Sleepless in Midland

Science for Celebrities

Ya gotta love the Brits.  The optimism.  The willingness to help.  Here comes a British charitable outfit that has set out to help educate celebrities so that they don't say dumb things in public.  It's Sense About Science.  Excerpt:

People in the public eye are often drawn into promoting theories, therapies, and campaigns that make no scientific sense. This leaflet shows how easily some mistakes could have been avoided. Now it’s possible to check the facts before going public. Hundreds of scientists from many fields are available to help you get it right for the public. It costs a phone call.

In the first week of January 2007, we released Sense About… Science for Celebrities, a leaflet that was elegantly abridged by the Sun: ‘Profs rap dim stars’! Download the leaflet (pdf) and read about Madonna’s, Joanna Lumley’s and Chris de Burgh’s brushes with nuclear physics, oncology and physiology.

It's just a phone call away.  Rosie?  Whoopie?  Got that number?

Via Blowing Smoke.

Your DNA -- spit it out and figure it out

For a thousand bucks the customer gets to spit into a container and mail it to the lab where the DNA is sliced, diced and genotyped.   Then they tell you what the present state of genome science says about you.

The 23andme.com co-founders, Linda Avey  and Anne Wojcicki, were on Wired Science the other night doing an interview about their venture.  (Watch the interview here.)

Variations in the DNA sequence are called snps, and there are said to be 10,000,000 of them, of which, the company can analyze 580,000.  (They use the Illumina chip which is supposed to be able to analyze 550,000, and they've added another 30,000 on their own.)  This still falls far short of the total.  But they say these are the most important ones.

Then there's the price.  Technological prices have historically fallen after the initial introduction, and this one may follow suit.  In this regard, the Illumina website boasts that its chip can yield a result for as low as $290 per sample.  So 23andme has a nice markup in place, and if it catches on there will be more competition and lower prices.  But the added value is the analysis.

The customer gets the results then visits the company website to see what his/her snps might mean for the prospects of developing, for example, poppa's hairless head.  As the research develops, the website  provides this:

23andMe's Marker Effects chart helps you see how certain genes contribute to a person's chances of developing a condition or disease - providing context to your own genetic information. And as the science keeps advancing, 23andMe will update our charts to reflect the latest research.

The website doesn't say, but I would expect a fee for viewing those updates.  Oh, and how did they get that name?  A genome is comprised of 23 chromosomes, hence the name, "23andme."  Ah those clever entrepreneurs.  Where would we be without them?

Kitzmiller v. Dover -- the intelligent design case

It started with a couple of school board members in Dover, PA, who had strong beliefs that a supreme being created human and all other life on earth and who were disturbed at the references to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution in the biology text books.

The result was the U.S. District Court case of Kitzmiller v. Dover [PDF].  And last week NOVA broadcast an excellent show titled Judgment Day, Intelligent Design on Trial on PBS which was a Cliff's Notes version of the issue of whether "intelligent design" was a scientific theory or simply a religious argument, specifically,  "creationism" in disguise.

Creationism had already been tossed out of public schools by the Supreme Court in the 1987 case of Edwards v. Aguillard which held that a Louisiana law prohibiting the teaching of evolution unless accompanied by creationism violated the first amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion").  So the issue in Kitzmiller was merely whether or not the school district was attempting to inject creationism into the school curriculum by the requirement that teachers read a prepared statement to the students.

That statement involved Of Pandas and People which was a book proposed as an alternative to evolution, copies of which were given anonymously to the Dover school.  The school board rejected Pandas as a text book, but they reached a compromise by which science teachers were required to read a statement to the ninth grade biology students.   Read the whole statement in the judge's order in Kitzmiller v. Dover [PDF].  The statement basically instructed students that Darwin's theory was not fact, gaps existed in the Darwin's theory, the Intelligent Design theory was an explanation for the origins of life that differed from Darwin's, and Of Pandas and People would be available in the library for interested students.

Darwin's theory is often diagrammed as a tree of life starting with simple life forms at the base evolving into multiple branches representing different life forms.  Of Pandas and People presented the idea that life was created suddenly and at various times for each species.  So instead of a tree, there are straight, vertical, parallel lines.  Furthermore, living beings are so irreducibly complex that they couldn't possibly have evolved from some lower life form according to the ID theory.  Well, it turns out the book had been around awhile, and evidence presented at the Kitzmiller trial showed that previous versions had used the words "creationism" and "creationists," but after Edwards those words were changed to some variation of "intelligent design."  In fact, there was one incident where the word "creationists" was changed to "cdesign proponentsists."

An example of the irreducible complexity given at trial was the bacterial flagellum which has a very unique motor that spins its little tail giving it propulsion.   It's  such a complex little engine and had so many parts that it couldn't operate if any of the parts were not present.  Therefore, it couldn't have evolved from something else, the ID theory goes.

But wait a minute.  There's another tiny little critter called the yersinia pestis which has a thing similar to that engine but lacks some of the parts.  And in that instance the tail serves as an injection device.  So the effort to disprove Darwin's theory failed.

An expert witness provided an amusing example of how some things aren't as irreducibly complex as they might seem.  The ID proponents sometimes use the mousetrap as an example of a device that couldn't function if any of the parts were missing and analogize this to a living creature that couldn't exist without its parts and thus couldn't have evolved.  So the witness came to court one day with a mousetrap as a tie clasp.  Enough parts were missing that it couldn't possibly serve as a mousetrap.  But as the witness said, it worked perfectly, though inelegantly, as a tie clasp.  Score one more for the Darwinists.

But religious dogma is actually quite flexible, albeit slow to adapt.  Originally religions explained gaps in our knowledge of how things worked.  They explained the unexplainable.  For example, the sun, the tide, the stars, etc., were controlled by the gods.   And as scientific explanations became accepted, religion narrowed its focus to those things that still couldn't be explained.  And at this point in time science cannot explain how life originally began.

How did life begin?  Here's what I would tell the Dover ninth graders: We simply aren't smart enough and don't have enough information to know.  And here's a story to go with it.  Each morning I take dog food out of a big bag and place it in a container for the dog to eat.  The dog can see me do that, and in his own mind he may have some explanation for it.  But he doesn't have the brain power or the information to figure out the manufacturing process, the distribution channel, or the retail transaction.  Humans understand this, but the dog may think I'm some sort of god.  So in this regard we are like dogs.  We simply aren't smart enough, and more to the point, we don't yet know enough to explain how life began.  For the creationists it's obvious, God did it.  For the rest of us it's still an unknown.

Darwin's theory has been tested over and over again and provides a logical explanation for natural phenomena.  And creationism?  Well, to believe that you just have to have faith.  And the judge in Kitzmiller wisely decided to let the kiddies learn science first.

Updated 11/20/07:  Joe Hathaway emailed a link to Experts find jawbone of pre-human great ape in Kenya.  Excerpt:

NAIROBI – Researchers unveiled a 10-million-year-old jaw bone on Tuesday they believe belonged to a new species of great ape that could be the last common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees and humans. ...

The species – somewhere between the size of a female gorilla and a female orangutan – may prove to be the 'missing link', the key step that split the evolutionary chains of humans and other primates, Kenyan scientists said.

'Based on this particular discovery, we can comfortably say we are approaching the point at which we can pin down the so-called missing link,' Frederick Manthi, senior research scientist at the National Museums of Kenya, told reporters.

Once life is discovered on Mars or another planet then we will really be in for an educational treat.

Updated 11/21/07:  In a comment, below, Les reminds us of Moreno vs. ECISD which is the ACLU sponsored case in which several Ector County taxpayers are suing the Ector County Independent School District and the district trustees over the decision by the school district trustees to place a Bible course in the school curriculum.  See the original complaint here (PDF).  Something to keep in mind is that, according to the NOVA program,  the Kitzmiller v. Dover plaintiffs' lawyers were awarded a million dollars in fees for which the Dover school district would be liable.

Hey you kids, stay off my carbon offsets!

Last summer due to a combination of heavy rainfall and owner laziness my lawn went native.  It was nature exhibit  -- the tall grass prairie that this part of the country once was.

But then I got that tacky letter from the city code enforcement office threatening me with a fine, so I dutifully tucked tail and plucked weed.  What a waste.  All of that  greenery killed in the prime of its photosynthetic life.  I didn't realize it, but I was ahead of my time.  With all of this attention focused on greenhouse gases and carbon footprints, the ecological benefits of a robust landscape are now obvious.

So environmental warriors, there's your new foe:  City codes that warm the globe.

And here's you new bumper sticker:  Don't mow, let it grow!

A win for PETA, a loss for Humans

A couple of years ago some health researchers discovered that daily doses of pomegranate juice might help men stave off prostate cancer.  The juice bottler Pom Wonderful sought some evidence of the benefits of the juice by funding some research.

Apparently the researchers were using animals, so in comes PETA with a boycott of Pom Wonderful.  And, according to Newstandardnews.net, there were domestic terrorists aiding the boycotters:

An anonymous group called the Animal Rights Militia also launched a campaign against POM, distributing a letter in December that said more than 400 bottles of POM juice had been tampered with.

"Those who drink the contaminated juice won't die like the animals in POM labs," wrote the group, "but the diarrhea, vomiting and headaches will hopefully send a strong message that people will no longer allow innocent, defenseless animals to be tormented and killed for a health juice and to line the pockets of profiteers who don’t have feelings for those weaker than they are."

Though the threat was concluded to have been a hoax, at least one chain, Wild Oats Markets, temporarily removed POM juice from some stores. According to a POM press release, company officials found no evidence that products were contaminated.

The terrorists have won.

Whole Foods is an Austin based grocery chain that started a couple of decades ago with the business concept of marketing organic foods.  The concept was so successful that organic foods can be bought now in most major grocery chains.  Unfortunately, Whole Foods joined the boycott and stopped stocking Pom Wonderful.  As a consequence of all of this, Pom Wonderful discontinued funding the research involving animals.  (Source.)

It's interesting that nowhere is there any mention of what the researchers were actually doing to the animals.  Maybe they were fed pomegranate juice.  The inhumanity!  It was a classic case of ideology triumphing over common sense.

P.S. The Whole Foods' ceo takes home a salary of $1 per year, and he's probably worth every penny.

P.P.S.  PETA devotees say it's pronounced "pet-uh."  I prefer "peet-uh."

Sunrise, Sunset -- daily times for the year

Just printed out a table for 2007.  You can print one for yourself at U.S. Naval Observatory Astronomical Applications Department.  Looks great on the refrigerator.

Exploding Laptop Batteries. But what about those about hybrid cars?

Lithium Ion batteries have been around for quite a while, but the exploding laptop problem seems to have suddenly burst into the headlines.  Yesterday the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a press release announcing the recall of about 2.7 million Sony made lithium-ion batteries in certain Dell laptops sold in the U.S. plus another 1.4 million sold elsewhere.  But who's counting?  The Dell models can be found here.

The timing was interesting because the previous day the Wall Street Journal had a front page article about laptop batteries exploding in the overhead storage bins of airplanes.  One can imagine the havoc that would cause in this day and time.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that I was kicking the tires of a new car, a hybrid.  And I have to wonder whether that powerful battery on board could be hazardous to the passengers.   It's sure to be headline news if a hybrid car battery explodes.

Toyota has really worked hard to try to prevent that, however.

Here's some technical stuff:  The Lexus GS450h has 40 nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery modules of 7.2 volts each connected in series to produce approximately 288 volts.  (The Toyota Highlander has 30 batteries of 9.6 volts each.)  Each of the modules is sealed in a plastic case and is supposed to be non spillable.   The electrolyte consists of an alkaline of potassium and sodium hydroxide which is supposed to be absorbed into the battery cell plates to form a gel which is not supposed to leak, even in a collision.   If the batteries get overcharged the gas is vented outside the car.  And if there is a collision sufficient to activate the airbags then a relay will open to stop electricity flow.  All this information comes from PDF files titled “Emergency Response Guide” for the Lexus GS450h and Highlander.  You can find links to PDF files for these and five other hybrid vehicles in a reassuring article titled Hybrids and First Responders at Hybridcars.com

Lithium-ion batteries provided the combustion in the Dell laptops.  The batteries in Toyota and Lexus hybrids are nickel metal hydride, however lithium-ion batteries can't be too far behind as Toyota seeks to cut the battery cost.   And MIT Technology Review  says the industry still hasn't solved the problem of overheating.

Gosh.  All this modern stuff and the new hazards they bring.  Sigh -- I miss the good old days when all we had to worry about were blowouts, rollovers and exploding gas tanks.

Now what do we eat? High fat or low fat?

Being the offshoot of ancestors who had afflictions I would sorely like to avoid, I was disappointed by the news of a recent study which purported to debunk the theory that avoiding fat would help protect a person against heart attacks and cancer.

Last week the New York Times published an article about a paper that one of their quotes described as the Rolls Royce of studies on fat intake.  The study involved 49,000 women, and those in the test group were supposed to have reduced their fat intake over a period of eight years.  The conclusion was that those who had reduced their fat intake had cancer and heart attacks at about the same rate as the control group.

The results, the study investigators agreed, do not justify recommending low-fat diets to the public to reduce their heart disease and cancer risk. Given the lack of benefit found in the study, many medical researchers said that the best dietary advice, for now, was to follow federal guidelines for healthy eating, with less saturated and trans fats, more grains, and more fruits and vegetables.

Leave it to Dean Ornish to chew it up and spit it out.  Take a closer look at the study, he says.  He points out that the participants reduced their fat intake to 29% of their diet, but that was not enough difference from the control group.

But most importantly, there was no distinction among the different kinds of fat.  Animal fat is supposed to be much worse for us than fish fat -- four legs bad, no legs good.  However, trans fat is supposed to be the worst of all.  But the study made no distinction.

The good news about trans fat is that food labels now show that most products are trans fat free, which means that the trans fat in the product is at or below the maximum allowed to qualify for the trans fat free designation.

So we are left with the decision of whether or not to follow the USDA's recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005:

FATS -- Key Recommendations

Consume less than 10 percent of calories from saturated fatty acids and less than 300 mg/day of cholesterol, and keep trans fatty acid consumption as low as possible.

Keep total fat intake between 20 to 35 percent of calories, with most fats coming from sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, such as fish, nuts, and vegetable oils.

When selecting and preparing meat, poultry, dry beans, and milk or milk products, make choices that are lean, low-fat, or fat-free.

Limit intake of fats and oils high in saturated and/or trans fatty acids, and choose products low in such fats and oils.

Okay, I'll keep trying.  On the one hand it would be a joy to be able to eat high fat foods guilt free.  But, if it's true that fat intake is meaningless to our health then it means that we are really helpless against these diseases.  And from inception on, we are force-marched down a path laid out by our genetic code.  That idea is disturbing, and I'm not ready to accept that, at least not competely.

So I'm going to try to stay with the low fat foods and avoid the trans fat.  But if it doesn't work, at my wake please help yourself to the snacks, guilt free.  Those Swedish meat balls will be delicious!

What a shot!

Bullseye!  Deep Impact stuck it's target!  See story at JPL .  And see Impact Movies at the NASA Multimedia page, especially the "Impact Movie 3" in which the camera rode the rocket all the way to impact.

Business or Coach? - Passenger Rocket Ships

Last week Blue Origin representatives held a public meeting in Van Horn, Texas, to describe their progress in the plan to build a facility, test rockets, and eventually develop a program for carrying paying passengers in suborbital flights up to 325,000 feet above sea level.

The plan calls for the Blue Origin facility to be located on a ranch consisting of an area roughly five miles by six miles in size in Culberson County and located about 30 miles north of Van Horn.  But first they have to obtain a license from the Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Space Transportation office, and to do that they have to conduct an environmental assessment.  And a requirement of the environmental assessment is public meetings; hence the meeting last week.

Once the infrastructure is complete rocket ships will be trucked to West Texas from Seattle, Washington.  And once operational, the rockets are expected to take off and land vertically.  They hope that flight testing will be commenced in the fourth quarter of 2006 and would continue for three to five years.  Then, if all goes as planned, they will begin making trips with paying passengers.

From the Blue Origin website:

As a commercial venture, Blue Origin, LLC (Blue Origin) proposes to develop a launch facility to operate its Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), which is expected to carry paying passengers on suborbital, ballistic trajectories to altitudes in excess of 325,000 feet above sea level. Blue Origin proposes to locate its launch facility on privately-owned property in Culberson County, Texas. Operations at the launch facility would include development testing, pre-flight processing and flight, landing and recovery activities. To accommodate these activities, Blue Origin proposes to construct a variety of buildings and related improvements. Blue Origin's anticipated operations require that it obtain an experimental permit and/or a license from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The big question on everyone's mind is probably this:  "How much will a passenger ticket cost?"  According to Stephanie Corley of the Big Bend Sentinel (link below), the people at the meeting were told that it will be set by the market.  Given the already high level of anticipation and the common laws of supply and demand, we can expect that the first ticket prices will be stratospheric.  The first flights will probably just be up and down from the same spot, but eventually when the novelty wears off, paying customers will likely want to go somewhere else, the moon, for starters.  Or, stealing a movie line, to infinity and beyond.

Resources:  The Blue Origin website;
Van Horn Advocate - Blue Origin explains launch details (Note, not a permalink);
Big Bend Sentinel - Blue Origin plans to shoot adventurers into space in 5 to 7 years;
Space.com - Blue Origin Spaceport Plans are Talk of Texas Town;
Space.com - Public Meeting Details Blue Origin Rocket Plans.

Time Traveler Convention

You've probably heard about this one already.  This Saturday the Time Traveler Convention will take place at 42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W.  (That's supposed to be at MIT.)

They say there will only have to be one of these conventions since time travelers can keep attending the same one.  But we don't yet have time travel, so the only time traveling attendees would have to be from the future.

I should probably consult an expert on this, but I thought Einstein's theory held that time travelers could only travel forward in time and not backward.  The theory says that the faster you travel the slower time moves.  Perhaps that explains why jogging is so time consuming.

But who knows what the future holds?

Via Screenhead, who claims to have time traveled to this event already and says this: "You twats who showed up and condescendingly oohed and ahed over our "very powerful" laptop computers could give it a miss this time, no one thought that was funny."

Updated 05/08/05,  3:46 pm CDT: The Convention Website says this:  "The convention was a success! Unfortunately, we had no confirmed time travelers visit us.  We did, however, have a great series of lectures, awesome bands, and even a DeLorean. We regret having had to turn away visitors, but there were capacity restrictions governing Morss Hall."

Gentlemen, start your engines

Presented as a public service, here is a paragraph copied directly from page D5 of the print edition of today's Wall Street Journal:

"A study published in 1997 that followed 918 Welsh men over a decade showed those who had the highest frequency of orgasms had half the risk of death during a 10-year period than those with the lowest frequency."

May you all live a long and, uh, fulfilling life.