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POPSThe Mathematical Lives of Plants The seeds of a sunflower, the spines of a cactus, and the bracts of a pine cone all grow in whirling spiral patterns. Remarkable for their complexity and beauty, they also show consistent mathematical patterns that scientists have been striving to understand. ... Scientists have puzzled over this pattern of plant growth for hundreds of years. Why would plants prefer the golden angle to any other? And how can plants possibly "know" anything about Fibonacci numbers? For the first time, scientists have found convincing biochemical mechanisms responsible for the interlocking spiral growth patterns seen in many plants. (The Romanesco broccoli plant is a striking example.) The video of the experiment with magnetized liquid iron droplets demonstrates how the geometry of such growth could occur in nature.
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POPSThe Winter Solstice ...and space travel. I haven't studied astronomy enough to understand fully how we came to know this. The axis is, after all, an imaginary line. But here's an eloquent perspective on that question from a Candlegrove visitor. Solstice means... standing-still-sun Such precision we have about it now! Winter solstice is when... ...because of the earth's tilt, your hemisphere is leaning farthest away from the sun, and therefore: The daylight is the shortest. The sun has its lowest arc in the sky.
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POPSRare "Rainbow" Spotted Over Idaho Known in the weather world as a circumhorizontal arc, this rare sight was caught on film on June 3 as it hung over northern Idaho near the Washington State border.
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POPSCat Flight A Possibility? A study at Bristol’s rest of England University has taken the possibility of cat flying from the realms of Galileo’s used tissue to a real possibility and the clearly excited research team at URE have been running up and down the corridors, stamping, shouting and pointing up at the clear blue sky. “It’s a real breakthrough.” said professor Glynn Martin who has been leading the team since May 2007. Professor Martin went on to show slides(see diagram above) demonstrating velocity, arc, wind speed and the now much talked about ‘rolling patterns’ which appear to be part of the new science which has helped this project leap so gracefully forward. It seems that if a feline subject is ‘rolled’ soon after launching it can achieve a trajectory far in excess of that previously obtained when no rolling has been used.
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POPSThis is no fantasy or trick of the light - Upside down rainbow Upside down rainbow - The circumzenithal arc or cicumzenith arc (CZA), also called the Bravais' arc, is an optical phenomenon similar in appearance to a rainbow and arising from refraction of sunlight through non-terminated, horizontally-oriented ice crystals in certain clouds. It takes the shape of one-quarter of a circle centered at the zenith and parallel to the horizon, on the same side as the sun. Its colors run from blue near the zenith to red towards the horizon; it is one of the brightest and most colorful halos" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumzenithal_arc
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POPSBrain Cells That Are A Key To Learning Discovered n experiments the researchers directly observed the convergent neurons where learning is suspected of taking place. These neurons responded to both a conditioned stimulus, in this case a novel saccharine solution, and an unconditioned stimulus, in the form of lithium chloride that made rats sick. Convergent activation is considered a key event for subsequent plasticity, according to Bernstein. Until now, however, there has been scant direct evidence of this activation during learning in the mammalian brain.
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POPSSocial media: Social Approximity? Now that bit about the telegraph may be a bit out of dot dot dash date, so simply substitute in "social media" for telegraph and you're back in the present tense. Social media are a recontextualization of old print forms and contents within a new distribution and communication framework (social web). It's not surprising that so many of our social practices (tools and uses) echo, if not amplify, their old media (broadcast) forebears: celebrity, self-promotion, news, anchoring, commentary, top tens, ratings, rankings, and polls (diggs, votes).
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POPSNew evidence on how birds took flight Their research suggests that flight evolved with critical changes seen in fossilized shoulder bones, among late theropod dinosaurs, and early avians, and describe the fundamental wing stroke as plesiomormhic - meaning an ancestral characteristic. The researchers attached points on ten points on the bird's bodies and digitized the results. They found that the wing stroke fell within a narrow arc of 19 degrees, and the bird shifted it's body to perform it's aerobatics. They draw an analogy with the helicopter, where the agility does not depend on the angle of the rotor blades, but through modifying engine power, and shifting the body using the tail rotor. Reminds me of the helicopter designed by Leonardo da Vinci. then, until the Wright Bros, it seemed people just tried to make 'flying machines' too complicated.
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POPSOrigins of the metric system A strong movement toward the use of the metric system in the U.S. during the 1970-1980 period lost momentum. Currently the U.S. is using dual measurements, where there is mixed use of the metric and inch-pound systems. A number of large industries and some smaller ones have converted to SI use. But, mainly due to lack of a mandate from U.S. voters, Congress has not pushed for a law making the metric system the sole measurement system in the U.S. However, as metric is the sole measurement language of most of the world, foreign customers buying U.S. products are gradually requiring that they be delivered labeled and produced in metric units; therefore, eventually, the chances are that the U.S. will become a metric nation. The map in the clip is from 1971.
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POPSReal-life photo and story...nothing big...
A while ago, I had to move to a new apartment, which is never fun. On this day, I was taking a final carload of stuff to a storage unit in a nearby city. I was grateful that this was the end of it, but I was dirty, sweaty, tired, hungry and cranky. And to add insult to injury, I had to suffer the frustration of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the way back. Grrrr.... Inching around a bend in the freeway, I'm surprised to see this gigantic arc of a rainbow gradually come into view...a vibrant ribbon carving the sky up into darkness above and lightness below. It was very pretty and, as I rounded the corner and drove underneath the bow, strangely soothing. I allowed myself to relax and feel a bit better. Before long, the traffic was un-bunching ahead of me and cool air started streaming in the car windows again as I picked up speed. I forgot about feeling sour and barely had time to snap this impromptu phone pic before heading home to spend the first night in my clean new place!
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POPSMore Religious Right Insanity It doesn't take much effort to uncover the truly bizarre on the Religious Right. Now they're resorting to Mind Control Fatwas to murder McCain so their Joan of Arc Palin can take up the Christian sword of prophesy to finally end the ungodly behavior of the People Who Believe Differently Than I group. Remember, these are the same folks the Republicans are courting and proudly proclaim as their "base". Whatever!
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