The Essentials- Science: Standing with Neil deGrasse Tyson and Other Midgets Like Me

In my previous hypothesis post I referred to a scientist’s utility belt.  At the moment I included that term in the post I knew I had to write this post, posthaste.  I had to write this post in order to give proper credit to the person I heard describe a scientist’s utility belt: Neil deGrasse Tyson.  I’m a big fan of Neil’s and enjoy his podcast Startalk and his work on the PBS series NOVA Science Now. 

As described on the internet, Neil (I call him Neil because in my mind we’re tight) is an American astrophysicist, director of the Hayden Planetarium, and popularizer of science.  I heard him talk about the utility belt in an interview with Steven Colbert.  I highly recommend listening to the whole interview but if you want to hear the utility belt comment start at 30:00 then continue on from there.

One of the great things about Neil is that he knows science and he knows how to communicate science.  He also loves and is impressed by it and expresses that every time he talks.  When an elevated degree of drama is required by his subject matter he’ll drop the tone of his voice to a deep and slow baritone allowing the words to resonate with the grandeur they deserve.

You may wonder why, if I hold Neil in such high regard, I would call him a midget.  The reason I’m comfortable with this portrayal is because Neil said it about himself.  He was referring to an Isaac Newton quote, which is also one of my favorites, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”.  In response to this notion, and out of reverence for Newton’s work, Neil thought the quote should have been stated “If I have seen further it is because I am standing among midgets.”  

This is why I am big Fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson.  Now back to the utility belt, and back to more from Neil (I’ll paraphrase from here). When asked, “What is science?” and “Is science a bunch of facts?” Neil responded that you don't want someone who can spew out a bunch of facts; you want someone who can figure stuff out.  Science is an understanding of the relationships that are the natural world. A scientist wears a utility belt full of gear that helps interpret the world.  He was careful to distinguish the utility belt from a tool belt.  He said scientists don’t wear a tool belt because if you have a hammer all of your problems look like nails and maybe they're not, maybe their more subtle than that. Some of the implements available to a scientist are mathematical relationships, physical concepts, and knowledge and systems for how to inquire.

One of Neil’s motivations is in increasing scientific literacy for all and that is why I stand next to him, among the other midgets, and so can you if you want.

One Giant Leap for Nerdkind

Tonight, I bought a breadboard. Not just any breadboard but a mini, self-adhesive, red breadboard and some red wire and a force sensitive resistor and an Arduino Uno and LabVIEW Student Edition. Now I’m just a brief 5-7 days of shipping and a few lines of code away from a force sensitive device with a graphical computer interface. Awesome.

I should mention that I also got a pretty awesome electronics mentor too.  In a previous post I mentioned this confident electonogician and since then he has mocked up, created, and tested the project that I asked him to think about.  He did all of this with stuff he already had around the house and, in 21^st century communication style, he emailed me a pair of videos as a proof of the concept.

One reason I’m excited for the potential of this project is the possibilities it can open up for me as a scientist. Scientists have always tinkered in order to blaze the technological trails that would allow them to explore the mysteries of the natural world that intrigue them.  I am a nerd and I aspire to be the best nerd I can be.  I believe electronics will help me get there.

The Essentials- Hypothesis: Slippery Conditions

We hosted our first official broomball tournament today and it was great.  Nine teams of two battled on a 600 square foot sheet of ice in a north Minneapolis backyard.  It was a great turnout and a great time but once again I was most intrigued by the ice.

At 8:00am this morning the temperature was perfect for a quick shovel and last minute flood.  After glazing the ice with a thin layer of hot water (hot water promotes good integration of the new water with the existing substrate and also freezes faster(yet another topic for another time)), the sheet was silky smooth.  I was impressed with how the flood turned out and I wasn’t sure if the ice could get any smoother than after the morning flood had frozen. I was wrong.

By the end of the day the ice was much slicker. After thinking about it I have a hypothesis to explain my observation.  All day long the ice was subjected to dozens of feet, scrubbing tiny crystals against the surface, buffing it to a brilliant polish.  The crystals were provided by the snow that has recently fallen and that snow was transported back onto the rink by every player’s feet.  I don’t know if this is what really happened but it makes for a compelling story.  The story is only part of a hypothesis because in science a hypothesis has to have standards.

This explanation works as a hypothesis because it is testable.  That is to say that I could re-flood the rink to mimic the pre-tournament conditions, measure the slipperiness, treat the ice with a good snow assisted boot scrubbing, measure the slipperiness again and compare the results with the first test.  Based on the results of my little experiment my hypothesis would either be supported (not proved) or rejected.  The hypothesis has the power to eliminate possibilities but never prove an explanation because science always leaves room for better and more conclusive evidence to trump previous assumptions.

This rink test is a simple example of experimentation and represents one way of how science works to understand the natural world. Science isn’t, however, limited to experimentation as a way of knowing. Experimentation is just one of many tools science carries on its utility belt of knowing.  Unfortunately those means, and their explanations, will have to wait for another day to be resolved.

The Essentials – Science: A Matter of Perspective

I only began to realized what science is after I was almost done with college.  Initially, in middle and high school, I thought of science as a fun class with dissections and demos that helped bridge the periods between lunch and the bus.  Later, in college I saw science as an opportunity in which the content would provide me with a lifetime of intellectual stimulation while supplying a career that would provide for my family.  While science is those things, I found that it is also much more.

Science is more than a class or a career. Science is a lens to magnify, understand and connect the world around us.  This realization started to take hold when I ignored the advice of my professors and enrolled in four upper level biology lab classes while also working in the department in an emerging undergraduate research program.   

My advisors main concern was for my ability to keep up with the work load and that my grades, and subsequently future opportunities, would suffer.  There is no doubt that my advisers were right about the extreme workload. I remember many days that started with 9:00 am lectures and ended getting kicked out by security when they locked the building at 10:00pm, with labs, research, study, writing, eating, sleeping (a little) and thinking in between.

The pace was crazy but in the early weeks of the semester I began to realize that 1+1+1+1 class loads did not equal the work of 4, it was actually less.  Cell, Plant, Comparative Vertebrate and Invertebrate Anatomy.  All different in detail but the dialogue that developed between them funneled down to a distinct point.  My science immersion experience showed me that science isn’t just about classes, content or careers, science is about making connections.

These connections are what kept me sane and allowed me to survive the semester (without taking a hit to my GPA), but far beyond the grades I maintained, in my crazy semester I gained perspective.

The Essentials - Beginnings

A few years ago I started a book project with my friend and pastor Kerry Bender.  He brought the idea to me because of a shared interest in the evolving impact a scientific world view has had, together and individually, on our personal faith.  We both had come to a realization that there was a real need to communicate a perspective on Christianity that respected both the word of God and the realities of the world around us.  While we had been encouraged by several books that beautifully articulated the mutual truths of faith and science we saw a gap in what was available for young people.

We set out those few years ago to create a book that would serve a younger audience by telling our personal experiences with faith and science, while teaching about how science works and how the Bible works.  In general, the book’s goal is the development of appropriate scientific and hermeneutical approaches. In specifically, the book is designed to address issues of origins both from scientific and Biblical perspectives. Origins are central to the book because we have both observed the obstacles it can present for the acceptance of a life of faith and for the acceptance of a life with science.

 Over the last few years we have had periods of productivity and spells of passivity toward the project.  Now in this season, where writing is regular for me, I plan to leverage my keyboard time to perform double duty for the purposes of blogging and making progress on the book.

My part for the book is primarily to articulate science.  One of the biggest challenges for me has been to formulate a balance between the essentials of the science and the essence of the story that is science.  I hope to use this blog, and this series “The Essentials” to sort through what is important, what is interesting and what should be left on the cutting room floor.

Again I look forward to feedback on these areas including what you think is essential to the faith/science discussion. Please use the comment section to get the conversation going.

Maybe I’m Just Dense

Density is a concept I get. Density is pretty clean mathematically, D=m/v, and there are countless real world examples to help me build up a practical framework on which I can grow my understanding. My understanding of density also allows me to understand the colloquial use of the word when describing someone who has an impenetrable ability to understand.

There are certain words, or maybe better said, concepts, that I have a much harder time wrapping my head around.  These concepts are ones I’ve heard over and over again, had explained to me over and over again, and read over and over again. Unfortunately a disconnect remains between hearing, understanding and knowing.

This recognition happened a lot when I was in Canada this summer thinking and worshiping and fellowshipping with a group of pastors around ideas of faith and science.  The word that week was hermeneutic.  I don’t know why but I heard the word hermeneutic more that week than any other time in my life. That week I had the opportunity to hear about 20 pastors use the term in context and I had my own personal pastor (who also just started a blog) with me to explain the concept.   I know that the word basically means interpretation but when I hear it in context, my head swims rather than syncs.  What’s up with that? I think part of the problem is that I just haven’t practiced using the word enough to assimilate it and use it naturally. Or maybe I’m just dense.

Another word in this category is theology.  I think my limitations on this concept are partially due to the way I’ve always thought about the word. Throughout the history of me thinking (which really isn’t that long, relatively) I have traditionally thought of theology as something you do or a class you take.  More and more lately I have been asked to think of theology as something I have or that describes me.

Theology as an adjective? How does that work? Maybe I’m just really dense. Or maybe I haven’t let my theology, whatever that is, describe me.

I’d really like to hear about how others understand theology as an adjective.  If you have any thoughts on this, post them to comments. I’d really appreciate your help.

Resistance

In electronics a resistor is like a kinked hose.  This may seem like a bad thing but if we follow the hose analogy we can think of some useful applications of this kinky situation.  Say you want to spray someone with water but, even with the spigot completely open, the water only shoots a foot from the end of the hose.  If you half kink the end of the hose you can squirt the same water several meters away and thoroughly soak your intended victim. (This is actually an example of the venturi effect but I’ll have to return to fluid dynamics another time).

An electrical resistor has many uses based on its configuration and design. In one of its simplest applications a resistor acts to slow (or resist – hence the name) electrical flow. In this situation I imagine that the resistor is like a blocked hose in which the pressure builds and causes the hose to swell.  However instead of pressure building up as in the hose, the resisted electron flow results in heat.  I had a kiln that worked in this way. The heating elements were simply coils made of a metal that didn’t allow the electricity to easily flow and the coils got hot.  The same principle can be seen in an electric stove. The glowing red coils are the result of the material resisting the electricity that is trying to flow through it.

Other uses of resistors are to modify the amount of electricity flowing though a circuit.  Here the hose is kinks so that only a small trickle can get through. For example if a power supply is 12 volts but the LED you want to light only needs 3 volts, a resistor is needed to reduce the flow to an acceptable level for the LED.  Without the resistor the 12 volts from the power supply would overload the LED and burn it out.

There are a ton of other forms of resistors and they are ubiquitous in electronics designs.  One cool one that is a bit more nuanced than simply slowing the flow or reducing it is a potentiometer.  A potentiometer is a variable resistor that allows the flow of electrons to be modified through a wide range.  This may sound weird but potentiometers are very commonplace, in fact you can probably see a potentiometer from where you are sitting right now.  So what is it? If you’ve ever said “pot” that music up, you already know an example of a “pot”entiometer.  Volume (and pretty much all other) knobs are examples of potentiometers. 

So to review, the next time your buddy is running this blog through a text recognition program so you can listen to it but the room is too loud, you might consider saying, “hey pot up that blog, I want to hear this!”

Hey Buddy Can You Spare Some Pants?

Most everyone who grew up with siblings understands the concept of community pants by way of the hand me down. Being the second of four brothers I grew up being handed, and handing, pants down the line from brother to brother.  In the hand me down scenario you always have something to put on but something new is far rarer.  Unfortunately adolescence isn’t an easy time to appreciate the public pantry of pants concept and much angst is felt by many who powerlessly participate in it.

Fortunately the novelty of ownership subsides as the years accumulate. Unfortunate however is the fact that hand me downs in a family become less and less of a viable option as the size of sibs equalizes in adulthood. In adulthood there is no natural progression of pants from oldest to youngest. The natural downhill succession levels out so that the flow of clothes easily comes to a stop.

The lowest energy state for pants exists in adulthood. Here the only option is for the pants to pile and gather. To get the flow going again new energy has to be infused into the situation.  This higher energy state can be termed “hand me sideways” and can act as a pump to raise the potential energy of the pants out of its low state.

I am really happy to say that most of the pants in my drawer didn’t start out as my own, they have been handed sideways.  Today I count it as a great source of joy and happiness to participate in the lineage of the pants because like water, returned as snow to the top of a mountain, sideways pants have the energy to flow back down the mountain. This is to say that once you’ve been given pants you are more likely to give away pants.

Community pants remind me of Matthew 6. In this chapter Jesus reminds us of all the ways we are taken care of by God and that everything we have is from God.

Who is This Arduino and What Did He Do With My Breadboard?

Tonight I was introduced to the exciting world of online hobbyist electronics.   I am seriously excited about this microcontrollercosm of the World Wide Web because electronics is an area in which I have a serious deficiency in knowledge.  My introduction started with a project I am working on at the office that presented a price tag in the $700 range that I thought belonged more in the $dozens. I emailed an electrical engineer friend in the morning and by lunch he responded by saying the project was as good as done. 

This is one of the main reasons I’m intrigued by the world of electronics. There is a logical confidence in the mathematical certainty of the physics on which electronics is based and the electronically literate thrive on it.  Everything is simple to electronicigician. Micro controller this, resistor that, mix in some “simple code” and suddenly a pile of pieces is a pile of blinking pieces. Add a switch and a sensor, tweak the code and it not only blinks but it automates an appliance.

I don’t know anything about this world but I’m interested and Arduino could be my ticket to tinkering. From what I understand Arduino is a microcontroller that I can attach an LED to, write a little code (or copy it from someone on the Internet) and, voilà I’ve made my own blinking pile of pieces. OK, this doesn’t sound too compelling but apparently it is foundational to making awesome stuff and I do like awesome stuff. 

Variability

Not all things are created equal.  Today, in three meals, I had four highly variable species of pizza.

The first pizza was leftover frozen pepperoni. I ate this pizza from a plastic bag as I walked through a frozen urban park. My ungloved hand alternated from transporting slices to my mouth to passing them to my youngest son who was walking just steps away. There was a nice symmetry between the cold pizza and the cold air.

The second set of slices came from our favorite homage to ancient Roman culture- Little Caesar’s.  My usual habit is to render unto Caesar hot sauce, and today was no exception.  The typical Tabasco gave way to the available Frank’s and the results were good.  One of the best things about this meal is its economics. At 65 cents per slice there’s always room for one more.

The third pie of the day was like an American made pickup truck, locally assembled from globally sourced parts. The homemade pizza boasted broccoli, bacon, potatoes, garlic, cheese and, of course, crust. The compilation was dubbed “loaded baked potato pizza”.  This was by far the best pizza of the day for its novelty and the recognition of a concept well conceived and carried out.

The fourth pizza quickly followed the potato pie. I started this apple pie pizza with a fork but promptly found it was best eaten by hand.  The combination of a crunchy and chewy crust made a nice medium for the tart apples and sweet brown sugar to mingle with the home made whipped cream.

The amazing thing about today’s feast is that the four pizzas share a common ancestry with a prototypical pie somewhere in the culinary past. 

Wax

To cross country ski is to live a paradox. The skier must glide frictionless on the snow but has to stick to the snow in order to propel forward. To do this the skier has to rely on one thing- wax. A classic ski has two types of wax, glide and kick.  Glide wax is applied to the length of the ski and provides a nearly frictionless surface that allows the ski to slide across the snow. Kick wax is applied to the “kick zone”.

The kick zone is below the foot and somewhat variable but generally extends several inches in front of the toe and just behind the heel. Kick wax is a bit more interesting than glide wax because, like the kick zone, it is variable.  Different kick wax is used based on the temperature. The general idea behind kick wax is that it lets the ski stick to the snow. However the way it works is a bit different. The wax actually allows the snow to stick to the wax. 

Snow has a crystal structure that makes it rather rough at the microscopic level.  The rough snow surface grabs onto the corresponding rough surface of the wax and allows the skier to push, or kick forward. If the wax actually stuck to the snow it would be disastrous for the skier because snow would build up on the bottom of the kick zone and reduce the ability to glide. This actually happens when the wax applied to the ski isn’t matched to the size of the snow crystals on the trail.  

Fortunately skiers don’t have to carry specialized equipment to the trail in order to gauge the microscopic magnitude of the ice. All they need is a thermometer.  How does a thermometer predict the size of snow? The answer is the same answer that makes all of science work.  The natural world is predictable.

Snow crystal size is dependent on temperature just like the descent of an apple to Earth as it falls from a tree is predicted by the force of gravity. Science has exposed countless predictable phenomena and relies on this predictability to explain new observations, make predictions about yet unobserved events and even helps skiers stick and glide on snow.

Break Fast for Dinner

I’m really not into social media. While this may seem hypocritical to say on a blog, which could be considered a form of social media, I have to say I’m really just not into it. I’ve willfully remained friendless, I don’t poke and I happily neglect the cultivation of my online professional network. I’ll save a rant on the evils of Facebook for another time but tonight I’ll moderate my position some by offering a status update.

Ben is… digesting a burger and fries.

I only foray into this inane self revelatory practice because it is relevant to the inception of this resolution blog and has larger implications than the slight discomfort I am currently experiencing. In my inauguralpost I alluded to my 2011 resolution of abstinence from America’s favorite culinary pastime – eating hamburgers and french-fries.

In that same post I expressed my desire to step up my game with a resolution by addition rather than subtraction. My initial reason for my desire to append rather than redact was rooted in a desire to make more use of my time and to be productive. Yet today, 20 days farther into what was then only a blurred future, the present that has developed has brought into focus my motivation for addition rather than subtraction.  I desire to live a life of moderation.

Moderation may seem like an underwhelming goal but I’m coming to realize that it is one of the biggest challenges anyone can face.  Moderation is a land that hovers between pleasure and pain, mania and melancholy, burgers and broccoli.  Habits are easily formed and, given a little time and will, easily broken, but to consistently indulge to a point of satisfaction without stepping over the line seems nearly impossible.

I quickly began to see my lack of moderation in the time I spent writing, and thinking about writing, in the first few weeks of this blog.  Loss of sleep, over shifting of priorities, hyper exertion of time and energy, all resulted from an excessive emphasis on the resolution.

Don’t get me wrong I have gained a lot from the discipline of writing and rediscovered the joy it can produce in my life.  I plan to continue writing daily and posting to the blog but if that is going to happen I will have to continually seek after a balance, a moderation, on this journey I have embarked on.

As for the burger? Tonight’s burger and fries broke a 13 month fast and mark the symbolic end of a tyrannical reign of excessive abstinence.  Tonight’s burger reminded me that I can live a revolutionary life, not of lofty ideals, extreme limitations or glut, but of consistent and healthy variety across all areas of my life. And it was good too.

F=ma, the Inverse-Square Law, and Other Sound Principles that Don’t Seem to Hold Up (Part 3)

Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day is a brilliant image of the constellation Orion. The photograph boasts some of the brightest stars in the sky and serves as a shining roadmap for finding famous stars and planets. The presence of stars in the sky brings us to the Inverse-Square Law.

An inverse-square law is a description of physical phenomena in which the strength of the phenomenon is inversely proportional to the square of distance from its source.  If you want to test out this intensity factor, turn off all of the lights in a room but one, then stand with your eyes one centimeter away from the one lamp.  As a matter of fact don’t do that, just imagine the experience and avoid the pain and potential vision loss.   The intensity of the lamp from this distance would be extreme. If you spent any amount of time at this distance the heat from the lamp would likely burn your eyes and face and the light would drown out anything else in your field of vision.

Now imagine that you move to a distance of 10 cm from the light. At this distance the light would still be bright, but not unbearable.  Again, don’t try this, just imagine the difference.  While you have only moved 10 cm from the source the intensity has dropped 100 times.  The calculation according to the inverse-square law looks like this.

Intensity = 1/10² = 1/100

Now move 100 cm away from the lamp. Go ahead and do this one, it should be safe. The intensity of the light is now 1/1000 of the intensity at 1 cm and may be bright but hardly uncomfortable. From this distance you can easily read a book or magazine because the light is bright enough to perform tasks but not too bright to cause you to turn away. 

Within the distance of an arm’s length or the depth of a refrigerator, the light’s intensity has transitioned from unbearable to useful. Continue moving away from the light and the intensity continues to decline exponentially.  On the far side of the room you might begin to strain to see the words on the page and from a city block away the words would fade into the surrounding darkness as you view the point of light that shines in the distance.

The inverse-square law relentlessly degrades the intensity of the light to a point that it appears insignificant, without impact, arbitrary.

So when does the inverse square law stop holding up? More later.

Special thanks to my pal Tim who introduced me to http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ and expertly narrated the captured night sky shown in today picture.

F=ma, the Inverse-Square Law, and Other Sound Principles that Don’t Seem to Hold Up (Part 2)

OK think of the biggest thing possible again. In part 1 we thought about a sky scraper a mountain and a planet, which are all big, but what if we don’t stick to stuff this time but thought about ideas. Justin Beiber isn’t a big dude but he is a big deal (Though I was just informed that he’s not as big anymore because he cut his hair). Nanotechnology is the opposite of big but it is a big time emerging field impacting area from the medicine that heals us to the clothes we wear.  In a way, ideas are massive like stuff and principles like F=ma can be applied. 

We’ve seen this over and over on the political scene in the last several months. There have been several contenders in the republican primaries that have been accelerated to the front very quickly. This quick rise was facilitated by huge inputs of energy. However the rise of these people, or ideas, was deceptive because their thrust forward was made easier by their insignificant mass. The seemingly robust candidates were under massed which made them easy to stop when opposing forces came against them.

There are however ideas that are not easily diverted. I recently heard a missionary describe Japanese culture and the unyielding nature of the ideas embedded within it.  This description came from a man whose mission was to reach the hearts and minds of a people who, by his own description, are impenetrable to change. The question that arose for me was how do you move an immovable object?

His talk reminded me of a classic conundrum: What happens if an immovable object meets an unstoppable force?  Here the immovable object is the Japanese people and Jesus reminds us as he did his disciples in Matthew 19:26 that… “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

The unstoppable force is God.

A contributor on Askville.amazon.com described the paradox in this way.

 There would be an endless transfer of energy.

The correct set-up would be "What would happen if an immovable object were confronted with an unstoppable force." We will have to further define out unstoppable force as having infinite momentum (right?) and the immovable object having infinite inertia (right.) Therefore, our unstoppable force would have an infinite energy (measure this in joules/calories/whatever) and the unstoppable force would be able to absorb infinite energy.

An endless transfer of energy. An endless transfer of energy! This reality, derived from a paradox, was evident in the way Japan infuses the mission with energy and the way ministry is impacting Japan.  

More to come on this endless transfer of energy and more principles that don’t seem to hold up in future posts.

We Are Is. What Will We Do?

We did what has been done and that has led directly up to what is. What will be will be a product of what is. Whether is will be the same as what is was depends on what we do. 

But how to do it?

F=ma, the Inverse-Square Law, and Other Sound Principles that Don’t Seem to Hold Up (Part 1)

Think of the biggest thing you can think of. Is it a giant skyscraper? A mountain? Maybe planet Earth itself? Sure there are bigger things but these are pretty big. Now think about what it would take to build one of these things.  The sky scraper gets hauled into place by a nearly continuous stream of trucks then assembled by skilled trades people into an enormously ordered heap of concrete metal and glass.  The mountain took even more time and even more relentless work to build it up.  Either by volcanic eruptions transporting countless tons of molten rock high above the surface or crashing continental plates buckling and heaving already hardened crust miles and miles into the sky, the mountain is huge and way out of place from an energy perspective. Finally, Earth. 4.5 billion years of cosmic coalescence culminating in core, crust, crustaceans, and the Creole people (among a few other things). This brings us to the first Principle that doesn’t seem to hold up.

F=ma is the mathematical expression of Newton’s Second Law of Motion which shows the relationship between force (F), mass (m) and acceleration (a). Through the 2^nd law Newton basically explained that if you want to move something big you have to push harder than if it was small, or if you want something to speed up fast you have to push it harder than if you want it to speed up slow, or if you want to hit something hard a big stick will work better but it will be harder to get it going, or any combination or alternate application of these obvious but important realizations.

Newton was a genius (From a previous post you’ll know that I don’t use the term lightly) but his 2^nd law doesn’t seem to hold up to Matthew 17:20. Jesus told his disciples that they could move mountains with even a fractional portion of faith. Faith, not force, to move the mass of a mountain. Newton was a genius but not God. Why can’t Newton stand up to scripture? Or it could be asked why can’t scripture stand up to Newton? Are faith in the Word of God and faith in Newton’s Laws mutually exclusive?

This is a simple example from a big category of apparent incongruities between Scripture and Science. We could ask these questions for days but are they the right questions to ask?  Over the last decade I’ve asked myself how I can be confident in science and scripture and I feel now like I’m in a good place. However, again I’m faced with a communication problem. How can I tell a story that I’m living but don’t fully understand myself. A good starting place was accepting that I not only don’t understand, I won’t understand.

What Does an Alien Smell Like?

I’ve been reading about an alien human organ. We don’t need this organ but some studies suggest that without it we’d need 30% more caloric intake to maintain the same body weight. We’re not born with this organ but we inherit it from our parents. We don’t have genes to code for this organ’s tissues but the alien has genes homologous with some of our own. The alien is expert at fermenting but usually only its hosts think its products smell like the subtle floral notes of a fine wine.

To shed some light on this guest that works in the dark I’ll close with a revelatory haiku.

Polysaccharides

Indigestible unless

Gut flora work fast

If you feel like doing some more reading after finishing with this abbreviated post I suggest you check out this post from Keith Shields on space http://hungerandthirst4.blogspot.com/ . Keith is also a member of the Pastoral Science Cohort that I mentioned in a previous post and his Thirst blog is included on My Blog List to the right of this text.

Moving Food from Field to Meal One Lego at a Time

If you want to know how to get a delicious and fresh head of lettuce from the farm to the table without contaminating it with E coli there is one simple thing to do.  Ask a fourth grader. They'll tell you to keep it clean, away from meat and to wash your hands before handling it because once the bug is on the leaf it is impossible to get it off.  In the case of contamination they have a solution for that too.  You can heat it to really high temperatures to kill the germs, and then put it back in the refrigerator.  Funny I don't think I ever would have considered that. That's why you should ask a fourth grader and not me.  They know just enough to be dangerous, but not too much to stymie their creativity.

If you do ask a fourth grader you likely won't be breaking new ground. The First Lego League (FLL) asked them, and other kids from kindergarten to sixth grade, to consider food safety in their annual robotics competition.  The competition consisted of a food safety research project, adherence to the FLL core values of teamwork and sportsmanship, and the development of an autonomous Lego robot to complete food safety themed missions.

The great thing about the competition was that kids were asked to do something fun and educational, they did it, then got actual feedback on their efforts. All of the judges for the competition were volunteers from the science, technology, engineering, business or education community.  All of the judges were also very good at drawing the best out of the kids while still being critical and providing valuable feedback.

I think kids are pretty used to getting patted on the back these days but the art of kicking them in the pants is sometimes lost.  The Lego competition I saw today managed to do both well and in the process fostered interest and enthusiasm for science and engineering.

To close I'll report that in the elite eight of the head to head robot competition, team  "Fire Emblem" was edged by "Lego Men" with a final score of 84-87. The loss ended the team's day of competition but the whole experience may have helped spark a lifelong enthusiasm for science, technology and engineering.

Time Talent and Resources

Genius is an admirable trait. I don’t throw the term genius around lightly because overuse makes it lose its significance and takes away from those that deserve the distinction. Genius is rare but there are a lot of really good people who leverage their intelligence and productivity in exceptionally commendable ways.  When someone is really good at their job it is a great thing to watch.  For the duration of this blog I will refer to these capable folks as really good people or RGPs.  

A few friends and I have tried to articulate the essence of these really good people and have distilled their traits to time, talent and resources.  Time refers to both the time they commit to their craft in the present and the time they have invested in the past to get to where they are.  Talent refers to the innate abilities the person has to do their chosen craft well.  Resources signify that the RGP has tools and more importantly knows how to use them.

We later dubbed the description as Time, Talent and Technology because alliteration is so much fun and for the efficacy that the short hand “three Ts” provides.  While technology may create some confusion, our intention is for it to be understood in the broadest sense of the term – that is a practical application of knowledge (and/or tools) especially in a particular area.  

You can always tell when you have encountered an RGP when the depth of their endeavors transcends the simplicity and ease of their delivery.  RGPs are people you want to learn from because you know they know more than you but are real enough to explain it in ways you can understand. I’m fortunate to have RGPs in my life and enjoy every moment I have with them.

I came across one of these RGPs today via a YouTube video posted on an engineering forum I follow. The video is embedded below or you can follow this link.  As you watch, first enjoy the show, as joy is one of the natural outcomes of being associated with RGPs, and second appreciate the Three Ts in action, as this RGP is clearly a gifted practitioner.

Notes on a Call

I have the great fortune to be a member of a cohort of pastors who are interested in the intersection and harmony of Christian faith with the natural sciences . I’ll report on the functions of the cohort in future posts but todays post will be reserved for some preliminary notes I jotted down during a group conference call with Dr. Peter Enns a Biblical scholar and author. 

Dr. Enns recently wrote The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Human Origins. During the call Dr. Enns spoke about the book and focused particularly on Paul’s treatment of the Adam story and how it relates to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  I look forward to the book and plan to read it. The notes below are raw without comment and were taken as I listened while commuting from work via light rail and bus so they are fragmented.  I cannot be certain that I have faithfully captured the sentiment of the book or Dr. Enn’s presentation completely. I’ll be able to correct any mistakes I’ve made as I listen back to the call and read the book. 

Dr. Enns has a website at http://peterennsonline.com/ where more information about his work can be found.

Notes from the call –

Evolution can be accepted as a fact. Not to say anything about specific mechanisms or explaining the science at all but that it is the accepted paradigm of how life came to be as it is today.

Because of this acceptance it cannot and must not be assumed that the account in Genesis is a literal outline of how creation took place.

Therefore we must look at the text of Genesis and ask what it is about. Looking at Genesis as an Ancient text, as a second temple text, and from the perspective of Paul is useful for unterstanding.

Funny notion from Dr. Enns  - If Adam would have minded his own business and stayed in genesis we wouldn’t have any of the tensions we have with evolution.

The OT is largely concerned with Israel. The story of Adam is an outline of the recurring history of Israel.  Adam and Israel can be read in parallel with the following sequence - Given a lush land, given law, law is broken, kicked out of the lush land

Eastern orthodox view is that Adam story is that of immaturity that never grows into maturity. Adam story is wisdom literature a la the proverbs.

God wants us to have wisdom and gives it to us in his way. Adam and eve is a story of how Israel did not seek wisdom wisely and suffered the consequences.

Paul Adam and Jesus-

Paul probably didn’t think in terms of the existence of North America or outer space.

Therefore Paul’s antiquity limits and colors how he understands the Adam story.

Paul’s perspective is unique but he is not the first ancient Jew to think about Adam.

The ambiguities in the Adam text give credit to the other ancient takes on it.

Paul doesn’t authoritatively interpret Adam but gives his take on Adam.

Paul’s interpretations of the OT are not always at face value and he uses creative license.

He does this because he is writing in the context of what Jesus did on the cross.

Paul persecuted Christians because he wholly thought that you had to be a Jew to have salvation because the Jews had the law. When he saw Jesus as messiah and that God had to raise him from the dead Paul recognized salvation as more than from the law but from death itself. We therefore have passages like all (he suggests they could read both-Jew and gentile) have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Abraham and more so Adam are brought into his argument because Paul was making sure to show that sin and therefore the need for salvation is universal.

The evolution of Adam is the book he wrote.

Funny “I'll sign your kindle if you send it to me.”

The way we think of death is a big theological conundrum.

In evolution death is not the enemy but rather the engine of creation.

Our modern myths are a collection of understandings that help us interpret reality. In that sense evolution is a modern day myth.

How does this relate to new heaven and earth a la revelation. Just because death is inevitable within an evolutionary context that doesn't require for a time when there will be no death.

End of Notes

There was a lot of thought provoking material packed into the hour long talk. I look forward to delving more into the book when I get it.

Our Dear Friend Ralph

I’m really glad humans puke. For that matter I’m grateful that dogs, cats and any other animal that pukes – pukes.

Puke (or for those readers with a sensative stomach vomit or emesis) is by no means pleasant bit it is purposeful and often times we don’t have any choice in the matter.  If you are throwing up it means that your body senses that something is wrong and is taking drastic action to quickly correct the situation. 

There are many reasons the body travels down the road that ends in a flush and a gargle. From self inflicted ailments like overeating and other more toxic overindulgements to out of control sensory issues and even just smelling the stuff, a life lived is a life with puke.  Though just  the thought isn’t pleasant and the mess is never nice, puking is a pretty awesome process.

In order to heave the junk from its guts our bodies go through a well choreographed ballet of neurochemically induced physical responses. The vomiting center of the brain (yes there is a vomiting center of the brain) is a circumventricular organ of the body which allows it to directly sense concentrations of compounds in the bloodstream. Once any one of a laundry list of triggering compounds stimulates the vomit center the body sets itself into motion. 

I recommend reading the Wikipedia page for a nice synopsis of the various events that occur.  I’ll say that I’m glad that I don’t have to coordinate everything that needs to happen for the equivalent of a Mac truck barreling the wrong way down a one way street to happen.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite quotes from The Lives of a Cell in which Lewis Thomas humbly exerts that, “For I am, to face the facts squarely, considerably less intelligent than my liver.” I join Thomas in that recognition and submit that the parts that make me puke be given similar respect.

Are We There Yet?

Is a baby big? Yeah huge – Relative to the circumference of a red blood cell.

Are Isaac Newton’s laws of motion old? Not really – Relative to the age of the Earth.

Space and time are funny because everything is relative.  The theory of special relativity is very famous and is most notably recognized by the equation E=MC².   (For a brief discussion of scientific theories see a previous post found here.  The discussion on theory starts at the 5^th paragraph but if you haven’t read the review yet just start from the top.) Soon after special relativity Einstein recognized that special relativity wasn’t completely compatible with other observations and principles so within 10 years of special relativity he described general relativity in which he proposed the curvature of spacetime.

Awesome.  Right? I’ve seen countless NOVA episodes (an great PBS science show that I highly recommend) and read numerous Scientific American volumes (a pretty cool magazine that I also highly recommend).  These episodes and articles depict relativity in all of its scientific and mathematical glory through images, experts and myriad implications from our everyday lives to the grand mechanics of the cosmos.  I can’t get enough but I also just can’t seem to get it. 

Is general relativity easy to understand? Sure – Relative to special relativity. (I had to smirk when I read that comparison on the Theory of Relativity Wikipedia Page)

I went to school to learn science and I to prepare to teach science.  I feel very fortunate to be able to look at science ideas and process them in a way that I can understand them and communicate them to other people.  There are certain things, like relativity, however that I just don’t get. 

When I read Richard Dawkins’ book on the evidence for evolution The Greatest Show on Earth (previously reviewed on this blog) I found myself thinking, “This all makes so much sense. Everyone should read this book.”  The book covered topics from biology, physics, geology and other sciences.  While the topics were big the reading was light and a joy to consume.

The book was right in my wheelhouse. I had spent several years of my life studying (and at times struggling) with the same topics.  It wasn’t until I read another review of the book by an evolutionary biologist that I realized the limited scope of understanding I had. 

Did I understand evolution well? Definitely – Relative to a fifth grader.

I love science. Not everybody does. Still I believe in science literacy for the masses.  Communicating science (or any subject for that matter) is easy when you are talking with people who already know what you are talking about.  I want to communicate science to people who haven’t spent years in the lecture hall and the lab. I want to speak science to the masses. I’m just not there yet.

A Bad Day at the Office

Highlights from Daniel 1-5

3:15 …if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace.

3:29 … I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other god can save in this way.”

Funny that old Nebz gets it but just doesn’t get it.

4:13-16 …I looked, and there before me was a holy one, a messenger, coming down from heaven.  He called in a loud voice: Cut down the tree and trim off its branches; strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals flee from under it and the birds from its branches. But let the stump and its roots, bound with iron and bronze, remain in the ground, in the grass of the field. “‘Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, and let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let him be given the mind of an animal, till seven times pass by for him.

4:22 …you are that tree…

4:36 …all those that walk in pride he is able to humble

                Like father like son. Didn’t old Belsh learn anything from his pop?

5:3-4 So they brought in the gold goblets that had been taken from the temple of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines drank from them. As they drank the wine, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.

                Then a lasting vision. Must have been the wine – or the cup.

5:5 The king replied to the astrologers, “This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble.

                Those kings had a real thing for rubble.

5:22 “But you, Belshazzar, his son,  have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.  Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven.

5:30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain…

The Ideal Wedding

I don’t know what the ideal wedding is but I do know what I like.  My preference may seem to represent somewhat of an inverse male perspective, or at least diverge from the stereotypical male perspective.  On TV we see men being dragged to weddings by their significant others or suffering through the ceremony in order to get to the party.  I can’t say I like every aspect of a wedding but I do know what I like.

I like the ceremony. I like that two communities come together to congratulate the couple.  I like congregating with comrads over chow.  I especially like if there are comfortable couches to crash on.  (I’m really not sure what’s going on with all of the letter C alliteration. I’m just going to go with it.)

One of my favorite parts of the ceremony is the bridal procession. Most of the assembled guests strain for a look at the bride or the dress but I know those view will be available as the ceremony proceeds. During the bridal procession my attention is fixed on the groom.  I see the groom because as she walks to him he sees the bride and in that moment his face shows the love and devotion that brings them together.

No matter what a guest chooses to looking at during the ceremony in some ways their perspectives has been assigned to them from the start.  By tradition (but not always) friends and family of the bride sit on the right and friends and family of the groom sit on the left.   The viewing angle of the proceedings is affected by these assignments but the perspective was established before anyone sat down.  In a recent wedding I attended we were reminded that any allegiance or connection we had to the bride or groom was no longer to them as individuals but to them together because together they are now one.  Guests enter representing two communities and leave united with each other through the couple.

Typically guests are united in another way after the ceremony – hunger.  In the spirit of the post nuptial party I’ll close with a wedding party poem.

The best food served is served early and often. 

Fare can vary from finger food to fancy but I just want it to be served already.  

Many dance to let it all hang out but on cutting a rug I can honestly do without. 

For a night of sedentary celebration a walk and a book can be a hit but the most welcome site for a sitter is a nice place to sit. 

Chairs are around but make backs say ouch.

All too rare is a nicely overstuffed couch.

A Blog Worthy Day

Today was a full day. Things started at 7:15 am and just ended at about 11:00 pm. Today was also a day where a potential blog topic was around every corner.  In fact there was so much rich blog worthy stuff packed into the day that there isn’t any time to give any of the topics justice.  So instead of cramming one in I’ve decided to record the topics here and return to them later.

Topics from today for the future:

Communal Living

DIY

Sustainable Farming

The Screwtape Letters

The Ideal Wedding

Colossians 3:12-17

How to win at party games by not being a bad person

Non-sanctioned international symbols for various things

Eating Well

There may have been more and I don’t know if I’ll return to all of the topics above but days like today remind me how rich and varied life can be.

I Think I Could Run a Marathon

Registration for the Twin Cities Marathon opens February 2 but I won’t be signing up.  I haven’t run a marathon, I don’t run now and I haven’t trained for anything in several years but I have a sense that none of that matters for me.  I’m pretty sure I could run a marathon today. 

On more than one occasion I have asked my wife to drop me off 26.2 miles away to see if I could make it home but she thinks I’m ridiculous.  I’m guessing anyone who reads this and has trained for and completed (or not completed) the epic race will agree with my wife.  Some will probably even think I’m being disrespectful to anyone who has run a marathon or even disrespectful of the race itself.  I don’t mean any disrespect but I’m pretty sure I could run a marathon today without any training.

Don’t get me wrong I think the task is a great one.  To give some perspective, I live on the very northwest corner of Minneapolis and I work at the very south east corner of Minneapolis. There isn’t really a way to cut from one corner of the city to the other and the most efficient routes happen to also be the longest ones. On the way to work first I go south then I go east tracing half the perimeter of the city on my way.  (A similar route is available if I go east first then south but the result is the same).  In the car the trip is about 15-17 miles (depending on the route).  If I started at work and ran home using one of my usual routes I’d have to tack on 10 extra miles once I got home. Still I’m pretty sure I could run a marathon today in less than five hours.

Again, don’t get me wrong, I don’t have anything against training.  I think it would be a great experience to plan and implement a training schedule that molded and conditioned me to be a marathon runner.  The problem is I can’t see a scenario in my life today where I could invest dozens of hours a week for several months. Becoming a marathoner would be a huge time commitment but I could easily exchange one of my marathon TV watching couch sessions for a run across the city.  I don’t have the time to train for a marathon but I’m pretty sure I could make the time to run one.

 I recognize that I might sound crazy but let me assure you I’m not too crazy.  I’m pretty sure I could run a marathon but I know I’d need some water and food along the way.  I’ve bonked enough after a long days work or even when meals and activities weren’t in good sync to know that I would use far more energy than my body can carry. Well I guess I shouldn’t understate the energy I’m carrying these days.  I’ve started to stock up a bit more of the slow burning lipid known as fat. However, I know (just as well as anyone looking to drop a few pounds) that my body would be less than willing to relinquish the energy in those rich stores for such a frivolity as exercise so I’d need to supplement along the way.  With sufficient food and water to replace what I lose I’m pretty sure I could run a marathon.

Marathon running and training has been described as an art and a science.  I like both art and science and if I started running with five hours (or less) to spare and ample provisions for the journey I’m pretty sure I could run a marathon.

This is What I've Been Waiting For (Part 3)

Wonder of Water Miracle of Molecules
Water is a polar molecule which means that it has both positive and negatively charged ends.  Like the poles of a magnet the poles of a water molecule are attracted to each other.  These polar attractions are called hydrogen bonds. In its liquid state water molecules form and break hydrogen bonds at breakneck speeds.  It is the coupling and uncoupling of molecules that allows liquid water to both stick together and flow.

As the energy economy of water moves toward recession (the molecules get colder) the molecules become increasingly thrifty with their motion.  Just as a frugal investor might favor stable government issued bonds to avoid the risks of a down market, water molecules hedge their more fluid hydrogen bonds for steady hydrogen bonds entropicly issued by their crystalline structure.  

So what does this have to do with the rink? The rink survived because of one of waters properties that comes partnered with its polarity, specifically, its specific heat. Specific heat is the amount of energy a substance can absorb before changing its temperature and water has one of the highest specific heat values of any substance and its resistance to changing temperature is even greater when frozen. 

In anthropomorphic terms Ice is more willing to organize itself into a solid than it is to regain the increased freedom its molecules would enjoy as a liquid.  In a down energy economy the frozen water molecules are hesitant to liquidate their assets.

And so the rink survives due to the miracle that is water.

There was also a nice mini miracle in the form of a late New Years Eve rain/snow storm followed by a two day respite from the tropical winter. January started with temperatures in the teens and the accumulated snow made for nice patch material to fill the accumulated holes in the rink.  Over those two days I carefully but aggressively flooded the rink and gained several centimeters of ice.

The temporary relief from rising temperatures (we were back in the fourties again today) along with my renewed confidence in the forgiving properties of my favorite polar molecule was what I was waiting for and has helped me enjoy a happy new year.

This is What I've Been Waiting For (Part 2)

Dying a Slow Death (or Undesirable State Change)

For the last three years I have built a hockey rink in my back yard.  This season I managed to build a pretty good base of ice in the first week of December but needless to say the sheet was threatened by the onslaught of thermodynamic energy that consumed the bulk of the month.

Every day the thermometer ventured above the melting point my once beautifully bound water molecules absorbed the ambient energy and their once indiscernible frozen vibrational motion transitioned to the all too perceptible flow characteristic of a liquid.  The water found its way out of the rink, marched onto the sidewalk and onward toward the requiem of a rink.

My youngest son’s birthday is at the end of December and when asked what he wanted he didn’t list toys or video games but said he wanted to skate with his friends. Leading up to the party daytime temperatures were consistently above freezing. My worry grew as the moderate temperatures threatened the realization of my son’s modest request.  I nursed the ice through its winter fever with late night infusions of water but it lost more than it gained and by the day of the party the corrosive heat had carved a pair of full depth holes in the deck of ice.

On the bright (literally very bright) side of things the kids had a blast spending hours and hours playing boot hockey in shirts and hoodies under a sunny sky and 40 degree temperatures. After a great day the rinks holes had grown, I sprayed off the coating of dirt that was transferred from the snowless yard and I considered the possibility that the first and last ice event of the season had come and gone.

This is What I've Been Waiting For (Part 1)

Disappointing December Weather

December was one of the most miserable winter weather months I can remember. In Minneapolis the average temperature for December is 19⁰ Fahrenheit.  According to http://www.climatestations.com Minneapolis only had 4 below average days and anyone living here knows that it was miserably above average.  We regularly suffered through temperatures in the high 30’s and I recall several 40+ degree days.  In the Updraft blog MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner provides some perspective on what a normal December should be like. http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/columns/updraft/

Our early winter heat wave resulted in little to no snow.  Cross country skiers had to dust off their running shoes and rollerskiis.  Snow based industries like resorts and snowmobileries lost vacation bookings and sales.  And I can only imagine the angst that many snowplow operators must have felt as a brown Christmas came and went and their incomes continued to shrink.

What little snow we had in December was quickly consumed by the ravenous heat of warm fronts and the radiation absorbing albedoless brown grass landscape.  (Well brown grass doesn’t really have an albedo of 0. That distinction is reserved for a theoretical perfect blackbody that absorbs every bit of energy that hits it. However a dark and dormant grassy landscape does absorb more radiation than a fair snow covered landscape resulting in higher surface temperatures. Freshly fallen snow on the other hand is very reflective and therefore has a very high albedo and keeps temperatures low).

There are some who would welcome a mild winter but for those of us who relish the days between the auburn autumn and the sloppy spring the December heat wave was a climatologically positive feedback loop with negative implications.