Element FYI

Anousheh Ansari, the world's first female space tourist, has been blogging about her experience aboard the International Space Station and sending back videos, which are posted on the X Prize Spaceblog. Ansari, a 40-year-old, Iranian-born entrepreneur from Dallas, Texas, paid $20 million for a 10 day journey to the ISS. In one of her entries about experiencing weightlessness, Ansari writes, "I guess the closest thing to moving in weightlessness is floating in water. But there is a major difference. In water when you move your arms and legs, you move… in here you can move your arms and legs all you want, but you are not going anywhere. The only thing that can help you move is the gentle air flow from the fans…The guys up here wanted to show me how this concept works so they put me in the middle of the Node, which is one of the American Modules, and I couldn’t reach anything to push myself… so I was just floating in the middle of the Node and no matter how much I moved myself I did not go anywhere. They were all laughing at me and finally the gentle breeze from the fan slowly got me close to a handle on the ceiling and I was able to free myself." Ansari left the International Space Station today and is returning home aboard the Soyuz TMA-8 spaceship, which will land in Kazakhstan this evening. The timeline for her return can be found here.

Benjamin Wardhaugh explains the connection between mathematics and music by way of Leibniz and Euclid in the September issue of Plus magazine: "A little while ago I was reading some letters written by the 17th century German mathematician Gottfried Leibniz to an obscure contemporary of his, Conrad Henfling. The letters were about music theory and the details of how to tune musical instruments. I was surprised to find that at one point Henfling started to use Euclid's algorithm to justify his musical reasoning. How useful could a mathematical technique from the third century BC be to a 17th-century musician? Very useful indeed, it turns out. Euclid's algorithm provides a way of dealing with equations of musical pitch, potentially helping musicians and instrument makers to tune musical instruments." Read on here.

Former President Bill Clinton kicked off his three-day Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York City this week with an interview on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. When Jon Stewart remarked that people are "crazy" about the Clinton Global Initiative, Clinton said, "I think they like it because we're actually doing something." In order to attend the meeting, participants had to commit to contributing something in one of four focus areas: global warming, alleviation of poverty, global health, and religious and racial reconciliation. In the interview held on September 19, Clinton alluded to the creation of a fund for biofuels. The clip here contains the entire ~10 minute interview. Two days later, the CGI announced that Sir Richard Branson is pledging an estimated $3 billion to support renewable energy initiatives from the profits of transportation businesses (airlines and trains) owned by the Virgin Group of companies over the next 10 years. The first step by Branson and the Virgin Group is the creation of Virgin Fuels, which will focus on biofuel development with an initial investment of $400 million over three years.

In 1950, an explosion rumbling through city sewers in the New York City neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn sent manhole covers flying into the air. The source of the explosion was traced vaguely to the site of a number of Greenpoint oil refineries and storage facilities owned by the 'children companies' of Standard Oil, which first set up shop there in the 1860s. More than fifty years since the explosion, new environmental test results released last week by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) show that the underground plume contains flammable methane gas and cancer-causing benzene. Since 1978, when the Coast Guard discovered an oil leak into Newtown Creek (shown in map above), it has been known that Greenpoint, Brooklyn is the site of the largest oil spill in North America at an estimated 17 million gallons covering 55 acres - more than that released by the Exxon Valdez, which released an estimated 11 million gallons off the coast of Alaska. According to the New York Daily News, this month's release of the test results marked the first acknowledgment by either the state or an oil company that gas from the spill could be a health threat to residents: "In an Aug. 23 letter, an environmental firm hired by ExxonMobil warned FDNY brass, the Office of Emergency Management, Con Edison, Verizon, an airplane fuel provider and local businesses about the gas vapors. 'We have identified an area in the vicinity of the intersection of Bridgewater St. and Norman Ave. where methane and other volatile organic compounds are present... at concentrations that could pose a potential hazard,' the letter warned." The letters, which can be found in the report here, go on to say that no readings indicate "any imminent or hazardous condition." (Why did the NY Daily News leave this part of the letter out?) Despite initial assurances that "combustible conditions" do not exist, the DEC announced this week that it is asking residents in the area to sign up for tests for methane gas in their homes. The DEC fact sheet on the Greenpoint Petroleum Remediation Project can be found here.

NASA released three major news reports this week on new findings that sea ice cover in the Arctic is shrinking at an alarming rate and threatening polar bears in Canada.

Arctic Ice Meltdown Continues With Significantly Reduced Winter Ice Cover [NASA News] - The maximum amount of sea ice in the Arctic winter has fallen by six percent over each of the last two winters, as compared to a loss of merely 1.5 percent per decade on average annually since the earliest satellite monitoring in 1979. This is happening as summer sea ice continues its retreat at an average of ten percent per decade. This movie illustrates the seasonal decline in Arctic ice cover since 1979. The total lost ice cover is shown by golden-brown patches at the ice cap margins in the picture shown here.

Warming Climate May Put Chill on Arctic Polar Bear Population [NASA News] - According to scientists from NASA and the Canadian Wildlife Service, the recent rise in Arctic polar bear sightings is probably related to retreating sea ice triggered by climate warming and not due to population increases.

NASA Sees Rapid Changes in Arctic Sea Ice [NASA News] - NASA data shows that Arctic perennial sea ice, which normally survives the summer melt season and remains year-round, shrunk abruptly by 14 percent between 2004 and 2005. The overall decrease in winter Arctic perennial sea ice totals 280,000 square miles--an area the size of Texas.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) website has an excellent multimedia report on the new, $153 million Amundson-Scott South Pole Station for scientific research that is scheduled to be completed in January 2007. There are a number of amazing technological features of the new station. As noted on the website, the station will be "a radical departure from the first man-made structure erected at the Earth's southernmost point: the forlorn pyramidal tent erected by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen almost a century ago to mark the advent of human habitation at the Pole." To withstand a shifting foundation of snow and ice, the station sits on 36 12-foot-tall columns that can extend an additional two stories to keep the station level and above future snow and ice build up. To the delight of visitors, the new station also has windows, which were missing in the prior station designs. Parts for the new facility had to be flown in by a Hercules cargo plane, and it is so cold that the planes cannot shut down their engines or even land in the winter season. The new station is the third research station to be built by the NSF since 1956. Scientists at the Amundsen-Scott station will study climate change, air and ozone, solid earth geophysics, extreme biological systems, and will also conduct tests of technology intended for the study of Martian polar caps and other planets. Antarctic research at the station is coordinated by the U.S. Antarctic Program, which is funded by NSF. Go here for a video tour of the living and working conditions at the South Pole station.

Human eyes are capable of seeing only a small segment of the spectrum of electromagnetic waves that exist in the universe. Astronomy Professor David Helfand at Columbia University created a website and movie to explain how our eyes are tuned to see only a single 'octave' of the electromagnetic frequency spectrum. Taking advantage of humans' ability to hear several octaves of sound at once, Helfand uses Beethoven's Ninth Symphony to illustrate this concept. Helfand writes, "The history of the last fifty years in Astronomy has been one of expanding our vision, of opening new windows on the Universe by observing in the many octaves of the electromagnetic spectrum to which our eyes are blind. Entirely new constitutents of the Universe have been revealed, and our models for its origin and fate have been radically revised. At last, we are close to seeing the whole symphony." (via IR)

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University is home to some of the best minds in climate change research. So it came as little surprise when I was channel surfing late last year and caught Heidi Cullen, a former fellow Ph.D. student at LDEO, on The Weather Channel as the network's resident climate scientist. It actually took me a second or two recognize her with her made-for-TV makeover, but she hasn't strayed far from her roots as an academic climatologist presenting the scientific perspective on important climate change issues, including the science behind global warming and El Nino. The Grist presented a story on Heidi last year, which covered her reporting soon after Hurricane Katrina. Now, Heidi will have her own show this fall as host of "The Climate Code with Dr. Heidi Cullen" on TWC. The Boston Globe recently published an article about Heidi's new show and her efforts to discuss science with professional organizations around the country, such as the National Association of Black Journalists. The Climate Code, which begins October 1, 2006, will be a weekly series presenting the science behind global warming and other environmental issues and will feature interviews with scientists, policy makers and opinion leaders.

The journal Nature is offering free web access to an online compilation of articles on the current suite of new energy technologies in development around the globe. The challenge facing us is that not only is the volume of new oil discoveries decreasing, but we have yet to find a single economically competitive alternative energy source that will not release carbon dioxide or other pollutants into the atmosphere. The Nature articles go back as far as 2004 and cover carbon sequestration, solar, wave, and wind energy, nuclear power, biofuels, hydrogen, fuel cells, and energy policy. It's a good place to start if you're looking to separate science from the hype behind many of these emerging technologies.

Raven Hanna, a Yale-educated scientist turned artist in San Francisco, California, creates her own science-inspired jewelry and other gifts for her company Made With Molecules. Her designs feature familiar molecules in sterling silver, printed textiles, such as her Testosterone Boxer Shorts (currently sold out), and holiday cards. While a "mood charm bracelet" may bring visions of New Age hocus-pocus, Hanna's NeuroCharm Bracelet is firmly based in chemistry and includes charms in the shape of neurotransmitters acetylcholine, dopamine, GABA, glutamate, norepinephrine (noradrenaline), and serotonin. If you're feeling particularly low on dopamine, you can even buy extra charms. Other items for sale include the Dopamine Heart Card and Glucose baby shirts for "your little sweetie."

Students at New York University's Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) have created a new webzine called Scienceline. Started by NYU grad student Karen Schrock in July 2006, Scienceline covers topics in biology, environmental science, health, physics, technology, and science policy. The webzine contains original reporting as well as a blog and a weekly science Q&A. Many of the articles are focused on people and events in the NYC area, such as The Blue Revolution, by Edyta Zielinska, which covers Brooklyn College Lecturer Martin Schreiber's efforts to develop sustainable urban aquaculture, or fish-farming, in New York City. These students are the science writers of tomorrow. Catch them now and you can say you knew them when.

FairerScience has two good articles on how to present your scientific research to journalists in a way that will help them convey the main points to readers. In KISI (Keep It Simple and Interesting): Journalists' Advice to Researchers, FairerScience recommends that you simplify your story for the journalist, or risk having the journalist simplify it for you, possibly leaving out important points and caveats. Also, have a few good jargon-free quotes or soundbites prepared, since the journalist will only publish your direct quotes, not quotes from your article. Don't forget, any good journalist will cross-check your work with other scientists in your field. You can help them and yourself out by having names and contact information for the experts in your field. In KICI (Keep It Careful and Intelligent): Researchers' Advice About Journalists, FairerScience offers tips on how to be your own best public relations rep by being careful about what you say to journalists and avoiding 'gotcha' moments that could lead to public embarrassment or worse. KICI's first bit of advice is that you know the journalist's perspective on the subject before you agree to do an interview. Also, have your main points prepared in advance and don't be afraid to use them in multiple interviews. Keeping a consistent message will help you get your important points across to the audience.

Own your very own piece of science history with the Element List 2005 Year of Physics Commemorative T-Shirt. It's 2006, you say? So what! It's not old, it's vintage! If last year's 2005YoP t-shirt is looking a little tattered from too many keggers in the lab, now is your chance to buy a fresh, spanking new one. The unique Element List design features Einstein iPodified against a bright blue blackground with the Element List URL printed on the back. The t-shirt is 100% cotton and comes in body hugging cuts for men and women. We have mugs, bags, and mousepads, too. Hurry up and buy yours before this design is gone forever!

It's an understatement to say that Manhattan looks nothing like the quaint little island it was when the first Dutch settlers arrived. Not only has most of Manhattan been covered in concrete, but the near-surface geology has been altered over the past 370 years with a maze of tunnels. To map these changes over time, architect Brian McGrath and designer Mark Watkins have created Manhattan Transformations, an interactive time-lapse three-dimensional computer model of man-made changes to the landscape of lower Manhattan. The multimedia exhibit is hosted by the Skyscraper Museum in Manhattan's Battery Park and can be viewed online. The model presents not only the architectural development of the city, but also a cartographic history of the underground infrastructure that delivers water, electricity, gas, telecommunications, and subway trains to lower Manhattan. As you click through the online exhibit, you can selectively display specific information such as office buildings built between 1917-1940, the location of the Dutch settlements, topography contours, and riverbank areas underlain by landfill. It's like looking at a CAT scan of the city.