Here’s some good news: It appears that giving folks a few minutes’ treatment with a salt spray nebulizer changes the surface tension of the fluids in their lungs so that when they breathe then they don’t exhale nearly as much of contagions such as SARS, TB, the flu, and other baddies. This offers the possibility of a new way of stopping the spread of diseases, particularly in hospitals and homes, where doctors, other patients, and family members may be at risk.

*Very* much hope this pans out.

Sometimes it’s the simple things that are the most effective.

GET THE STORY.

That’s the title of a famous paper by philosopher Thomas Nagel. But you don’t have to be a philosopher to wonder about the question. A reader writes:

My 10 year old asked me this questions and since I think you are a bit
of a science fan, I thought I might  ask you.

Can a bat ‘see’ a stealth bomber with its radar or would it fly right
into it?

What do you think?

I’m not an expert here, but I’ll be happy to conjecture (perhaps other readers can fill-in/correct the details via collective brainpower).

It seems to me that the answer to the question depends on two things: (1) how fast the stealth bomber is flying and (2) whether its surfaces reflect, deflect, or absorb sonar.

The sonar issue is key, because bats have sonar (echolocation by sound waves), not radar (echolocation by radio waves). Because sonar is dependent on the speed of sound (not light) the first question is also relevant.

If the stealth bomber is flying faster than the speed of sound then the sound waves from the bat will not have the chance to reach it before that bomber flies into/past the bat, so it won’t see the bomber coming. (NOTE: Stealth bombers usually fly below the speed of sound to avoid creating a sonic boom that they can be tracked by.)

If the stealth bomber is flying slower than the speed of sound then the sound waves from the bat will have the chance to reach it before the plane flies into/past the bat, so the bat might be able to see it (see below). However, the plane is probably so loud that the bat might not need sonar to see it. It might just hear it coming. (That is not to say it would be able to get out of the way in time; bats fly way slower than the speed of sound.)

If the stealth bomber is standing still and turned off (e.g., on a runway, in a hangar) then the speed and noise of the plane wouldn’t matter, leading us to the question of whether the surfaces of the plane reflect, deflect, or absorb sound waves.

The way stealth technology works in planes, such aircraft are made of and covered with materials that absorb radar but not sonar. These might not help hide a plane from a bat. However, not all the radio waves used in radar are absorbed by the plane, so its surfaces are shaped and angled in such a way that they deflect radio waves so that they won’t echo back to radar station. The angle and shape of theser surfaces might also deflect sonar (I don’t know). But even then, the stealth craft’s "invisibility" is not pefect. What the advent of stealth technology did was allow us to reduce a plane’s radar signature to the size of an insect but not to eliminate it entirely.

Bats, however, are good at spotting things the size of insects (that’s what a lot of bat species eat). Also, the angle of the surfaces on a stealth aircraft only deflect stuff from certain angles. Therfore, my guess is that if a plane were sitting still and a bat were flying around it, the bat probably could see it with sonar.

For what it’s worth, I Googled the question of stealth technology and sonar and found references to stealth submarines designed to thwart sonar underwater, but these might not work against bats as water has acoustic properties that are quite different than air (the medium in which bats’ sonar is designed to work).

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.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TAKES ON WHICH COMIC BOOK HEROES AND VILLAINS ARE THE MOST SCIENTIFICALLY PLAUSIBLE.

I want to order a utility belt from Sharper Image!

(But it has to let me put on my cool cowboy belt buckles.)

Yeah, and the Garden of Eden was located just outside Moscow, too. It must have made Adam and Eve very sorry to leave it.

Don’t hold your breath on this one, Ivan.

I see that the accuracy rate of Pravda hasn’t become sterling since the time it was a Communist propaganda paper.

Still, it’s probably more accurate than CBS.

Here’s the story:

Russian scientists create perpetual space motion machine

11/15/2004 17:38

The machine can be used to adjust the orbits of space stations The Russian research institute of space systems develops a perpetual motion machine, which could be used both on Earth and in space. "Specialists of the institute have been working on the so-called engine without reactive mass emissions," Valery Menshikov, the director of the institute said. The scientists have already created a test model of the unconventional engine, he added. "The model moves owing to a liquid or a solid body that moves inside the machine. The body moves on a certain trajectory, reminiscent to the one of tornado. As a result, we can probably witness an unknown phenomenon, when the body interacts with the fields, the nature of which has been studied insufficiently, the gravitation field, for example," Valery Menshikov said. "We have already registered the traction of up to 28g, but it can so far exist for several minutes only. It may seem that the index is really low. However, if this traction is used for 20 minutes with a 100-kg satellite, it will be able to lift its orbit for more than two kilometers," scientist of the research institute, Yuri Danshov said. The new engine will last for 15 years; it will be able to perform about 300,000 operations. The machine is powered with solar batteries. Specialists believe that it will be possible to achieve better results, if the machine is tested in space, or if it is dropped down in a deep shaft, where the fall creates the effect of weightlessness. "Traditional science compares the research in this field with attempts to develop a perpetual motion machine. However, largest Western companies are very serious about the problem, investing considerable funds in the work," the director of the Russian institute for space systems, Valery Menshikov said. Russian scientists believe that it will be possible to use the machine to control and correct the orbits of spacecrafts and space stations. This ecologically pure engine will probably be used with air and ground transport, Itar-Tass reports.

The BBC is reporting (excerpts):

A spectacular volcanic eruption under an Iceland glacier has forced
airlines to divert flights to avoid flying through gas emissions from
the blast.

The volcano first erupted on [last] Monday, sending thick black smoke and ash heading towards continental Europe.

Oli Thor Arnarsson of the Icelandic Meteorological
Office said a change in the wind could send the cloud toward central
Europe.

"We are speculating that the eruption should be clear
tomorrow. But if there are more eruptions, we may have ash over central
Europe," he said.

GET THE STORY.

UPDATE! The Daily Planet is reporting that France has pre-emptively surrendered to the volcano and offered it a sacrificial offering of cheese.