Posts tagged science

Analysis and Explainers: Star Wars Edition Wired has a delightful twofer that any journalist interested in analysis and explainers should read. The first comes from Spencer Ackerman and explores how the Galactic Empire is such a miserable fighting force. Taking the Battle of Hoth as his case study, Ackerman writes: From a military perspective, Hoth should have been a total debacle for the Rebel Alliance. Overconfident that they can evade Imperial surveillance, they hole up on unforgiving frigid terrain at the far end of the cosmos. Huddled into the lone Echo Base are all their major players: politically crucial Princess Leia; ace pilot Han Solo; and their game-changer, Luke Skywalker, who isn’t even a Jedi yet. The defenses the Alliance constructed on Hoth could not be more favorable to Vader if the villain constructed them himself. The single Rebel base (!) is defended by a few artillery pieces on its north slope, protecting its main power generator. An ion cannon is its main anti-aircraft/spacecraft defense. Its outermost perimeter defense is an energy shield that can deflect Imperial laser bombardment. But the shield has two huge flaws: It can’t stop an Imperial landing force from entering the atmosphere, and it can only open in a discrete place for a limited time so the Rebels’ Ion Cannon can protect an evacuation. In essence, the Rebels built a shield that can’t keep an invader out and complicates their own escape. When Vader enters the Hoth System with the Imperial Fleet, he’s holding a winning hand. What follows next is a reminder of two military truths that apply in our own time and in our own galaxy: Don’t place unaccountable religious fanatics in wartime command, and never underestimate a hegemonic power’s ability to miscalculate against an insurgency. Ackerman goes on to explore Darth Vader’s “incoherent strategy in outer space,” the Empire’s mismanaged ground assault and its inability to form an actual blockade against rebel forces trying to escape. Rhett Allain follows up in the Wired Science blog with an explainer of how much Darth Vader must weigh. It’s not as easy as it appears and requires a fair bit of math and physics by exploring a scene in Return of the Jedi where Vader does a one-handed grab of a rebel and lifts him off his feet. As Allain points out, despite having bionic arms and legs, we must explore the physics of mass and stability in order to understand how Vader achieved this feet of strength. Follow Allain’s mathematical formulas to account for mass, gravity, force and torque, and it turns out that Vader weighs in at a minimum of about 520 pounds (236 kg). Image: Video still, The Empire Strikes Back, Battle of Hoth. Select to embiggen.

Analysis and Explainers: Star Wars Edition

Wired has a delightful twofer that any journalist interested in analysis and explainers should read.

The first comes from Spencer Ackerman and explores how the Galactic Empire is such a miserable fighting force. Taking the Battle of Hoth as his case study, Ackerman writes:

From a military perspective, Hoth should have been a total debacle for the Rebel Alliance. Overconfident that they can evade Imperial surveillance, they hole up on unforgiving frigid terrain at the far end of the cosmos. Huddled into the lone Echo Base are all their major players: politically crucial Princess Leia; ace pilot Han Solo; and their game-changer, Luke Skywalker, who isn’t even a Jedi yet.

The defenses the Alliance constructed on Hoth could not be more favorable to Vader if the villain constructed them himself. The single Rebel base (!) is defended by a few artillery pieces on its north slope, protecting its main power generator. An ion cannon is its main anti-aircraft/spacecraft defense. Its outermost perimeter defense is an energy shield that can deflect Imperial laser bombardment. But the shield has two huge flaws: It can’t stop an Imperial landing force from entering the atmosphere, and it can only open in a discrete place for a limited time so the Rebels’ Ion Cannon can protect an evacuation. In essence, the Rebels built a shield that can’t keep an invader out and complicates their own escape.

When Vader enters the Hoth System with the Imperial Fleet, he’s holding a winning hand. What follows next is a reminder of two military truths that apply in our own time and in our own galaxy: Don’t place unaccountable religious fanatics in wartime command, and never underestimate a hegemonic power’s ability to miscalculate against an insurgency.

Ackerman goes on to explore Darth Vader’s “incoherent strategy in outer space,” the Empire’s mismanaged ground assault and its inability to form an actual blockade against rebel forces trying to escape.

Rhett Allain follows up in the Wired Science blog with an explainer of how much Darth Vader must weigh.

It’s not as easy as it appears and requires a fair bit of math and physics by exploring a scene in Return of the Jedi where Vader does a one-handed grab of a rebel and lifts him off his feet. As Allain points out, despite having bionic arms and legs, we must explore the physics of mass and stability in order to understand how Vader achieved this feet of strength.

Follow Allain’s mathematical formulas to account for mass, gravity, force and torque, and it turns out that Vader weighs in at a minimum of about 520 pounds (236 kg).

Image: Video still, The Empire Strikes Back, Battle of Hoth. Select to embiggen.

Kickstarting the Death Star

Via Kickstarter:

In November 2012 the people asked for a death star. The government said NO!

In light of continuing threats we should build it ourselves.

Initial design (not for kids)Initial design (not for kids)

Goal

£20,000,000 for more detailed plans and enough chicken wire to protect reactor exhaust ports.

Stretch Goal

£543,000,000,000,000,00 ($850,000,000,000,000,000) to secure full funding for actual construction.

Open Source

To keep costs lower the entire project will use open source hardware and software.

FJP: Make it so.

Predicting the Future via New York Times Archives

Well, not just the Times, scientists are also digging through Wikipedia among many other sites.

Via GigaOm:

Researchers at Microsoft and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are creating software that analyzes 22 years of New York Times archives, Wikipedia and about 90 other web resources to predict future disease outbreaks, riots and deaths — and hopefully prevent them.

The new research is the latest in a number of similar initiatives that seek to mine web data to predict all kinds of events. Recorded Future, for instance, analyzes news, blogs and social media to “help identify predictive signals” for a variety of industries, including financial services and defense. Researchers are also using Twitter and Google to track flu outbreaks.

Technology Review outlines how it can work.

The system provides striking results when tested on historical data. For example, reports of droughts in Angola in 2006 triggered a warning about possible cholera outbreaks in the country, because previous events had taught the system that cholera outbreaks were more likely in years following droughts. A second warning about cholera in Angola was triggered by news reports of large storms in Africa in early 2007; less than a week later, reports appeared that cholera had become established. In similar tests involving forecasts of disease, violence, and a significant numbers of deaths, the system’s warnings were correct between 70 to 90 percent of the time.

See Kira Radinsky and Eric Horvitz, Mining the Web to Predict Future Events (PDF).

World’s largest natural sound archive now fully digital and fully online.

Via cornelluniversity:

“In terms of speed and the breadth of material now accessible to anyone in the world, this is really revolutionary,” says audio curator Greg Budney, describing a major milestone just achieved by the Macaulay Library archive at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. All archived analog recordings in the collection, going back to 1929, have now been digitized and can be heard at www.MacaulayLibrary.org…

…It took archivists a dozen years to complete the monumental task. The collection contains nearly 150,000 digital audio recordings equaling more than 10 terabytes of data with a total run time of 7,513 hours. About 9,000 species are represented. There’s an emphasis on birds, but the collection also includes sounds of whales, elephants, frogs, primates and more.

Observed US Temperature Change A new report by the US Global Change Research Program explores climate change and its implications. The first draft, issued for public review, is the work of a 60-person advisory committee and 240 different authors. It draws on data from across US agencies. Via the report (PDF): U.S. temperatures will continue to rise, with the next few decades projected to see another 2°F to 4°F of warming in most areas. The amount of warming by the end of the century is projected to correspond closely to the cumulative global emissions of greenhouse gases up to that time: roughly 3°F to 5°F under a lower emissions scenario involving substantial reductions in emissions after 2050 (referred to as the “B1 scenario”), and 5°F to 10°F for a higher emissions scenario assuming continued increases in emissions (referred to as the “A2 scenario”)… Human-induced climate change means much more than just hotter weather. Increases in ocean and freshwater temperatures, frost-free days, and heavy downpours have all been documented. Sea level has risen, and there have been large reductions in snow-cover extent, glaciers, permafrost, and sea ice. Winter storms along the west coast and the coast of New England have increased slightly in frequency and intensity. These changes and other climatic changes have affected and will continue to affect human health, water supply, agriculture, transportation, energy, and many other aspects of society. Image: Observed US Temperature Change, via the NCADAC. “The colors on the map show temperature changes over the past 20 years in °F (1991-2011) compared to the 1901-1960 average. The bars on the graphs show the average temperature changes by decade for 1901-2011 (relative to the 1901-1960 average) for each region. The far right bar in each graph (2000s decade) includes 2011. The period from 2001 to 2011 was warmer than any previous decade in every region. (Figure source: NOAA NCDC / CICS-NC. Data from NOAA NCDC.)” Select to embiggen.

Observed US Temperature Change

A new report by the US Global Change Research Program explores climate change and its implications. The first draft, issued for public review, is the work of a 60-person advisory committee and 240 different authors. It draws on data from across US agencies.

Via the report (PDF):

U.S. temperatures will continue to rise, with the next few decades projected to see another 2°F to 4°F of warming in most areas. The amount of warming by the end of the century is projected to correspond closely to the cumulative global emissions of greenhouse gases up to that time: roughly 3°F to 5°F under a lower emissions scenario involving substantial reductions in emissions after 2050 (referred to as the “B1 scenario”), and 5°F to 10°F for a higher emissions scenario assuming continued increases in emissions (referred to as the “A2 scenario”)…

Human-induced climate change means much more than just hotter weather. Increases in ocean and freshwater temperatures, frost-free days, and heavy downpours have all been documented. Sea level has risen, and there have been large reductions in snow-cover extent, glaciers, permafrost, and sea ice. Winter storms along the west coast and the coast of New England have increased slightly in frequency and intensity. These changes and other climatic changes have affected and will continue to affect human health, water supply, agriculture, transportation, energy, and many other aspects of society.

Image: Observed US Temperature Change, via the NCADAC. “The colors on the map show temperature changes over the past 20 years in °F (1991-2011) compared to the 1901-1960 average. The bars on the graphs show the average temperature changes by decade for 1901-2011 (relative to the 1901-1960 average) for each region. The far right bar in each graph (2000s decade) includes 2011. The period from 2001 to 2011 was warmer than any previous decade in every region. (Figure source: NOAA NCDC / CICS-NC. Data from NOAA NCDC.)” Select to embiggen.

The White House responds to the Death Star Petition In response to a petition at We the People, Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, writes: Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe. Besides, he adds, “The Administration does not support blowing up planets.” Well played. Very well played.

The White House responds to the Death Star Petition

In response to a petition at We the People, Paul Shawcross, Chief of the Science and Space Branch at the White House Office of Management and Budget, writes:

Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

Besides, he adds, “The Administration does not support blowing up planets.”

Well played. Very well played.

2012: What Brought Us Together

News, politics, sports, science and culture from around the world. By Jean-Louis Nguyen.

Stunning.

Massive Iceberg Breaks off Greenland

Via the Guardian: “It’s like watching ‘Manhattan breaking apart in front of your eyes’, says one of the researchers for filmmaker James Balog. He’s describing the largest iceberg calving ever filmed, as featured in his movie, Chasing Ice. After weeks of waiting, the filmakers witnessed 7.4 cubic km of ice crashing off the Ilulissat glacier in Greenland. Chasing Ice, released in the UK on Friday, follows Balog’s mission to document Arctic ice being melted by climate change.”

Earth at Night

Blake posted a video earlier showing NASA’s new Earth photos created with infrared imaging technology. I can’t stop looking at them though. 

Here’s the basic set (including a 54000x27000 GeoTIFF version of the top image — let’s make posters), and here’s a fascinating look at the Nile. And over here is an interactive map where you can explore the entire globe.

Image background from the Earth Observatory:

A handful of scientists have observed earthly night lights over the past four decades with military satellites and astronaut photography. But in 2012, the view became significantly clearer. The Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite — launched in October 2011 by NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Department of Defense — carries a low-light sensor that can distinguish night lights with six times better spatial resolution and 250 times better resolution of lighting levels (dynamic range) than before. Also, because Suomi NPP is a civilian science satellite, data is available to scientists within minutes to hours of acquisition.

The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on Suomi NPP can observe dim light down to the scale of an isolated highway lamp or fishing boat. It can even detect faint, nocturnal atmospheric light — known as airglow — and observe clouds lit by it. Through the use of its “day-night band,” VIIRS can make the first quantitative measurements of light emissions and reflections, distinguishing the intensity and the sources of night light. The sum of these measurements gives us a global view of the human footprint on the Earth.

Stunning — Michael.

Images: City Lights, via Nasa Earth Observatory. Select to embiggen.

Does the Universe Have a Purpose

The Monday ponderable comes from Neil deGrasse Tyson and the John Templeton Foundation which is asking scientists and scholars “Big Questions”.

Dissatisfied with with Neil’s response? Visit the Templeton Foundation for those who answer, Yes, No and I Hope So.

Google Goes to the Moon Google and the NASA Ames Research Center have joined together to produce a collection of lunar maps and charts as a way to explore the Apollo missions. Things to see: Visible - A mosaic of images taken by the Clementinemission. This is a black-and-white version of what you would seeif you were in orbit around the moon. This composite imagery was prepared by the USGS. Elevation - A lunar terrain map generated by the USGSin conjunction with the The Unified Lunar Control Network 2005, and shaded using an airbrushed shaded relief map. This map is color-coded by altitude, so you can use the color key at the lower left to estimate elevations. Apollo - A collection of placemarks that tell the story of the Apollo missions that landed on the moon. This includes stories, quotes,images, panoramas, audio clips, and links to videos of the astronauts’ adventures on the lunar surface. Charts - A collection of geological and topographic charts of various regions of the moon. Image: Screenshot, Google Moon.

Google Goes to the Moon

Google and the NASA Ames Research Center have joined together to produce a collection of lunar maps and charts as a way to explore the Apollo missions.

Things to see:

  • Visible - A mosaic of images taken by the Clementinemission. This is a black-and-white version of what you would seeif you were in orbit around the moon. This composite imagery was prepared by the USGS.
  • Elevation - A lunar terrain map generated by the USGSin conjunction with the The Unified Lunar Control Network 2005, and shaded using an airbrushed shaded relief map. This map is color-coded by altitude, so you can use the color key at the lower left to estimate elevations.
  • Apollo - A collection of placemarks that tell the story of the Apollo missions that landed on the moon. This includes stories, quotes,images, panoramas, audio clips, and links to videos of the astronauts’ adventures on the lunar surface.
  • Charts - A collection of geological and topographic charts of various regions of the moon.

Image: Screenshot, Google Moon.

In which Neil deGrasse Tyson helps Superman find his way home.

Happy Birthday, Carl Sagan!

Rest in Peace, Carl. Now, let’s watch Cosmos.

Scientists Crowdfund a Meth Lab, do an AmA

Instead of writing grant letters two Princeton and Columbia professors are using RocketHub, a crowd funding site for science, to raise money to find where exactly amphetamine and methamphetamine accumulate in the brain. They’ll do so by creating slightly radioactive stimulants that they can follow across a brain. All their findings, they promise, will be free and open to the public.

And from Reddit today, here’s one of the professors, Princeton’s Ethan Perlstein:

We are definitely going through a crowdfunding/crowdsourcing bubble, which means there’s a lot of experimentation and churn happening.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that in this climate, scientists who are better marketers will probably succeed more than scientists who aren’t good at communicating their science, or who are too busy to even try. Also, science that is more popular will have an edge in a bubble, and probably when things start to settle down.

FJP: If journalists and musicians can do it, why can’t cool scientists?