Perseid Meteor Shower 2010

I wonder if anyone of you believes that Friday 13^th brings bad luck. Because I do, there haven’t been any major catastrophe that happened to me as far as I can remember but I was made to  believe that if the 13^th day of the month falls on a Friday I should expect that something bad will happen to me. So while waiting for my husband to arrive tonight from his once in a blue moon night out without me (yes, you guessed it right, I fore go my night out tonight ). I was anxiously waiting for his return since it’s almost dawn already when I receive a call from him asking me to go outside to bring him a jacket. He just said it’s really too darn cold outside as this wee hour. Knowing that it really is cold I unwillingly oblige.  Walking from our unit going to where he was parked I wondered why he was not anywhere where he parks. As I looked around I saw him parked right atop another street where street light had been scant. Walking towards him saw some sprinkle of lights which I mistakenly thought as a sign of a bad omen I sped off going towards him so we can go back home as fast as we can. So imagine my dismay when he asked me to sit atop the rear hood of our car just to marvel the vast sky. With cold seeping through my hoodie and my angst of him coming home this late. I just lean on and waited for him to make excuses. But he never said a word. He just looked up the sky for a good 20 minutes when suddenly he said, “Look up babe falling stars is trickling by two’s”. There and then I saw some falling stars drop fast from the sky. It was a beautiful sight to behold an experience of a lifetime I would say since we had been doing the meteor shower watching for 2 consecutive years together and it was only now that I was able to see such magnificent shower of light in the vast sky. We savor the moment for the next ten minutes and it was gone. Right after we got home I Googled the meteor shower and here’s what I found an really cool educational video about where the Perseid meteor shower come from and what causes it to appear every year.

Yes it’s true, some people actually pay big money for artwork that they can’t see – at least not with the naked eye.

To the casual observer, William Wigan’s artwork appears no more than a speck of dust resting on top of a pinhead. However, simply slipping it under an electric microscope (yes, I spelled that right – not an electron microscope … an electric one) will show you that there is a full-color miniature Elvis Presley sculpture on top of it.

Grab the next pin in his collection and you will have a near perfect rendition of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves – complete with the evil witch of a stepmother.

Of course working on such detailed miniscule masterpieces has both rewards (almost $30,000.00 each) and it’s dangers – perhaps he is the only artist in the world to have inhaled one of his full sculptures!

While working on his Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter Tea Party, he committed the mistake of inhaling at the wrong time. Alice was never found again!

Here are more of his work:

William made a boxing match no bigger than a matchstick head:

A little girl resting on a strand of human hair:

How He Does It

So how does he do it?

He meditates to bring down the rate of his breathing and his heartbeat. Using a scalpel, he then carves out matchsticks, sand, sugar, salt, etc. doing quick cuts in time with the lull between heartbeats. Wigan describes the process as akin to piercing a bubble without bursting it.

Cool. I have some spare matchsticks and sugar cubes around … you willing to try?

Sources:
William Wigan’s Official Site
The Daily Mail
Urban Legends

I first started a career in chemistry, and as a student, you tend to get familiar with all the elements, especially the common ones. And the ones you rarely hear, sometimes some chemist have no idea what they are about. Hafnium is one of the elements that gives no recall in head. Maybe because I never worked in an industry where hafnium was used.

Hafnium (Hf), with atomic number 72, is one of the transition metals. Without any other knowledge about stock this in my head, Wikipedia gives me more information. And one interesting thing I did not know about, is Hafnium seems to show some promising semi-conductor properties that is can be a potential candidate to replace silicon dioxide chips. Studies have shown that hafnium seems to have better properties than silicon dioxide based on laboratory test. Today’s tiniest transistors in ICs for processors are at 65nanometers using silicon dioxide and if hafnium will be used, the transistors are said to be able to shrink up to 45nanometer. Intel and IBM have expressed their use of Hafnium in their future processors.

Why is the sky blue?

We know why the water in the ocean and at sea is blue but water in your hands or in a glass has no color. It is simply the reflection of the sky. (Although as Mike Lopez has mentioned, it’s not only that. Check his post also on why is the sea blue.) But why is the sky blue? Is there any material up there that makes the sky blue? But at night the sky is black and you can see far away stars.

I started my career as a chemist where I have a college degree in chemistry and also took up my master’s degree as well and I have this overall interest in science, although I know there are a lot of people that does not appreciate explanations that are too scientific that sounds like another language to them, I’ll try to explain this in the most simplest way I can.

Let’s talk about color first, all colors come from light. So no light, no color. Since light gives of a range of waves and each wave has a measure of wavelength. To help you imagine this, a wave is something that goes up and down moving to a certain direction, and the longer it takes for a wave to go up and back down has a longer wavelength and the faster it is, the shorter the wavelength.

Image taken from Wikipedia about waves.

So in light sources, or even sound sources, these waves come out. Although you do not see anything up and down coming out and even if it is not really going up and down, this is the best way to explain the behavior of light as a wave. (And we will not discuss in this article how waves behave as a particle, that is totally a different story.)

And our eyes are designed to only see waves of a certain wavelength, and these are generally at 400nm to 700nm, but there are some people that could see beyond this range and there are also some that see below this range (the color blind people). The unit nm is nanometers which is x10^-10 meters. Just think of the wavelengths to be very very small. Light from the sun or any light source, a lamp, flashlight, etc. gives of a range of waves in all wavelengths of the visible region (400nm to 700nm), and when this light hits anything, let’s say a red car, some waves go through, some waves are absorbed, some are diverted (refractions) and bounced back (reflections). So in a red car when light hits it, all wavelengths either go through or are absorbed but only the wavelengths of red are refracted and reflected which goes back to our eyes so we see red. So again, no light, no colors.

So when the sun shines on the atmosphere, what does that tell us? All wavelengths are absorbed or goes through the atmosphere and only the blue wavelengths are refracted and reflected so we see a blue sky. The atmosphere is predominantly oxygen (O₂ or oxygen we breath and O₃ or ozone) and nitrogen. So waves from the sun, when they hit oxygen and nitrogen molecules, the blue is refracted and reflected and scattered all over the sky. Let me try to explain this further, here are the range of wavelengths of colors I saved from Wikipedia:

You can see red has the longest wavelengths and violet has the shortest wavelengths. Now to picture this better, imagine the red wave as a person riding a bicycle in a zigzag fashion (a wave) and it takes a long time for it to move from left to right and back to left (long wavelength).

And imagine a person riding a bicycle in a zigzag fashion (a wave) and it takes a short time for it to move from left to right and back to left (short wavelength).

Now imagine them biking through a dense forest with a lot of trees (oxygen and nitrogen molecules) that they might bump into, each tree represented by a circle below.

If the red biker (red wavelength) and blue biker (blue wavelength) bike through the same forest with trees (sky with oxygen and nitrogen molecules), more red bikers will get to pass through and more blues bikers will probably bump a tree.

Now I hope you get the picture of why more blue wavelengths will hit oxygen and nitrogen molecules of the sky simply because their wavelength is shorter. And every time the blue wave hits an oxygen or nitrogen molecule, it gets reflected or refracted and is scattered all over the sky, so that is why we see the blue sky.

Why do we still see blue objects under the sun?

Question: Does it mean that If the waves with the wavelengths of blue are reflected and refracted by the sky, when the waves going down on objects we see on the ground should not have any blue?

Answer: No. Each oxygen and nitrogen molecule are very very far apart. Majority of the waves of all kinds all go through. But since the wavelength of blue is shorter, it has a higher probability of hitting a molecule in the sky.

Why don’t we see a purple sky?

Question: If the blue wavelength is short that increases the probability of colliding with a molecule in the atmosphere, why don’t we see a violet sky where violet has a shorter wavelength than blue and has even a higher probability of colliding with a molecule in the sky?

Answer: Most probably, the sky is more violet than we actually see. Violet is in the range of 380nm to 450nm. While blue is from 450nm to 495nm. But normal human eyes can see at a range of 400nm to 700nm. So we could only see 50 wavelengths of violet and 45 wavelengths of blue, and majority of the violet wavelengths you see are already at the near blue region. So we see more blue than purple skies.

Why is the sky red sometimes?

Question: During sunset and sunrise, the sky may appear red, or sometimes orange or yellowish. How come this happens?

Answer: The sun is farther away and sunlight has to pass through more layers of the atmosphere. To picture this, I made an illustration below:

Since at sunset or sunrise, sunlight passes though more amount of sky, it gives more opportunities for all the waves to hit more molecules of oxygen and nitrogen. That even the red wavelengths start hitting them also.

While I was on the plane flight from the United State to the Philippines, I was able to see the sunset at a higher view of about 40,000 feet just where the blue sky is separated by the red sky at the horizon, there is a small band of all colors of the visible region spectrum. In other words all colors of the rainbow, in a very narrow band of colors. Unfortunately, I left my camera in my bag which I did not have with me while at my seat on the plane. But on my flight back to America from the Philippines, I prepared my camera for sunset to get this spectrum, but unluckily, I had to go to the restroom near sunset and when I came out, sunset was over since sunrise and sunset occurs faster than normal in plane flights going on the opposite end of the earth since you add or subtract a day, depending on what direction you are going and you pass by sunsets and sunrises quickly, a bit faster than normal.

The original title of this post was: The Science Outside the Airplane Window. Where I supposed to also talk about: Why clouds are white? Why do many fluffy clouds have flat bases? What are jet streams? What is turbulence? But the post got so long and I limited it to why is the sky blue and I will just talk about the other things on some other post.

If you are in the industry of web building, here is a video on the study of the effects of LSD, Caffeine, Marijuana, Alcohol and Cocaine on web building.

Probably not what you expected, but I just like watching web builders like these ever since I was a kid.

University of Delaware chemical engineer Norman Wagner develops a liquid chemical that includes many tiny particles of glass or ceramics that hardens with agitation and struck with high physical impact. With liquid, mixed with Kevlar can improve the performance of Kevlar.

Liquid Armor – video powered by Metacafe

Photo: Discovery Channel

Stephen Robert Irwin is one of the popular guys I always watch on TV since I like watching only 3 channels mainly, Discovery Channel, National Geographic and G4 TechTV. Steve Irwin was popularly known as the Crocodile Hunter as he just knows how crocodiles are that he is confident working around them in close proximity but does not limit it to crocodiles alone but with many wild animals as well. One of the memorable episodes I remember was when Steve Irwin would run side by side with a komodo dragon, whose bite is know to have no cure and is simply full of bacterial from rotten food left in spaces in its mouth.

September 4 of 2006 at 11:00 am Queensland, Australia, Steve Irwin was shooting a film to be called The Ocean’s Deadliest in the Batt Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. Steve Irwin died by a stringray striked at Steve Irwin with its barbed tail in the chest.

Steve Irwin was living every life in a level of danger that only he was that knowledgeable and trained enough to face the risk involved. And with his brave work, he has helped many consevationalist, scientist and researchers. He is a true hero and is a big loss in the science world.

And how can water power engines? Well water is basically H₂O. Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom make a molecule of water. And how they do this, is I really do not know. Hygrogen is the lightest gas and highly flamable, although this is on the molecular state of H₂. And oxygen which is needed in any type of burning is in the molecular state O₂. So separating H in the H₂O either gives you an ionic H⁺ cation and an ^-OH anion. Both don’t burn and usually exist dissolved in liquid that easily bond with other ions like sodium, potassium and manganese, and chlorides and sulfates that can be found in tap water. Maybe even in your bottled mineral water. Now to take out H₂ gas which is the ideal fuel, and get O₂ oxygen for burning. You will need 2 molecules of water 2H₂O forming 2H₂ and O₂. Now is that possible? I really don’t know. And from what I have learned in school, it even needs more energy to break off hydrogen gas from water and make oxygen as a by product. And often this energy requires some high amount ot electricity. And when you say electricity, sometimes this still all boils down back to fossil fuels. But I really do not know how it works, and I am not skeptical about the engine either, but actually interested on how it works and still keeping an open mind that this can really be true or not, and even if it is true, where does he get the electricity to power his hydrolysis making what he calls HHO? If he charges some battery using his home electricity, then he is still using a bunch of fossil fuels since most power plants are still powered on natural gas. And electricity from hydroelectrical plants, windfarms, geothermal and other power sources are actually a minority. If this engine kicks off, the gas station industry may not be happy, but the main oil drilling industry will still be happy, if not happier.

And note, this is only my opinion. I may be wrong, I may be right. And I used to be a chemist one time in my life and I am no longer updated 100% with the chemistry world as I was before, and maybe everything I said above are obsolete knowledge. But I do hope there is still a way to maximize the use of water since it is just all over the place.

This then goes back to the petroleum industry, where the demand in crude oil is high as the United States constantly looks for alternative sources as the supply may soon decrease and decrease, hence the gas prices going up. Crude oil is mined and this alone will contain all sorts of fuel derivatives from high octane fuel, butane, propane, acetylene, up to the alcohols like methanol, ethyl alcohol and isopropyl alcohol and the last thing that is like residue in the separation of these fuels is actually still usable as asphalt. The more energy we consume, the more demand is needed for crude oil, or fossil fuels.

Fossils as we all know are very, very, very old living things. They are just dead for so long, buried under layers of rock, undergone decomposition and extreme heat and pressure, and they become crude oil. This process took millions of years while our consumption seems to be way faster than how these fuels were born based on a 1 is to 1 by volume comparison.

Thus, if you want more days to have power in our lifetime, conserving energy is really a must. Here are a few tips…

1. Always turn of lights when in not use if possible.
2. Low-watt fluorescent bulbs give you more brighter light at a cheaper price and longer life with low watt consumption compared to high-watt incandescent bulbs.
3. Always maximize your savings when using your air conditioner and avoid over using it. It would be best to set the thermostat control at the most manageable setting with the lowest amount of time running. Sometimes electric fans are good enough replacements to air conditioners.
4. Outdoor lights can be replaced with solar lights that charge in the day time and light up at night. These solar light, even if not powered by your utility electricity, the light is sufficient and ornamental for outside purposes.
5. When using a clothes flat iron, unplug it for the last few garments will save a lot of electricity and may still be sufficient to finish of a few more garments. And after taking out your clothes from the dryer, folding them right away or placing them on a hanger will save you from using the iron.

Check your local electricity company for more tips. I personally like the efforts of SDGE in their campaigns to conserve energy. Save power now, using it more will just help increase prices of everything.

Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming

The greenhouse-effect is widely known when talking about global warming where a similar effect is observed where gases like carbon monoxide go into the atmosphere forming a layer in the atmosphere that traps heat below this layer and closer to the surface of the earth as heat elevates due sunlight. That is why it is a global concern in lessening the carbon monoxide pollution around the world as consequences can resolve to melting of polar regions causing a rise in water levels. This greenhouse effect is not to be confused with the depletion of the ozone layer due to chlorofluorocarbons that increases the susceptibility to UV radiation from the sun. The greenhouse effect is the trapping of heat that cannot escape increasing temperatures higher than normal.

Greenhouse Effect in Cars

A similar effect is observed in automobiles in the parking lot on a hot sunny day as the car stays under the sun for a long period of time and as you enter, the temperature inside the car is higher than the already hot temperature outside the car. As heat enters the car through the glass windows, it is trapped and cannot escape. This can be partially avoided by opening the windows so heat can escape with some free flowing air as hot air comes out and cold air enters the car. Although this can be a security threat to the car, some people open their windows very partially, as to not compromise the car’s security and still get some heat escape. But the lesser space you keep open in your car windows, the less effective it becomes to battle the greenhouse effect within the car.

Effects of a Hot Car Internally

So the tendency is to turn on the air conditioner right away which then consumes more gasoline consumption as more engine power is required to run the air conditioner motor. Aside from spending more on gasoline, you spend more energy and energy is one resource we want to save since energy cost money. As the demand for energy increases, and the supply does not increase at the same or greater rate, problems may occur. That is why power outages are more common in the summer season as more people spend more energy in their efforts to cool their environment.

Keep Your Car Cool

Although opening the window partially may compromise your car’s security, maybe just a little space will help already. There are also some car coolers that can run even with your car not running in the parking lot, like the Auto Cool Solar Powered Car Fan. This keeps your car cooler thus saving energy. Aside from that, you get to save even more since the fan itself is powered by the sun. If the sun heats up your car, the sun will also help cool it down with the Auto Cool Solar Powered Car Fan.