Apr 8: Artificial auroras, home runs and climate change, baby's first bacteria and more…
Math does crowd control, science and storylistening, and old books with hidden stories.
On this week's episode of Quirks & Quarks with Bob McDonald:
Scientists map Earth's ionosphere with artificial auroras
Scientists in Sweden launched a rocket into near-Earth space in a recent experiment to probe the region where the Northern Lights dance. Once the rocket reached the ionosphere, it released barium particles that became illuminated by the setting sun as they travelled through that region of our outer atmosphere. The goal of this controlled experiment is to learn more about the conditions that create aurora borealis — a visible manifestation of space weather that can potentially threaten our power systems. Johan Kero, the head of research for the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, said that optical instruments on the ground tracked the event, which will allow them to visualize the conditions that solar wind particles encounter when they create dazzling auroras.
Climate change is a boon for baseball's power hitters
The number of home runs in major league baseball has increased in recent years, and not just because of improving skills and better equipment. Christopher Callahan, a climate researcher at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, found that about 500 more home runs have been hit since 2010 because of climate change. The physics is simple: warmer air is less dense, so the ball has an easier time making its way out of the park. His research was published in The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
Scientists identify where babies get their bacteria
A new study, published in the journal Cell & Host Microbe, has found that nearly 60 per cent of a newborn's microbiome comes from its birth parent. Researchers collected samples of microbes from different body parts in both the mother and the baby two hours after birth, and then again one, two, and four weeks after. Pediatrician Debby Bogaert from the University of Edinburgh, who was part of the research team, says that the majority of bacteria is shared between mom and baby regardless of whether the birth was vaginal or via Caesarean section.
When we walk through crowds, math, not intelligence, controls the flow of traffic
When crowds of people navigate a space, they tend to naturally form into lanes of traffic, which efficiently allow people to move around without colliding. In a new study, researchers observed groups of volunteers walking around a gym in different directions. Dr. Tim Rogers, study co-author and a professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Bath in the U.K., said that people naturally formed lanes to get from point A to point B – but giving them traffic rules to follow got in the way of that process. This research, which was published in Science, suggests that lane formation requires no intelligence, but is governed by emergent mathematical patterns.
How stories can work with science to help us make sense of the world
Stories and science are often considered separate – even opposed – domains, but Claire Craig and Sarah Dillon want to change that. They are proposing a new idea called "storylistening" that can work together with science as a new kind of evidence for decision-making. In a recent article in the journal Science, the scholars suggest that a rigorous analysis of narratives – like the stories told in popular fiction and film – can strengthen scientific data used to inform public policy for global issues like climate change and space exploration.
The stories that books can tell — that aren't in the words they contain
A new project at the University of Toronto is studying ancient books – without reference to their texts. The researchers behind the Hidden Stories project are looking at things like the stains on the paper, the mould and fungus in the binding, and the composition of the ink to see what stories these books can tell that aren't in their words. Dr. Alexandra Gillespie, the vice-president at the University of Toronto and principal of U of T Mississauga who leads Hidden Stories, said these objects can help us learn more about the lifestyle, travels, and environments of the people who read these texts in the distant past.
