The Sun

Like a precious spring in the vast empty desert of space, the Sun makes our Earth a beautiful living oasis in the cold, dark universe around us.

What makes the Sun shine and keep on putting out such colossal amounts of energy for billions of years? It is amazing to me that, like most people, I didn’t ever ask that question when I was growing up. Maybe it was because the Sun is so awesome that I didn’t think anyone could possibly know the answer.

But Einstein figured it all out in 1905 when he developed his famous equation: E=mc²

That equation simply says that energy (E) and matter (m) are interchangeable -- one can be turned into the other. In the Sun, incredible amounts of energy (E) are created when very, very small amounts of matter (m) are destroyed. That’s because the constant (c²) that is on the same side of the equation as the mass (m) stands for the enormous speed of light multiplied by itself.

The Sun is made up of gases, about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. In the very hot centre of the sun (15 million degrees Celsius), two hydrogen nuclei fuse when they collide, and the helium nucleus that forms as a result has a mass (m) that is very slightly less than the combined masses of the two hydrogens. That lost mass (m) is converted to the prodigious amount of energy (E) in the form of heat and light that the Sun gives off and has been giving off for billions of years. Watching this short YouTube clip helps visualize this thermonuclear reaction happening in the Sun.

So far the Sun has used up only about half its hydrogen, so no worries, there is no reason it won't keep flooding planet Earth every single day with an amount of energy that is equivalent to the whole of the world’s oil resources. That constant and beautiful supply of energy has been a major cause of the truly awe-inspiring evolution that has occurred on our planet – that, and of course the laws of nature.

One of nature's laws - the famous Second Law of Thermodynamics – says that in an isolated system, Entropy, or disorder, increases. But what about a system that is not isolated and that is receiving the wonderful energy from the Sun constantly? A relatively new theory, Complexity Theory, recognizes that if you pump energy into an isolated system, order will increase!!

Darwin certainly made great breakthroughs – recognizing evolutionary patterns and coming up with his ‘survival of the fittest’ dictum. But consider the tremendous driving force for the increasing complexity on the planet that is now being directed by us. And where do we get our energy? Indirectly, like everything else on Earth, from that marvelous thermonuclear reaction going on in the Sun! Rie

Chirality

As a break from our harsh Canadian winters we have ‘gone south’ to the Caribbean islands for years. I love beach combing and as a result, I have baskets full of sea shells at the cottage that I have picked up and enjoy handling.

When I read that spiral shells were a good example of the invisible chirality [left or right handedness] that many molecules in living systems possess, I lined up some of my spiral shells with their earliest growing tips down and took the picture above. When you look at the picture, you can’t help but see that the open ‘mouth’ of the shell is always on the left.

Try it out yourself the next time you have any spiral shells at hand, and you may be lucky enough to find a shell that breaks the rule and opens on the right. They are rare, but exceptions do exist, and therefore the shell's outward chirality must be for another reason, because our body’s chiral molecules are always only one-handed without exception! For snails, the reason for the shell coiling happens to be sex. Snails make coiled shells because their sexual organs are usually twisted, and it is difficult with snails of opposite handedness to mate. Picture on the right is the Nautilus shell.

The fact that our body’s DNA, enzyme and sugar molecules, etc., are chiral was not generally known until a widespread medical tragedy occurred. In the late 1950’s, a drug called ‘thalidomide’was developed by a pharmaceutical company as a sedative and a treatment for morning sickness in early pregnancy. When tested on animals it had few or no side effects, and so was used in many countries, including the UK and Canada starting in 1958. It was not until 1961 that doctors fully realized the drug was the cause of severe birth defects – many children developing flippers instead of arms.  It was withdrawn but too late for kids shown on the left .

When thalidomide was investigated, the results knocked organic chemists for a loop. It was discovered that the molecule was chiral, and when synthesized in the lab, equal amounts of two isomers, one left-handed and the other right-handed, were produced. Because molecules involved in our body chemistry are also chiral, the two isomers reacted differently, with one isomer causing the birth defects. Fortunately, under normal circumstances, if we ingest a molecule with the wrong handedness, our bodies recognize it and - unlike the unfortunate thalidomide case where a fetus was in an early stage of development - it is sent to the liver where most toxins are dealt with.

The development of one-handedness in our body chemistry probably happened just by chance when life first formed on our planet. Should we ever travel to another planet many light years away, it is possible that life started there with its molecules having the opposite handedness, and we could eat as much of their food as we wanted, but we would starve to death! Rie

Clouds

A few years ago we had a visit from a friend with a small plane, and when he invited me to go up with him, I jumped at the chance! It was my first time being in the co-pilot's seat, and the fun of the joy-ride for me was heightened by the number and variety of all the switches and dials on the instrument panel, but even more so by the routines and checks my now preoccupied companion was carrying out. I was fascinated with the flight plan he was reporting and the information he was jotting down that was coming from some voice of authority I could hear through his earphones.

It would have been inappropriate to interrupt any of these serious preparations, but I made a some mental notes and, after we successfully landed, I was ready with a few questions. One of them had to do with the dew point. I already knew that the dew point was the temperature at which water molecules slow down so much that they tend to stick to each other instead of bouncing off like they do when they are moving faster at higher temperatures. But why did the pilot need to know the dew point, and why was it reported as an altitude? It turned out that it was just another way of telling him the altitude at which the clouds started forming!

As air rises, it expands and cools down, so this means that at a certain height the temperature reaches the dew point and water vapour condenses. Simple enough - but ever since thinking about it like a pilot, I have taken special delight in looking at clouds. Understanding why they are so often flat lets you observe the normally invisible water vapour in the air appear all at once. The darkness on the bottom of flat clouds is another story for another time.

Just as I find a painting often lets me delight in seeing the world the way the artist was seeing it when he/she created it, so I think scientists can often give us information that allows us to take delight in observing from their informed perspective.

I hope that on a partly cloudy day after this you will find new appeal in looking at the clouds billowing above their flat bottoms. Rie

Dumb kids

This is a story told to me by a friend [lets call him Bert] some years ago. He was at the time a newly appointed Superintendent of a School District in a big city. He found that the way the school system worked was that a student who didn’t pass at the end of a school year was still permitted to go on to the next grade with friends until they finally reached grade 10 or were 16 years old (at which point the law said they could leave school).

There were many complaints about these ‘unteachable’ students because they often purposely disrupted classes, so Bert persuaded his Board to let him hire a psychologist to test some difficult kids and see if they had problems that could be identified. The report that came back was clear – most of them could neither read nor write, and had been using their wits in order to manage at all. They had matured more slowly than ‘normal’, and had not been ready for reading when these skills were taught. If no one had picked up on that and helped them, then they had simply missed their chance and were passed on through the system.

Bert managed to hire a specialist to teach them to read, but he didn’t just stop there – he figured he needed to find some way to engage the kids outside the classroom, so he tried an experiment. He cobbled some money together, bought a run-down property and gave the students the mission to repair and refurbish the place - and assigned a supervisor to oversee the project. The kids had to read labels and instructions on nearly everything they worked with, and they had to use their math skills to measure and calculate the amounts of materials they needed and to keep track of finances. They cooperated, learned, and it was a success – so the next year Bert bought an old boat.

Bert kept in touch and found out that some of those labeled ‘losers’ went on to University, and one even ended up earning a PhD! It’s a good story, and it makes the point that not everyone fits the school mold. The smarter we get at recognizing and addressing this, the better.

In my 'Whole Brain' post, I noted that schools test for left-brained skills, but it is often the kids with artistic and creative talents who can be more perceptive and skilled at relationships. We need them both! Rie

Pompeii

At noon on a summer day in 79 AD, the inhabitants of the prosperous city of Pompeii felt and heard rumblings coming from the nearby Vesuvius Mountain. They watched in wonder as a dense, black plume of rocks and ash rose out of its centre, shot high into the sky and spread out over their city. They had never seen or heard of anything like this before, and while many of the 20,000 inhabitants fled, at least 2000 stayed, not knowing that this would be a fatal decision. The volcanic eruption first spewed ash and pumice stone down on the city for 18 hours, and then the top of the mountain collapsed, releasing lethal gases and a mud and earth slide that buried the city under 30 feet of debris.


Knowledge of the city's existence faded over the next 15 centuries, and its ancient remains were only discovered in the 18^th century when a deep hole was being dug for the base of an aqueduct. Restoration has been slow, but 3/4 of the site, preserved in every detail because of the catastrophe, is now excavated and partly restored. Although almost all of the statuary and personal effects of the inhabitants have been preserved in the Archaeological Museum in Naples, many replicas are onsite, so one gets a sense of the grandeur of a thriving Roman city where time stopped one day long ago.
As excavators uncovered human remains, they soon realized that the skeletons were surrounded by empty space in the compacted ash where the entombed body had been. By carefully pouring plaster of Paris into these spaces, the final poses, clothing and figures of many of the victims of Pompeii bear witness to their final moments. Although the whole site was amazing, viewing these bodies probably had the greatest impact on me, bringing to life the horrors of the final moments of their lives.

Scientific records now indicate that Vesuvius erupts every 2000 years. This means that there is a 50/50 chance of it erupting again any day now. Since over the years Naples has grown in the volcano’s shadow to a city of 3.5 million, let us hope there will be plenty of warning in the event of that happening. Rie

Amalfi Coast

I've read that the road down the coast from Sorrento to Amalfi has the most spectacular scenery in the world – and I now believe it. In the picture I took of the route the bus was taking over the cliff-hanging, switchback road, you can perhaps imagine the heart stopping views at every turn.

Amalfi used to be the large capital of a powerful republic, but the city slid into the sea during an earthquake in the 14th century, and it is now just a small town like others, with houses clinging to steep slopes rising from the coast. The picture taken from the ferry shows Positano with its front street lined with cafés on one side and the beach and ocean on the other.

Small narrow streets are mostly steps because they rise so steeply. One must be fit to travel!

We are enjoying the many ferries and the clear aquamarine water that is now a little too cold for swimming. Rie

Isle of Capri

A couple of days ago we took the hugely popular day trip from Sorrento to the famed Island of Capri about 5 km out to sea. The ferry ride was rough on the windy day we visited, and I was disappointed to miss my main goal. It had been to visit the ‘magical’ blue grotto, but the waves were too high to risk rowing through its narrow opening. The incredibly blue water around the island was visible everywhere, as you can see in the picture.

From the dock it was only a few steps to take the funicular up to the small town of Capri with its tiny squares and narrow streets lined with designer shops, posh hotels and cafés – everything expensive. After a long sight-seeing walk, I enjoyed people watching while sitting in the main square eating delicious creamy Italian gelato.

While leaving, my camera caught the sun setting behind the town of Capri nestled between the limestone hills on either side. Rie