Science On The Fly, Week Of Jan. 15
This week on Science on the Fly, we are going for a little journey, through a cosmic kitchen and into a chain of kidney exchanges before deep-diving into a volcano.
1. Tasty, hot, fresh..planets
A recipe for a small planet by @overbye 1 cup magnesium 1 cup silicon 2 cups iron http://t.co/JPVEOjcnnp pic.twitter.com/7vZlaaJII2
— Heather Tal Murphy (@heathertal) January 6, 2015
This week Dennis Overbye dished up “A recipe for a small planet”: 1 cup magnesium 1 cup silicon 2 cups iron... Note: Doubling the recipe may yield a mini-neptune.
It’s always great when a science communicator can really put things into perspective.
With 1,804 confirmed planets listed in other star systems as of this week, we have to start thinking about the cosmos as not full of just stars and galaxies, but chock-a-block full of planets.
The phenomenon may be so, uh, Universal that a “naked star”—one without any sort of planet nearby—might be a truly rare phenomenon. As we find more and more exoplanets, patterns will emerge, revealing the kinds of star systems that tend to host certain kinds of planets (rocky, gaseous, both).
From there, we’ll be able to look out among the millions of stars in view and pick out those that have the cosmic kitchens most likely to cook up a planet such as ours.
2) 1...2...3...Count your way to a new kidney
The complex math of organ donation. By @j_timmer via @arstechnica http://t.co/flwDVBGrEM
— RealClearScience (@RCScience) January 7, 2015
Back when we had travelling salesmen, these salesmen had a problem (one bigger than people bombarding them with Music Man lyrics): how to hit the maximum number of cities in the minimum amount of time, while spending the least money on gas or trains before returning home.
This travelling salesman problem—TSP for short—occupies an intersection of mathematics, computing and economics. And now, also, organ transplant. What does finding the fastest way from point A to point B (and C, and D, and..) have to do with getting a kidney for Aunt Susie? Quite a bit. It turns out that using the TSP is one of the most successful methods of getting kidneys to everyone who needs one.
Right now, today, 123,000 people in this country are waiting for a kidney. More than 11,000 donors—living and deceased—have given a kidney this month. How did we match all those donor kidneys with the recipients? The same way that the music man sold the most trombones to the kids in the towns—by looking at the distances between the matches and the kidneys, and calculating the fastest possible route. It’s a lot harder than it looks, because there are many possible routes, many kidneys and many, many people who need them.
Real clear science did its best to show how math can save lives—actually save lives—by finding the shortest path between chains of donors, starting with one anonymous person willing to give, and moving forward through all the rest of the matches. It results in our new system of people willing to give to anyone in order to get a kidney for someone they love.
In the end, the good comes back to the giver, just like the salesman who comes home to his family.
3) Boom, Crash - Blowing the Lid on Volcanic Eruptions
Watch: How a volcano blows its top http://t.co/xCsA1CzeJM pic.twitter.com/auUKmsckew
— NYT Science (@nytimesscience) January 7, 2015
“All volcanos are cracks in the ground with a pool of magma underneath,” says the NYTimes video, “The hot magma is lighter than the surrounding rock, so it rises.”
It’s a decidedly undramatic—and definitively unromantic—description of one of nature’s most awesome events. Still, it answers some basic questions about those mountains of fire that your inner eight-year-old has been asking since lord-knows-when.
Specifically:
Q: Why do some volcanoes go BOOM, while others seem to seep quietly? A: It has to do with thin and thick lava. Thin lava: gas trying to escape doesn’t have to force its way out. Think lava = BOOM, CRASH.
Q: Why do volcanoes sometimes blow themselves up? A: Some volcanoes have formed these tough central plugs, like the stopper in the drain of a bathtub. The water - or the magma - wants to get through, but can’t. If you pull the stopper in the bathtub, the water rushes through. When the plug in the volcano weakens and crumbles, the plug, called a Caldera, lets the magma through quickly. Then, Boom.
Now we know why some volcanoes blow and some fissile. If the lava ain’t thin enough to flow, it becomes a missile.
Thanks, Science Flyers. See you next week. In case of Volcanoes, you should follow Sheyna Gifford on twitter. To notify her of easy-bake planetary recipes, email her. For all your kidney needs, see your local nephrologist and follow the Science Desk.