Oleg Zabluda's blog

Sunday, October 21, 2012

When I was about 5 years old, I decided to test experimentally if the Earth really turns on its axis, as the...
When I was about 5 years old, I decided to test experimentally if the Earth really turns on its axis, as the grownups and their books were telling me.

In this I was already way ahead of Copernicus (1473-1543), since he never attempting or proposed anything like that. In fact, people around him weren't stupid, and were telling him (since the ancients) that if the Earth was really turning, the equator would be moving at 40000/(24*3600)=0.5 km/sec, and buildings, trees and people would be flying off everywhere. His only counter was that turning round and round was their "natural motion" and other nonsense like that [1].

The subject was only settled with Galileo (1564-1642) and his original relativity theory (1632), Jean Richer's (1630–1696) pendulum experiments on the equator (1673), explained by Newton's (1642-1727) mechanics and theory of gravity (1687), verified by French Geodesic Mission (1743)
https://plus.google.com/112065430692128821190/posts/ZtNiL5AnQkL

Unconcerned with complexities and technicalities like these, I simply chose a spot behind the playground in the day care (called Kindergarten back in USSR) and put something about an inch underground. Several days later, I went to check on it, couldn't find it, and concluded that rotation of the Earth must have rotated it elsewhere. Theory thus confirmed, my trust in authority was not shaken until much later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Richer

#sciencesunday
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Richer

Labels: Oleg Zabluda, sciencesunday

Remember how you've been taught in elementary school that red and yellow autumn leaf colors simply appear after the...
Remember how you've been taught in elementary school that red and yellow autumn leaf colors simply appear after the degradation of chlorophyll that masked these pigments, and that they served no function. That ain't quite so.

While for yellow/orange color (Xanthophyll pigments are carotenoids, like beta-carotene) it is indeed true, it has been shown (only in 2003!) that in many plants red/purple color (Anthocyanin are phenols, like Litmus, similar to пурген [1]) is not simply unmasked but rather synthesized de novo by leaves in mid-senescence i.e. once roughly half of chlorophyll has been degraded [2].

This, naturally, leads to the question - what for? You can read the poorly written paper below, full of wild fantasies and speculations [3] why Northern Europe allegedly became dominated by yellow autumn leaves, but North American trees allegedly continued to need the bright red [4].

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2043891/Scientists-solve-riddle-leaves-change-colour--fall-shortly-after.html

"What Do Red and Yellow Autumn Leaves Signal?" Simcha Lev-Yadun, University of Haifa, Israel
http://research.haifa.ac.il/~biology/simcha/Publications/I90.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autumn_leaf_color

[1] Anthocyanins temporarily color the edges of some of the very young leaves as they unfold from the buds in early spring. They also give the color to cranberries, red apples, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and plums, which is part of the reason that if you eat too much тебя проносит (Phenolphthalein=пурген).

[2] The amino acids released from degradation of light harvesting complexes are stored all winter in the tree's roots, branches, stems, and trunk until next spring when they are recycled to re‑leaf the tree.

[3] Or a much better one: "Unravelling the evolution of autumn colours: an interdisciplinary approach" (2011), Archetti et.al.
http://bioserv.fiu.edu/~leed/articles/TREE-Autumn-2009.pdf

[4] Actually, compared to Western Europe, North America provides many more arbor species (more than 800 species and about 70 oaks, compared to 51 and 3 respectively in Western Europe) which adds many more different colors to the spectacle. During ice ages in North America, species were protected in more southern regions along north–south ranging mountains, which was not the case in Europe. Still evolutionary role of red color is not understood and not really studied yet.

#sciencesunday
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2043891/Scientists-solve-riddle-leaves-change-colour--fall-shortly-after.html

Labels: Oleg Zabluda, sciencesunday

Saturday, October 20, 2012

1 mole of moles weighs about half the mass of the Moon.
1 mole of moles weighs about half the mass of the Moon. But 1 моль молей weighs only about as much as Vesta. Mind blown, Einsteins.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Avogadro%27s+number*2oz%2Fm_Moon

Star-nosed moles (Condylura cristata) "Звездонос/звездорыл"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-nosed_mole (2oz=55g)
Eastern/common mole (Scalopus aquaticus) "Восточноамериканский крот"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_mole (2.6oz=75g)

[2] Clothes Moth (Tinea pellionella) "Моль шубная", нападает преимущественно на меха, и подгрызает на своём пути все волоса независимо от того, съедает их или нет.
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Шубная_моль
Moths/butterflies weigh between 0.003 (smallest) - 3.0 grams (largest)

We just celebrated Mole Day, celebrated on Oct 23, at 6:02 am i.e.
at 6:02 10/23
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Day

http://what-if.xkcd.com/4/

#sciencesunday
http://what-if.xkcd.com/4/

Labels: Oleg Zabluda, sciencesunday

Monday, October 08, 2012

Кафедра физики сплошных сред.
Кафедра физики сплошных сред.

Drawn by Marianna Dizik on Oct 7, 2012. Homage to Gary Larson (1950-) of "The Far Side" (1980-1995) fame. #sciencesunday

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Far_Side

Labels: Oleg Zabluda, sciencesunday

Sunday, October 07, 2012

English material science physicists prefer material girls.
English material science physicists prefer material girls. Russian solid-state physicists (Физика твёрдого тела - lit. physics of hard bodies) prefer hard body girls. Condensed matter physicists of both tongues drink their own moonshine, and, counter-intuitively, don't prefer dense girls. Nobody prefers dense girls, not even astrophysicists, who prefer starlets. #sciencesunday

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hard+body+girl
Madonna - Material Girl (Official Music Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gWqc7pTNn0

Labels: Oleg Zabluda, sciencesunday

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