Surface Tension - Book Review

With the close of 2019 upon us today, I quickly knocked off another book, a science fiction short story titled Surface Tension by James Blish. This story is part of the first volume of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame collection.

It's an interesting short story that starts with a crash landing of a crew on a inhospitable planet. The crew are doomed to death, but before dying, they plant offspring embryos adapted to survive the planet. These new humans are tiny, bacteria sized humans, that go through a process of evolving from water dwelling creatures to land dwelling creatures, following the steps of evolution on Earth.

Not the greatest science fiction short story, but an interesting, if odd, short read. 

Memorial Day (with Mitch Rapp) - Book Review

One of the last books I read in 2019 was Memorial day by Vince Flynn. This is the seventh book in the Mitch Rapp series and is another excellent spy thriller written by Flynn. I know I always say that I don't agree with Flynn's politics (Note: Flynn died in 2013 from prostate cancer), but I do enjoy his books. If you are a fan of spy thrillers, you really need to check out the Mitch Rapp series. Forget the politics and sit down with a good, exciting story.

Memorial Day is another page turning, a book that I finished very quickly because I was delaying doing anything else until I finished. LOL! Mitch Rapp is at it again. He's upset with the day to day politics and is part of a team to stop a terrorist plot to kill the President and take down hundreds of thousands to millions of Americans. Oh, and nukes. He has to stop nukes from going off in Washington D.C. An exciting read!

Although good, the sixth book in the series, Executive Power, didn't quite live up to the previous books in the series. Not so with the seventh book. The seventh book is what the sixth book wasn't!

This Blog's History: Eating in Maine

ICYMI when I posted it last month, we had a great trip in Maine and had a vast amount of excellent food! Here's a list of all the places we ate!

Eating in Maine!

What Is #31: The Kuiper Belt?

The day after Christmas is a great day for astronomy. Today I return to the What Is series and take a look at the Solar System's Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt is a region in the Solar System that extends from about 30 astronomical units (A.U.) to about 50 A.U. from the Sun. For reference, the Earth is 1 A.U. from the Sun. There are many leftover parts from the early ages of the Solar System that never collected into a planet or with one of the existing planets. Given the larger distance from the Sun, many of these objects are more icy and less rocky in composition.

Short period comets, such as Halley's comet, which orbits the Sun once every 76 years, originate from the Kuiper Belt. Pluto, and several other dwarf planets, are in the region of the Kuiper Belt in the Solar System. 

The Kuiper Belt is named after astronomer Gerard Kuiper, although he did not discover the Kuiper Belt. He did a great deal of work in planetary astronomy, including the discovery of a couple of moons of Uranus. The Kuiper Belt was discovered two decades after Kuiper's death as technology improved and non-planet objects were discovered in increasing numbers in this distance range.

Is the Kuiper Belt the edge of the Solar System? Nope! Far from it. Coming soon we'll talk about the Oort Cloud which is very far out in the Solar System, far more distant than the Kuiper Belt. 

Snowpeople Against Solar Energy!

Have an excellent Christmas day no matter how you choose to spend it. Here's a bit of humor, following yesterday's Christmas Eve humor.

Yes, never trust a snowperson! They are against using the Sun's renewable energy source for solar energy on Earth! Apparently solar energy doesn't treat them well. :-)

Christmas Eve Science Cartoon

It is Christmas Eve and here's a bit of Christmas plus Science humor to brighten your day in a world filled with far too many climate change deniers.

Found on the skepticalscience.com website, a fantastic source for climate change science.

There you go, we can blame Santa Claus for climate change. He's the one that kept handing out coal, a fossil fuel that polluted our atmosphere with additional carbon dioxide and increased the temperature of this planet. Had Santa given the bad kids a renewable energy source, like solar or wind, climate change wouldn't be a problem. :-)

As the caption to this image states, Skeptical Science is a great source for high quality climate change science. A vast resource for anyone wishing to know more about climate change, including the common arguments climate change deniers often make.

Throw Throw Burrito!

Some board games have a significant learning curve and can take hours to play. Other board games are learned in 60 seconds and provide a few minutes of hilarious fun. Both type are needed. We recently played Throw Throw Burrito over Thanksgiving Break, a game I supported on Kickstarter when it was first announced. The game was created by The Exploding Kittens group, which includes Matthew Inman, also knows as creator of The Oatmeal comics.

The goal of the game is to earn points and whoever earns the most points wins. Oh, and you get to throw foam burritos at each other. Seriously. You throw foam burritos at each other!!!

There are foam burrito wars and foam burrito duels. The duels are your standard duel where two people each grab a foam burrito, stand back to back, take three steps, turn, and throw! First to get hit by a burrito loses! We had some epic duels as a family with missed throws, laundry hamper lids serving as shields, running from room to room, etc. And a whole bunch of laughing. LOL! Each game takes maybe 15-20 minutes, although an epic, drawn out duel could add a few minutes to that. 

Throw Throw Burrito is a great party game. If you own two packs, which I do, you can combine them and play up to 12 players at a time. Haven't done that yet, but I imagine a 12 player game of Throw Throw Burrito is quite the sight!

This Blog's History: Becky Smethurst

For This Friday in This Blog's History I point you back to a recent post I wrote on Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist you should definitely follow on Twitter. Seriously, follow her @drbecky_ You're not following her yet? What is taking so long? Follow her!!!

Becky Smethurst (@drbecky_) on Twitter

Trivial Pursuit Family Edition

Over Thanksgiving break we had a chance as a family to play several board games. One game we played several times was Trivial Pursuit Family Edition. I loved playing trivial pursuit as a kid and there are many, many different versions out there. The family edition has a good mix of parent question cards and kid question cards. In addition, it is up to date with more modern questions that are relative to the times we live in now that it is 2019.

In our first game, I teamed up with my oldest daughter and we competed against my wife and youngest daughter. It was a neck and neck game, but my oldest daughter and I won. The best part? The answer to the final question was Frank Herbert's Dune! My geekiness paid off! LOL! 

Board games are a great way to spend family time that isn't in front of a screen. Trivial Pursuit Family Edition will keep parents and kids interested. The questions are not necessarily easy, but they aren't too difficult that it takes forever to play either. I remember some very, very long games of Trivial Pursuit back when I was a kid as we played the original edition. 

Star Wars: The Old Republic #4 - Annihilation: Book Review

Now that I've reached my 2019 reading goal of 40 books, each additional book is an added bonus! With The Rise of Skywalker hitting theaters tomorrow, I'm kind of on a Star Wars kick of late. Over Thanksgiving we watched The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi to get ready for The Rise of Skywalker. :-) We also watched Rogue One again, but hey, who's counting. :-)

I've slowly been reading Star Wars books over the last couple of years and my latest Star Wars read was the last book in The Old Republic series, titled Annihilation.

These aren't literary classics or anything, but sometimes you just need a good Star Wars book and this book serves that purpose. Action, adventure, science fiction, Sith, Jedi, etc. The perfect quick read to fit between more lengthy novels on my to-read list. 

Shout Out to my Dad on His Birthday

Today is my dad's birthday and today he would have turned 69. This year marks the third holiday season without him with us. He was diagnosed with an inoperable rain tumor, glioblastoma, in January 2014. Glioblastoma, a very fast growing brain tumor, accounts for about 15% of all brain tumors and is terminal. Average survival rates are very short, at under 15 months with treatment. Five year survival rates are essentially non-existent.

He had a great team of doctors and responded very well to initial treatments. Unfortunately there are no cures and no treatments that prolong life beyond a few years. How long one survives depends on how well one responds to the first set of treatments. Treatment, typically a combination of chemotherapy and radiation, is not easy and can leave you very sick and tired. My dad never complained, at least not openly. He always came across to me as living each day positively and not worrying about the end. If he had worries, he never shared those. I hope, that if I am ever faced with a similar diagnosis, I handle it as well as he did.

My dad responded very well to treatments and survived for 3.5 years, finally losing his battle with cancer in June 2017. The quality of life was strong for the first three years, tailing off in the last few months, as always happens with this type of cancer. Glioblastoma steals away your cognitive and physical abilities. It requires 24 hour around the clock care at the end. Fortunately we had the means to place my dad in a home for the last couple of months, but many families don't have this option. In addition, many people with glioblastoma do not want to die the way this cancer forces you to die. They would rather die on their own terms before their quality of life drops dramatically.

I won't get into too many details here, but a few states offer "death with dignity" options that allow you to take medication to allow you to die painlessly on your own terms. You cannot just walk up to a pharmacy and pick up these medications. There are many, many safeguards in place and you have to pass a series of standards before you qualify. Unfortunately most states, including Iowa where my dad lived, do not offer this. The reason? Too often it comes down to religion and "this is how God chose you to die". Sorry, I don't buy that. It was once rare for humans to live past 30, but that didn't stop us from finding cures for common ailments that used to kill us. We didn't say that God chose us to die at 30 and call it good. The same rationale should apply to end of life in terminal cases. We treat our family pets at the end of their lives far better than we treat our fellow human beings.

If you don't know about death with dignity or have heard others denounce it, please, please, please, do a bit of research. One of the best documentaries I have ever watched, How to Die in Oregon, makes it clear that death with dignity is not a way for someone to just kill themselves on a whim. You can watch the documentary on Netflix. Death with dignity requires multiple doctors agreeing that the health problem is terminal and death, without the possibility of recovery, is a few months away.

Would my dad have chosen to die by taking medications? I don't know. Many people who have the option do not choose to take it. Some go as far as getting the medication but choose not to take it. The point is they had a choice. My dad did not. Currently, where I live, I do not. As of this writing, only Oregon, Washington, Colorado, California, DC, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, and Vermont have death with dignity laws in place. Death with dignity is not the easy way out. I argue it's even a harder decision to choose to take the medication. Would I choose it if in a similar situation? I don't know. But I want the option.

Happy Birthday Dad! I hope I am as strong as you when my time comes.

How Many Supermassive Black Holes???!!!???

I saw the headline to the following article and had to read it three (pun intended) times to convince myself I was reading it correctly.

Astronomers Find a Galaxy Containing Three Supermassive Black Holes at the Center

That's right, three...THREE supermassive black holes at the center of this galaxy. A single, supermassive black hole is usually found at the center of a galaxy. This supermassive black hole, around a few million of our suns combined, is created as the galaxy forms. As the galaxy forms from a large cloud of gas and dust, enough mass gets packed into a tight enough space that gravity becomes so large that not even light can escape. Thus the name, black hole. But how did this galaxy get three supermassive black holes?

Image Credit: P Weilbacher (AIP), NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

It turns out this galaxy is the result of three galaxies merging, each with their own supermassive black hole. The black holes have not yet merged and are all seen separately. Now that's cool! The image above, taken from the linked article, maps out the location of the three black holes. 

Astronomy never ceases to amaze!

This Blog's History: Power Plays! Newsletter

In case you missed it last month, for This Friday in This Blog's History I point you back to the post I wrote detailing a very excellent newsletter devoted to gender inequality in sports, Power Plays! Check it out. Author Lindsay Gibbs does an amazing job! Quality journalism covering an area that is rarely, if ever, covered by the major media sources.

Power Plays! Newsletter

What Is #30: A Supernova

In the 30th installment in this "What Is" series, I want to spend a few moments talking about supernovae, plural for supernova. A supernova is the final stage of a high mass star that has several times the mass of the Sun. These stars end their lives in a spectacular 'explosion'. I've put explosion in quotes because it really isn't an explosion as we think of an explosion.

This composite shows the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant across the spectrum: Gamma rays (magenta) from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope; X-rays (blue, green) from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory; visible light (yellow) from the Hubble Space Telescope; infrared (red) from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope; and radio (orange) from the Very Large Array near Socorro, N.M. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration, CXC/SAO/JPL-Caltech/Steward/O. Krause et al., and NRAO/AUI.

As a high mass star nears the end of its life, it begins to fuse more massive elements all the way up to iron in the core. Iron, the element with the greatest mass per nuclear particle, cannot be fused. At this point, fusion in the core stops and the core collapses very quickly until it reaches a point in which the neutrons cannot be packed in any tighter. The star doesn't have enough mass to break through neutron degeneracy. All of this material rushing in to the center hits this 'wall' and rebounds violently, creating what we call a supernova explosion. Unlike a bomb exploding, a supernova still has a leftover core, which we call a neutron star, an object I discussed in this series a while back.

If the star has even more mass, it could break through neutron degeneracy and leave behind a black hole, but this is only for the most massive of massive stars.

The supernova explosion creates many heavier elements beyond iron on the periodic table, but it doesn't appear as if a supernova has enough energy to create the heaviest elements. To create these elements, such as gold, even more energetic astronomical events are needed, to be discussed in a future post in this series.

A supernova releases a great amount of energy, so it is best to not be near one when it goes off. It is estimated that a supernova within 100 light years of us will greatly harm life on Earth by heating the atmosphere several degrees very quickly and wiping out a good chunk of the ozone layer. Not good for those of us who need this atmosphere to live! Fortunately we do not have any stars within 100 light years of us that show signs of reaching a supernova stage any time soon! Phew! There is some evidence, however, of past supernovae explosions linking to mass extinctions on Earth.

The World Revolves Around...

I saw this comic shared on the March for Science Facebook page the other day and couldn't help but share!

I won't explain it because then it wouldn't be funny. :-) Astronomy humor in cartoon format! If only everyone's Facebook feed was filled with more astronomy humor and less blatantly false political "news" and memes. 

Merlin TV Series - The Finale

About a year and a half ago I shared on this blog my enjoyment of the Merlin TV series, the series in which Merlin is young and King Arthur has yet to be king. As I shared in that post, I love pretty much any fantasy or science fiction based TV series. Magic, dragons, good, evil, etc. What's not to enjoy!

Merlin, which you can stream on Amazon Prime as of this writing, lasted five seasons and aired 65 episodes and ended in 2012. I recently watched the series finale and wow! What a great series and a great ending to the series. I won't give it away, but a very, very good last couple of episodes to tie everything up. There were negotiations for a sixth season, but the series was canceled after the fifth. Fortunately the cancellation was early enough to provide time to tie up all of the loose ends and end the series appropriately.

My kids watched some of these episodes and asked me all about the finale. LOL! They were just as caught up as I was in it. But alas, all good things must come to an end and Merlin is no different.

What's next? Not exactly sure, but I'm thinking of watching Black Mirror next.

What Is #29: The Pleiades Cluster

After recently discussing globular clusters and open clusters in this "What Is" series, let me talk briefly about a specific star cluster that is easy to see with the naked eye in the northern hemisphere, the Pleiades.

Pleiades star cluster - NASA, ESA, AURA/Caltech, Palomar Observatory The science team consists of: D. Soderblom and E. Nelan (STScI), F. Benedict and B. Arthur (U. Texas), and B. Jones (Lick Obs.)

The Pleiades is an open cluster of a few thousand stars with several very bright, blue stars that make it a very easily observed star cluster, even with the naked eye. It's best observable in the winter months in the northern hemisphere, and you can see it from part of the southern hemisphere, but if you get too far south it's always hidden by the horizon.

The Pleiades is a naked eye object for several reasons. One is the make up of stars. These very large, very blue stars emit a lot of light. On top of that, they are very close to Earth, at only 444 light years. This may seem a large distance, but in astronomical terms, 444 light years is very close given the Milky Way galaxy itself is approximately 100,000 light years in length.

The Pleiades is one of the top objects I have my students look at when we head outside in the late fall of the first semester. It's an easy object to find and very impressive through the telescope. You can see the mixture of stars and gas, along with the very bluish color. Very impressive!

These are young stars, with an age of around 100 million years. Much longer than the 75-85 year expected lifetime of a human, but very young when compared to the age of the Earth at 4.5 billion years old.

The next time you are outside in the evening, take a look up. Even if it is summer and the Pleiades are not up, something else that is just as cool is! Look up and enjoy the sights!

This Blog's History: What is a Globular Cluster

In case you missed it when first posted, for This Friday in This Blog's History, I point you back to a post I wrote on globular clusters. What is a globular cluster? You'll have to read the article by clicking the link below! :-) Hint: They are cool things involving stars!

What is a Globular Cluster?

Trip to Maine #24 (Finale!) - Eating in Maine

Today marks the last post detailing our family vacation to Maine this past summer. We had an amazing time, ate some amazing food, and made some amazing memories we'll never forget. I highly, highly recommend taking a vacation to Maine. We didn't eat at a single place I didn't enjoy, so to end this series on our trip to Maine, I offer you a list of most of the restaurants we ate at and and loved!

Vermont Country Deli (In Vermont)
Quiet Side Cafe and Ice Cream Shop
Perry Long's Lobster Shack
The Independent
Bar Harbor Lobster Company
Union River Lobster Pot
Amato's
Sprague's Lobster
The Holy Donut
Cape Porpoise Chowder House
Scoop Deck
Arabica Coffee House
J's Oyster
Gilbert's Chowder House
Knucklehead's Brewhouse (In New York)
Chico's Travelers Inn (In Pennsylvania)

There's a big seafood theme in the above list. And coffee. And ice cream. LOL! Some great food found at all of the above!

Ashes to Dust - Book Review

I may have exceeded my goal of reading 40 books in 2019, but that isn't stopping me from reading! I first visited Iceland in 2014 with my wife, and four years later, in 2018, we went back to Iceland with our kids. While there I searched for Icelandic authors to add to my to-read list, coming across Yrsa Sigurdardottir (sorry, leaving off the accents). Ashes to Dust is the third book in the Thora Gundmundsdottir series. These books fall into the genre of Icelandic noir, or more generally Nordic noir, murder/mystery/detective books written from the point of view of those doing the investigation.

Ashes to Dust is another great book in the series and kept me on the edge of my seat, especially the last 100-125 pages. There was quite the unexpected twist at the end! Wow! Another reason I enjoy reading this series is the knowledge I pick up about Iceland. Iceland is an amazing country and it won't be long before I'm itching to go back for the third time. In this book I learned quite a bit about the volcanic eruption on the island of Heimaey in 1973. No one was killed, but over 400 homes were destroyed during the eruption. 

A volcanic eruption combined with a fictional murder-mystery with a twist! Good reading!

Closest Planet to Earth?

What is the closet planet to Earth? At first glance this may seem an easy question. Venus, at closest approach is only about a third of an astronomical unit away. Mars is only about half of an astronomical unit away, but neither is the closest planet to Earth most of the time. That honor goes to Mercury, yes Mercury! But how is that possible? At closest approach Mercury is farther from Earth, at about two-thirds of an astronomical unit, than both Venus and Mercury!

The above chart, found in a tweet by Brian Brettschneider, plots the distance of Mercury, Venus, and Mars from Earth. Given that the four planets are not always on the same side of the Sun, their distance to Earth varies. Because Mercury has a quicker orbit around the Sun, it catches up to Earth faster than Venus catches up to Earth and even faster than Earth catches up to Mars in its orbit. Therefore, Mercury actually spends more time closer to Earth than Venus and Mars do! Just under half of the time, Mercury is closer, followed by Venus about a third of the time and Mars at about sixth of the time.

This makes sense, but it isn't immediately obvious when at closest approach, Mercury comes in third to Mars and Venus. Interesting! 

Becky Smethurst (@drbecky_) on Twitter

Not every science communicator needs a blue check mark on Twitter to be worthy of a follow. I recently discovered Dr. Becky Smethurst on Twitter and immediately added her to my science list of individual science communicators I want to see each and every tweet.

Dr. Smethurst, who you can follow on Twitter @drbecky_, is an astrophysicist studying supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies. She has a book out that I still need to check out titled "Space: 10 Things You Should Know". That's a hint for anyone looking at sending me a birthday or holiday gift. :-)

For some excellent science, specifically astronomy, give Dr. Smethurst a follow on Twitter. Better yet, add her to your own private list so you never miss out on a tweet!

This Blog's History: Melting Times

It's Friday and here's another edition of This Friday in This Blog's History. Like last week, today's throw back takes us back to 2014 when my daughter developed her own science experiment of determining how quickly ice will melt. It took 10 minutes and 45 seconds to melt an ice cube outside when it was 79 degrees Fahrenheit. She was pretty proud of her idea! :-)

Melting Times (Ice)

The Wizard's Treasure - Book Review

I recently finished the fourth and final book in Irene Radford's Dragon Nimbus series, titled "The Wizard's Treasure". The fourth book in the series is a bit different than the prior three. The focus moves away from the main characters to two minor characters in the first three books, magicians Robb and Marcus. The two are mentioned in the first three books, but these end with the whereabouts of Robb and Marcus unknown.

I enjoyed the book, as I do most books, but it doesn't hold up as well as the first three. I'm not a big fan of additional books that focus on minor characters or tie up loose ends that are not crucial to the main story. If a new book is needed to determine the whereabouts of Robb and Marcus, were Robb and Marcus needed at all? To each their own. I did enjoy the book and plan on reading more from Irene Radford in the future.

This book also marked my 40th read book in 2019, meeting the goal I set at the start of the year! I suspect I'll read another 3-5 books this year, so I'm thinking of pushing my 2020 goal to 45 books read. Too lofty? Challenge accepted!

Trip to Maine - Post #23: Wonderland Trail

Following our stop at the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, we continued along the road and stopped at a small parking lot on the side of the road and hiked along Wonderland Trail, to the water. This is a longer hike than the one at the lighthouse, but only 15-20 minutes to get to the water. The trail is easy and takes you through a wooded area (we saw a deer!) and then down to the beach and water.

We walked along the beach over to the flat rocks and spent some time exploring the cracks in the rocks, looked for critters in the pools of water. My kids, particularly my youngest, immediately went searching for small flat rocks to skip across the water. This has been a bit of a tradition for us, walking to the water and skipping rocks. You get a small amount of enjoyment when you can achieve 5+ skips! 

This is another place you can head for a nice picnic. Plenty of places to spread out a blanket and enjoy some good picnic food at the water's edge, listening to to the waves crash against the rocks. You'll likely share the beach and rocks with a handful of others, but nothing like the hordes of people at the beach or any of the other attractions along the park look road on the other side of the park. 

Trip to Maine - Post #22: Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse

All vacations come to an end, unfortunately, as did our trip to Maine this summer. Our last full day in Maine took us to the other side of Acadia National Park, the side that doesn't include the much busier park loop road. On the south end of the park on this side is a quaint lighthouse, Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.

Parking here is tight, but if you wait a few moments, someone will likely leave, freeing up a spot for you to park. It's a very short walk down to the cliff edge and light house on the one side. Take a few pictures, watch the waves, and then head for a still short, but slightly longer walk along the trail on the other side of the light house. This trail will take you down to the rocks, from which you can enjoy a picnic lunch or climb down to the water's edge. My youngest daughter climbed down with me and we watched the waves flow over the rocks. Mesmerizing!

The more popular attractions in Acadia National Park are along the park loop road, but I recommend you take a day and explore the other side of the island. It's not as busy, traffic is lighter, and there are many cool sites to see!

Power Plays! Newsletter

I've come to enjoy a few daily/weekly newsletters from independent reporters on specific topics that are too often under-covered by major media outlets. I wrote about one of these, HEATED by Emily Atkin, a couple of months ago. HEATED is currently free and published by Atkin four times per week, but moves to a pay-for model in December 2019. HEATED will still be delivered once per week for free, but to gain full access you need to pay. This makes sense as Atkin can't do this for free! HEATED is very well written, completely focused on climate change, and a newsletter that I have no qualms paying for. It's important we support quality journalism!

A new newsletter that I have really enjoyed is Power Plays! by Lindsay Gibbs. Power Plays! focuses on gender quality, and the lack of it, in sports. I joined with the first issue and am very impressed with the work Gibbs has put in to highlight how far too often women's sports and women in sports are not at all treated equally with men's sports and men in sports. Currently Gibbs publishes three times per week and I look forward to each of her issues. Power Plays! will remain free for now, but similar to HEATED, will move to a pay-for model in the near future.

I highly encourage you to check out Power Plays! There is no doubt you will learn something and be angry that women are still treated as inferior to men in sports in 2019.

This Blog's History: Peeps!

It's Friday, meaning it's time for another edition of This Friday in This Blog's History. This week I take you way back to 2014 and a few experiments we did in our house with peeps. Yes, those disgusting marshmallow things shaped like baby chickens. Bleh! They may be disgusting to eat, but you can do some cool science with them! The link below will take you to our peep experiments from 5+ years ago.

Science Experiments with Peeps

Numlock Newsletter

As major cuts continue at major media outlets and news outlets across the country, there are an increasing number of small, independent news outlets and individual newsletters starting up. Many of the newsletters have a specific focus, covering topics that are almost never covered by the major news outlets. HEATED, a newsletter by Emily Atkin that focuses entirely on climate change, is a great example of the high quality journalism found in many newsletters. PowerPlays! by Lindsay Gibbs, which I'll write about in the near future, focuses on the lack of gender equality in sports, and is another excellent source of high quality journalism.

Another newsletter I encourage you to check out, especially if numbers are your thing, is Numlock by Walt Hickey. It's a free newsletter that publishes several times per week. Each edition has several short snippets pulled from other news sources that pulls out the numbers in the original article. I'm a big lover of numbers so I really enjoying reading each issue. The snippets range from numbers pulled from sports, dollar amounts pulled from movie earnings, numbers pulled from population statistics, etc.

If numbers are your thing, check out Numlock. It's free to subscribe and you can cancel at any time. There's no negative to subscribing and checking it out! If you really love it, you can contribute a monthly or annual fee and receive at least one subscriber only issue each week. I'm not a subscriber at this time. I only have so much money to go around so can't pay for everything, so for now I'm sticking with the free issues in my email inbox.

Trip to Maine - Post #21: Pirate's Cove Mini Golf

Our last full day in Maine took us back to Acadia National Park for more exploring. On the way there, at the request of our 9 year old, we stopped at Pirate's Cove Mini Golf. It's a bit more expensive to mini golf here than most places, but this is a high quality mini golf course. You get what you pay for and by paying more, you get a very fun mini golf experience. There are two different courses. You can play both for a discount, comparing to paying for each separately. We played both and had a great time

Each hole is pirate themed with a placard explaining the story of a few famous pirates. This course was a great break from hiking, driving, and exploring the park. Not that there is anything wrong with those things, but when you have kids and see a cool looking mini golf course, it's hard to say no. :-) My recommendation is to hit the course early in the morning when they open. Otherwise it is likely to get busy with waits at each hole as you wait for the group ahead of you. We arrived early, but by the time we finished there were many more people on the course, including waits. Not long waits, mind you, but you will have to a wait a bit.

Oh, and don't forget to fire the cannon at the start of your round!

What Is #28: An Open Cluster?

Last week in this on-going "What Is" series, I took a look at globular clusters, which foreshadowed into open clusters. If globular clusters are old, up to a million star clusters, what are open clusters? In many ways, open clusters are the exact opposite of globular clusters, although they share the characteristic of being filled with stars that are all gravitationally bound to each other.

Pleiades by Juan lacruz 

Open clusters are star clusters that are typically very young at a few hundred million years or less. As a result they contain larger, brighter, and bluer stars and often still contain gas and dust. The image above is a great example of an open cluster. The Pleiades has several very bright, blueish stars and is visible to the naked eye.

Open clusters are typically smaller than some globular clusters but also contain far fewer stars at only a 1000 or so. If you are a star in this cluster, your night sky likely contains many of these bright blue stars. It's very possible there will be more stars in your night sky in an open cluster than a globular cluster given the old age of the dim stars in a globular cluster.

Since open clusters are young, they did not form in the halo of our galaxy, which lacks the gas to form new stars. Instead, these clusters formed in the disk of our galaxy, where the Sun resides, because there is still plenty of gas and dust to form new stars. The Sun, however, is not part of an open cluster. The Sun sits by itself, outside of any clusters.

What Is #27: A Globular Cluster?

It has been several weeks since I've added to this "What Is" series, so I thought it would be worthwhile to get back to it as there are definitely more than twenty six astronomical things/objects that are important to know. For the twenty-seventh post in this series, I take a look at globular clusters. Any amateur astronomer who has looked at the night sky is likely familiar with globular clusters, also referred to as closed clusters, but what are they?

Globular Cluster M3 - The sky image is obtained by Sloan Digital Sky Survey, DR14 with SciServer.

Globular clusters are clusters of stars in which all stars are gravitationally bound to each other. These are typically older stars that formed as the Milky Way Galaxy was in its early stages, approximately 9 to 10 billion years ago and possibly longer. They exist in the halo of the galaxy, the spherical region of our galaxy that surrounds the disk and center.

Since these stars are old, they are smaller, redder, and dimmer. The larger, bluer, and brighter stars died off long ago. Globular clusters can have up to a million stars packed into a region only a few tens to a couple of hundred light years across. That is a lot of stars in a small space! For reference, the closest star to us (not in a globular cluster) is 4 light years away. In a globular cluster it is a guarantee there'd be stars closer than four light years. Your night sky, however, would not necessarily be filled with more stars than we see in our current sky. The stars we see in the night sky are larger and brighter stars. There'd be stars in the sky, no doubt, but because all of the stars in a globular cluster are dimmer, only the closest would be visible to the naked eye. A dim star only 4 light years away is barely visible to the naked eye in our own region.

There are around 150 known globular clusters in our galaxy, but many more in other galaxies. They are great stars to study if you are looking at studying old stars. If globular clusters are also called closed clusters, then what are open clusters? These will be discussed in the next post in this series. 

This Blog's History: Maine State Museum

For This Friday in This Blog's History I point you back to a post I wrote detailing our visit to the Maine State Museum in July 2019. This museum is a must-see stop if you are a history buff traveling through Maine. It's filled with local Maine history!

Maine State Museum

Trip to Maine - Post #20: Bar Harbor

The loop road through Acadia National Park is a beautiful drive that offers many spots to stop for taking in the amazing scenery. If you need a break from the outdoors, take a drive down to Bar Harbor. Here you will find shops, restaurants, coffee, adult beverages, etc. We didn't spend much time in Bar Harbor as we spent most of our day driving along the loop road and checking out the cool sites. But after a long day of driving around and doing a bit of hiking, we were tired and needed some coffee. There are several coffee shops in Bar Harbor and the one we chose was The Independent. Very good coffee!

There were several delicious looking seafood restaurants and we of course stopped at one of them, The Bar Harbor Lobster Company. It was very good! Delicious lobster ragoons. Once again I spent far too much money on food, but it was soooooo good!!!

If you do go into Bar Harbor, be prepared for busy streets and tight parking. You'll eventually find a place to park, but you may have to walk a few blocks, but that allows you to check out more of the shops.

Trip to Maine - Post #19: Thunder Hole

While driving along the loop road in Acadia National Park, one of the popular spots to stop is Thunder Hole. Along the way you'll first hit (it's a one way road) a turn off for a beach. Thunder Hole is farther up the road. If it is your intention to hit the beach first, make sure you turn off. It's a one way road, so if you miss the beach you have to walk back or take a long car ride all the way around.

On the way to Thunder Hole it's quite likely you'll see parking all along the road. You can stop along the road and walk to Thunder Hole, but there is a parking lot just across from Thunder Hole. The walk is a nice walk along the road and there are many turn off points to walk along the rocks by the shore line. So a longer walk is not necessarily a bad thing.

Thunder Hole is a small 'cove' in which the water comes rushing in and can make a thundering sound. Unfortunately there was no thundering when we arrived. It is best to visit Thunder Hole about 2 hrs before high tide, which was far off from our visit. Even then, the conditions have to be right to get the large waves splashing up with the thunder. But don't worry, even if you don't get the big thunder, the area is very beautiful and well worth a walk of a few minutes. 

Transit of Mercury

Yesterday Mercury transited the Sun, starting at about 7:30 AM eastern standard time and continuing for several hours. I was all set to take my morning astronomy class outside to observe through the telescope and solar filter. Alas, it was not to be. The skies were 100% overcast with light rain turning to snow. Boo!!!! We did a quick look online to see it, but not the same thing as seeing it directly.

So what is a transit of Mercury? A transit of Mercury takes place when Mercury is directly in line between the Sun and Earth. Since the Sun is much bigger, Mercury only blocks out a tiny bit of the Sun's light, but with a telescope and proper eye protection you can see a small dark circle move across the disk of the Sun. This is a rare event as most of the time Mercury or Earth are inclined a bit in their orbits and therefore both do not line up directly with the Sun at the same time.

Transit of Mercury on November 8, 2006 by Brocken Inaglory

If you missed yesterday's transit, as I did, you have to wait 13 years until November 13, 2032. But this transit is not observable from the United States. The next transit after this is November 7, 2039, but this one is also not observable from the United States. You have to go to the next transit on May 7, 2049 to see a transit of Mercury from the United States!!! I intend to make it to that one, but I'll be much older. :-) 

A transit of Mercury is not as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, but it is a more rare event. There are far more total solar eclipses observable from somewhere on Earth than there are transit of Mercury.

Catastrophe Podcast

Admit it. You are not listening to enough podcasts. So let me help you out. A recent, science-themed, podcast you should listen to is the Catastrophe Podcast. The podcast is hosted by Jess Phoenix (side note: she ran for Congress in 2018!) and focuses on natural disasters. A very cool, unique podcast, that will fill you in on all the details you could ever need on natural disasters.

You can get more information and updates by following the podcast's Twitter feed https://twitter.com/CatastrophePod. I also highly recommend you follow https://twitter.com/jessphoenix2018. Follow both and you'll get a daily dose of quality science.

This Day in This Blog's History: Happy Halloween

In case you missed it the other week, today, for This Day in This Blog's History, I point you back to a post I wrong about Halloween. It's worth the read, but then again, I'm a bit biased. And yes, I did dress up as a cow again this year. That cow costume is the best $19.99 I spent close to 15 years ago in grad school. :-)

Happy Halloween

Trip to Maine - Post #18: Sieur de Monts Spring

While driving along the main loop road in Acadia National Park, be sure to stop at Sieur de Monts Spring. There's a visitor's cabin, restrooms, and more importantly, some beautiful nature to stop and observe. There are several quality trails you can take for a bit of fresh air and exercise. We took one labeled 'strenuous' that had some elevation changes. Going up was a bit strenuous, but the hike up was worth it. There are several cool rock formations, plus at the top there are several spots for wonderful views of the surrounding landscape.

Stock photo...sorry. :-)

There are many areas to stop along the loop road. Sieur de Monts Spring doesn't get the same type of traffic as Cadillac Mountain or Thunder Hole, but it is well worth the stop. Very close to the spring is Wild Garden of Acadia, a great place to see some local plant life.

Dinosaur Humor

Today feels like a day for a bit of humor, dinosaur humor! I found this the other day posted on the March for Science facebook page.

If I have to explain it, it is no longer funny.

Found it Dinosaur Humor.

Trip to Maine - Post #17: Acadia National Park

The second leg of our family vacation to Maine this past summer took us to Acadia National Park where we spent two full days exploring and sightseeing. Acadia is absolutely amazing and should be a definite must-see on your bucket list. There is so much to see and do while in Acadia regardless of your physical ability. The main loop drive is lovely, although it can get very busy. My recommendation is to visit during the week, if at all possible, if you are visiting in the summer. This will cut down on some of the traffic. Thankfully we did this and although there were a lot of people in the park, it wasn't unbearable by any means. The park does run into huge traffic problems during peak season on the weekends. There's an exhibit in the main entrance visitor's center that talks about the traffic problems.

I highly recommend you take a drive or hike to the top of Cadillac Mountain. The views are beautiful! We drove to the top. There's a paved road and parking lot, but my recommendation is to get to the park early and head to Cadillac Mountain first before the crowds arrive. Parking is tight at the top and they close the road down if there is no parking available, creating long waits at the bottom of the mountain. We arrived around 8:30 AM and the parking lot was close to three-fourths full. So we found a spot, but it was starting to get tight. There's nice path around the summit of the mountain for you to view the entire landscape.

There are bathrooms and a gift shop at the top and if you collect stamps for your National Park Book, make sure to get your stamp at the gift shop!

There are really two sides to Acadia. The side with the loop road is by far the busiest, but I highly encourage you to take a day and visit the other side. There are some cool light houses and rock formation features that you don't want to miss!

Nothing beats views from Cadillac Mountain to start your day in Acadia National Park!

Left Alive #2 - Book Review

I'm closing in on my reading goal for 2019. I set a goal of 40 books read by the end of 2019 and I'm now sitting at 39. Just one more to go!!! My latest book read was Left Alive #2, which continues the story of a zombie apocalypse. Yep, I enjoy zombie books. As I stated in my review of the first book in the series, I was hoping the second book would be better. The first book was a bit dry and only focused on a single character.

Thankfully, it was a better book. The main character meets up with a second character and the two of them work together, with plenty of arguments, to navigate the U.S. as they trek toward Florida. Along the way they run across zombies, as well as other humans who are not so interested in being nice to others. Your typical zombie apocalypse story, but a quick read that satisfies my need of reading about zombies every now and then. :-)

This Blog's History: Niagra Cave

For This Friday in This Blog's History I point you back to a post I wrote on our recent visit to Niagra Cave in southeast Minnesota. If I wasn't clear in that post, caves are cool and you should visit a few of them! For more details on our visit to this cave, please click the link below to take you back to the original post I wrote.

Niagra Cave

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Stay safe out there and make sure your kids have flashlights or other bright markers to identify themselves easily to drivers on the neighborhood streets, especially as it gets dark out. My oldest daughter is transitioning out of trick or treating. Now that she's in 7th grade she's decided she'd rather stay at home and hand out Halloween candy. Our 4th grader, however, is nowhere near close to giving up trick or treating and is geared up for a fun night tonight.

I've written a few Halloween themed posts, so instead of re-writing those posts I'll just point you to a few of them.

Interested in Halloween themed science? There are plenty of great Halloween Science Ideas you can try!

Worried about people poisoning candy or slipping razor blades in candy? Don't be. Turns out there is zero evidence Halloween candy has ever been poisoned. So just enjoy the time trick or treating and the candy that comes with it.

Wondering if I dress for Halloween? Well, it depends on the year and yes, this year I am dressing up, same costume as I wore when I last dressed up in 2017 as a farm animal. :-)

Have a great time tonight!!!

Trip to Maine - Post #16: Maine State Museum

After visiting the Maine State Capitol Building we walked across the sidewalk and visited the Maine State Museum. As self-described by the museum:

"The museum's four floors of world-class exhibits provide a chance to explore and discover the best of Maine, from the Ice Age to the 1960s."

This was a lovely museum and much larger than it looks from the outside. The museum extends several floors into the ground and is filled with Maine history! Apparently we didn't take any picture while we were inside the museum, so here's a stock photo. :-)

We didn't spend more than a partial day in Augusta, but the Capitol Building and State Museum filled several hours of our day and we had a lot of fun learning about the political history and natural history of Maine.

Get Your Flu Shot ASAP!!!

I say this every year and this year is no different. If you have not gotten your flu shot yet, please do so ASAP! Now is the time to get it done for full protection from the flu throughout the full flu season. Cases of the flu are already being reported in many states, so don't delay in getting that protection.

There are many, many misunderstandings regarding the flu. For starters, it is not something to simply brush off. According to the CDC, close to 80,000 people in the United States alone died due to complications from the flu in the 2017-2018 flu season. Most of these were the young, elderly, and those with compromised immune systems, but a few were perfectly healthy adults. The flu can kill you!!!

It is true that the flu vaccine is not 100% effective, but even in years when its effectiveness is lower, getting the flu vaccine still provides protection. If you get the flu, the flu vaccine can help diminish the effects of the flu.

On top of protecting yourself, you getting the flu shot protects others who aren't able to get the shot. Some people are allergic or have compromised immune systems and it isn't safe for them to get the shot. Their only protection is herd immunity. They are only protected by others who have received the flu vaccine. The more who receive the vaccine each year, the less likely the flu is able to spread from person to person, thus protecting those who can't get the vaccine.

So please, please, please, please get the flu vaccine. Protect yourself and the others around you who can't protect themselves.

First All-Female Spacewalk

A week and a half ago, on October 18th, 2019, the first all-female spacewalk took place. It's hard to believe this didn't happen long before this year. The first person went into space in 1961 and since that time, 563 people have been to space. So how is it possible that it took 58 years for the first all-female spacewalk to occur??!!!??!!!

Well, of the 563 people who have been to space, only 65 women have been to space, a staggering low percentage of just 11.5% of all people in space. The first US woman to go to space was Sally Ride in 1983, a full 22 years AFTER the first man in space.

The two women who teamed to become the first all-female spacewalk are Christina Koch and Jessica Meir. A big congratulations to them for this accomplishment!!! Women are playing a greater role in many male dominated fields, but we must continue to do better! Fields dominated by men must take a closer look and why this is. Simply saying there are too few women candidates for available positions is the wrong attitude. Why are their fewer female candidates? Is it because the environment they'd work in discriminates? Most likely, meaning the fault is not the female candidates, but the male-dominated field for not recognizing steps must be taken to promote gender and sex equality.

This Blog's History: The Maine Maritime Museum

For This Friday in This Blog's History, I point you back to the post I recently wrote detailing our trip to the Maine Maritime Museum this past summer. A great museum filled with history! A stop I highly recommend when vacationing in Maine! For more details, see the original post, linked below.

Maine Maritime Museum

Spring Mill State Park

Approximately two weeks ago we took a mini-vacation and spent two days exploring Spring Mill State Park in south-central Indiana. This was our first visit to this state park and it was a wonderful experience. State parks are a great, relatively low-cost, way of exploring nature and observing science all around us!

The leaves on trees were just starting to turn so it was beautiful in the park. State parks usually have park-led programs taking place all the time, especially on weekends. We went on a 2.5 mile hike with a park volunteer that took about 2 hours as we explored all of the mushrooms growing in the park. Even though it had been very dry and mushrooms were fewer in number, we found them all over! We've all seen mushrooms, but don't always pay close enough attention to notice that they grow on so many trees and fallen branches.

Our second day in the park took us on a tour of the Pioneer Village, a very cool experience showing what life was like in the 1800s.

We walked along a couple of other trails, including a beautiful trail around a small lake. We also toured the Gus Grissom museum, the Twin Caves, and the one-night only Haunted Village, but I'll discuss these three experiences in different posts. The Haunted Village was the Pioneer village all dressed up to scare people! It was a blast and we are definitely glad we waited in line to get tickets and then again to go through the Haunted Village.

The Hate U Give - Book Review

I recently finished reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, a book that is commonly found on the "banned book" list at some schools and libraries. We purchased the book so it sits on our bookshelf at home, but I am so, so, so glad our local library doesn't cave into the pressure to ban books. They are proud that all so-called banned books are proudly on display on their shelves, including The Hate U Give.

The Hate U Give follows the life of Starr, a black, female teenager living in a lower income, predominantly black neighborhood, but going to a private, predominantly white high school. She is with a male friend of hers when he is shot and killed by a white police officer. Without giving too much away, the book follows the next several weeks of Starr's life as she navigates through her life and expectations set by others, both black and white.

There is no way this should be a banned book. It should be on EVERYONE's must-read list, but particular those who live in the majority. It is an eye-opener that gives you a glimpse of how those in the minority must live their lives due to majority based societal expectations. 

Trip to Maine - Post #15: Maine State Capitol Building

After finishing the first leg of our trip to Maine in Portland and the surrounding area, we packed up and headed further north along the coast to spend a few days near Acadia National Park. On the drive up we stopped in Augusta, Maine, the state capitol and did a self-tour of the capitol building. I've previously visited the Iowa and West Virginia state capitols and have a goal of hitting all 50 state capitols in my lifetime! I'm 6% finished, LOL! I find state capitol buildings very interesting. They are filled with political history!

The Sergeant at Arms for the Maine State House came by and gave us a personal tour and let us sit and take pictures in the chair of the Speaker of the House. Very cool! I was geeking out asking the Sergeant all sorts of questions. Eventually my kids grew bored, but I had a great time! Touring state capitol buildings isn't for everyone, but if you want to add a bit of history to your trip to Maine, stop in Augusta and spend an hour or two in the state capitol building. Talk to the Sergeant of Arms, a super nice individual!

Niagra Cave

I'm still working through blogging our trip to Maine this past summer, but today I'm taking a break to discuss a more recent fall trip to south eastern Minnesota. While on this trip we visited Niagra Cave. There are very few caves I've visited, with the very first cave visit to my memory taking place just a couple of years ago when we visited Mystery Cave, also in south eastern Minnesota.

Niagra cave is another great cave tour experience I highly recommend. Prices to visit the cave are reasonable for a cave as developed as this. Adults are $17 and kids under 12 are $11. The cave tour takes about an hour and is a 1/2 mile hike in and back (1 mile total). There are a few stairs, but it is a relatively easy walk. This cave has a very cool waterfall and several very cool cave features that are simply amazing! They probably do this at all cave tours everywhere, but it always amazes me when they turn off all of the lights and you can see, pun intended, how dark it becomes!!!

If you are in the south eastern Minnesota area and like caves, Niagra cave is a great opportunity! In the summer months they also have a small mini-golf course that kids will enjoy.

This Blog's History: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

For This Friday in This Blog's History, I point you back to the post I wrote after finally finishing the sixth book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. If you like massive novels of 1000 pages, this book is for you. :-)

A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Book Review

Dr. Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) on Twitter

Last week I wrote a post saying you should follow Dr. Katherine Hayhoe on Twitter. She is a fantastic climate scientist who does a wonderful job explaining what is often complicated climate science in a very down to earth understandable manner to the general public. Another great climate scientist you should follow on Twitter is Dr. Michael E. Mann, the Director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center.

Dr. Mann is famous for presenting the Hockey Stick effect, showing a drastic increase in temperatures recently on Earth such that a plotted graph of temperature vs. time mimics the shape of a hockey stick.

https://skepticalscience.com/broken-hockey-stick.htm

Like Dr. Hayhoe, Dr. Mann does a great job explaining climate science to the general public and has made it his life mission to stress the science of climate change and actively push for government action to save Earth from the worst damages of a hotter planet. I highly encourage you to follow him on Twitter (@MichaelEMann). You won't be disappointed!

Trip to Maine - Post #14: Dolphin Mini Golf

After a visit to the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine, we drove around a bit enjoying the scenery before stopping in Boothbay to do a bit of mini golfing. This was a request by our youngest daughter. She wanted to do some mini golfing so we promised we'd stop at least once. Turns out we stopped twice, but the second course we played will come in a later post.

Dolphin Mini Golf is a well-maintained course with plenty of shade in case it's a hot, sunny day. Not all that different from many other mini golf courses, but a nice break from driving around. None of us made a hole in one on the last hole to earn a free round of golf. This is very common at most mini golf courses and I've never accomplished this feat. Maybe one day!

With mini golf comes a great deal of physics. Newton's laws of motion come into play when striking the ball. How much force is enough? How much is too much? And you can't play mini golf without understanding how angles work! You can never get away from physics, especially when it comes to mini golf! And one playing with kids, you can almost guarantee one of them will knock the ball off the course at least once and probably multiple times!

Trip to Maine - Post #13: Maine Maritime Museum

Our third full day in Maine took us north of Portland to explore various areas. We stopped in Bath, Maine for awhile and visited the Maine Maritime Museum. Well worth the visit! While here we grabbed a geocache to log our first ever find in the state of Maine!

As you can see, we took quite a few pictures! Plan to spend a few hours here. We came at a time that wasn't busy and the volunteer staff was wonderful! We went on a small tour of the grounds, learned about lobster fishing, and visited the boat shop and learned directly about making boats from one of the employees. There's a great indoor museum and several buildings with outdoor exhibits, including a blacksmith's forge! 

If heading north of Portland, definitely check out this museum in Bath. There's a ton of great seafood in the area too! Then again, it's Maine, so there's great seafood pretty much everywhere!