Strange Science
Page 2
One of the first men to display that foresight was Irish satirist Jonathan Swift. In his 1726 novel Gulliver’s Travels, the hero travels to a strange island full of futuristic gadgets—one of them a giant “Engine” containing “Bits” that allow even “the most ignorant Person to write Books in Philosophy, Poetry, Politicks, Law, Mathematicks, and Theology.” It’s all “linked together by slender Wires.” Swift basically described electricity, computers, and the Internet hundreds of years before they were invented.
Even more impressive, Swift wrote about “two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve around Mars.” How did he know that Mars had two moons 150 years before they were discovered? He wasn’t psychic (as some assumed), just logical: the two planets closest to the Sun have no moons, ours has one, and it was known even then that the large outer planets have several moons. Mars, Swift concluded, would most likely have two. His foresight was spot-on.
10 CLOSEST STARS TO EARTH
1.The Sun
(0.000016 light-years)
2.Proxima Centauri
(4.2 light-years)
3.Alpha Centauri A
(4.3 light-years)
4.Alpha Centauri B
(4.3 light-years)
5.Barnard’s Star
(5.96 light-years)
6.Wolf 359
(7.6 light-years)
7.Lalande
(8.11 light-years)
8.Alpha Sirius
(8.7 light-years)
9.Beta Sirius
(8.7 light-years)
10.A Luyten
(8.93 light-years)
TRUE TV SCIENCE
Game of Thrones (2011–). This fantasy series features surreal weapons and unbelievable ways of killing off our favorite characters, but surprisingly, some of it is plausible. Season Six mentions a mystical sword made of meteorite. Ancient Egyptians, before they had the technology to smelt iron, crafted swords and daggers from meteoritic iron. King Tutankhamun, Mughal Emperor Jahangir, and Attila the Hun had such weapons. And when the character Khal Drogo kills his brother-in-law Viserys Targaryen by crowning his head in molten gold, it recalled natives of South America who poured hot gold down the throat of a gold-taxing Spanish governor in 1599. (The fi re over which Drogo heats the gold would have to be an impossible 1,947 °F, but if he added lead to the mixture, that would lower its melting point and make the storyline feasible.)
The Walking Dead (2010–). In this postapocalyptic series, dead people are reanimated in the form of uncoordinated, confused zombies. In reality, Haitian voodoo priests have apparently turned people into the “walking dead.” They administer a nerve toxin from pufferfish that brings the victim to the brink of death, paralyzed and smelling rotten. Then the witch doctor may use a poisonous plant called angel’s trumpet to “resurrect” them, leaving them delirious and sometimes braindamaged, yet able to walk.
Penny Dreadful (2014–2016). Considering the show’s werewolves, witches, and other fi ctional characters, it’s hard to believe that some of its storylines may have a factual basis. The character of Dr. Victor Frankenstein, for instance, uses dead bodies he fi nds via the black market to conduct experiments with electricity, ultimately bringing them back to life. In the 1790s, Italian doctor Luigi Galvani electrifi ed dead animals to make them twitch—and in doing so, pioneered the creepy-sounding fi eld of electrophysiology. And resurrectionists did steal freshly dead bodies from graveyards to deliver them to medical “professionals.”
NOT AS GREAT AS IT SOUNDS
Sexsomnia is an actual medical condition in which a person performs a sexual act while asleep. Sleep sex has even resulted in criminal charges being brought against sleeping people who had sex with someone who wasn’t willing, or with a minor, while being completely unaware of it.
ANTARCTIC JARGON
Living as a research scientist at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica must be a unique experience. And it has its own lingo.
BOOMERANG: An outgoing airplane flight that has to return immediately after takeoff due to bad weather.
GREEN BRAIN: A small green notebook issued to all researchers.
IVAN: Short for “ice van,” it’s the large, iceworthy bus that transfers researchers from one building to another.
APPLES: Warming huts—red, fiberglass, domed igloos.
POLIE: Research workers (as in “South Polies”).
ODEN: Named after the powerful Norse god Odin, it’s a huge icebreaking vessel used on the water channels where the supply ships enter.
GERBIL GYM: The workout room, which consists almost entirely of treadmills.
FRESHIES: The weekly food delivery from New Zealand.
SOUTHERN: There are two bars for the scientists off duty. The Southern (short for Southern Exposure) allows smoking; the other bar, Gallagher’s, doesn’t.
WINFLY: The day-long switchover from the winter crew (Feb.–Oct.) to the summer crew (Oct.–Feb.). It’s short for “winter fly-in.”
YAK TRACKS: Traction-providing grips that go on the bottom of boots.
BIG RED AND BUNNY BOOTS: The two main pieces of standard issue ECW, or “extreme cold weather” gear. Big Red is a big puffy coat; Bunny Boots are white rubber boots.
UPPERCASE: The three-story dormitory researchers live in.
THE ICE: Antarctica itself
FNG: Pronounced “fingee,” it means a new person on the station. (NG stands for “new guy.” You’ll have to guess what the F stands for.)
BIOHACK U
Biohackers don’t hack computers; they hack their own bodies, looking for ways to upgrade their bodies using technology. “We hack our bodies with artifacts from the future-present,” states one biohacking website. Good idea? Well, Dr. Anthony Guiseppi-Elie, professor of bioengineering at Texas A&M University, says, “Anyone doing this should stop!”
IMPLANTABLE COMPASS
Southpaw, designed by electronic engineer and biohacker Brian McEvoy, is a miniature compass to be implanted under your skin. An ultrathin whisker sticks out of Southpaw’s rounded titanium shell. When you face north, the whisker tickles the underside of your skin. “It would be best located near the shoulder,” says McEvoy, who plans to be the guinea pig for testing his own device.
INTERNAL EARPHONES
Rich Lee, 34-year-old salesman and biohacker, wears sound-transmitting magnets implanted in his outer ears and a wire coil around his neck that converts sounds into electromagnetic fields. Those fields thus become “internal headphones.” With a media player, amplifier, and battery pack hidden under his shirt, Lee can listen to music all day long with no one the wiser. He can also “hear” heat from a distance and detect magnetic fields and Wi-Fi signals.
How to Hypnotize
a Chicken
If you ever get a chance to place a chicken under your spell, give it a try—it’s fascinating to watch, and harmless and painless for the chicken. (Who knows—you might even win a bar bet.)
STEP 1. Techniques vary widely from place to place. Some methods call for laying the chicken gently on its side, with one wing under its body, holding it in place with one hand so that your other hand is free. Others say that turning the chicken upside down, lying on its back with its feet up in the air, is best. Either way, the disoriented bird will need a second to regain its bearings, but once it does it will not be bothered by being in this unfamiliar position.
STEP 2. Some hypnotists advocate placing a finger on the ground at the tip of the chicken’s beak and drawing a line four inches long in the dirt extending out from the beak and parallel to it (picture Pinocchio’s nose growing). Trace your finger back and forth along the line for several seconds. Other practitioners say that drawing a circle, not lines, in the dirt around the chicken’s head works best. Still others say all you need to do is stroke the chicken on its head and neck with your index finger. If one method doesn’t seem to work, try another.
STEP 3. Whichever method you try, keep at it for several seconds. That’s about how long it takes for a chicken to go i
nto a trance. Its breathing and heart rate will slow considerably, and its body temperature may even drop a few degrees.
STEP 4. You can now let go of the chicken. It will lie perfectly still in a trancelike state for several seconds, several minutes, or even an hour or more before it comes out of the trance on its own. You can also awaken the chicken yourself by clapping your hands or nudging it gently. (The unofficial world record for a chicken trance: 3 hours, 47 minutes.)
STEP 5. If holding a chicken in one hand while hypnotizing it with the other proves too difficult, another technique calls for putting the chicken in the same position it goes into when it’s asleep—with its head under one wing—and rocking it gently to induce a trance.
CHICKEN
SCIENCE
Just as there are different theories as to which method of chicken hypnotism is best (see previous page), so too are opinions divided as to what exactly is going on with the chicken when it is being hypnotized.
•The trance could be a panic “freeze” response, similar to a deer stopping in the middle of the road when it sees headlights.
•It may also be an example of tonic immobility, a reflex similar to an opossum’s ability to go into a trancelike state when it feels threatened. Chickens roost in the branches of trees or other high places at night; the trance reflex, if that is indeed what it is, may help the chicken to remain perfectly still, silent, and (hopefully) unnoticed as foxes, raccoons, and other predators prowl below.
Used-Less Invention
GRAVITY-POWERED SHOE
AIR CONDITIONER
PATENT NUMBER: 5,375,430
INVENTED IN: 1994
DESCRIPTION: The air-conditioned shoe can either cool your foot or warm it up, depending on your preference. Hidden inside the shoe’s heel are expanding and compressing chambers powered by the natural pressures that occur while walking. With each step, networks of heat-exchange coils work with the chambers to alter the temperature of the air surrounding your foot. End result: A sweat-free (but bulky and cumbersome) shoe.
“The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.”
—John Lasseter
“Science” Museums
These places define “science” and “museum” loosely.
BARBED WIRE MUSEUM
Location: La Crosse, Kansas
Background: Sure, barbed wire is an important part of American history. It provided an inexpensive way for “sodbusters” to keep cattle off their land, effectively ending the open range. But wire’s wire, right? Apparently not. This museum holds 18-inch segments of more than 1,000 different types of barbed wire, lining its walls from floor to ceiling. Don’t miss the real bird’s nest made almost completely from bits of barbed wire (it weighs 72 pounds) and a piece of barbed wire from the top of the Berlin Wall.
SPAM MUSEUM
Location: Austin, Minnesota
Background: Next door to the top-secret facility where the Hormel Corporation makes Spam, fans of the canned meat can see a giant Spamburger sandwich (with its own 17-foot spatula), visit the 3,390-can “Wall of Spam,” don hardhats and work on a simulated Spam production line, and marvel at the 4,700 cans that document 70 years of Spam’s worldwide popularity. Check out the talking wax figure of company founder George Hormel.
EXPENDABLE ORGANS
APPENDIX
Only some mammals have an appendix—rodents, rabbits, marsupials and primates (including humans). Located near the junction of the small and large intestines, it is a no-longer-useful stump of a much larger pouch.
WHAT IT’S FOR: The appendix was once part of a larger cellulose-digesting pouch left over from ancient times when humans were mostly herbivores.
WHY WE CAN DO WITHOUT IT: Although some scientists have recently speculated that the appendix might carry a reservoir of useful gut microorganisms, humans can certainly live without it. When an appendix gets infected and bursts, the spread of toxic fluid can kill the patient. It’s also possible to get appendix cancer.
SIDE EFFECTS OF REMOVAL? A small number of patients may develop infections or have reactions to anesthesia, but compared to the risks of not taking out an infected appendix, the risks are pretty low.
Mystery Manuscript
When Wilfrid Voynich purchased a strange, antiquated manuscript from Roman Jesuits in Italy in 1912, he was fascinated by its mysterious drawings and elegant script in a language that no one had ever seen before. He took his so-called cipher manuscript to countless cryptography experts—all of whom have failed to crack the code even to this day. The nearly 250 pages are filled with illustrations of unknown plants, naked women swimming in what appear to be glass tubes, and zodiac signs in odd arrangements, all accompanied by handwritten text no one can decipher.
For hundreds of years, no one has been able to explain the manuscript’s origins and meaning. A cover letter found inside the manuscript speculated that the author was Roger Bacon, a 13th-century English friar and natural philosopher. Other candidates include John Dee, a 17th-century mathematician and philosopher, or his associate Edward Kelley, who may have made the manuscript as a hoax in order to defraud the Bohemian emperor Rudolf II. However, radiocarbon dating of the paper shows that it was probably produced in the early 15th century, which eliminates all three men from the running.
Others suggest that the manuscript was the work of a medieval charlatan who was trying to impress a client, or that it is simply gibberish written by a crazy person. Still others claim the writer was channeling teachings from spirits or even aliens from the Pleiades stars. The true author of the Voynich manuscript may never be unveiled, but a facsimile of the book is available online if you think you’ve got what it takes to solve a puzzle that has flummoxed the world’s finest cryptographers for centuries. (Sure, you do…)
Scientists have figured out how to turn sugar—cheap, plentiful sugar—into a lab-created substance called graphene. It’s now the single strongest substance in the world, yet it’s also completely flexible. Produced in sheets of treated carbon that are just one atom thick, graphene may be used in touchscreens, lighting, and much more.
“I predict the Internet will
soon go spectacularly
supernova and in 1996
catastrophically collapse.”
—ROBERT METCALFE,
INVENTOR OF ETHERNET, 1995
STRANGE MEDICAL CONDITION
SUBJECT: A 49-year-old man in Brazil
CONDITION: “Pathological generosity”
STORY: In August 2013, the medical journal Neurocase published a report by Brazilian doctors about a 49-year-old man, referred to only as “Mr. A,” who had undergone a bizarre personality change after suffering a stroke. The change: he could not stop himself from giving things to people. That included buying candy, food, and gifts for kids on the street and giving away his money to people he hardly knew. The man was so prone to “pathological generosity,” the report said, that over the course of just a few years his behavior put a serious financial strain on his family, especially after it caused him to lose his job as a manager at a large corporation. The doctors said they believed the bizarre symptoms were caused by damage the stroke did to an area of the man’s brain (the subcortical region of the frontal lobe—for you neuroscientists playing along at home) that is known to take part in the regulation of human behavior. They added that Mr. A’s was the only known case of “pathological generosity” ever recorded.
The Hand of Glory
If you’re familiar with Harry Potter, then you remember the Hand of Glory, a magic weapon that Draco Malfoy acquires. Strangely enough, back in the Middle Ages, the Hand of Glory was considered actual science by some. Here’s how it (supposedly) worked: When an executed criminal was still hanging from the gallows, a burglar would sneak up and cut off the dead man’s right hand. Later the burglar would drain the blood from the hand and wrap it in a piece of cloth. The hand was “pickled in salt, and the urine of man, woman, dog, horse and mare; smoked with her
bs and hay for a month; hung on an oak tree for three nights running, then laid at a crossroads, then hung on a church door for one night.” The final step: dip the pickled appendage in fat (best to use the corpse of a criminal) and voilà—the Hand of Glory is ready.
When the burglar broke into a home, he was supposed to light the hand like a candle and recite a verse, after which the home’s dwellers would fall into a deep sleep so he could burgle the night away in peace. Here it is:
Let those who rest more deeply sleep,
Let those awake their vigils keep,
O Hand of Glory, shed thy light,
Direct us to our spoil tonight.
NYE’S BALLET
SHOES
Here’s a strange patent from our
“Dressed By Geniuses” files.
SCIENTIST: Bill Nye
PATENT No. US 6895694 B2: “Toe Shoes”
STORY: The “Science Guy” holds the patent for a toe shoe with a special “toe box” that’s “capable of providing support to a ballet dancer’s foot, toes, and ankle during en pointe dancing.” Why did Bill Nye invent a better ballet shoe? Because he’s a scientist who saw a problem (while filming a segment for his TV show at a Seattle ballet theater) that he knew he could fix: “These women, they’re 22 years old, and they have three or four surgeries already…The toe shoe has not changed in centuries. So I just got to thinking about it.” (Nye was awarded the patent, but it’s uncertain if any of his toe shoes have been manufactured.)