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The art of geology

mdr — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:39:01 +0000

A new exhibit featuring artwork by geologists, other earth scientists, and geoscience students is being presented this month at the Two Wall Gallery on Vashon Island, Washington.

Fabric art
Courtesy Linda Hope Ponting“Geo sapiens, Geology and Art” could be the first-ever show of its kind, and will feature artwork from entrants from such places as the US, Canada, Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Okinawa. Artwork includes sculpture, painting, photography and fabric art.

Block print
Courtesy Greg WesselCurator Greg Wessel, who co-owns the gallery - and is also a working geologist - put out a call for submissions to geo-science websites and magazines.

Meteor Crater
Courtesy Mark Ryan"There is a lot of potential to generate works of art that exhibit the wonder and beauty of nature,” Wessel said. “Most geologists take a lot of photos, for example. But in addition, I'm looking for connections both in the brains of the geologists and in their conscious application of geologic themes to the creation of artworks."

Stone Sculpture
Courtesy Bill LapradeWessel received nearly twice as many entries than his small gallery can hold but he promised to show as many pieces as possible. And I’m happy to report that a photograph by yours truly is included in the exhibit.

“Geo sapiens, Geology and Art” opens tomorrow and runs though November. Vashon Island is located in Puget Sound about 8 miles from Seattle.

AAPG Explorer article
More Geo sapiens info

Another skeleton in the T-rex closet

mdr — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:19:18 +0000

Tyrannosaurus rex: "Jane" of the Burpee Museum in Rockford, Illinois.
Courtesy Mark RyanSeveral weeks ago the discovery of Raptorex, a scaled-down early relative of Tyrannosaurus rex from the Early Cretaceous, was making news. Now, another even older ancestor of the Tyrant King is doing the same thing. Proceratosaurus was unearthed in Gloucestershire, England in the early 1900s, and long misidentified as a species of Megalosaurus from the Middle Jurassic. But recent CT scans of the skull have revealed it is instead an ancient ancestor of Tyrannosaurus rex. Read about it here.

OK, you can place faith in butterfly wings

Gene — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:36:22 +0000

Blue, blue, my ears are blue.: The blue morpho butterfly hears through ears on its wings.
Courtesy William Warby

The blue morpho does. Scientists have found that this large butterfly of Central and South America has ears on its wings. These primitive ears can distinguish between the high-frequency sound of a bid singing, and the low-frequency sound of a bird flapping its wings. A singing bird is a sitting bird, and thus no threat to the morpho, but a flying bird could be attacking, and detecting those sounds tells the butterfly when to beat a slow, erratic retreat.

(Wait a minute…Blue Morpho…wasn’t he a character in Yellow Submarine Reloaded?)

Cool chart of the day

Gene — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:32:22 +0000

Every space probe ever launched, all on one map of the Solar System.

Progressive Automotive X PRIZE

ARTiFactor — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:24:16 +0000

$10 million dollars

By offering a $10 million dollar prize, the Progressive Insurance Automotive X PRIZE seeks to enable development and stimulate demand for clean, fuel efficient vehicles.
In the Design Judging process, automotive experts evaluated 97 registered entries for:

High fuel economy (100 MPGe) with low emissions (200 g/mi CO2e wells-to-wheels greenhouse gas emissions and low tailpipe emissions)
Production-capable and designed to reach the market in volumes of at least 10,000 units per year
Safe and affordable
Minimum capacities, performance, and features

53 vehicles are moving forward in the competition with 28 represented in the Mainstream Class and 25 represented in the Alternative Class.

Mainstream class = Vehicles that meet current consumer expectations for size and capability
Alternative class = Outlet for innovative ideas that push forward today's concept of "what a car is"

The big race begins this spring (2010)

43 teams, representing 18 states, 10 countries and 6 fuel types, now advance to the most exciting phase of the competition, performance and safety testing. Vehicles will be tested for efficiency, performance and durability under real-world conditions. Vehicles will race the clock through cities, up hills, and will need both speed and distance capability.

Half of the $10M purse will be awarded to the Mainstream Class winner. The remaining $5M will be split between two winners in the Alternative Class - one vehicle with side-by-side seating, and one vehicle with tandem seating. Performance testing will begin in spring 2010 and winners will be announced in September 2010.

Learn more about the Automotive X Prize

Progressive Automotive X Prize Press kit (PDF)
ProgressiveAutoPrize.org
Links to the Qualified Teams

Evolution: caught in the act!

Gene — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:41:40 +0000

Richard Lenski (top) and Jeffrey Barrick view bacteria cultures in Lenski's lab.: They have watched the bacteria's DNA evolve over 40,000 generations.
Courtesy Michigan State University / photo by G.L. Kohuth

Sometimes you’ll hear people cast doubts on evolution because no one has ever seen it happen. As if that’s some sort of great insight. No one has eve “seen” atomic fusion, either, but the fact that the Sun was shining this morning is pretty strong evidence that, yep, it happens. No one has ever “seen” gravity. Seen gravity’s effects, sure. But seen gravity itself? Like Ms. Ono once asked, Who Has Seen The Wind?

Evolution used to be in the same boat. The effects of evolution are visible everywhere, in every cell of every living thing on the planet. But seeing the actual process of evolution? That was another matter.

Until now. Scientists at Michigan State University (go Spartans!) have been growing bacteria in bottles for the past 21 years. Every so often, they would freeze a sample for later study. Well, “later” is now. DNA sequencing and computer analysis have advanced to the state where they can readily map the genome of each sample. And guess what? The bugs evolved exactly as evolution says they should. Mutations in the genome pop up at random intervals. Mutations that help the bug survive—like make more efficient use of food, or fend off disease—get passed on to future generations, and eventually spread through the entire colony.

Twenty-one years may not seem like enough time for a species to change. But, as Mia Sorvino said in the truly awful 1997 movie Mimic, think generations, not time. In the two decades of study, the little bacteria went through 40 thousand generations—the equivalent of roughly 800,000 years in human terms. Plenty of opportunity for evolution to do it’s thang.

And the experiment continues. Understanding mutations in bacteria might help us understand the mutations that lead to some forms of cancer. In recent generations, the rate of mutation has increased; the scientists would like to know why.

Richard Lenski, the scientist heading up the research, has put together a video explaining his work.

Alfred Wegener birthday

mdr — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:09:27 +0000

Alfred Wegener: Greenland, 1930.
Courtesy Public domainToday is the birthday of Alfred Lothar Wegener, the scientist who first developed the theory of continental drift. Wegener was born in 1880, schooled as an astronomer, and became interested in climatology and meteorology. When he noticed how the shapes of some continents fit nicely into the forms of others, (such as how South America fit into Africa), he proposed in 1915 that they had once all made up a supercontinent he called Pangaea, and later drifted apart. Similar rock strata and fossils found in coastlines of distant continents seemed to corroborate his theory, but Wegener was unable to come up with a mechanism that would cause such movement, so his theory lay dormant, mostly spurned and unaccepted until the 1950's when new geological evidence regarding plate subduction and sea-floor spreading came to light. Wegener's theory of continental drift is the basis for present-day theory of plate tectonics. Unfortunately, Wegener didn't live to see his theory gain acceptance. He died tragically sometime in late 1930 while on a meteorological expedition to Greenland.

More about Alfred Wegener

Darwin conference in Chicago this weekend

mdr — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:05:59 +0000

Charles Darwin
Courtesy Public domainIn celebration of naturalist Charles Darwin's birth (1809) and publication of his landmark book ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (1859), the Windy City is hosting the Darwin/Chicago 2009 conference this weekend at the University of Chicago. Featured speakers include paleontologist Paul Soreno.

Cool video of the day

Gene — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:51:55 +0000

Bullets piercing metal in slow-motion, filmed at one million frames per second!

How to torture a physicist

Gene — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:47:29 +0000

For me, the greatest mystery in the universe is Lindsay Price, and how she continues to find work.: Not that great a mystery, I guess…
Courtesy catechism

And, let’s face it, who hasn’t had the urge now and then? At the “Quantum to Cosmos” physics conference in Waterloo, Canada, seven physicists were asked, "What keeps you awake at night?" (Apparently, they meant “what issue in science” as opposed to love, money, or lack thereof.) The panel came up with some pretty heavy questions:

Why are the fundamental laws of nature the way that they are? There doesn’t seem to be any reason why they couldn’t be some other way. Are there, perhaps, other universes with other rules?

How does the Observer Effect work? This is a little deep for me, but apparently at the sub-atomic level, simply observing a particle over here can effect another particle thousands of miles away. How does nature do that?

What is the nature of matter, anyway? Especially the “dark matter” which is theorized to exist in outer space, messing up all our gravity calculations.

On a related note, will string theory ever be proven? String theory is the latest theory for how matter and energy interact at the sub-sub-sub-atomic level. And while it is very elegant and seems right on paper, no one has any idea how to conduct an experiment to prove or disprove it.

How do complex systems arise out of simple, basic particles and forces? You know, complex systems. Like life, the universe, and everything.

How did the universe begin, anyway? Physics can only take us back to a few fractions of a second after the Big Bang, a moment at which the universe was very small, very hot, and very dense. Before that, the laws of physics break down. No one knows how to describe the Bang itself, or how / why it happened.

Which brings us to, what are the limits of science? Science is based on observation and experiment. But, at some point, you run into ideas that can’t be tested. In theory, it’s entirely possible that there are other universes. But we’re stuck in this one—how would we ever know?

If anyone has answers to any of these questions, please send them to Canada ASAP. It sounds like there’s a bunch of scientists up there who could use a good night’s sleep.

Woman killed by coyotes

JGordon — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:06:12 +0000

This is pretty weird. A 19-year-old woman was just attacked and killed by two coyotes in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Setting aside the horrible tragedy of the story... this is kind of strange. Coyotes don't often weigh more than 50 pounds, and they're usually pretty cautious of people. But apparently attacks on humans occasionally do happen. I guess it sort of makes sense, though—while larger predators, like wolves and big cats, are generally pushed out of a region by humans, coyotes are better able to adapt to human environments, and they can hang around in urban and suburban areas. (Although this incident happened outside the city, it looks like.)

Anyway... I never really considered coyotes to be dangerous. This was surprising.

Diving into a Deer Stomach

tcnaturalist — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:23:31 +0000

Deer Rumen: Opening up a deer's rumen.
Courtesy Kirk MonaEver wondered what's inside the stomach of a deer? For those not afraid of some graphic photos, the Twin Cities Naturalist Blog. has posted photos and descriptions of the four parts of a deer's stomach. Here's a quick overview.

The Rumen is a fermentation and storage vat. Micro-organisms break down a lot of food in the Rumen so it can be absorbed by the deer but it does not physically break down the food with acid like a human stomach.
The Reticulum is basically a filter that allows small particles to pass to the Omasum.
The Omasum acts like a sponge that draws off excess water before food is passed to the next step.
The Abomasum works like your stomach to break down food with acid so nutrients can be absorbed.

You can see all the photos and read more at Twin Cities Naturalist.

Happy birthday internet

bryan kennedy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:57:26 +0000

Internet: Don't look too closely at white parts.
Courtesy The OPTE Project40 years ago today Leonard Kleinrock sent the first internet message via a network between Stanford University and UCLA. I think the message said something like, "Dooood! Did you hear than new Girl Talk song? He totally mashed the Trashmen and Herman's Hermits perfectly." But seriously, this simple messaging technology set the ground for the interconnected web of computers that is pretty much essential to my daily life today.

Happy Birthday Internet. At 40, I suppose it's time you bought a Porsche.

Balancing act: What would you do if you're watching nature get out of whack?

Thor — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:38:17 +0000

There was an interesting package of stories in Sunday's Star-Tribune about Isle Royale and the troubling circumstances of wolf and moose populations falling out of balance at the island national park in Lake Superior. For years, researchers have used the island as a case study of predator/prey interactions in an area untainted by human development. With moose numbers dropping and threatening the survival of wolves, what should they do? Let nature run its course or intervene to keep this lab vital? The link above will take you to stories, photos and videos of the situation. What do you think should be done?

Mega Shark Versus … giant shark.

JGordon — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:55:28 +0000

It's smiling!: But wait until it gets bitten in half.
Courtesy PterantulaNot much to say here other than… Holy Smokes! Check his out: a huge shark bitten in half by an even huger shark!

Shark fishermen in Queensland Australia pulled a ten-foot great white from a baited drum line to discover that the shark had been nearly bitten in half by an even bigger shark. Again, take a look. And the 10-footer was still alive when they pulled it into the boat. (Yowza.)

The think that the larger shark was also a great white, and that it might be as large as 20 feet long. A shark that size weighs about 4,400 pounds. There’s been some debate regarding the maximum size of a great white, but 20 feet is probably about as large as they can get. (In the late 19th century and early 20th century, there were reports of sharks caught that measured over 30 feet, but reexamination indicated that they were probably significantly shorter.) At any rate, the shark in Jaws (I think its name was Eustace) was supposed to be 25 feet long, so 20 feet is nothing to sneeze at. Unless huge sharks make you sneeze.

Happy shark attack Tuesday!