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Are We Living in a Giant Void?July 20

As a science fiction fan, I have come across something that annoys me. There seem to be a limited number of things that can happen in a series, and episodes start repeating themselves from series to series. One such occurrence is the idea of a ship being trapped in a void of stars; being literally nowhere near another star, and thus, all in black.

This void, as most episodes are entitled, is similar to the descriptions that filter out of Antarctica. When explorers are traversing miles and miles of white, they begin to lose the ability to determine where they are, and if they are moving.

The idea of an astronomical void is not just science fiction fodder however, and rather, according to Timothy Clifton and colleagues Pedro G. Ferreira and Kate Land at the University of Oxford, a possible explanation for why it looks as if our universe is expanding at an accelerated pace.

So far, the general consensus has been that dark energy – though unfound and unproven – is to blame for this acceleration. And although corroboration has been found from several independent sources, such as the cosmic microwave background and large scale structure, as well as improved measurements of the supernovae, this consensus is filled with uncertainties, considering that the observed value of dark energy is 120 orders of magnitude smaller than what is predicted from quantum physics.

At this point, Timothy

Sleepless Responsible for SleeplessnessJuly 17

Though I take mild offense at being compared to a fly, a new scientific discovery may provide a clue as to why humans and animals alike experience insomnia. A new genetic mutation found in flies can cause 80% less sleep than normal flies, forcing the flies to get by with much less sleep.

The mutation, now dubbed Sleepless, suggests that at our most basic level, sleep is caused by a slowdown in certain neurons. And according to Amita Seghal, a neurobiologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, who led the new study, an inability to control these neurons may be the cause of restless nights.

“When you’re having a bad night of insomnia you do have the need to sleep, but you’re not able to,” she says. “That might be what’s going on with these animals.”

Though a normal fly manages to sleep for around 12 hours a day, those flies with a broken Sleepless only get one or two hours; however they don’t realize they’ve lose sleep. “When you deprive them, you’re not really taking away any sleep, because there wasn’t any to begin with,” Sehgal says. However as a result, their lifespan shortens and their coordination is impaired.

Another side effect of the Sleepless mutation occurred when the flies were knocked out with ether. When knocked out by the drug, the flies legs began to twitch reflexively, an effect similar to that of another gene mutation that influences sleep patterns by regulating cell

Were Antarctica and North America Once Connected?July 17

The continual shifting of continents has led to the theories that, as in the cases of Pangaea and Rodinia, many, if not all of our continents, were at one time or another connected. One particular theory evolving from this is the SWEAT theory, standing for southwestern United States and East Antarctica, which theorizes that the southwestern United States was at one time connected to East Antarctica.

John Goodge, an NSF-funded researcher with the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and his team have recently published a paper that details findings that they believe add considerable weight to SWEAT.

Goodge and his team were conducting a search for rocks that might provide links to the composition of the underlying continental crust of Antarctica. “We were picking up boulders in the moraines that looked interesting,” Goodge said. “It was basically just a hodge-podge of material.”

One of the rocks that they picked up turned out to be, later, a very specific form of granite with, as Goodge describes it, “a particular type of coarse-grained texture.” Chemical and isotopic tests conducted by the team in laboratories in the US revealed the boulder to have a chemistry “very

The Reality of BatmanJuly 14

It is no surprise that with the release of the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight, only days away, the number of stories focusing on Gotham’s hero is increasing. The latest concerns a book written concerning the likelihood that Batman could actually exist, and what the toll on the human body would be after a career like Batman’s.

Written by E. Paul Zehr, associate professor of kinesiology and neuroscience at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and a 26-year practitioner of Chito-Ryu karate-do, the book, entitled ‘Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero’, gives a fun and realistic look in to whether it would be possible to become Batman.

Scientific American, having caught wind of this book, recently interviewed Zehr, and quickly summed up his work.

Questions such as “How long would Bruce Wayne have to train to become Batman” and “What effects would all that training have on Bruce Wayne’s body?” result in answers that do not totally dispel the idea that someone could become Batman. And though from the disclaimer at the beginning of the interview saying it is an edited transcript of the interview suggests we’re not getting the full story, it does add another weight in pile for Batman being the most realistic of superheroes.

There have been dozens of variations on how Bruce Wayne came to be Batman, and the Christop

The Tour de France Won by Strength and TechJuly 8

The Tour de France is, for many of us, the pinnacle of our sport year. It is, in my own opinion, without a doubt the best sporting event ever, and showcases the toughest and fittest athletes our planet has to offer. Over 3 weeks, over 150 riders will travel across France, covering over 3,500 kilometers in 21 stages.

But though you have to be at the peak fitness wise, it isn’t all down to how much you’ve trained. Like many other sports these days, the equipment you use is just as important.

Careful study of the Tour de France will see a variety of bikes, helmets and even sunglasses being used over the Tour. A different bike and helmet is used between a normal flat road race, a time trial, or a mountain climb.

For example, a time trial – where you race against the clock for the fastest time rather than your opponents – sees the majority of cyclists wearing a tapered helmet, wraparound sunglasses, and riding a specially designed bike that weighs almost nothing, and presents as little resistance to the wind as possible.

However a bike used for a mountain climb is totally different, weighing even less, but proportioned differently, with less need for wind resistance and more need for maneuverability. You’re heading up a hill, rather than down or across a flat, thus speed is not your main problem; its stamina, endurance, and sheer strength.

Millions of dollars go in to designing and testing the right type of materials, design, weight,