nerdy math joke I heard on the internet somewhere:
There was a mathematician and an engineer at a coffee shop when the coffee machine caught on fire. The engineer got a bucket of water and poured it on the machine and everything was fine. The next day the same mathematician and engineer went to the same coffee shop and the coffee machine caught fire again. This time, the mathematician got a bucket of water and handed it to the engineer and exclaimed, "There! It's been reduced to a problem we know how to handle!"
hee hee
my post:
I've been reading "A Brief History of Time," by Stephen Hawking lately and I'm almost done. I have to say it is one damned good read. For the most part Dr. Hawking manages to explain very complicated physics concepts in ways that I could understand. He uses wit, analogies and anecdotes to give a very clear picture of what he is trying to say. Of course this book won't make you an astrophysicist, but it will elaborate some topics enough so you can look smart in front of your friends.
Such topics as blackholes, expansion of the universe, moving galaxies, relativity, and quantum mechanics are covered and explained in ways that anyone with just an interest in physics would be able to understand. Personally, I've taken Physics 40A and 40B and am in 40C right now, and I have to admit that those classes did help understand some of his stuff. But I believe that they aren't necessary to get a general idea of the topics that he tries to elaborate on.
To be fair there were some topics that Dr. Hawking covers which went completely over my head. Stuff like the "spin" of sub-atomic particles makes no sense to me, but that's why I'm not a particle physicist.
I did, however, understand enough to have a fun little conversation with some friends about how blackholes are not a "hole," but rather an actual physical object that looks like a hole. Or how redshift and blueshift of galaxies work, and why there are more redshifted galaxies than blueshifted galaxies. I'm on the chapter about string theory right now, and Dr. Hawking has been able to explain it better than in any other book that I've read covering string theory so far.
I'll end with another nerdy math joke:
black holes are where god divided by zero
hee hee
-Osvaldo Enriquez
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Let There Be Light: The First Billion Years
Last Thursday, I went to a scientific colloquium. It was the last of the lecture series, The Science of Evolution: Life, Earth, Universe. The lecture was titled Let There Be Light: The First Billion Years. The speaker was Dr. Bahram Mobasher, a professor of physics and astronomy. He received his doctorate in 1988, from the University of Durham, United Kingdom.
In general, the lecture was a summary of the life of the universe, from the Big Bang to today. He began his lecture with concepts that are well-known to those who are educated; the Ptolemaic geocentric model of the solar system and the Copernican Revolution. From there, he went on to notions that are lesser known, such as the problem physicists have encountered with the time period after the Big Bang. Physicists (and/or astrophysicists) have figured out what exactly happened after the Big Bang to mere slivers of a second. The problem that physicists have with the Big Bang is that they have no idea what happened from time zero to 10^-43 seconds. To size up their problem in simpler terms, these scientists don't know what went on when the Big Bang was only a "little Bang". Ten to the power of negative forty-three seconds is a very short amount of time; it's 0.0000001 seconds with 37 more zeroes in front of the one.
The descriptions of the later time periods became more and more like today as Dr. Mobasher went through his lecture. From the time period of 3 minutes to 300,000 years, the first Hydrogen atom formed and the temperature of the universe was about 3000 Kelvins. In Fahrenheit, that's 4940.33 degrees (or really really really hot).
He also described the size of the universe in terms that made everyone in the lecture hall feel very small and insignificant. He said that we live on a planet that is in a solar system (out of many) that is on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy that is a part of local group of galaxies that is a part of a local supercluster of galaxies. Each galaxy is made up of 10^11 stars and the universe is made up of about 10^11 galaxies.
I found the lecture somewhat boring because of the information that I was already aware of, but it was interesting to learn about dark matter, dark energy and that the forces of nature were all one at a very short moment of time. The doctor spoke with a slightly heavy European accent, but he was understandable. He spoke with confidence and was bit of a comedian.
In conclusion of the lecture, Dr. Mobasher ended with a question that is similar to that of the chicken and the egg. Which came first? The universe or the laws of physics?
-George Wong
In general, the lecture was a summary of the life of the universe, from the Big Bang to today. He began his lecture with concepts that are well-known to those who are educated; the Ptolemaic geocentric model of the solar system and the Copernican Revolution. From there, he went on to notions that are lesser known, such as the problem physicists have encountered with the time period after the Big Bang. Physicists (and/or astrophysicists) have figured out what exactly happened after the Big Bang to mere slivers of a second. The problem that physicists have with the Big Bang is that they have no idea what happened from time zero to 10^-43 seconds. To size up their problem in simpler terms, these scientists don't know what went on when the Big Bang was only a "little Bang". Ten to the power of negative forty-three seconds is a very short amount of time; it's 0.0000001 seconds with 37 more zeroes in front of the one.
The descriptions of the later time periods became more and more like today as Dr. Mobasher went through his lecture. From the time period of 3 minutes to 300,000 years, the first Hydrogen atom formed and the temperature of the universe was about 3000 Kelvins. In Fahrenheit, that's 4940.33 degrees (or really really really hot).
He also described the size of the universe in terms that made everyone in the lecture hall feel very small and insignificant. He said that we live on a planet that is in a solar system (out of many) that is on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy that is a part of local group of galaxies that is a part of a local supercluster of galaxies. Each galaxy is made up of 10^11 stars and the universe is made up of about 10^11 galaxies.
I found the lecture somewhat boring because of the information that I was already aware of, but it was interesting to learn about dark matter, dark energy and that the forces of nature were all one at a very short moment of time. The doctor spoke with a slightly heavy European accent, but he was understandable. He spoke with confidence and was bit of a comedian.
In conclusion of the lecture, Dr. Mobasher ended with a question that is similar to that of the chicken and the egg. Which came first? The universe or the laws of physics?
-George Wong
Monday, May 25, 2009
Virus vs. Cancer
Viruses. Cancer. Two evils of the world that have been pestering the human race for as long as we can remember. Now, we've advanced to the point where we can manipulate one to destroy the other. Viruses have been used in cancer therapy, but with drawbacks.
The virus that is commonly used for cancer treatment is the adenovirus. The adenovirus is a DNA virus that is effective in treating cancer, but it causes hepatic disease (AKA liver disease) in mice. Scientists from Oxford University have been working with these cancer cell killing viruses, and have figured a way how to prevent the viruses from destroying healthy cells as well. How is this done? Scientists now understand that cellular microRNA molecules regulate the stability of mRNA in different cell types. These cellular microRNA molecules can be used as target markers for the adenoviruses, preventing the viruses from killing healthy cells. This would solve the problem of adenoviruses unintentionally causing liver disease in mice.
This technology is still only being tested on mice, and it may take at least two years to enable the viruses to combat cancer in humans.
I could write further, but do not wish to retype the article. If you're interested in reading the full article, go here.
-George Wong
The virus that is commonly used for cancer treatment is the adenovirus. The adenovirus is a DNA virus that is effective in treating cancer, but it causes hepatic disease (AKA liver disease) in mice. Scientists from Oxford University have been working with these cancer cell killing viruses, and have figured a way how to prevent the viruses from destroying healthy cells as well. How is this done? Scientists now understand that cellular microRNA molecules regulate the stability of mRNA in different cell types. These cellular microRNA molecules can be used as target markers for the adenoviruses, preventing the viruses from killing healthy cells. This would solve the problem of adenoviruses unintentionally causing liver disease in mice.
This technology is still only being tested on mice, and it may take at least two years to enable the viruses to combat cancer in humans.
I could write further, but do not wish to retype the article. If you're interested in reading the full article, go here.
-George Wong
Monday, May 18, 2009
Cigarette Smoke Can Prevent Allergies
It's common knowledge that cigarette smoke is bad for your health. Smoking is a leading cause in lung cancer, pulmonary disease and can affect one's immune system. Despite the habit's bad reputation for being a trouble maker in health, it does have one point for the positive side. According to researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, cigarette smoke can protect smokers from some types of allergies.
Allergies are the body's natural response to allergens. These responses include the most irritable feelings a person can experience; inflammation, watery eyes, sneezing, headaches, and etc. Mast cells, or mastocytes, are the culprits responsible for allergic reactions. Mast cells play a major part in the human immune system's response to allergens by releasing histamines into the blood stream, which in turn cause the allergic reactions. To prevent allergic reactions, one would take an antihistamine, a medicine which counteracts the effects of histamine.
Likewise, cigarette smoke prevents allergic reactions from some types of allergens. Cigarette smoke differs in its remedy by stopping the source of the histamines, inhibiting the activity of the mast cells.
Although the above mentioned benefit of cigarette smoke can be an effective solution to some allergies, the health risks far outweigh it. If you do experience allergies, continue with your normal mode of prevention and take antihistamines.
If you wish to read the article, click here.
-George Wong
Allergies are the body's natural response to allergens. These responses include the most irritable feelings a person can experience; inflammation, watery eyes, sneezing, headaches, and etc. Mast cells, or mastocytes, are the culprits responsible for allergic reactions. Mast cells play a major part in the human immune system's response to allergens by releasing histamines into the blood stream, which in turn cause the allergic reactions. To prevent allergic reactions, one would take an antihistamine, a medicine which counteracts the effects of histamine.
Likewise, cigarette smoke prevents allergic reactions from some types of allergens. Cigarette smoke differs in its remedy by stopping the source of the histamines, inhibiting the activity of the mast cells.
Although the above mentioned benefit of cigarette smoke can be an effective solution to some allergies, the health risks far outweigh it. If you do experience allergies, continue with your normal mode of prevention and take antihistamines.
If you wish to read the article, click here.
-George Wong
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Something Extraordinary
Everyone's heard of it. Human Immunodeficiency Virus, or HIV for short, is one of the most worst viruses a person can contract, and so far, it is impossible to cure. As most people know, it is a sexually transmitted disease, and its only form of transmission, at least so far, is through bodily fluids. Because of this, the virus is unfortunately passed on to a child from its mother and has no control over it. HIV has, at a biological standpoint, an ingenious design that makes it so difficult to develop a counter for it. It works by infecting the immune system, or to be more specific, it attacks the white blood cells and by doing so, it reduces a person's white blood cell count and creates more copies of the virus. Due to this fact, the immune system of humans is not able to overcome this virus, the harder that the white blood cells in a person's body tries to fight it, the weaker it becomes. This leads to another illness known as acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Usually, AIDS itself is rarely the cause of death of a person, rather, it is other infections and diseases that the immune system would have fought off otherwise that tend to be the cause of death.
Anyways, as to the purpose of this post. A study has been done that provides a glimmer of hope for everyone who either has had HIV, known someone who has HIV, or has the possibility of getting it. In this study, specifically designed artificial antibodies were created to combat the virus. Different strains of these new antibodies were then injected into nine different monkeys. While not all the strains were effective against HIV, only three of the nine monkeys had HIV after the test, none of the monkeys developed AIDS. So while this might be some years away, it proves that HIV can be beaten if enough time were to be put into it.
By the way, in case you were interested, the article is here.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Doing DaVinci
a nerdy math joke:
An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are all staying in the same motel. One night there's a fire in the hallway, the engineer wakes up, sees a bucket of water in the hallway and pours it on the fire to put it out. The next night there's another fire in the hallway, the physicist goes out and grabs a fire extinguisher and after a few calculations aims the extinguisher at the optimal position and puts the fire out. The third night there is another fire in the hallway, the mathematician goes out, sees the bucket of water, the fire extinguisher, and the fire and says, "Ah! A solution exists!" then goes back to bed.
my entry:
There's this new show on the discovery channel called Doing DaVinci. It's about a group of craftsmen and engineers who build some machines that Leonardo DaVinci designed, which he may or may not have ever built. The machines they build are all tailored to the design and specifications in DaVinci's drawings'. They are also really, really cool. These machines that they build, that DaVinci designed, are insanely ingenious, especially for what was available in DaVinci's day.
Last week they built a "machine gun" type device. It was three rows of eleven cannons aranged in a triangle and put on wheels, so it can be hauled into battle. One row of cannons would fire then the machine would rotate forward and another row of cannons would be ready to fire again. The simplicity and practicallity of this machine makes it complete genius! I'm sure that it would have been a terrifying sight on any battlefield in the 1400's.
This week they built a self-propelling cart, which was basically a life-sized wind up car. Just thinking that DaVinci wrote the plans for something this engenious 600 years ago, before any type of modern physics, is astounding. Honestly, it's contraptions like this, and the hope that I can someday design and build something this clever, is what makes me want to be a mechanical engineer. Gears and springs and explosions, all that stuff fascinates me to no end. I would love to be on this show, just to get a chance to build some of these fascinating machines. I'm adding DaVinci to my list of engineer heroes, currently containing Archimedes and Howard Hughes (The Aviator).
It's on discovery channel on Mondays at 10 pm. Watch it it's very entertaining.
-Osvaldo Enriquez
An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are all staying in the same motel. One night there's a fire in the hallway, the engineer wakes up, sees a bucket of water in the hallway and pours it on the fire to put it out. The next night there's another fire in the hallway, the physicist goes out and grabs a fire extinguisher and after a few calculations aims the extinguisher at the optimal position and puts the fire out. The third night there is another fire in the hallway, the mathematician goes out, sees the bucket of water, the fire extinguisher, and the fire and says, "Ah! A solution exists!" then goes back to bed.
my entry:
There's this new show on the discovery channel called Doing DaVinci. It's about a group of craftsmen and engineers who build some machines that Leonardo DaVinci designed, which he may or may not have ever built. The machines they build are all tailored to the design and specifications in DaVinci's drawings'. They are also really, really cool. These machines that they build, that DaVinci designed, are insanely ingenious, especially for what was available in DaVinci's day.
Last week they built a "machine gun" type device. It was three rows of eleven cannons aranged in a triangle and put on wheels, so it can be hauled into battle. One row of cannons would fire then the machine would rotate forward and another row of cannons would be ready to fire again. The simplicity and practicallity of this machine makes it complete genius! I'm sure that it would have been a terrifying sight on any battlefield in the 1400's.
This week they built a self-propelling cart, which was basically a life-sized wind up car. Just thinking that DaVinci wrote the plans for something this engenious 600 years ago, before any type of modern physics, is astounding. Honestly, it's contraptions like this, and the hope that I can someday design and build something this clever, is what makes me want to be a mechanical engineer. Gears and springs and explosions, all that stuff fascinates me to no end. I would love to be on this show, just to get a chance to build some of these fascinating machines. I'm adding DaVinci to my list of engineer heroes, currently containing Archimedes and Howard Hughes (The Aviator).
It's on discovery channel on Mondays at 10 pm. Watch it it's very entertaining.
-Osvaldo Enriquez
Sunday, May 10, 2009
A Flying Car!
Typing those three words in the title of this article brings to mind images from two different movies:
1.) The Fifth Element
2.) Star Wars (one of the newer episodes, but I don't remember which).
It's a dream finally come true. The notion of a flying car has been nothing but an aviation enthusiast's fantasy, until March 5th of this year. The winged automobile was a project that was started by M.I.T students four years ago. It was hammered out through the design process and made its first test flight on March 5th, at 7:40 AM. The aircraft/automobile completed a successful take-off and landing maneuver. To be specific, the craft took off and flew for a good 37 seconds before landing further down the runway.
The overall appearance of the vehicle is the product of a marriage between an airplane and an automobile (as expected, right?). It looks somewhat like an elongated Volkswagen Beetle, with a tail and wings. The pilot of the vehicle can switch from flight mode to drive mode from the driver's seat (or cockpit). Switching from flight-mode to drive-mode makes the vehicle fold up the wings and shift engine power from the rear-mounted propeller to the front wheels, simultaneously.
Now, since the notion of a flying car has been established as a reality, the next hurdle it must overcome is identifying its purpose in life. An interesting suggestion was made by the CEO of Terrafugia, the start-up company that is testing the craft. A purpose of the vehicle could be avoiding bad weather, possibly nullifying one of the largest causes of accidents for airplanes. The vehicle could land in one airport, then be driven to another airport. Once the vehicle has passed the storm, it could be taken to the sky again.
This airplane/automobile or "roadable plane" is hoped to begin production in late 2011, just in time for graduation.
To read more about this, click here.
-George Wong
1.) The Fifth Element
2.) Star Wars (one of the newer episodes, but I don't remember which).
It's a dream finally come true. The notion of a flying car has been nothing but an aviation enthusiast's fantasy, until March 5th of this year. The winged automobile was a project that was started by M.I.T students four years ago. It was hammered out through the design process and made its first test flight on March 5th, at 7:40 AM. The aircraft/automobile completed a successful take-off and landing maneuver. To be specific, the craft took off and flew for a good 37 seconds before landing further down the runway.
The overall appearance of the vehicle is the product of a marriage between an airplane and an automobile (as expected, right?). It looks somewhat like an elongated Volkswagen Beetle, with a tail and wings. The pilot of the vehicle can switch from flight mode to drive mode from the driver's seat (or cockpit). Switching from flight-mode to drive-mode makes the vehicle fold up the wings and shift engine power from the rear-mounted propeller to the front wheels, simultaneously.
Now, since the notion of a flying car has been established as a reality, the next hurdle it must overcome is identifying its purpose in life. An interesting suggestion was made by the CEO of Terrafugia, the start-up company that is testing the craft. A purpose of the vehicle could be avoiding bad weather, possibly nullifying one of the largest causes of accidents for airplanes. The vehicle could land in one airport, then be driven to another airport. Once the vehicle has passed the storm, it could be taken to the sky again.
This airplane/automobile or "roadable plane" is hoped to begin production in late 2011, just in time for graduation.
To read more about this, click here.
-George Wong
They really suck at flying
The common insect known as the bumble bee has long been a curious specimen in the science of aerodynamics. In fact, using calculations from the 1919 formulas for aerodynamics, it would show that “bumble bees shouldn't be able to fly.” While those calculations would most certainly be not completely accurate, the conclusion that I draw remains pretty much the same. In an article on sciencedaily.com, findings from a study at Oxford University have shown that bumble bees fly not by normal aerodynamics, but in fact the opposite. Bumble bees do not fly because they are shaped a certain way or use their wings in a certain way, rather, bumble bees use sheer force to fly. What is even stranger is that both the left and right wings of bumble bees' flap independently, which would not allow for even air flow to help lift the bumble bee in a helpful manner.
I would say the scientists were quite clever in their methods for this experiment. Using only a wind tunnel, smoke, and cameras able to capture 2000 pictures per second, the researchers were able to visualize the aerodynamics of the bumble bees' wings and bodies. The researchers used cut flowers as a source of pollen for the bees to collect from. Then, while the bees were flying, smoke was blown through the wind tunnel to provide a way to “see” the air and high speed cameras captured this on film.
I guess nature might be trying to say something. Something along the lines of, if you aren't quite built for the task, just use more power.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Invisible? Not quite...
While trying to think of a topic to write about this week, I decided to check out some science news web sites, and sciencedaily.com had an interesting article. The title of it was “'Invisibility Cloak' Successfully Hides Objects Placed Under It” and its name is somewhat misleading. First of all, the only test of the new material used to achieve this effect, composed completely of dielectrics, was too small for the naked eye to actually see. Secondly, in the article it specifically states that this material was only able to mask the height of objects underneath it. For example, if a box was completely covered in the material, and then was set on the floor, the material would bend the light reflecting off of it in a way so as to make it appear that nothing is underneath it, in essence, taking away the third dimension, depth and people's ability to perceive it. Thirdly, this specific material is only able to mask objects in the 1,400 to 1,800 nanometer range, slightly below infrared, but higher than visible light. On the other hand, the article does clarify that while the test was indeed on a rather small scale, that since the material is made completely of dielectrics, it can easily be upscaled to larger objects. The article also states that the team responsible for this research and development is next going to try and create a new material able to achieve this effect in three dimensions, which would render an object completely undetectable by the naked eye. It seems the media has over hyped yet another great discovery.
The article mentioned can be found here.
The article mentioned can be found here.
The Evolution of Evolution
I recently attended the colloquium "The Evolution of Evolution: Darwin Then and Now." It is part of a five part series of discussions on The Science of Evolution: Life, Earth, Universe. The speaker, David Reznick, discussed how the theory of evolution itself has evolved over time, and it was a very interesting discussion to attend.
Reznick began by explaining what the theories of speciation were before Darwin came along. Carolus Linnaeus (originally Carl Linne) first came up with his system for classifying animals in 1735, the system we currently still use today. This of course led many scientists to wonder what was the cause behind all the different types of animals. What makes some so different and some so incredibly similar? Many theories emerged, including divine creation with room to grow (speciation). Our former president Thomas Jefferson even gave his own theories as to why there was such a variety of species' in the world. Before this lecture I did not even know he was a man of science. The concept of extinction however, was a sort of handicap for all the theories to date. None of them could explain why animals would go extinct. There was undeniable proof that this did indeed happen.
Anyway, Darwin came along and published his Origin of Species in 1859 after his famous voyage on the Beagle. Darwin was the first to present an idea of evolution through natural selection, which explained both the diversity of species and the idea behind extinction.
It was a very interesting discussion to attend, and I for one will be attending the next talk in this series, "Life's Rocky Road: The History of Life on Earth." It is on May 14, 7-8pm in the university theatre right across from olmstead hall, if anyone wishes to attend.
-Osvaldo Enriquez
Reznick began by explaining what the theories of speciation were before Darwin came along. Carolus Linnaeus (originally Carl Linne) first came up with his system for classifying animals in 1735, the system we currently still use today. This of course led many scientists to wonder what was the cause behind all the different types of animals. What makes some so different and some so incredibly similar? Many theories emerged, including divine creation with room to grow (speciation). Our former president Thomas Jefferson even gave his own theories as to why there was such a variety of species' in the world. Before this lecture I did not even know he was a man of science. The concept of extinction however, was a sort of handicap for all the theories to date. None of them could explain why animals would go extinct. There was undeniable proof that this did indeed happen.
Anyway, Darwin came along and published his Origin of Species in 1859 after his famous voyage on the Beagle. Darwin was the first to present an idea of evolution through natural selection, which explained both the diversity of species and the idea behind extinction.
It was a very interesting discussion to attend, and I for one will be attending the next talk in this series, "Life's Rocky Road: The History of Life on Earth." It is on May 14, 7-8pm in the university theatre right across from olmstead hall, if anyone wishes to attend.
-Osvaldo Enriquez
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