It was given knowledge that a musk ox is protected from concussive brain injury by having an intracranial air pocket and a very broad horn. Research now shows they suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy - just like boxers and American football players - and may suffer some degree of dementia. The researchers surmise that mild dementia in a musk ox - unlike with humans - probably doesn’t much affect its life. Watch them in action. When you have the opportunity, watch this wonderful 52-minute film about reintroducing musk oxen to Siberia after a 2,000 year absence.
Butting heads with anti-vaxxers, climate-change-deniers, or creationists, et al., probably doesn’t cause dementia, but it sure hurts - and it might cause them to become yet more entrenched in their mistaken beliefs. But let me quote Lee McIntyre:
It is sometimes claimed that trying to convince a science denier with facts will only backfire. The latest research, however, shows that this is mistaken and that there ARE effective techniques that can be used to keep someone from becoming a science denier and even help them to overturn mistaken beliefs once they are formed. The secret lies in recognizing that even empirical beliefs may be held for reasons that have nothing to do with evidence, such as personal values, trust, ideology, and group identity. The best way to convince someone in this case is not to insult them — or clobber them with evidence — but to engage in calm, respectful, patient conversation that simultaneously builds trust and encourages them to reflect not just on what they believe but the reasoning strategy that brought them to believe it.
At 6:30pm PDT this Thursday - June 9 - Dr. McIntyre will be giving a free livestream talk on how this works and he will be answering your questions during the following Q&A session. It won’t hurt nor will it lead to dementia.
Trivia question: ¿How is vodka related to asteroids? Shucks, the answer also involves THOR and The Little Prince. OK. Here goes: The nonprofit B612 Foundation - named after Asteroid B612, the home of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” - teamed up with the University of Washington which developed a computer algorithm called Tracklet-less Heliocentric Orbit Recovery, or THOR, which finds previously unknown asteroids in old astronomical photos and computes their orbits - a project funded in part by a $1,000,000 matching grant from Tito’s Handmade Vodka. Their project is just getting started and already they’ve discovered and computed orbits of over a hundred asteroids.
I’m forever amazed at how few folk know about space elevators. Here is a short video animation that covers the basics. I have minor quibbles, though. (1) It matters not how fast a carousel turns, the yo-yo will never swing out perfectly horizontal. (2) The power for an elevator car to reach the ‘top floor’ is not “extreme” and most of the energy can be regenerated upon descent. (3) Putting a base station in the ocean ignores the threats of hurricanes, currents, and rogue waves. Putting the (first) base station in kilometer-high Lake Victoria makes far more sense. While we are at it, let’s have three parallel elevators so more traffic can be moving at a time, and use three cables per elevator to carry 3-phase electric power for the elevator car’s 3-phase motors and to power the top floor station. Three cables per elevator car would also provide physical redundancy for the sake of safety. The biggest hindrance to establishing space elevators, however, is the rapidly increasing problem of orbital collisions, not only of space ‘junk’ but also collisions of functioning satellites.
Russia continues to coöperate with International Space Station operations - thankfully.
Leslie M. won a JWST mirror pin with her guess of 982, besting 12 other contestants. This time the prize is a challenging paper model kit of the Hubble Space Telescope. Just send an email (only one) to david.almandsmith@gmail.com before noon Friday with an integer between zero and 1,000. We will then use a random number generator to select the target number. The person who chose the closest number wins.
Last Christmas, i gave my grown children some lovely trinkets created by (someone else’s) 3-D printer. Alexa got a 3-D printed ear from her doctors.
Attitudes concerning sex roles is a perennial topic in sociology. Zoölogist Lucy Cooke wrote a book on that topic. Sex is also a perennial topic in biology. Apparently an Australian species of grasshopper has gone without sex for a quarter of a million years. That’s abstinence! A more familiar Australian animal is the platypus.
Strawberry recall. Yikes! A disturbing outbreak of Hepatitis A in the U.S. appears to be related to strawberries supplied from Mexico during March and April.
PICKS OF THE WEEK
Discovering Us: Great Discoveries in Human Origins - Livestream, 5pm Thursday
How to Talk to a Science Denier - Livestream, 6:30pm Thursday
Wonderfest: The Thirty Meter Telescope - Livestream, 8pm Thursday
Cephalopod Week: Movie Night - Free Livestream / $10 In Person, 7pm Friday, S.F.
Ticket prices for SkeptiCal 2022, July 16 & 17, go up again on July 1st.
See the full-size graph here.
Because it is experiencing historic heat waves, India has increased the amount of coal being burned so they can generate more electricity for air conditioners. And, of course, air conditioners pump heat into the atmosphere. Pakistan is also affected. Melting glaciers there resulted in damage and fatalities. The European nations that have stopped or limited the use of Russian oil for generating electricity, have turned to using more coal.
Just this last week, parts of Miami flooded after 25 cm of rain. Havana, Cuba also flooded, and Hurricane Agatha caused flooding and fatalities in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.
The quest to replace fossil fuels with fusion energy ran into a few snags recently at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France. Two ginormous vacuum vessels - each 440 tonnes - were damaged in transit from South Korea. The two-meter-thick concrete radiation barrier around the reactor is deemed insufficient to protect personnel, but a heavier barrier will exceed the foundation's ability to support its weight. Twelve tonnes of beryllium will line the vacuum chamber, but it could cause chronic beryllium disease in personnel. ITER could be redesigned to use tungsten instead, but at great cost and more delays. This article paints a rosier picture.
As long as we are exploring physics, let’s examine the physics of Oreo cookie disassembly.
I love optical illusions. Here is a static image that 86% of us perceive as though it were flexing. And this one appears to have an exceedingly bright center. These illusions are discussed here.
Homework Assignment:
Enter the drawing for the challenging paper model kit of the Hubble Space Telescope;
Take a look at the SkeptiCal 2022 lineup;
Set a reminder for Thursday’s How to Talk to a Science Denier;
Throw out the suspect strawberries you put in your freezer.
Insert adventure and empathy into your week, but be careful - long COVID sucks,
Dave Almandsmith, Bay Area Skeptics
“I'd much rather have 15 people arguing about something than 15 people splitting into two camps, each side convinced it's right and not talking to the other.”
– Linus Torvalds, (1969 - ) Finnish-American software engineer; main developer of Linux
“We're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone's arguing over where they're going to sit.”
– David Suzuki, (1936 - ) Canadian academic, science broadcaster, and environmental activist
“Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes error a fault, and truth a discourtesy”.
– George Herbert, (1593 - 1633) Welsh poet, orator, and Church of England priest
Upcoming Events:
Click to see the next two weeks of events in your browser.
Monday, 06/06/2022
Spins, Bits, and Flips: Essentials for High-Density Magnetic Random-Access Memory - Livestream - 06/06/2022 03:30 PM
SLAC Colloquium
The magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), a device comprised of two ferromagnetic electrodes with a thin (~1nm) insulating tunnel barrier in between, was first proposed in a Ph.D. thesis by Michel Julliere in 1975 and reached widespread commercialization nearly 30 years later as the read sensor in hard disk drives. MTJs became essential for data storage in consumer laptop and desktop computers, early-generation iPods, and now in data centers that store the information in "the Cloud." The application of MTJs has expanded even further to spin-transfer torque MRAM as a replacement for embedded flash memory. Innovation in MTJs continues in order to deliver faster, high-density MRAM that can support last-level cache and in-memory computing.
In this talk, I will describe the seminal discoveries that enabled MTJs for pervasive use in hard disk drives and MRAM. As the demand for faster and higher density memory persists, still more breakthroughs are needed for MTJs contained in device pillars (or bits) with <50nm diameter. I will describe the magnetic properties of MTJs that are essential for high-performance MRAM. In addition, I will describe an innovative nanofabrication process for achieving dense arrays of MRAM bits with 50nm full pitch.
Speaker: Tiffany Santos, Western Digital Corporation
See weblink for Zoom information
Cosmic Catastrophes: Transient Phenomena and the Renaissance of Astrophysics - 06/06/2022 07:30 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Prof. Raffaella Margutti will share how new capabilities to study the night sky have led to recent discoveries and new ways to think about the universe around us. Astronomical transients are events that appear and disappear in the sky and are signs of catastrophic events in space, including the most extreme stellar (star) deaths and interactions between stars and supermassive black holes.
Thanks to new and improved observational facilities, which use measurements of gravitational waves and light, we can now sample the night sky for astronomical transients with unprecedented resolution across the electromagnetic spectrum and beyond. This effort has led to the discovery of new types of stellar explosions, revolutionized our understanding of phenomena that we thought we already knew, and enabled the first insights into the physics of how black holes and stars interact.
Speaker: Raffaella Margutti, UC Berkeley
Tuesday, 06/07/2022
Catching a Supermassive Black Hole in the Act - Livestream - 06/07/2022 07:00 PM
KIPAC Public Lectures
Supermassive black holes remain some of the most elusive engines in our Universe. However, after decades of observations and over 1 million of them cataloged, certain aspects of their formation and growth still remain unknown. Combining large amount of observational data with state-of-the-art computer simulations, we are slowly unraveling the mysteries that surround their evolution through cosmic time. In this talk, Dr. Adi Foord will discuss the effort to understand how supermassive black holes grow in and with their host galaxies, how they impact their surrounding environments in the process, and how mergers play an important role in their evolution. She will also highlight some of the unanswered questions regarding the lifecycle of these elusive engines.
Speaker: Adi Foord, Stanford University
Register at weblink to attend, either in person (location TBA) or online
Wednesday, 06/08/2022
Exploring the Future of Cybersecurity - 06/08/2022 06:00 PM
swissnex San Francisco San Francisco
Cybersecurity has become a central part of the discussion on how we work, live and communicate as a society. It is not just confined to the world of IT and digital technologies anymore. During one of the largest conferences about cybersecurity, the RSA Conference in San Francisco this June, Swissnex in San Francisco is hosting an interactive exchange on the Future of Cybersecurity in collaboration with Armasuisse and Swisscom. This topic has become even more important in the wake of the pandemic and in times of growing geopolitical instability. Building resilient societies requires finding new technical, organizational and political viewpoints on cybersecurity. Three speakers will share their insights, followed by small breakout session with all attendees for a chance to exchange ideas about the future of cybersecurity.
Register at weblink
June LASER Event - Livestream - 06/08/2022 06:00 PM
LASER Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous
Sarah Cole (Columbia University) on "James Joyce's Ulysses at 100"
Register at weblink to receive connection information
A Changing Climate: Through the Lens of Equity and Resiliency - 06/08/2022 07:00 PM
City of Sunnyvale
During times of a changing climate, how can we ensure fair and resilient solutions for everyone? Sea level rise, drought, heat waves and wildfires will impact Bay Area communities in the coming years. Violet Saena will talk about addressing these climate issues in an equitable way. Violet, Founder and Executive Director of Climate Resilient Communities, will provide resources for navigating these uncharted waters. She will provide resources to better prepare for a changing climate and build resiliency in our community.
Thursday, 06/09/2022
Discovering Us: Great Discoveries in Human Origins - 06/09/2022 05:00 PM
Leaky Foundation
Join The Leakey Foundation for a free virtual event featuring Dan Lieberman, Harvard human evolutionary biologist, in conversation with Evan Hadingham, Senior Science Editor for PBS's NOVA series. They explore some of the most exciting and groundbreaking surprises revealed by human origins research.
Over the past fifty years, researchers have made extraordinary discoveries that help us to understand who we are, where we came from, and what makes us human. This program brings our shared history to life and tells the stories behind some of the most important human origins discoveries ever made. These amazing stories of key fossil discoveries, insights gleaned from the study of our nearest living relatives, and more are highlights from Evan Hadingham's latest book Discovering Us: Fifty Great Discoveries in Human Origins.
Viewers will have opportunities to submit questions throughout the program.
Register at weblink
NightLife: Under the Sea Prom - 06/09/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
Will you go to prom with us? Bust out your powder blue suit and best merfolk attire - we're celebrating World Oceans Day under the sea. Strike a pose at the photo booth, craft your own prom accessories, and dance the night away to a special guest performance.
Trace DNA on Talons and Beaks Reveal Interactions Between Migrating Raptors and Songbirds Along the California Coast - Livestream - 06/09/2022 06:00 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory
Every autumn, billions of birds migrate thousands of kilometers from their breeding grounds to more favorable environments. Migrations of raptors and songbirds often overlap in space and time, creating predator-prey interactions that shape behaviors and migration strategies. However, the wide-ranging movements of a migrating avian community make specific ecological interactions difficult to study. Join us to hear Ryan Bourbour discuss how a new approach that involves migration monitoring stations, eDNA techniques, and eBird can be used to study the relationship between bird-eating raptors and songbird communities along the California Coast. Using this approach, he investigates prey selection by raptors on migration and songbird traits that may influence their encounters with their hungry migrating predators.
Speaker: Ryan Bourbour, UC Davis
Register at weblink to receive connection information
After Dark: Pride - Unheard Stories - 06/09/2022 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
In honor of Pride Month, join us in celebrating LGBTQ+ heritage and culture. Tonight, we come together to share unheard stories, past and present - stories of LGBTQ+ identities, histories, resilience, and achievements. Everyone is welcome. We invite you to share your story with us.
How to Talk to a Science Denier - Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason - Livestream - 06/09/2022 06:30 PM
Bay Area Skeptics
It is sometimes claimed that trying to convince a science denier with facts will only backfire. The latest research, however, shows that this is mistaken and that there ARE effective techniques that can be used to keep someone from becoming a science denier and even help them to overturn mistaken beliefs once they are formed. The secret lies in recognizing that even empirical beliefs may be held for reasons that have nothing to do with evidence, such as personal values, trust, ideology, and group identity. The best way to convince someone in this case is not to insult them - or clobber them with evidence - but to engage in calm, respectful, patient conversation that simultaneously builds trust and encourages them to reflect not just on what they believe but the reasoning strategy that brought them to believe it
Speaker: Lee Mcintyre, Boston University
See weblink for connection information
Wonderfest: High Hopes: The Thirty Meter Telescope - Postponed - 06/09/2022 08:00 PM
Wonderfest
Editor's Note: This event has been postponed and will be rescheduled at a later date.
Friday, 06/10/2022
Cephalopod Week: Movie Night - 06/10/2022 07:00 PM
KQED, The Commons San Francisco
Science Friday and Deep Look team up to talk all about tentacles! From octopuses to squids, and cuttlefishes to nautiluses, join us for a screening of short films featuring these highly intelligent creatures.
Presented by KQED Live
Saturday, 06/11/2022
STEM Saturday Summer Science Series - 06/11/2022 10:00 AM
NexGeneGirls San Francisco
The mission of the STEM Summer Science Series is to provide a safe atmosphere for scholars (Girls & Boys) to learn and explore the scientific process through fun hands on experiments.
All participants will develop foundational skills in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math using scientific processes through fun, hands-on science activities, lab experiments, and workshops that convey scientific principles while building self-confidence and developing the skills needed to problem-solve using Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Science at Cal - Pathways to the Pharmacy: Discovery, Development, and Access to New Medicines - 06/11/2022 11:00 AM
Valley Life Sciences Building Berkeley
How are new medicines discovered and developed? How can universities help create products to benefit patients? How do the government and private companies decide which projects to invest in? Drug discovery often follows a long, rocky and winding road to success. In this talk, Dr. Schaletzky will highlight some innovative campaigns resulting in new, first-in-class therapies for patients with heart failure, cancer, and infectious diseases. She will provide an overview of translational science, the drug discovery and development process, and how the academic and private sectors can work together more productively. A scientist who spans many fields of research, Dr. Schaletzky will also be touching on access to medicines, affordability, the power of monopolies, and how to continue to create solutions even without an economic incentive.
Speaker: Julia Schaletzky, Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases
Register at weblink
Sunday, 06/12/2022
Afternoon Hike at Mindego Hill - 06/12/2022 01:00 PM
Skyline Ridge Open Space Preserve Los Altos
Join Peninsula Open Space Trust for a beautiful 5-mile hike from the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve to the top of the POST-protected Mindego Hill. You will be guided by POST ambassadors who will share details about how we protected this beautiful property featuring panoramic views of redwood ridges and undulating hillsides.
The hike is strenuous at about 5 miles round trip with about 1,000 feet of elevation gain, so be prepared for a workout! Athletic wear and sturdy shoes are recommended! If you'd like to bring your own hiking poles, you're more than welcome.
Protected by POST and recently opened to the public by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, Mindego Hill is an excellent example of how POST works with various partners to protect some of the most threatened lands in our area.
Please note that dogs are not allowed at this Community Hike and that all minors must be accompanied by a parent and guardian for the entirety of the hike.
Tuesday, 06/14/2022
Open House: Machine Learning, the mortar of modernization - 06/14/2022 12:00 PM
SEMI Global Headquarters Milpitas
Games, Stories, and Science for Successful Public Engagement - Livestream - 06/14/2022 05:00 PM
Leaky Foundation
How the National Science Foundation Supports and Translates Innovation - Livestream - 06/14/2022 05:30 PM
Commonwealth Club San Francisco
Wednesday, 06/15/2022
Carbonate Systems in Continental Extreme Environments of South America - 06/15/2022 03:30 PM
Earth and Marine Sciences Building Santa Cruz
Towards the Direct Imaging of Habitable Exoplanets with Extremely Large Telescopes - 06/15/2022 05:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Campus Santa Clara
Habitable Exoplanets with Extremely Large Telescopes - Livestream - 06/15/2022 05:30 PM
UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley Campus Santa Clara
Nerd Nite SF #126: Hey Girl! Bingo + DNA Sequencing + Nuclear Energy - 06/15/2022 07:00 PM
Rickshaw Stop San Francisco
Thursday, 06/16/2022
The Dirt on Soil - Part 1 - Online - 06/16/2022 11:00 AM
Post Carbon Institute
Virtual Talk: Leaves with Sori: The Ferns (online) - 06/16/2022 01:00 PM
UC Botanical Garden
NightLife - 06/16/2022 06:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences San Francisco
After Dark: See for Yourself - 06/16/2022 06:00 PM
ExplOratorium San Francisco
How Do New Birds Species Arise - Livestream - 06/16/2022 07:00 PM
Golden Gate Audubon Society
NightSchool: Snails of Land and Sea - Livestream - 06/16/2022 07:00 PM
California Academy of Sciences
Friday, 06/17/2022
In Town Star Party - 06/17/2022 09:30 PM
San Jose Astronomical Association San Jose
Saturday, 06/18/2022
Family Nature Walks - Baylands Nature Preserve - 06/18/2022 10:00 AM
Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter Palo Alto
Investigating Space: The Peregrine Has Landed - 06/18/2022 01:00 PM
Chabot Space and Science Center Oakland
Binocular Stargazing at Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve - 06/18/2022 09:30 PM
Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve Morgan Hill
Sunday, 06/19/2022
Wonderfest: Shaping Our Local & Global Energy Future - 06/19/2022 01:00 PM
Cameo Cinema St. Helena
Monday, 06/20/2022
Identification of Shorebirds with a Focus on Calidris - Livestream - 06/20/2022 06:00 PM
San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory