background by checking out our article on Nessie of Loch Ness.(http://www.unmuseum.org/lochness.htm) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator: *A WOW in SETI - What do you know about the WOW signal, and have scientists found any possible source (other than aliens)? Could it have even been faked? Or is it more likely to be a genuine signal from aliens? If that's the case, why haven't we heard any more? - Jonathan . This signal (called the "WOW" signal because that's what the scientist who first saw the data wrote on the printout) was observed by the "Big Ear" radio telescope at Ohio State University on August 15, 1977. The Big Ear was part of a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project run by the college for almost 30 years. The signal was the closest thing to an alien contact that the project - or anybody else involved in SETI - has ever found. There are several things that make the signal so interesting. The first is the strength. It is extremely high: The most powerful signal ever received from space from an unknown source. Second is its duration. Almost exactly 72 seconds. This is significant because the Big Ear was a fixed radio antenna which swept the sky as the earth turned and 72 seconds was exactly the length of time it would take for the antenna to sweep by a pinpoint source in space. Also the growth and decay pattern of the signal is exactly what one would expect for a fixed celestial source, making it unlikely it was an earthbound transmitter. Third is its frequency: It is very near the frequency of hydrogen and very concentrated. The hydrogen "line" is considered to be by most scientists the logical frequency to choose if you where trying to broadcast to another civilization. The fact that that signal did not extend much above or below that frequency is a strong indication that the broadcast was artificial, as natural sources a rarely so concentrated. Another intriguing aspect of this signal is that is that it was only observed from one of the Big Ear's two "horns" but not the other. They scanned the same section of sky about two minutes apart, so in that short period something, or somebody, stopped the transmission. As fascinating as the signal was, it has never been found again despite many researchers revisiting that location in the sky using, in many cases, much more sensitive equipment. This both deepens the mystery and makes it almost impossible to hope for a solution. The follow up surveys have almost eliminated the possibly of some weird natural source. However, the lack of any additional signals also makes it seem very unlikely that aliens are trying to contact us. Most scientists believe that they definitely would try more than once (although we ourselves have only sent a sent an outbound signal once). The only way we may have missed their additional signals, if they exist, is if they are being repeated at very long intervals (at least 14 hours apart). In science, unless something is repeatable, it doesn't count for much. Some have suggested that the signal may have been a man-made space probe that the SETI team wasn't aware of, but there is no way of proving that one way or another. So, the mystery continues. We can only hope that if E.T. was trying to contact us, he tries to phone again, soon. Have a question? Click here to send it to the curator. Have your own questions? Go to http://www.unmuseum.org/postmail.htm -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *The End of the Blue Book - December 17, 1969, marks the end of the U.S. Air Force's investigation into the flying saucer phenomenon. Project Blue Book had been operating in various names and forms since 1947, investigating such incidents as the crash of a U.S. military aircraft after it chased a UFO in 1948. According to its final director, Edward Condon, however, the project was not worth continuing as it "cannot be justified either on the ground of national security of in the interest of science." Many critics of the closure disagreed, however, pointing out that of the many UFO cases that the project had investigated in depth, one-third could never be explained. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Meteor Shower Peaks - One of the finest meteor showers of the year appears this mouth: The Geminids. They should peak on the 13th and 14th with a rate of up to 80 shooting stars an hour. Look for them in the early evening in the east-northeast coming from the constellation Gemini. *Comet Coming Through! - If you have a good pair of binoculars you might be able to catch a glimpse of Comet Holmes in the sky in the constellation Perseus (located in the northeast between the W-shape of Cassiopeia and Taurus and the Pleiades cluster). It will appear as a fuzzy object among the stars. The "fuzz" is gas expelled by the comet as it is heated up by the sun. The gas bubble expelled by Holmes is now the largest object in the solar system. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Governor Talks about UFO Experience - Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington acknowledged he observed a triangular shaped UFO in the skies over a mountain range near Phoenix, Arizona in 1997. According to a statement Symington made to CNN "It was truly breathtaking." The object was witnessed by hundreds of people, said the former governor. He dismissed a response from the Air Force that what had been seen was high-altitude flares "because flares don't fly in formation." Symington added, "This is indicative of the attitude from official channels. We get explanations that fly in the face of the facts. Explanations like weather balloons, swamp gas and military flares." The former governor moderated a discussion last month at the National Press Club where he discussed the "Phoenix Lights" incident. He was joined by other former high-ranking military and government officials who will shared evidence from their own UFO experiences. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Please check local listing for area outside of North America. *Nova: 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 25 at 8 p.m. *Meltdown: A Global Warming - Global warming is the hottest scientific topic of the age. And yet despite all the hype, it is still highly controversial. Paul Rose, who has spent much of the past 10 years organizing expeditions to examine global warming, looks at the issues. On Science Channel. Dec 06, 9:00 pm; Dec 07, 12:00 am; Dec 07, 4:00 am; Dec 07, 10:00 am; Dec 08, 1:00 pm; Dec 10, 7:00 pm; Dec 11, 2:00 am; Dec 16, 9:00 am *Supermassive Black Holes - Scientists have discovered something even more powerful than black holes - supermassive black holes. Far from being agents of destruction, these giant black holes are now believed to be the seeds from which all galaxies grow On Science Channel. Dec 18, 9:00 pm Dec 19, 12:00 am Dec 19, 4:00 am Dec 19, 10:00 am Dec 23, 5:00 pm. *Secret History of the Freemasons - An unprecedented inside look into one of the world's most mysterious organizations: the Freemasons. Their inner workings, history, and secrets will be uncovered and centuries old rituals are filmed for the first time ever. On the Discovery Channel. Dec 15, 8:00 pm Dec 16, 12:00 am. *Noah's Ark: The True Story - Search for the truth behind the story of Noah and his ark. Find out how Noah could have built such a structure and whether or not a great flood took place on the earth. The search for remains of the ark continues today. On the Discovery Channel. Dec 17, 8:00 pm Dec 18, 12:00 am. *Ancient Discoveries Episode: 12 - Machines of the Gods- Gods and religion played an extremely important role in antiquity. The problem with so many religions being worshipped by the Greeks and Romans was how would the priests of these temples pay for their upkeep? Great scholars such as Philon, Ctesibius and Heron were patronized by the temples to create "magic". In return, they created intriguing and mind blowing objects. It was a heavy mix of religion and science. One of the most famous illusions was found in Alexandria at the temple of Serapis, where an iron chariot was suspended in mid air. It appeared to be the work of the gods. On The History Channel. December 06 10:00 PM Friday, December 07 02:00 AM Saturday, December 15 12:00 PM . *Modern Marvels - Secret Luftwaffe Aircraft of WWII - German military aircraft designs were decades ahead of their Allied counterparts. To insure Luftwaffe superiority, their designers tested advanced concepts including swept-wing and vertical take-off aircraft and stealth bombers. Using computer-generated images and archival footage, we trace development of Hitler's airborne arsenal. On The History Channel. Friday, December 14 07:00 PM. *Vampires Secrets - Since Bram Stoker first published his novel Dracula in 1897, the world's most popular vampire has made his appearance in 44 languages. The vampire myth however, is much older than Count Dracula, popping up from Athens to Beijing almost 1000 years before the Transylvanian legend. Vampire legends have two things in common: drinking blood and returning from the dead. From the Bible and ancient Mesopotamian history to blood drinking societies in New York, we reveal the amazing truth behind one of the most terrifying legends in history. On The History Channel. Saturday, December 15 10:00 PM Sunday, December 16 02:00 AM. -----------------------------------------------------------------------*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, 2007. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org Mon Dec 31 18:49:52 2007 From: unmuseum_newsletter at unmuseum.org (A Monthly Update on the World of Science) Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 23:49:52 +0000 Subject: [Unmuseum_newsletter] The UnMuseum Newsletter for January 2008 Message-ID: The UnMuseum Newsletter for January 2008Science Over the Edge A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month--------------------------------------------------------------------------------In the News: *Dino Fossil Gives Unprecedented Insight - Scientists are celebrating the amazing discovery of one of the finest and rarest dinosaur specimens ever unearthed - a partially intact dino mummy found in the Hell Creek Formation Badlands of North Dakota by 16-year-old fossil hunter Tyler Lyson. The fossilized include not just bones, but fossilized soft tissues like skin, tendons and ligaments. Most importantly, it was the first-ever find of a dinosaur where the skin 'envelope' had not collapsed onto the skeleton. This has allowed scientists to calculate muscle volume and mass for the first time. Scientists are even hoping that some of the original chemical makeup of the skin can eventually be recovered from the fossil giving them an invaluable insight the biology of these long dead creatures. *Scientists Threaten Rats - Scientists are planning to drive the rats off of 'Rat Island' which is part of the Aleutian chain, off the coast of Alaska. Rats first came to the island in 1780 after a rodent-infested Japanese ship ran aground. They have killed of all the bird life by eating eggs out of this nests creating a avian 'dead zone.' Scientists plan to reverse this by dropping a form of rat poison onto the uninhabited island that will thin their blood causing the rodents to bleed to death. If the project is successful 'Rat Island' will be the largest isle ever cleared of rats. Rats are an particularity invasive alien species and are thought to be responsible for between 40 percent and 60 percent of all seabirds and reptile extinctions. Under favorable conditions a pair of rats can produce more than 5,000 descendants in one year. *Captain Kidd's Ship Found - The remains of a ship once captained by the pirate William Kidd have been found off the tiny Dominican Republic island of Catalina by an underwater archaeology team from Indiana University. The Quedagh Merchant, a ship abandoned by the Kidd in 1699, was located by scientists in the crystal clear waters, apparently previously undiscovered and unmolested by vandals. 'When I first looked down and saw it, I couldn't believe everybody missed it for 300 years,' said Charles Beeker, one of the team members. 'I've been on thousands of wrecks and this is one of the first where it's been untouched by looters.' The Dominican government has contracted the university to study the wreckage and convert area into an underwater preserve, where it will be accessible to divers and snorkelers. *Giant Scorpion would have Dwarfed a Man - A fossil found trapped in 390-million-year-old rock suggests that there once roamed a species of scorpion on Earth that was eight feet in length. Although only the claw of this gigantic creature has been found, comparisons to other similar species suggest it was the largest of its type. It also provides more evidence that some of these creatures were a lot larger in the past than today. 'We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches, and jumbo dragonflies. But we never realized until now just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were,' said Simon Braddy, a University of Bristol paleontologist and one the researchers involved in the discovery. The fossil was found in a quarry near Prum, Germany, which had probably been part of an ancient swamp. The remains were part of a species of Eurypterids, or ancient sea scorpions, are believed to be ancestors of today's scorpions and possibly all arachnids including spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks. *'T-Rex of the Ocean' Found in Norway - Scientists have found the fossils of what appears to be a new species of extinct plesiosaur on the remote on the Norwegian island of Svalbard. The teeth, skull fragments and vertebrae of a reptile recovered allow the researches to estimate that he creature was nearly 40 feet long. Some scientists are calling the 150-million-year-old short-necked plesiosaur, which was the size of a bus and had teeth like cucumbers, the 'Tyrannosaurus Rex of the oceans.' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *Science Quote of the Month - 'Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know.' - Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What's New at the Museum: *Surprising Science - Check out our new hall with stories of amazing inventions, mysterious geniuses and little known technology > (http://www.unmuseum.org/surscience.htm) *Notes from the Curators: Mad Scientists' Club - The tale of seven crazy propellor-head kids and the man who invented them. >(http://www.unmuseum.org/notescurator/msc.htm)*New Feature: Navigation Bar- Check out our new Navigation Bar feature on the left-hand side of most UnMuseum pages. Select from the areas here to find other great Museum pages. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ask the Curator:*Expansion of Universe vs. Speed of Light - I read 'K-Pax IV,' a fictional book, and an alien character suggested that light only travels because the universe is expanding. She suggests that light cannot exceed the speed of light because that's the speed of the expanding universe and if the light exceeds that speed then it's going out of the universe's bounds. Is this somewhat true or completely fictional? - Melqui In reviewing the literature on this subject I see no credible theories that connect the expansion of the universe, as we know it, to the speed of light. Usually when we talk about the 'expansion of the universe' we are referring to the way things in the universe get farther away from each other over the course of time. This started with the 'Big Bang' and continues today. Recently this speed was measured to be about 71 (km/s)/megaparsec. That means that if two objects in the universe are a megaparsec apart (3261.5 light years) they will be moving away from each other at 71 kilometers a second.This speed is well below that of light so there doesn't seem to be a direct connection. In addition, the effect is additive so that at great distances - billions of megaparsecs apart - two objects can actually be moving away from each other at more that the speed of light. This would seem to defy Einstein's Theory, but remember that the movement of these objects is because they are just being carried along by the expansion of space, not because the objects themselves have been accelerated. There is also recent evidence that the rate that the universe is expanding is increasing for some unknown reason. This is also unlike that speed of light which almost all scientists believe is a constant. Even the few people that suggest light speed may not be a constant speculate that it is slowing down, not speeding up. Some future theory may find a connection between the speed of light and the expansion of the universe, but it is not obvious at point in time. Still, we do not know everything about the universe - in fact we do not even know what we don't know - so there is always the possibility of new discovery over the horizon that would change everything. Have a question? Click here to send it to the curator. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In History: *Spring Loaded Criminal - In January of 1838 the Lord Mayor of London formed a vigilance committee to bring a bizarre criminal to justice. For months a figure referred to as 'Spring Heeled Jack' had been terrorizing the city attacking women and grabbing newspaper headlines. Witnesses was said he was thin, strong with fiery eyes and could spit blue flame from his mouth. He always escaped the law through the use of springs on the heels of his boots that allowed him to make enormous jumps. Despite a citywide dragnet, this mysterious marauder was never brought to justice. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the Sky: *Mercury Visible - January 22nd is an excellent day to try get a view of the difficult to find planet Mercury. Look in the southwest sky just after sunset. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Observed: *Fireballs Mistaken for Flying Saucer - Residents along the coast of Canada and the Northeastern United States were startled last month by the appearance of 'orange flares' in the even sky on December 10th. Calls to the police about the fireballs included reports ranging from flying saucers to crashing aircraft. Authorities are sure the sightings can be attributed to the booster stage of a rocket that had lifted a spy satellite into orbit earlier that day. 'It wasn't a flying saucer, or an aircraft or green men or nothing,' commented The Royal Canadian Mounted Police media relations spokesman Sgt. Derek Strong. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Tube: Please check local listing for area outside of North America. *Nova: Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold - Starting in the 1600s, scientists investigate the nature of cold through theory and sometimes-explosive experiments. On PBS. January 8 at 8 pm*Walking with Prehistoric Beasts - Repeat of this excellent story of non-dinosaur prehistoric animals aired in a marathon. Episodes: The New Dawn - Land of the Giants - Mammoth Journey - Land of the Giants; On Discovery Channel. Starting Jan 6th, 6PM ET/PT.*The Mystery of the Human Hobbit - It was the most striking scientific discovery of last year. An entirely new species of mini-human found on an island in Indonesia. Is the hobbit a new species that transforms our view of evolution, or is it simply a very small, modern human being? On the Discovery Channel. Jan 07, 8:00 pm; Jan 08, 12:00 am. ET/PT*Robosapiens - Robots may soon be a part of every household. Robots with emotions, robots that speak, play sports, fight crime and help astronauts in space. Find out just how smart a machine can be made, and who wil be in control. On Science Channel. Jan 03, 8:00 pm; Jan 03, 11:00 pm; Jan 04, 3:00 am; Jan 04, 9:00 am; Jan 05, 12:00 pm.*Prophets Of Science Fiction - Examine the strange lives of the visionaries of science fiction. The secrets of their uncanny ability to foretell the future are revealed. On Science Channel. Jan 10, 8:00 pm; Jan 10, 11:00 pm; Jan 11, 3:00 am; Jan 11, 9:00 am; Jan 12, 12:00 pm.*Science of Star Wars War, Weapons and The Force - From the Future Force Warrior to the Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton, more fighters are equipped with Storm Trooper-like gear. Find out how laser blasters are being tested by the US military for use as directed energy. On Science Channel. Jan 12, 6:00 pm; Jan 12, 7:00 pm; Jan 12, 8:00 pm; Jan 12, 11:00 pm; Jan 13, 2:00 am; Jan 13, 3:00 am.*Mysteries of the Moon- For thousands of years, mankind has found comfort in its presence. It's been a lantern for nighttime travelers, a timekeeper for farmers, and a location finder for sailors at sea. For some cultures, it's even been a god. It's the only cosmic body ever visited by human beings. From afar, the Moon's luminance has captivated us since the beginning of time. And a closer look at the beacon in the dark sky reveals an ever-present source of myth, intrigue, controversy and unsolved mysteries. The field of science may cast an empirical light on some things about the Universe, but lunar experts are the first to admit they don't have all the answers when it comes to our Moon. This episode explores the theories behind Lunar Transient Phenomena that have left scientists stumped for centuries; takes to the Canadian waters to see how the Moon effects our planet through tides; and dusts off some age-old myths and weighs arguments that without our Moon, humanity may not even exist. On The History Channel. January 01 09:00 PM; Wednesday, January 02 01:00 AM ET/PT.*Ancient Marvels Episode: Ancient Computer? - Journey back in time for an eye-opening look at the amazing ancient roots of technologies we like to think of as modern. New research suggests that many of the inventions of the last 200 years may, in fact, have already been known to the ancients. In this hour, we explore the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient machine that was discovered deep in the Aegean Sea. Could it perhaps have been an ancient computer? Could Archimedes have had a hand in its creation? On The History Channel. Saturday, Thursday, January 10 10:00 PM; Friday, January 11 02:00 AM. -----------------------------------------------------------------------*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, 2008. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: