Saturday March 22, 2008
Physics of the Impossible, Arthur C. Clarke, Anna's Hummingbird's Tail Chirp, Alligator Air Bags, Six String Science, Science Fact or Science Fiction: Cat Jumping
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Physics of the Impossible
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What separates science fiction from other forms of literature is the use of technology. Often the writers imagine far-fetched machines or devices, well beyond what our modern society can create. But any good science fiction will contain a grain of truth. In fact, some of the best science fiction authors of the past predicted inventions we now take for granted. The internet, space travel and satellites were all foreshadowed in novels. Many of today's science fiction concepts are even more fantastic, and seem, by today's standards, to be impossible. In his new book, Physics of the Impossible, Dr. Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist from The City University of New York, examines some of these ideas to see whether they obey the laws of physics as we understand them, and just how possible, or impossible, they are. He explains why phasers may be just around the corner, and perpetual motion machines will never be built.
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Dr. Kaku's websitePublisher's Page for Physics of the ImpossibleDr. Kaku's last interview on Quirks & Quarks, January 8, 2005Arthur C. Clarke
One of the most influential science fiction writers of the last century, Arthur C. Clarke, died this past week at the age of 90. Clarke was best known for writing, 2001: A Space Odyssey, the famous movie by Stanley Kubrick, which Clarke based on one of his own short stories. But Arthur C. Clarke also wrote more than 100 other books in his lifetime, and popularized such scientific concepts as the space elevator, and using geosynchronous satellites for telecommunications.
Earlier this year, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, Clarke recorded a video statement for his fans and followers, which now stands as a kind of self-obituary.
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Anna's Hummingbird's Tail Chirp
Anna's Hummingbird, courtesy Christopher Clark |
The Anna's Hummingbird may be diminutive, but it's got a big presence. It wards off intruders and shows off for females by dive bombing them and making an alarming little chirp at the bottom of its decent. Strangely, researchers haven't been quite sure exactly how the Anna's Hummingbird makes this chirp. Some have argued that it's a vocal cry, while other argue that they make the sound with their tail feathers. Christopher Clark, a graduate student in biology at the University of California at Berkeley, has put the debate to rest. He's recently completed a series of field studies and lab experiments that pins the chirp on the hummingbird's tail.
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Chris Clark's paper in the journal, Proceedings of the Royal Society BA media release from UC BerkeleyAlligator Air Bags
TJ Uriona and little friend, courtesy Hannah Chirillo |
Having a pair of lungs is useful to an aquatic animal like an alligator, as they provide built-in buoyancy to keep the beast afloat. The alligator, however, seems to have refined this capacity by making its lungs mobile, all in aid of helping it maneuver in the water. TJ Uriona, a doctoral candidate in biology at the University of Utah, has found that the alligator uses specialized muscles to move its lungs around in its body - forward and backwards to dive or surface, and side-to-side to roll. Shifting its lungs like this, the alligator can slowly and silently move towards prey or away from threats.
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Six String Science
Dr. Larson playing his science-inspired guitar, courtesy J. Lebans |
Inspired by CBC Radio host Jowi Taylor's "Six String Nation" project, Dr. Doug Larson, a professor of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph, and an amateur luthier, has made a guitar reflecting the natural history that he and his colleagues study. He's used wood from trees he's studied, like the ancient cedars of the Niagara Escarpment, ivory from extinct mammoths, fossilized fish, turtle shell, and hundreds of other components. According to Dr. Larson, the idea was that every bit of material in the guitar tell a story about research and science that he and other scientists have done. He's hoping the guitar will be a way to tell stories about science.
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Dr Larson's Cliff Ecology Research GroupUniversity of Guelph news release about the guitarClose up of the guitarScience Fact or Science Fiction: Cat Jumping
From time to time, we present a commonly held idea or popular saying - and ask a Canadian scientist to set us straight on whether we should believe it or not.
Today's fact or fiction comes from Templeton Finn, a listener in Sydney, Australia.
He's heard that cats can jump up to seven times their body length
For the scientific verification, we go to Dr. Jeff Thomason, a professor of Biomedical Sciences at the Ontario Veterinary College of the University of Guelph.
Theme music copyright Raphaël Gluckstein. Creative Commons License by-nc-nd-2.0
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