Thee Star Chamber

The UnMuseum Newsletter for April 2007

Science Over the Edge

A Roundup of Strange Science for the Month

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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.

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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)

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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On the Tube:

Currently we are only able to give accurate times and dates for these
programs in the United States. Check local listings in other locations.

*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.

http://www.unmuseum.org/

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