Yellowstone. Just the Biggest Volcano in North America.

Yellowstone National Park is known for a number of things: sweeping vistas, geysers, wildlife, etc.  But what some may not know is that Yellowstone is a supervolcano.  No, not a little volcano.  Not a medium volcano.  It's the biggest volcanic feature in all of North America.

Let's put it in perspective.  As someone who was born shortly after the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, I know a thing or two about volcanoes.  Thing one: magma - don't throw your keys in it.  Thing two: volcanic ash - good luck getting that out of your car engine.  Luckily, I can turn to the Discovery Channel to fill in the rest of the blanks.  Mt. St. Helens' crater is about 2 square miles.  Yellowstone's caldera (broad sunken area) is 1,500 square miles.  The last time Yellowstone blew (not quite 700,000 years ago), it emitted 8,000 times more ash and lava than our friend in the PNW.

Oh, great.  So what happens to all of us funny little humans if Yellowstone gets its ire up?  Total suckage.


"There is no argument that a major eruption at Yellowstone in modern times would be devastating. It would obliterate the national park and nearby communities, spread ground-glass-like volcanic ash from the Pacific coast to the Midwest, and cause worldwide weather changes from the airborne dust and gases, according to Smith, who described the potential effects in detail in his book Windows Into the Earth, published in 2000.  A modern full-force Yellowstone eruption could kill millions, directly and indirectly, and would make every volcano in recorded human history look minor by comparison."


Luckily, supervolcanoes are a little more polite in giving warning signs than their weeny mountain counterparts.  If Yellowstone starts a rockin', we could have centuries of warnings before things go apocalyptic.  Earthquakes, small eruptions, land bulges and the like should all start appearing well before the big ba da boom.  (Also, eruptions of this magnitude only occur about once in a million years.)


And, because I know you're wondering, you can rest assured that none of the above-named warnings are currently percolating at Yellowstone. So go forth, enjoy your geysers, sweeping vistas, and deplorably long traffic lines.  Yellowstone will wait.

When poetry and science hold hands

I don't know the author of this work, but the limerick is entitled, "Bright."

There was a young lady named Bright,
Who traveled faster than light.
She once went away, in a relative way,
And returned the previous night.


Nerdliture!

Vampire Stars - They vwant to suck your hydrogen.

"Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence." - Dr. McCoy.  Well folks, outer space just got a little scarier.  For stars, anyway.  


I was trolling through National Geographic's website yesterday when I stumbled across an article about "vampire stars."  These stars, also known as blue stragglers, "seem to lag in age next to the other stars with which they formed—appearing hotter, and thus younger and bluer.  Astronomers suspect blue stragglers look so youthful because they've stolen hydrogen fuel from other stars, perhaps after colliding into their victims."  


The stars found in the Milky Way's galactic bulge may be siphoning off hydrogen in a different manner.  "[T]he blue stragglers in the galactic bulge may have formed by ripping hydrogen off their companion stars. This possibly occurred either when one star fed off its partner in a two-star system, or perhaps after gravitational interactions in a triple-star system had caused two of its members to merge into one."


Well, I know a thing or two about vampires (having read more Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyer than I care to publicly admit), and I gotta say that ripping off a star's fuel source so you can be a hotter, sexier, star sounds pretty vampiric to me.  





(Image courtesy of the Hubble telescope: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020220.html)

Back to the Future with Neuroeconomics

So, here's the deal.  This scientist at Emory did a brain study on some teenagers a few years ago.  Part of the study involved the teenagers listening to pop music while their teeny boppin' brains were being mapped.  Flash forward three years.  This same scientist, a dude named Gregory Burns, heard a song on American Idol and thought to himself, "What if the songs the teens listened to are hits now?"  Sure enough, his small sample study (27 teens) indicated a correlation between brain activity and future hits.  The study wasn't 100% perfect, but it's kind of nifty to think that there's a way our brains can predict a hit before the record companies shove it down your throat.

Synchronize Swatches - er...flashes

Did you know that a species of firefly known as Photinus carolinus can synchronize their little buggy flashes?  Check out this link to Great Smoky Mountains from the National Park Service, which provides some awesome details on the bioluminescent acrobatics:


"No one is sure why the fireflies flash synchronously. Competition between males may be one reason: they all want to be the first to flash. Or perhaps if the males all flash together they have a better chance of being noticed, and the females can make better comparisons. The fireflies do not always flash in unison. They may flash in waves across hillsides, and at other times will flash randomly. Synchrony occurs in short bursts that end with abrupt periods of darkness." 


For those of you near the Great Smoky Mountains, I am truly jealous that you have the chance to see this in real life (CCH, I'm looking at you).  For the rest of us, here's a YouTube video that gives an idea of the kind of light show that Photinus carolinus can put on.  

Enjoy!

Music to Their Ears

With all the extraordinary scientific developments that happen everyday, sometimes we forget about science-past, even when it's still science-present.  For example, how many of you know (without an Internet search!) what The Golden Record is?  


I didn't.  Well, that is to say, I didn't know what it was called.  The Golden Record is the album that was sent into space with Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.  It's purpose was "to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials."  Launched in 1977, both Voyagers are now well on their journeys into the cosmos.  However, we may be in for something of a wait before we get a response from alien life.  Scientists estimate that it will take the Voyager probes approximately 40,000 years to arrive at the nearest star.


While we await a "how do ya do" from our far away neighbors, we might ask ourselves, "Er...so what exactly is on that record?"  The Golden Record contains, amongst other things, "116 pictures and diagrams about our global civilization and our species, greetings, samples of the world's great music, the brain waves of a young woman in love and much else."

I particularly like the list of included musical compositions.  The Golden Record has everything from Bach to Chuck Berry.  Rumor has it that when Bach was suggested for inclusion on the album, Carl Sagan quipped, "Bach?  Now that would just be bragging."*

For more info, check out the links above.  They'll lead you to Nasa's Voyager webpage and Carl Sagan's official website.  Happy nerding!

*I have nothing to back this statement up. That's why it's rumor, people.

The Point of No Return

Or, as some in the astrophysics set like to call it, the event horizon.  What's an "event horizon"?  No, it's not just a terrible movie starring Dr. Grant.  (Sometimes also referred by his real name, Sam Neill.)  Well, when it comes to black holes, it's the line in the sand...er, stars...where once you cross over you're going to get sucked into the black hole.  Yup, it can't be helped.  You're totally, utterly, screwed.

"But Ashley, what's the deal with black holes, and why don't I want to get sucked into one?  Won't I just get transported to some new and far away cosmos, where really hot green-skinned alien chicks are the norm?"  Sadly, that is not the most likely outcome.  Odds are that once you get sucked into that black hole, you're going to become cosmic pulp.  As described by Brian Greene in his book The Elegant Universe,

"[I]f you dropped feet first through the event horizon, as you approached the black hole's center you would find yourself getting increasingly uncomfortable.  The gravitational force of the black hole would increase so dramatically that its pull on your feet would be much stronger that its pull on your head (since in a feet-first fall your feet are always a bit closer than your head to the black hole's center); so much stronger, in fact, that you be stretched with a force that would quickly tear your body to shreds."


The good news is that Mr. Brian Greene was not kidding when he described the shredding speed as quick.  Apparently, you get shredded so fast that your poor little nerves don't have enough time to scream to your brain, "Holy crap, we're being shredded to bits.  There are no hot green alien chicks.  It was all a lie!"

All in all, I feel we've learned a very valuable lesson here.  DON'T cross the event horizon.  ("Important safety tip.  Thanks, Egon.")