Category: Science/Technology

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Bridge to Nature: Glaciers, Slime Molds, and Slugs

After two weeks of posting sentimental, smoke-from-the-ears thought-provoking stuff, I thought it was time to throw off the maudlin. Let’s talk about slugs and slime molds.

Quick! What do glaciers, slime molds, and slugs have in common? Quite a lot. In fact, this could be a great parlor game.

Hubbard Glacier, Alaska

The most obvious common bond is that they’re all slow. And yet, they don’t stop moving. Unrelenting, you might say.  They’re also a way of Mother Nature making us feel humble. Think you’re all that? Virginia Woolf once said the rock you kick will outlast Shakespeare. Glaciers, slime molds, and slugs will all outlast Shakespeare.

Another common bond is that you can find them all in Alaska, which is where we were touring last week. Alaska is a unique place with large areas of wilderness yet to be discovered as you venture through forests and ocean inlets.  It also, therefore, contains many things whose way of existence seems completely alien. You can’t help thinking, how does evolution favor THAT? But the more you learn, the more you realize nature has many ways of propagating itself that we can only guess at. Continue reading “Bridge to Nature: Glaciers, Slime Molds, and Slugs”

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Tracing the Guitar String Theory of Two Brians

pal·imp·sest
ˈpaləm(p)ˌsest/
noun: palimpsest; plural noun: palimpsests

–a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain
–something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form

What makes a physicist turn into a rock star? What makes a rock star turn back into a physicist? This is the story of two Brians.  One of them you know, though you may not know this part of his background.  The other you might know if you are young and/or hip, or if you wait a few years. Both of them wanted to excel at doing more than one thing. We all have been told we should do what we’re passionate at. But what if you love two things?

This story reminded me of Buckaroo Banzai, star of screen and comics, was billed as an adventurer, physicist, brain surgeon, test pilot and rock musician, saving the world from the invasion of aliens from Planet 10. This awesome movie from 1984 starred Peter Weller as the super cool adventurer.  It always seemed like the most incongruous pair of roles in that list was physicist and rock musician. But though Dr. Banzai was a fictional character, maybe there is something natural that yokes physics and rock’n’roll. Continue reading “Tracing the Guitar String Theory of Two Brians”

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Where Fancy is Bred

Where, oh where, is fancy bred?
In the heart or in the head?
–Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice

The heart is a powerful muscle, delivering nourishment and energy throughout the body, second by second and minute by minute. The sound of a heartbeat signifies life, fear, elation, and anxiety – the approach of a leopard and the approach of a beloved. One of the most joyous sounds is of a heartbeat in a mother’s womb; the joyous picture is the sonogram of that beating heart. The heart has been described since ancient times as the seat of emotions, though 20th century scientists in the age of “better” information designated the brain as the true ruler of emotions rather than the heart. How did the ancients get it wrong? Or did they?

Blame it on Aristotle. Blame it on the Catholic and the Lutheran Church. Blame it on the Cro-Magnons.

For Valentine’s Day, I set out to find out where the scalloped heart shape came from and why the heart was identified as the seat of emotion. As with all investigation into historical and scientific evidence, the answer is … complicated. Continue reading “Where Fancy is Bred”