Physics/Astronomy

On last week’s edition of NPR’s Science Friday, they talked about a must-see video of a sperm whale stealing a sablefish off of a fishing line near Alaska. After watching it myself, I can confirm that you should check it out.

Fisherman have been upset about stolen fish for quite some time. The problem isn’t just that the whales are stealing the fish- it’s that many of them aren’t leaving evidence. This affects the estimate of the sablefish “fishable population,” which in turn affects fishing quotas. If the fishermen could estimate how many fish were being stolen, these numbers could be included into the totals.

The video reveals not only how the whales are committing the crime, but also how fisherman might overcome the problem. Whales emit sonar pulses to hunt for food. These pulses bounce off of their prey and back to the whales, helping them gauge size and distance. In the video, these pulses can be heard quickening as the whale reaches the line. Then, instead of ripping off the fish, the whale bites down on the line and shakes the fish loose. He keeps emitting the pulses until the fish is released, but doesn’t make any more noise until he has freed his own teeth from the line.

Researchers now think that they might be able to count how often fish are being stolen by tracking patterns of these sonar pulses. However, they’re quick to point out that this video only catches one whale in the act, so much more investigation is needed.

Here’s the video from Science Friday, and here’s an article from National Geographic with a little more info. I encourage you to at least check out the video- just seeing the whale emerge from the corner of the screen, mouth open and teeth pointy, like a creepy shadow puppet, is surreal.

In 1957, Terence Boylan, a budding 9 year-old scientist, wrote a letter to the National Institutes of Health requesting $10 to build a rocket ship. (Read more…)

Science education has been the subject of much reform and debate over the years, sensitive to national test scores, career statistics, and perhaps most importantly, thw priority of science in many nations’ social and political agendas. Many stress the importance of science education as the best possible hope of solving the multitude of mankind’s problems, because only with a good education can scientific breakthroughs continue to populate news headlines and make their way into the average person’s life. It isn’t often, however, that the younger generation is able to teach the older generation, which is exactly what physics undergrad Xiaohang Quan has done in researching her thesis, according to The Daily Princetonian. (Read more…)

In the past two postings I’ve talked about my experience working with the Science Entertainment Exchange, which aims to improve the quality of science in movies and other forms of entertainment by connecting movie and TV people with scientists who have expertise in something related to their story lines. In my last posting, I addressed some creative ways in which scientists and engineers can be helpful in this endeavor. In this posting, I will address how the entertainment industry can further the agenda of scientists and engineers.

Ten years ago, while I was doing my PhD in neuroscience at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, the ABC TV news show “Primetime Live” decided to do an exposé on wasteful government funding of science. Their strategy was to ask the main funding agencies for a list of the titles of currently funded projects and pick the ones that sounded the most “out there.” Since my lab was studying prey capture in weakly-electric fish, the project I was working on got picked. Luckily, the executive producer was well informed about science and after trips to several of the labs, where he found that the selected projects had excellent justifications, they switched the tone of the show. It became about how seemingly strange and obscure basic science projects have led to revolutions in our understanding of everything from genetics to brain plasticity. (Read more…)

Is there life on other planets? NASA’s newest mission hopes to shed light on this question. Last Friday, NASA launched the Kepler Mission, a spacecraft-based telescope that will enable scientists to search a small area of the Milky Way for earth-like planets, capable of supporting life.

At the heart of the mission is the Kepler telescope. The telescope contains a very sensitive photometer, capable of measuring very small changes in light intensity. By continuously monitoring the light being emitted by over 100,000 stars, it can detect a subtle “dimming” of a given star’s light if an orbiting planet passes in front (view a graphic of the “transit method” for detecting planets).

The mission’s goal is to identify planets in the “habitable zone,” the distance from a star where a planet is likely to have liquid water present. Once a planet is detected, NASA researchers will use information including the planet’s period (the time it takes to orbit the star), the star’s temperature and mass, and the planet’s mass to calculate the planet’s surface temperature.

For the next several months, Kepler will travel to its final vantage point: a carefully-calculated, unobstructed orbit around the sun. From there, Kepler’s three-and-a-half year unblinking gaze will begin.

Original Article

At the end of my last posting, I promised to tell a bit about my meeting with the makers of TRON 2 at a studio in LA. We met in a beautiful high-tech conference room with loads of food, a videographer recording the proceedings, and what looked to be part of some giant gear system excised from a sunken ship quietly decorating a corner. This lent an air of steampunk to the feel of the room.

The TRON 2 people solicited comments from us on the draft script that we had all read (while under careful watch from a production assistant) and then asked us for help with some specific problems they were having. It was an energetic and intense exchange, the kind where jumping in has to occur at the expense of interrupting someone. This was all done in contracted confidence for obvious reasons, so not much can be said about the specifics of what we discussed.

Participating in the exchange brought many questions to my mind about what ways entertainment industry folks and scientists can help one another.  There are two ways that seem interesting, one I call Truth is Stranger than Fiction and one I call You Gotta Know the Laws to Break ‘Em. (Read more…)

Welcome to the new Science in Society blog.  It’s official. We’re live.

The goal of this blog is to share Northwestern University’s broad range of scientific interest and perspective. Accordingly, we’ve assembled a group of thoughtful individuals representing the university community: scientists & non-scientists, staff, faculty, and students. (Read more…)

I was out with some friends this past Thanksgiving, trying to explain what I do for a living, when one of the turned to me and said

“Have you heard about that collider in Europe? It’s going to blow up the Earth.”

He was talking about the Large Hadron Collider, a new particle accelerator constructed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). It stands to teach us a great deal about our universe once it resumes operation later this year. But, after seeing some of the headlines about it in the media, I could understand how one might think it’s going to destroy our planet. (Read more…)

Using special infrared telescopes, NASA scientists have discovered the presence of regular methane “plumes” on Mars, further raising the possibility that life once existed – or currently exists – on Mars. Methane gas is one of the simplest organic molecules, a common byproduct of biological life. In fact, more than 90% of the Earth’s methane comes from biologic sources.

It is important to point out that the presence of methane is, in and of itself, not conclusive evidence of life. Methane can be produced from purely non-biological chemical reactions. Based on NASA’s current findings, it’s impossible to say if the gas is from biologic or geologic sources.

Interestingly, the article also highlights recent research showing that microbial life can live quite happily miles underground. A team from Indiana University recently discovered microbes living two miles beneath the Earth’s surface. These microbes harnessed energy from the radioactive decay of nearby rocks to generate fuel. If Martian life does actually exist, it would likely be deep underground, where the temperature is significantly warmer and liquid water would flow freely.

It will be interesting to see if the next Mars rover mission, scheduled for 2011, will target one of the suspicious methane-rich sites.

Original Article

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that CNN’s seven-person science and technology reporting group, led by anchor Miles O’Brien, has been shut down. The move is reportedly editorial, not economic. A CNN spokesperson says that science and technology reporting will be now be moved into Anderson Cooper 360’s “Planet in Peril” series.

Why CNN would chose to do this isn’t exactly clear. Many of the most pressing issues affecting our country have deep science and technology roots: energy, health care, climate change, and even national security. In fact, a report released this week by a US government bipartisan commission noted that the US is likely to be targeted with a biological weapons attack in the next five years. With seven fewer reporters on the job, in-depth coverage of these important issues will be scant.

Perhaps the first story for “Planet in Peril” could be the growing media disinterest in covering science. The topic would be especially appropriate for a planet in peril.

Original Article