Month: November 2004

Where was the Enterprise-D built?

That’s right: The Utopia Planitia Shipyards on and above Mars.

I remembered that from the Next Gen series, and I figured that it was a real place on Mars (left).

What I didn’t remember was where this real place was: The location where the Viking 2 Mars lander set down in 1976.

HERE’S AN ARTICLE ABOUT THE PLACE.

Thinking about this got me thinking about the languages involved in the name Utopia Planitia. In violation of a common naming rule, this designation involves a mix of Greek and Latin.

The term utopia, invented by St. Thomas More, is from Greek. As you likely know, it means "nowhere" or "no place." In Greek, it’s ou ("no") + topos ("place").

But planitia is Latin-derived. Despite the sound of the word, planitia does not mean "planet."

It means "plateau."

Utopia Planitia is thus "the Nowhere Plateau."

The alternative term to planitia is planum, which means "plain." They also have those on Mars. For example, in Syria Planum (southeast of the Martian volcano Olympus Mons or "Mt. Olympus") they have a large PsiCorp facility.

But that’s another story . . .

Sometimes we hear comments about the human race suggesting that, apart from our intellect, we’re nothing special. We don’t have the impressive physical attributes and abilities of other species. We can’t fly, like birds. We can’t change color, like chameleons. We don’t have shells, like turtles. We don’t have claws, horns, tusks, or even fur, like countless species. Yep, apart from our intellects, we’re nothing special.

Or are we?

In fact, we have good eyesight compared to most species (lousy sense of smell, though, and many birds have our vision beat). But even more impressive than that is our ability to run.

HERE’S AN INTERESTING STORY ON THAT.

Mankind was born to run. And like the energizer bunny, we just keep going . . . and going . . . and going.

Other species poop out long before we do. They may be better at sprinting than we are (think: lions and cheetahs and jaguars and zebras and just about everything else that preys or is preyed upon), but we are the ultimate endurance runners among terrestrial species. We just lope along mile after mile, and other species (more famed for being runners) can’t keep up with us.

The reason is the greater concentration of slow-twitch muscle fibers we have. You want fast-twitch fibers for sprinting, but slow-twitch fibers keep you going in the long run.

Dwarves, for example, are natural-born sprinters, having more fast-twitch fibers than men. But men have enough slow-twitch fibers to make them good distance runners. There are marathon men, but no marathon dwarves.

 

You know how they talk about needing to be exposed to a certain amount of a disease before you’re likely to catch it?

There are several reasons why this can be the case. One of them has to do with a kind of bacteriological language called "quorum sensing." What happens is this: You get a bunch of the bacteria in your body and they send out molecules that announce their presence to each other. They’re like dogs howling, trying to hear other dogs out in the night.

If the bacteria hear enough howls coming back to them, they decide that a "quorum" is present. A quorum is like a hunting pack, and the bacteria turn aggressive. They start thrashing your body with a disease.

Streptococcus pneumoniae (the ugly critter up top) works like this.

What’s the logical response for humans to attempt?

Stop them from doing it!

This process is known as "quorum quenching." It is an attempt to distrupt the bacteria from sensing the tiny, molecular howls they send out to each other.

That’s one kind of "language" I hope our doctors get a real good handle on.

McCoy? Crusher? Pulaski? Brashir? Doctor? Phlox? Franklin? Frasier? — Y’all listening?

LEARN MORE.

You know how they talk about needing to be exposed to a certain amount of a disease before you’re likely to catch it?

There are several reasons why this can be the case. One of them has to do with a kind of bacteriological language called "quorum sensing." What happens is this: You get a bunch of the bacteria in your body and they send out molecules that announce their presence to each other. They’re like dogs howling, trying to hear other dogs out in the night.

If the bacteria hear enough howls coming back to them, they decide that a "quorum" is present. A quorum is like a hunting pack, and the bacteria turn aggressive. They start thrashing your body with a disease.

Streptococcus pneumoniae (the ugly critter up top) works like this.

What’s the logical response for humans to attempt?

Stop them from doing it!

This process is known as "quorum quenching." It is an attempt to distrupt the bacteria from sensing the tiny, molecular howls they send out to each other.

That’s one kind of "language" I hope our doctors get a real good handle on.

McCoy? Crusher? Pulaski? Brashir? Doctor? Phlox? Franklin? Frasier? — Y’all listening?

LEARN MORE.

I am not a big fan of personality tests. Some are outright goofy pseudo-science (e.g., the Enneagram). Others are slightly more scientific (e.g., the Myers-Briggs).

HERE’S AN INTERESTING STORY EXPLAINING THE PROBLEMS WITH SUCH TESTS.

Some of the criticisms to be made of them are quite startling.