February 23, 2005
Astronomers discover "invisible" galaxy of "dark matter".
Via
Yahoo News.
Astronomers have discovered an invisible galaxy that could be the first of many that will help unravel one of the universe's greatest mysteries.
The object appears to be made mostly of "dark matter," material of an unknown nature that can't be seen.
... The newfound dark galaxy was detected with radio telescopes. Similar objects could be very common or very rare, said Robert Minchin of Cardiff University in the UK.
"If they are the missing dark matter halos predicted by galaxy formation simulations but not found in optical surveys, then there could be more dark galaxies than ordinary ones," Minchin told SPACE.com.
In a cluster of galaxies known as Virgo, some 50 million light-years away, Minchin and colleagues looked for radio-wavelength radiation coming from hydrogen gas. They found a well of it that contains a hundred million times the mass of the Sun. It is now named VIRGOHI21.
The well of material rotates too quickly to be explained by the observed amount of gas. Something else must serve as gravitational glue.
"From the speed it is spinning, we realized that VIRGOHI21 was a thousand times more massive than could be accounted for by the observed hydrogen atoms alone," Minchin said. "If it were an ordinary galaxy, then it should be quite bright and would be visible with a good amateur telescope."
The ratio of dark matter to regular matter is at least 500-to-1, which is higher than I would expect in an ordinary galaxy," Minchin said. "However, it is very hard to know what to expect with such a unique object -- it may be that high ratios like this are necessary to keep the gas from collapsing to form stars."
permalink, posted by mike on Wednesday, February 23, 2005 at 04:31 PM
May 15, 2004
Michael J. Fox on stem-cell research.
Business Week has a very interesting
interview with Michael J. Fox, who himself has Parkinson's Disease, on the question of stem-cell research to help victims of that and other degenerative diseases.
Q: The religious right continues to speak out against experimental cloning techniques that might be used to harvest stem cells. They fear the same technology could be abused, perhaps in an attempt to clone babies. The U.S. House of Representatives even passed a bill that proposed criminalizing such research. As a patient, how do you respond when you hear news like this?
A: It's ridiculous. It's so self-defeating for those of us with Parkinson's and other degenerative diseases. We don't want to create Frankenstein or clone our Uncle Charlie so we can play poker with him again. It's nuts. We just want to save lives.
If the government were to allow funding for embryonic stem-cell research, it could use its own power of oversight to apply standards to the research that people will feel comfortable with. The research will happen anyway. But it will happen in other countries now, and we won't have as much input.
Q: How might Nancy Reagan speaking out in favor of stem-cell research now influence the debate?
A: It's hugely important. She's viewed as a conservative, but her support of stem cell research will help people to look beyond politics. She has a lot on her plate -- she could have just sat this out. She'll help drive home the point that this is not an "issue." It's a potential breakthrough that could have a huge impact on people's lives.
...
Q: Do you believe enough private funding is out there to push stem-cell research forward?
A: No. The science is way ahead of the money. We sit and look back at 2001, when the President banned all funding for research on everything but a few cell lines, and we think, that's three years -- gone.
Our foundation is trying to fill that void. But it's like the old cliché, the government can throw more money at something by accident than we could on purpose.
permalink, posted by mike on Saturday, May 15, 2004 at 03:54 PM
December 17, 2003
Wright brothers' anniversary.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' famous flight. There are many interesting articles on the subject on the web, and on aviation in general. The
Guardian has a
special section on it, as does
the NY Times. There must be many more, it being such a noteworthy event.
One interesting fact that you may not find mentioned very often was that the Wright brothers had a sister, who lived with them, worked rather closely with them and who managed their affairs so that they could focus on their work. I can't even remember her name, but she was there virtually every step along the way.
I also notice that George Bush is trumpeting this as an "American" accomplishment. Which really is a slight exaggeration. Like most great advances in science, the Wright brothers' work was directly based and inspired by the work of many, many others, located all over the world. Each of whom painstakingly figured out a little piece of the puzzle. The Wright brothers just happened to be in the right place at the right time to take the final step.
For instance, the Wright brothers were directly inspired by the bicycle. They themselves were bicycle mechanics and owned a bike shop. But they did not invent the bike. And the basic form of the airplane that they began with was really perfected by the German, Otto Lilienthal (sp?), who made over 2,000 glider flights, and in the end lost his life doing so. The Wright brothers knew of this, and in fact had visited him and studied his work. Very significant contributions were also made by the French and British. And there was a gentleman in Brazil, I forget his name, who was right behind the Wright brothers.
There is a "cult of celebrity" these days that attempts to ascribe great inventions to single individuals, but really it took an awful lot of hard work and great risks by many thousands to make it happen. The same with computers and all of the other technology that has so improved our lives. Which is not to belittle the Wrights' accomplishment, but rather to place it in historical perspective.
Which is not to belittle their accomplishment, which was major. Wilbur Wright was one of the greatest scientists of all time. And Orville was almost certainly the best mechanic anyone ever saw. He could make or fix anything. Absolutely anything. And something this major really required two minds working together, which is probably why they succeeded where so many had failed. Their skills really complemented each other.
permalink, posted by mike on Wednesday, December 17, 2003 at 10:47 AM
July 21, 2003
Anniversary of moon landing
Today is the anniversary of the first landing on the moon by American astronauts. The Guardian reprints it's
original news story of the event.
Men are on the moon. At 3:39 am this morning - nearly four hours ahead of schedule - Armstrong, the lunar module commander, opened the hatch and clambered slowly down to the surface of the moon. Minutes later Aldrin followed him down the steps of the ladder - already renamed Tranquility Base - to join in this moving, clumsy culmination of eight years of intense dedication. It was the fulfilment of a dream which men have shared since the beginning of recorded history.
The Guardian has a nice
archive of various historical events. It's nice to be able to go back and read the original coverage, one of the great things about the internet.
And fascinating to see how perceptions of events change over time. For instance, I saw
this article from 1967 analyzing Israel's victory in the Six Days war. Curiously, it's presented much more as part of the Cold War, as a victory against Communism, and as primarily a Soviet loss, not an Arab one.
Funny how things change. Now, of course, it's presented as an instance of Israeli aggression. You never hear how the weakness and defeats of the Arabs stem, at least partially, from their alliance with the Communists, or that originally American support for Israel was directed at the Soviet Union more than it was at the Arabs. Somehow this crucial aspect of the conflict has virtually disappeared from the discussion, and it's seen as strictly an Arab-Israeli matter.
permalink, posted by mike on Monday, July 21, 2003 at 11:21 AM
June 22, 2003
Drugs to make people taller.
As someone about 5'6", I found
this article in the NY Times on the use of drugs and genetic improvements to make people taller offensive as heck.
And men who are considerably shorter than the average American guy height of 5-foot-9 1/2? These poor little fellows are at elevated risk of dropping out of school, drinking heavily, dating sparsely, getting sick or depressed. They have a lower chance of marrying or fathering children than do taller men, and their salaries tend to be as modest as their stature. If they are out striving to make their mark, they are derided as "Little Napoleons." Call them whatever you please, and chances are you won't get called on it, for making fun of short men is one of the last acceptable prejudices.
Small wonder, then, that an advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration has just recommended that the agency approve the use of genetically engineered human growth hormone for healthy children who are "idiopathically" short Ð that is, children who are at the bottom-most tail of growth curves, yet who, unlike a small subset of very short children, do not suffer from growth hormone deficiency. Children with innate hormone deficiency are given hormone shots to very noticeable effect: without the treatment, they would be true midgets, perhaps under four feet tall as adults; with the shots, they are brought up to low-normal heights.
Boy, sometimes the degree and extent of their biases and stereotypes is just incredible.
permalink, posted by mike on Sunday, June 22, 2003 at 04:45 PM
All 50 states now warn of West Nile virus threat.
The
NY Times reports on the spread of the mosquitoes responsible, particularly the increase in the number of different mosquito species that carry it.
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana Ð with 50,000 acres of marshland and 300 miles of home front ditches carrying septic tank effluent where the southern house mosquito breeds Ð has become an epicenter of the West Nile virus. Of the 25 people who died of the virus in Louisiana last year, 4 lived in St. Tammany.
West Nile first struck the northern hemisphere in Queens, N.Y., four years ago and killed four people. This year, all 50 states are warning of an outbreak from any of the 30 mosquito species known to carry it. From 62 severe cases in 1999, confirmed human cases of the virus spread to 39 states in 2002, and it killed 284 people.
... It has been found in horses from Alabama and Arkansas to Minnesota and North Dakota, in dozens of dead crows and in a bald eagle near Allentown, Pa. On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection found infected larva near Pittsburgh, Ronald Ruman, a spokesman, said. In Louisiana, 52 dead birds have tested positive.
... No West Nile vaccine has been developed for humans, although there is one for horses. The virus cannot be stopped by quarantining people, because birds and mosquitoes that carry it cannot be quarantined.
"There are no revolutionary strategies out there that are on the brink of implementation," said Dan O'Leary, an epidemiologist at the infectious disease center.
... Each year, more mosquito species are found to carry the virus. Near La Crosse, Wis., said Linda Glaser, the state's West Nile virus surveillance coordinator, it has been found in the tree hole mosquito, named for its customary habitat. Ms. Glaser found the state's first infected horse in May this year. It survived, but another found this month had to be put to death.
If you enjoy spending time in the woods, and live somewhere where puddles of water gather, beware. Well, heck, beware of mosquitoes anyway. They don't need to carry a virus to drive you insane. :) And it's that time of year.
Linn Haramis, entomologist with the Illinois Department of Public Health, said, "There is a certain amount of responsibility for citizens to protect themselves."
permalink, posted by mike on Sunday, June 22, 2003 at 02:58 PM
June 21, 2003
The case for public patents in drugs and biological discoveries.
Writing in
The Nation, Dennis Kucinich makes the case for
protecting public patents, at least for pharmaceutical research and development.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stated that it wants an exclusive patent on the SARS virus to guarantee the discovery remains in the public domain. That's the right thing to do. In fact, any eventual vaccine or cure for SARS should also remain in the public domain so access to affordable treatment is possible in the event of a public health emergency. If the patent were held in private hands, it could prevent cooperative efforts among scientists across the globe and complicate efforts to make treatments or vaccines available to the public at large.
Despite, or maybe because of these facts, several laboratories have already filed US patent applications for SARS virus genes, and CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said that more than thirty biomedical companies have requested SARS viral samples for their efforts to develop a treatment, vaccine or test. The speed of the patent race is impressive, but this race for profits isn't good for public health.
What's the danger if private companies hold the patent? Research is stifled and products are overpriced. Our nation's experience with prescription drugs should teach us a lesson. We are the only country that grants monopoly rights in the form of patents without asking for anything in return, and as a result, American citizens pay twice as much for the exact same medications as their counterparts across the border. Now faced with global public-health threats like SARS, we must stop foolishly pandering to the pharmaceutical industry and demand balance.
I have to strongly disagree with his proposed solution though. I'm not willing to depend on the government to solve life-threatening problems. Centralizing it would allow a single individual to block or control research in a certain area.
I will soon be introducing legislation that would create a new network of government labs for the research, development and manufacture of pharmaceutical products and biologics. The labs would be responsible for developing new cures and bringing them to the American people in a timely and affordable manner, something that the pharmaceutical industry has glaringly failed to do. Under the leadership of the National Institutes of Health, these government labs would receive direction on public health priorities. Labs would both perform the R&D for new therapies and cures, and form cooperative agreements with educational, research and private institutions.
... Finally, this proposal will improve the quality of R&D by using an "open source" system that makes data and findings publicly available, instead of held secret as proprietary data. This will allow us to tap the collective genius of the world community of scientists. Open source is how the Linux computer operating system has become a competitive force against Microsoft's Windows. Anyone can download Linux without restriction, and many people catch bugs and submit improvements for the common goal of having the best system for operating our computers.
The idea of applying "open source" ideas to drug research is fascinating. But Linux was developed by private individuals, and if he's going to use that as an example, I have to point out that the government wasn't responsible at all. In fact, the government strongly backed Microsoft's monopoly, in effect fighting open source
If computers crash people don't die. Not the same with drugs.
permalink, posted by mike on Saturday, June 21, 2003 at 02:18 PM
June 13, 2003
Peter tries to buy an electric car.
Article in the LA Times about one man's attempt to buy an electric car, and of how GM keeps on thwarting him.
The first string led to actor/director Hart Bochner, an enthusiastic EV1 owner, who immediately hopped into his car and came whirring up to my house for a test-drive. The first thing you notice with one of these cars is what's missing. There's virtually no sound. Just the slight hum and quiet clicks of the brakes. Second, there's no exhaust. No fumes come wafting by like a wake chasing a motorboat. Then, when you get behind the wheel, there's no lag between pedal and power, and boy, does this car have power. With no gears to complicate acceleration, you get that launched sort of feeling, a childish giddiness the Subversives called "the EV smile."
After a brief but invigorating spin around the neighborhood, we hummed to a stop in front of my house. Hart bounced out of the car like an Amway salesman, pamphlets in hand, already well into his pitch about how hard these cars are to get and how frustrated he was that GM and the oil lobby were trying to kill the EV1.
"But wait a minute," I said. "I guess I can understand why the oil lobby would try and kill it, but why GM?"
"I don't know," he said, "but they are."
A fascinating story, and a depressing one. But it makes it clear that we could all be driving zero emission, absolutely silent, powerful cars by now, and that the problems are not technological any more but corporate interests afraid of change.
permalink, posted by mike on Friday, June 13, 2003 at 11:30 AM
June 10, 2003
Growing monkeypox problem in the midwest.
The NY Times reports that
Suspected Cases of Monkeypox Are Rising.
As the number of suspected monkeypox cases rose to at least 33 in three Midwestern states, hundreds of nervous people contacted doctors and public health hot lines, veterinarians and pet shops, full of questions about a viral disease never before seen in this part of the world.
... JoAnn Sanfelippo came to a Milwaukee pet store, Hoffer's Tropic Life Pets, to get diet food for her dog, but left wondering whether she should have entered the store at all, given that a worker there had been sickened, apparently by pet prairie dogs. "Should I wash my hands a lot when I get home?" she asked another visitor. "Does that work?"
A panel of immunization experts, appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, began weighing in on whether and how the smallpox vaccine might be used to protect people exposed to infected prairie dogs and possibly to infected humans, but reached no decision.
This doesn't relate to the monkeypox problem, mostly just idle curiosity, but I wonder what it's like to have a prairie dog as a pet. Are they like hamsters, kept in cages all of the time, or what?
permalink, posted by mike on Tuesday, June 10, 2003 at 11:50 AM
May 24, 2003
The payoffs of space exploration.
The Guardian offers a useful summary of
what space exploration has done for us, from fuel cells to the myriad uses of satellites. It's an interesting summary.
permalink, posted by mike on Saturday, May 24, 2003 at 10:04 AM
May 16, 2003
Eclipse was beautiful.
Saw the total lunar eclipse last night on a very clear Santa Barbara night. Never seen one so perfectly, quite a sight.
permalink, posted by mike on Friday, May 16, 2003 at 11:59 AM
May 15, 2003
Total lunar eclipse tonight.
There will be a very nice eclipse tonight. It should be visible from throughout the US. Here's a
page from Nasa full of information, including links to various web cams showing it, background info, plus charts of the eclipses from now to 2007.
The last total lunar eclipse visible from all of the United States occurred on Jan. 20, 2000. The last total lunar eclipse occurred on Jan. 09, 2001 and was visible from Europe, Africa and Asia. North Americans won't have another opportunity to see a total lunar eclipse until Nov. 8-9, 2003.
... Unlike solar eclipses, lunar eclipses are completely safe to watch. You don't need any kind of protective filters. It isn't even necessary to use a telescope. You can watch the lunar eclipse with nothing more than your own two eyes. If you have a pair of binoculars, they will help magnify the view and will make the red coloration brighter and easier to see. A standard pair of 7x35 or 7x50 binoculars work fine.
Even if you read this after the date there should be pictures available. Also see
space.com, always an interesting stop. And if you don't like lunar eclipses, there will be a solar eclipse on May 31. Not visible from the US, unfortunately. Visit the
2003 Annular Solar Eclipse Page for more info.
permalink, posted by mike on Thursday, May 15, 2003 at 12:05 PM
October 18, 2002
And do they have pajamas in space?
After I inquired whether or not they're
doing it in space, it occurred to me to wonder whether or not they have pajamas in space. And what about lingerie? In fact, how do they sleep in space at all? Do they even have beds? I guess they have to strap themselves in or something.
Sorry if I seem too concerned with sleeping arrangements up there. I know as a good citizen I should be more concerned with whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, but frankly this seems much more interesting.
And what about dreams? Are dreams any different in space, while sleeping in free fall? I'm not sure I've ever heard anything on the subject. Except in science fiction of course, which is just one giant space dream.
permalink, posted by mike on Friday, October 18, 2002 at 04:35 PM
October 17, 2002
Doing it in space?
Been avidly following the course of construction on the space station. I'm interested in all aspects of it, but having both an incredibly curious mind and an incurably filthy one, I can't help but wonder exactly what's been going on up there. I mean, there have been men and women living for extended periods of time in an extremely confined space, and in a situation where there simply isn't much else to do. So...
I mean, I don't want to pry into anyone's private life or anything. But it seems to me that the first sex in space is a major historical event, and, well, inquiring minds want to know. Has it happened yet? What's it like to do it in freefall?
Many people wonder if space tourism is ever going to really take off. I think it will, and the number one reason will be the desire of people to experience what this is like. Imagine doing it while actually floating in air. Goodness. My prediction is that this is going to be the number one 21st century recreational activity, and that it will become the standard honeymoon destination. You heard it here.
I also have to wonder why the tabloids, media and everyone else seems to avoid discussing this issue. I've never heard it discussed on Star Trek or any other space show. Nothing. Curious. :)
permalink, posted by mike on Thursday, October 17, 2002 at 11:00 AM
End of entries.
