Today is Carl Sagan's birthday; he would have been 78. Sagan found magic in every aspect of the Universe.
"It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works…?"
In honor of Sagan, and of that notion, here are some amazing ways we are discovering how the world works.
- The story of the world in one minute. [VIDEO]
- You'll never look at bats the same way after seeing this stunning picture of their embryos.
- It's official, ladybugs should be reclassified as transformers. [VIDEO]
- For the first time, mathematicians have managed to accurately model snowflake formation.
- Cells in migrating fish discovered to move in response to Earth's magnetic field.
- A crocodile's FACE is more sensitive than your finger tips. ITS FACE!
- Why children hide by covering their eyes. Fascinating read.
- Even gorillas are fascinated by the life around them. [VIDEO]
- Lastly, if you are up for it, here's a long read from Edge in which scientists, philosophers, artists, and journalists (to name just a few) answer the question: What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?
Enjoy the geek and enjoy your weekend.
Leave a Comment:
Rest in Peace Carl Sagan , I used to love watching and listening to him on t.v. - He Is Greatly Missed !
Also, watch a snake fake out its prey and predict the direction its prey will go, and eat it.
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/stories/tentacledsnake.html
One of the things that Sagan inspired me to do was to investigate human ancestry when he compared the age of the universe with the age of the human race.
The concept of "race" is actually something invented by people like the Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy.
You would barely notice a Neanderthal Man with a close shave and a $50 hair cut walking through Time Square.
You might notice the large nose and a weak chin. Big face with a sloping forehead. A foreigner maybe? Odd looking. Not that unusual.
He might even be smarter than you.
You would bring a neanderthal child to a police station and not call the zoo if he got separated from his parents.
We are that similar.
The real science of human evolution implies that the concept of race is an urban legend.
Recent evidence indicates all of us are the result of interbreeding between ancient humans, and all of us share common origins.
Different groups of humans began to walk across Africa, Asia and Europe after we developed long legs and big brains about 1 million years ago when the climate supported grassland across North Africa and Southwest Asia (Sahara and Arabia).
Tens of thousands of generations passed after Europe and Asia became isolated by climate changes. Most humans perished, and this has happened several times because of ice ages. The most recent die off occurred during the Toba super volcano eruption about 3600 generations ago.
Then your ancestors had a romantic hookup after they discovered other strange and exotic people on long walks.
Every person with non-African ancestors shares about 2.5% genetic material with Neanderthal man. This is the guy that got isolated in the Middle East and Europe.
People living in Asia, Indonesia, and Australia also share about 5% genetic material with Denisova man, in addition to Neanderthal man. This is the guy that got isolated in Asia.
Two other groups got separated in Africa - human and an unknown ancestor.
There were four groups of humans that interbred to create modern humans starting about 10,000 generations ago.
So where did you really come from?
Big shock.
Your intelligence began as a genetic defect called chromosomal translocation. This happens with about 1 out of every 300 human births. That is often harmless, but occasionally causes miscarriage or congenital abnormalities.
One of these translocation events created the first human.
All humans have 46 chromosomes. All apes have 48.
Two ape chromosomes fused to make your chromosome number 2. Recent evidence indicates that particular chromosome plays a central role with the development of human intelligence.
Lion and tiger have the same number of chromosomes. So did ancient humans.
Neanderthal Man. Denisova Man, and human shared a common ancestor at least 50,000 generations ago. It is clear that Neanderthal, Denisova, and Human all have the same number of genes, otherwise none of these ancient genes would have survived to the present in modern Human populations.
Modern human skull capacity is 1,000c to 1850cc, which overlaps Homo Erectus. Neanderthal skull capacity was 1,200cc to 1,900cc, which is about 20% larger than modern humans.
In fact, evidence shows that brain capacity increases as the prevalence of disease is reduced. People in developed areas with less disease tend to be more intelligent as a result of better health and not superior breeding. This is known as the Flynn Effect.
There is actually no such thing as "pure human".
Our evolution to modern man became complete when our ancient ancestors reconnected during ice ages.
All of us are hybrid mixtures of different ancient humans that have walked the earth for millions of years.
And none of us are less evolved than others.
References (click to view):
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/humanmigration.shtml
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215044/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK62514/
http://news.ufl.edu/2011/01/06/clothing-lice/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3400556/
ftp://ftp.soest.hawaii.edu/engels/Stanley/Textbook_update/Science_300/Gibbons-03b.pdf
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120726122118.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/science/19cnd-fossil.html?_r=1
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21179161
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21944045
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/277/1697/3105.short
http://humanorigins.si.edu/research/climate-research/effects
http://www.csce.uark.edu/~rdeaton/compbio/students/search.ppt
http://csce.uark.edu/~rdeaton/compbio/lectures/humanSearch.ppt
http://syllabus.med.unc.edu/yr4/gen/medhist/publish/mitochnotes.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2945812/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2953791/
Amazing Crackhead!!! Thanks for all the links!!!
Crackhead has no cracked head. Thank you!
Thanks Crackhead ! You are aces !
Here is a whimsical poem I wrote that is my answer :
Nothing knew nothing about nothing
So
There was no other
There was no bother
There was no mother
There was no father
Then
Nothing became curious about nothing
So
There was a thought
There was love brought
There was a seed
There was a deed
And Then
Nothing gave birth to everything
I think of Carl Sagan and the one word that pops in my head is "Billions".
Another one of my favorite Sagan quotes:
...And Billions
In Back to the Future: The Game, Doc Brown calls himself 'Carl Sagan' when he's arrested on suspicion of arson in 1931 Hill Valley. When an alternate timeline Brown is informed of this by Marty, he incredulously asks "The 'billions and billions' guy?" I wonder what Sagan would think if he could know that he couldn't escape this even in death?
Good quote! I love the picture of Sagan and Johnny Carson laughing that leads off the chapter. Thanks!
I don't know if it is deep or beautiful, but I ran across an explanation this week from a conservation expert and animal researcher Louis Liebenberg who traced some of the thinking on how tracking might have been the beginning of evolutionary pressure which rewarded deduction and scientific observation of evidence.
The beginning from early hominids who used digging sticks for their largely vegetarian diets was that they transitioned to meat diet when they learned they could like hyenas scare away the scavengers with their sticks and fire.
Later, observation of the tracks of prey and developing deductive abilities to infer which direction and how long ago the spoor and marks were made would confer advantage to hominids who could quickly nourish their young with high energy meat gained from running down their own prey.
But Liebenberg theorizes it got its start from stealing food from hyenas and cheetahs who could be easily scared off.
The the beautiful explanation is this:
Consciousness began because we were Pirates.
That's right me bucko.... Arrrr. Now step smartly Jim Ladd and fetch me that Chimayo cocktail Grog.
Arrr, drink up me hearties- we swung that Scurvy Dog Romney and his scalawags from the yardarm this fine day...
If you have any dreams with Australopithecines in pirate hats, you drank too many Chimayo's.
Yet another example of how scientific study of anthropology and archaeology adds richness to our understanding of the world and our human race.
In contrast, the notion that God created the world just a few thousand years ago is, I think, remarkably shallow.
BTW - I don't understand the reference to "Chimayo cocktail Grog". I grew up in New Mexico and the the only Chimayo I know is a small town with a church, my very favorite restaurant and some wonderful weavers.
It actually is a pretty old drink- I think dates back to the 60s originating in Mexico. I posted a recipe for it yesterday.... (link)
Pretty good on hot summer days.
I was making a veiled suggestion for the drink of the week being something to celebrate shifting demographics, but haven't checked the end yet, but RM's teaser is that it has to do with some dead guy.
I neglected to add there is archeological evidence for what this Liebenberg guy's background information. His specialty area is tracking, not archeology. The evidence I think everyone has seen on Novas for the last decade- crushed and stone tool scraped bones dated to first Homo species with Oldowan technology stone tools found nearby.
Liebenberg's actually used the term pirate and it just seemed poetically fitting.
@John
I checked out your link. It was created by the Jaramillo family - owners of the Rancho de Chimayo - which is the restaurant I mentioned. So not Mexico as you stated but New Mexico.
I'm thinking that this drink might go nicely at Thanksgiving and Christmas
Huh. Sorry- it was my recollection from the person who I learned the drink from in the 90s. It is interesting how word of mouth is getting replaced by robust online referencing- and just as interesting how our blind spots work- as we dart through information, we have these robust filters for combating information overload, I used to go to Santa Fe as a boy every other year and so the Banner title of the book this recipe was in should have registered with me when I scanned the ingredients. But I was totally tunneled in on getting a good online list of ingredients and thought I knew all the background info on it so skipped it.
It used to be a wonderful area of the country, and a good place for the drink to be from.
The best teacher I ever had, even though I never met you. You are sorely missed.
Love the geek links, especially the ones with math! Thanks.
Gone too soon Carl Sagan, gone too soon,,,,,, but you live on in my spirit, :>)
Thank you so much for that link to the Edge. That will go on in my bookmarks
In the physical world it be like stepping out the front door and being surrounded by a cloud of butterflies.
Apparently, children are like the Bugblatter Beat of Traal: they think that if they can't see you, you can't see them.
RIP
sure have always enjoyed listening/reading/watching you teacher/learn/ and just think about it all.
Somehow, I think that if we ever learn to travel as far as Alpha Centauri, we will find Carl Sagan there asking: "What took you so long?"
Everyone should check out Melodysheep's Symphony of Science. He's taken quotes from scientists, like Carl Sagan, and set them to music.
www.youtube.com/user/melodysheep
melodysheep.bandcamp.com/album/symphony-of-science-bundle-v16
I was fortunate to hear Dr. Sagan speak at Monticello on July 4th, the swearing in ceremony of new U.S. citizens. This is where I heard him say - “…And so it seems to me that part of the duty of citizenship is not to be intimidated into conformity, to be skeptical. I wish that the oath of citizenship that you are about to take in the next few minutes included something like, ‘I promise to question everything my leaders tell me.’ That would really be Jeffersonian. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought. I promise to educate myself so I can make independent judgements.’ And if these statements are not part of the oath, you can nevertheless make such promises. And such promises, it seems to me, would be a gift that you can make your country.” My personal fave otherw-ise-
"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff."
The 2007 episode called "Space," Radiolab (from WNYC) begins with a lovely story from Ann Druyan, Sagan's wife, about how they met and fell in love during the project to create a message to include in the Voyager missions. The show can be downloaded or streamed from the link above.