Strange Science
Page 11
THE SCIENCE BEHIND TOYS
SLIME
Toy slime—sold by Mattel from the 1970s to the 1990s—is what’s called a non-Newtonian fluid. That means it changes density depending on how much pressure is applied. Use a light touch, and a non-Newtonian fluid feels as thin as water. Press hard, and it feels thick. In slime, it’s the ratio of polymer to gelling agent that makes it a non-Newtonian fluid. Usually, that’s a 5-to-1 ratio of polyvinyl alcohol (the polymer) to borax (the gelling agent); the rest is water, fragrance, and coloring.
MAGNA DOODLE
What lets you draw on a Magna Doodle time and time again? There’s a layer of honeycombed plastic under the top screen, and each honeycomb cell contains thickened water and magnetic particles. When the magnet on the pen is drawn over the screen, it pulls the particles to the surface, and the water solution is thick enough that they can’t float back down. (The solution is also colored white so that the particles are more visible.) When the picture is erased, a magnetic bar along the bottom pulls all the particles back down; the water’s thickness keeps them from floating up until the pen is used again.
WHO’S YOUR
DADDY?
As geneticists have been explaining for decades, when a mommy and daddy love each other very much, the daddy gives the mommy the genetic material required to make a baby. (This also sometimes happens if they don’t love each other.) In male lineages (father to son), the Y chromosome’s DNA sequencing remains unchanged for the most part, save a few mutations across generations.
In 2003 scientists studied blood samples from across Asia and found a peculiar trend: a common Y chromosome surfaced across 16 diverse populations. Using deductive reasoning and generational mathematics, they estimated that this specific Y chromosome became embedded into genetic codes approximately 1,000 years ago. Impressive, given that this was during a time when there were no cars or trains and the disbursement covered a wide range of unforgiving terrains.
But who was this biological Casanova? The geneticists turned to the history of the region to investigate further. The timing aligned with the expansion of the Mongolian Empire in the 12th century, led by none other than the infamous Genghis Khan. Legend has it that the conquering Mongolians saved the most beautiful women for their Universal Leader (as his name translates). So it appears he was universally busy.
Because Genghis Khan’s final resting place is unknown, there is no direct DNA to confirm this link. But comparison of the modern-day Y chromosome with that of Khan’s known sons, many of whom went on to lead countries and have significant legacies themselves, upholds the theory. For comparison, a man who fathered one child during Genghis Khan’s time would have about 800 descendants today based on average population growth. Experts project that Genghis Khan has at least 16 million male descendants, 0.5% of the male population, as of today. Talk about a lasting legacy!
3 FACTS ABOUT LIGHTNING
1.According to a University of Michigan study, men are six times more likely to be struck by lightning than women are.
2.Lightning can heat the air around it to temperatures of more than 50,000°F.
3.The odds of being killed by lightning are about the same as being killed falling out of bed.
Magic Chip
Have you seen the chip that gets taken out of Jason Bourne’s hip in The Bourne Identity? How about the one that’s injected into Katniss Everdeen’s arm in The Hunger Games? Then you know just what this thing looks like. The xNTimplantable NFC (Near Field Communication) chip gets implanted into your hand between your thumb and index finger. Once it’s there, the chip emits a low-power radio-frequency signature that can “trigger preprogrammed events.” In layman’s terms, that means it can open locks, start a car, and unlock a computer or smartphone. All you have to do is wave your hand at the lock or device. But first…you have to either inject it into your hand or find someone else who’s willing to do so.
Spooky Action
Quantum mechanics is a strange field. It deals with subatomic particles that exist in two different places at the same time, a phenomenon called superposition. Albert Einstein called this “spooky action at a distance,” but he couldn’t explain how it could occur. In 2015 researchers at Stanford University demonstrated superposition by using a 33-foot-tall chamber, lasers, and “10,000 rubidium atoms cooled to near-absolute zero” to get a single atom to fall from two different spots 1.77 feet apart. But that doesn’t explain why superposition occurs. Bill Poirier, a Texas Tech University professor of chemistry, put forth a fascinating theory: atoms exist in two places because they are in parallel universes that interact with ours.
His theory, called “Many Interacting Worlds,” has been well received—surprising, considering it sounds like the title of a heady science fiction novel. “At a symposium in Vienna in 2013,” Poirier boasts, “standing five feet away from a famous Nobel Laureate in physics, I gave my presentation on this work fully expecting criticism. I was surprised when I received none.” His math checks out. So get ready to hear a lot more about parallel universes in the near future.
•Before he was an astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson won a gold medal for Latin ballroom dancing in a national tournament.
•He received hate mail, mostly from children, after he insisted Pluto doesn’t meet the qualifications to be considered a planet. (It’s a dwarf planet now.)
•When he noticed the constellations in the 1997 movie Titanic were wrong, he convinced director James Cameron to fix the starry sky in the 2012 rerelease.
•He granted permission to, and even consulted with, DC Comics to include him on a storyline in which he helps Superman locate the alien planet Krypton.
•He once visited a male strip club to look into becoming an exotic dancer there.
ROSETTA STONE
In 1798 French general Napoléon Bonaparte conquered Egypt. The next year, the French army was building Fort Julien near the Mediterranean port city of Rosetta (now Rashid), and army engineer Pierre-Francois Bouchard discovered a blue-gray granodiorite stone, 45 inches high, 29 inches wide, and 11 inches thick, covered in three kinds of writing. At the top were Egyptian hieroglyphics, in the middle was conversational Egyptian (Demotic), and at the bottom was classical Greek. The army sent the stone to the Institut de l’Egypte in Cairo, and it took a team of scholars 23 years to fully decipher it. They deciphered the Greek first and found that it was a decree written in 196 B.C. honoring the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy V. Then they worked backward, translating the Demotic and, ultimately, the hieroglyphics. The discovery—and decoding—of the Rosetta Stone was the first key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone has been on display at the British Museum in London since 1802.
SOVIET POISON
TRIALS
Soviet biochemist Grigory Mairanovsky was the head of “Laboratory 1,” a super-secret Moscow facility run by the KGB, from 1939 until 1946. His assignment: develop a flavorless, odorless poison that is undetectable in an autopsy. To achieve this, Mairanovsky personally directed experiments on humans—all of them political prisoners. They were given poisons with meals or in drinks, and tested for effects. (They were kept in bare cells and observed through small windows.) If the poison failed to kill them, the prisoner would be nursed back to health to await another round. Records show that more than 100 people were tested in this way. Not one survived, and many died agonizing deaths. It’s rumored that Mairanovsky did succeed in developing a poison (dubbed “C-2”) during his time at Laboratory 1. It could reportedly kill within 15 minutes and was undetectable in an autopsy.
UPDATE: The rumors have never been confirmed.
A lobster’s brain is about the
size of a ballpoint pen’s tip.
Mr. Bell’s
Assistant
It’s one of the most famous moments in the history of invention. It’s 1876, and Alexander Graham Bell has been struggling for weeks to get his telephone contraption to work. He yells: “Mr. Watson! Come here! I want to see you!”
Thomas Watson, sitting in the next room behind a closed door, hears the scream over his crude telephone receiver. The first telephone call has been made—and the world will never be the same.
Thomas Augustus Watson was an essential contributor to the invention of the telephone. He was only 22 when he got that famous phone call, but Bell might never have made it if it hadn’t been for Watson’s knowledge of electrical devices, particularly wound-coil electrical devices, which were the key to Bell’s big breakthrough.
Watson worked for several years as the Bell Telephone Company’s chief repairman, and testified for the company at patent infringement trials. He also invented the telephone booth—his prototype was a tunnel of blankets used to insulate his voice so his landlady wouldn’t complain about the noise. In 1883 he perfected the design using a wood frame, domed top, ventilator, windows, and a desk with a pen and ink.
By the time he was 27, flush with patent royalties, he quit Bell. He started his own machine shop, building marine engines, and later, ships. In Braintree, Massachusetts, he helped with the construction of schools—including the town’s first night school and first kindergarten—and often paid teachers from his own pocket. He established the town’s first electric plant and streetlights. In 1903 he took up geology at MIT, then traveled to Alaska and California to prospect for precious ores.
In 1915, as part of the launch of transatlantic telephone service, Watson and Bell reenacted their famous conversation, this time with Watson in San Francisco and Bell in New York. In response to Bell’s “Mr. Watson! Come here!” Watson replied he would be glad to “but that it would take more than a week.”
SALT OF THE EARTH
•It’s acceptable to consume about 5,000 mg of salt a day. If you eat more than ¼ cup at once, you’ll die.
•Salt is made of two elements—sodium and chlorine—which, if put in your mouth by themselves, will either blow up (sodium) or poison you (chlorine). But merged into a compound—sodium chloride—they change into an essential of life. The salt taste comes from the chlorine—which is also vital for making hydrochloric acid, which digests food in our stomach.
•Scientists once thought the oceans were salty because rivers constantly washed salt out of soil and carried it to sea. But then they found pools of seawater trapped in underground sediments millions of years ago that show the ocean has always been about as salty as it is now.
•There’s enough salt in the oceans to cover the world 14 inches deep.
•Salt is the only mineral that can be mined by turning it into a liquid (by pumping water in). Then they pump out the brine and turn it back into a solid by evaporation.
•Salt is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs water. That’s why you can’t drink seawater; it will dehydrate you.
•Salt is one of the five things the tongue can taste (the others are sweet, sour, bitter, and umami, or savory). Sweet and bitter are inborn, while umami and salty are acquired tastes.
•The hypothalamus at the base of the brain measures sodium and potassium in body fluids. When they get too high (from either not drinking enough water or eating too much salt), it triggers the sensation of thirst.
•When salt is made by vigorous boiling, it forms cubic crystals, but when it’s naturally dried, it makes pyramid-shaped crystals. The pyramid-shaped crystals are particularly sought after for kosher use and in fine cooking.
•It takes four gallons of seawater to make a pound of salt.
•For centuries, salt was served in a bowl, not a shaker. It couldn’t be shaken, since it absorbs water and sticks together. The Morton Salt Co. changed that in 1910 by covering every grain with chemicals that keep water out—thus its famous slogan, “When it rains, it pours.”
MANIMALS!
BIRD-BIRD HYBRIDS
Evan Balaban, a behavioral neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, has produced bird-bird hybrids: He took brain cells from embryonic quails and transferred them into the brains of embryonic chickens. When the chickens later hatched and grew up, they didn’t “cluck” or “cock-a-doodle-doo” like normal chickens…they trilled like quail. And they bobbed their heads just like quail do. Balaban said the work upended the long-held belief that these behaviors are learned, showing conclusively that they are not only hardwired—but that they can be transferred to entirely different species.
MORE MOVIE MAD
SCIENTISTS
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
Long before Anthony Hopkins got an Oscar for playing a doctor gone bad in Silence of the Lambs, Fredric March copped one in 1931 for this gem. You know how it goes: Mild-mannered doctor by day becomes an evil criminal by night. This one’s been remade a few times (including as a stoner comedy in the early 1980s, for which karmic punishment will certainly apply), but the Fredric March version is still the best.
THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION!
The mad scientist is Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow), who went looking for trouble in the eighth dimension and found it when some goopy-looking alien took over his skull. Now he needs to get back to where he once belonged, and the only thing stopping him is Buckaroo Banzai (Peter Weller): scientist, rock ’n’ roll star, and cultural icon. A true cult favorite among the brainy and socially maladapted. While it is a little obscure, it starts making twisted sense after the fifth or sixth viewing.
“REAL” APHRODISIACS
Traditionally, scientists have dismissed aphrodisiacs as frauds. But new research into medicinal herbs and pheromones (chemical messengers) has produced some interesting results. Experts now believe that some aphrodisiacs may really work.
YOHIMBE: For centuries, the bark of the West African yohimbe tree has been thought to produce passion in African men. Research has found that the chemical yohimbine in the tree can in fact excite men by increasing blood flow. The drug was approved by the FDA 10 years ago as a prescription treatment for impotence.
OYSTERS: Traditionally considered an aphrodisiac because of their association with the sea and their resemblance to female sex organs. However, now we also know that they’re very rich in zinc—a mineral necessary to male sexual health. A man deficient in zinc is at high risk for infertility and loss of libido.
CHOCOLATE: Contains PEA, a neurotransmitter that is a natural form of the stimulant amphetamine. It has been shown that either love or lust increases the level of PEA in the bloodstream and that with heartbreak, the levels drop dramatically.
More “Real” Aphrodisiacs
CAFFEINE: Research has shown that coffee drinkers are more sexually active than non-drinkers, but no one’s sure if that’s because of something in the caffeine, or just because it keeps people awake, and therefore interested, after bedtime.
DHEA: This hormone has been called the “natural aphrodisiac” by doctors. It’s been shown in studies that blood levels of DHEA predict sexual thoughts and desire. DHEA became a food-supplement fad when it was hyped in the media as a way to increase energy and maybe even prevent cancer or heart disease (as well as boosting the libido).
CINNAMON: According to Dr. Alan Hirsch, director of the Smell and Taste Research Foundation, the aroma of cinnamon has the ability to arouse lust. As reported in Psychology Today, “Hirsch fitted male medical students with gauges that detected their excitement level, and then exposed them to dozens of fragrances. The only one that got a rise was the smell of hot cinnamon buns.”
ANDROSTENONE: This is a pheromone. Scientists conducting research with animals found that androstenone produced by boars had a very positive effect on the sexual receptivity of sows. Androstenone is also found in human sweat.
WHAT A SHOCKER
Shenandoah National Park ranger Roy Sullivan claims he was struck by lightning an unbelievable seven times between 1942 and 1977!
STRIKE #1 (1942): While on duty in one of Shenandoah’s fire lookout towers, Sullivan took his first hit. The lightning bolt hit his leg, and he lost a big toenail.
STRIKE #2 (1969): This time, he was driving
on a country road. The lightning hit his truck, knocked him out, and singed off his eyebrows.
STRIKE #3 (1970): People started calling Sullivan the “human lightning rod” after the third strike, which injured his shoulder.
STRIKE #4 (1972): He took this hit while on duty at one of Shenandoah’s ranger stations. The lightning set his hair on fire, so Sullivan started carrying a bucket of water around with him—just in case he needed to put out a blaze.
STRIKE #5 (1973): This one also set his hair on fire (thank goodness for that water bucket!). And it knocked him out of his car and blew off one of his shoes.
STRIKE #6 (1974): Lightning hit Sullivan at a park campground, and he hurt his ankle.
STRIKE #7 (1977): This might have been his most dangerous strike. The lightning hit him while he was fishing and burned his stomach and chest, requiring a hospital stay. (He recovered.)
HONORABLE MENTION: Sullivan’s wife was also hit by lightning once while she and Roy were hanging up clothes on a line in their backyard.
SNOWBOARDING SCIENCE
If you haven’t already read “Skateboard Science,” go to page 33 first. Then cruise on back!
By the 1980s snowboarders were “shredding” the slopes (sliding downhill with their feet strapped to a board); they’d adapted the skills of skateboarding to snow. Like skateboarders, they rode either regular (with their left foot in front) or goofy foot (with their right foot in front). They even adapted the half-pipe, picking up enough momentum in a high curving trench packed with snow so they could slide up over the top of the lip and catch some awesome—but cold—air.