The Parisian T-Rex

A 6 metre tall sculpture of a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton has been installed on the Seine river in Paris. Philippe Pasqua moulded 350 bones in chrome to make this magnificent beast.

Photographs by Anthony Gelot.

The Curious Case of Phineas Gage and the Rod That Pierced His Skull

On the morning of September 13th 1848, Phineas Gage, a railway worker was involved in a mishap. One that would change his life and personality as well as the fields of neurology and psychology.

Gage was involved in blasting rock at the time which involved boring a hole into the rock, adding blasting powder, a fuse, sand and finally compacting this all down the hole using a tamping iron, a long iron rod.

It is believed that Gage neglected to put sand in one bore hole and when tamping down the lack of sand allowed for the creation of sparks.

So ignited explosives + long iron bar come together and poor Phineas had his head right in the trajectory. The rod passed through the right side of his face, behind the eye and out the top of his head. The 32 mm diameter, 1 metre long rod was recovered 25 metres away and looking quite gruesome.

Despite the injury, he seemed to have small convulsions and then proceeded to talk normally. He then sat in the back of a cart and was transported to the nearest doctor.
Doctor Edward H. Williams noted:

"When I drove up he said, "Doctor, here is business enough for you." I first noticed the wound upon the head before I alighted from my carriage, the pulsations of the brain being very distinct. The top of the head appeared somewhat like an inverted funnel ... as if some wedge-shaped body had passed from below upward. Mr. Gage, during the time I was examining this wound, was relating the manner in which he was injured to the bystanders. I did not believe Mr. Gage's statement at that time, but thought he was deceived. Mr. Gage persisted in saying that the bar went through his head. ... Mr. G. got up and vomited; the effort of vomiting pressed out about half a teacupful of the brain, which fell upon the floor."

Gauge's physical injuries healed over time, but people close to him noticed a distinct change in personality. Doctor John Martyn Herlow studied Phineas over a period of decades afterwards and reported:

"The equilibrium or balance, so to speak, between his intellectual faculties and animal propensities, seems to have been destroyed. He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifest­ing but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operations, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. A child in his intellectual capacity and manifestations, he has the animal passions of a strong man. Previous to his injury, although untrained in the schools, he possessed a well-balanced mind, and was looked upon by those who knew him as a shrewd, smart businessman, very energetic and persistent in executing all his plans of operation. In this regard his mind was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was "no longer Gage"."

In February 1860 Gage started to suffer seizures and died in May of that year, 12 years after his initial injury.

 

Life From Mars?

No, this is a scientific entry. I'll save my love for Bowie for another time.

Two  prominent scientists has come out and stated that life would have more likely developed with the conditions on Mars four billion years ago, rather than Earth. They both forward that old conjecture, that life started on Mars and was seeded to Earth (panspermia is the term, work that very carefully into workplace conversations).

One chemist postulates that for RNA to develop a certain environmental concentrations of elements such as molybdenum, boron and oxygen needed to be at a certain level which was happening on Mars at that time, but not on Earth. RNA plays a role in coding, regulation and expression of genes and is believed to predate DNA in development. It is believed that very early life was governed by RNA reactions.

While the scientist puts forward a good argument that conditions were ripe on Mars at that time for life to spring forth, I think it is a large jump to assume that life could not also independently arise on Earth. The panspermia argument seems a stretch since that means this RNA would need to survive an impact of an asteroid on the surface of Mars, transportation through the vacuum of space (huge amounts of radiation), entry into Earth's atmosphere and finally impact on the surface of Earth. Not the most likely of events.

Another scientist has stated that the large concentration of phosphates on Mars would have promoted life to flourish there. This is another great argument for life arising independently on Mars, but not panspermia.

Phosphates are chemical compounds that contain phosphorus and oxygen. They are very common in all life, with the framework of your DNA being made of phosphate chains, as well as phosphates being used to deliver energy into your cells. You can see the power of phosphates upon life when you see the runoff of agricultural phosphate fertilisers hit large water bodies. You get algal blooms. The bacteria and algae go batshit crazy for the stuff.

So even if it is a stretch to reason that Earth life was seeded from elsewhere, all this evidence for great conditions for life on Mars means that our searches may not be in vein and that some form of life probably did flourish on Mars at one time.

The Rise of Element 115

The limits of the Periodic Table of Elements (that other less famous table) continue to be pushed with a Swedish group from Lund University reporting the manufacture of element 115. This is the second group to do so, with a Russian group previously having their work being ruled 'incoclusive' by the Chemistry Gods, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

 

Element 115, or as it is known until it is properly named, Ununpentium, is manufactured, it does not occur naturally. No element beyond Plutonium the 94th element has been found naturally. Every element beyond this point has been made by slamming together two smaller nuclei and crossing fingers. The nuclei of these elements are so unstable that they break apart easily and give off other energy such as X-rays and other radiation. These elements have a very short lifetime (on the order of nanoseconds) and decay very quickly.

So why are we manufacturing these elements?

Firstly because we can.

I could end this argument here. Surely that is enough reason. But wait there's more.

The relationship between the structure of these nuclei and their lifetimes has been explored for several decades now and scientists has extracted patterns. They have postulated that although instability has increased in the elements 94-110, there will be a shift towards stability in elements from 110-120 or so. They named this region "The Island of Stability", and have created the treasure map below.

  Theories suggested that elements like 115 and beyond would have an unprecedented amount of stability, with lifetimes lasting seconds, and even postulation that we may see superheavy elements in this region that do not decay at all (or so slow we would not notice). So we would have a new super heavy element that in large samples may have properties we would not be able to imagine (no, not Flubber).

Alas the work on element 115 by the Swedes has measured one lifetime at 200 milliseconds. While very stable compared to other superheavy elements, I will not be constructing my giant dinosaur robot out of it.

2013 Hugo Award Winners Announced

The Hugos, the Academy Awards for science fiction and fantasy literature, were announced over the weekend.
I only tend to follow a few categories, which I have put below. For all categories and winners, check out the tor.com page.

Best Novel

• Winner: Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas by John Scalzi (Tor)
• 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
• Blackout by Mira Grant (Orbit)
• Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
• Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed (DAW)

  Seeing as I have only read 'Redshirts' from this list, I guess I cannot offer an opinion on this selection. I should get around to reading '2312' real soon. "Redshirts" is a lot of fun if you're a Trek fan.

Best Graphic Story

• Winner: Saga, Volume One written by Brian K. Vaughn, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
• Grandville Bête Noire written and illustrated by Bryan Talbot (Dark Horse Comics, Jonathan Cape)
• Locke & Key Volume 5: Clockworks written by Joe Hill, illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
• Schlock Mercenary: Random Access Memorabilia by Howard Tayler, colors by Travis Walton (Hypernode Media)
• Saucer Country, Volume 1: Run written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Ryan Kelly, Jimmy Broxton and Goran Sudžuka (Vertigo)
  
  I am a fan of 'Saga' and 'Locke and Key' and I probably would have like to see 'Locke and Key' win. But oh well. I need to get around to reading 'Saucer Country' as I am a fan of Paul Cornell's Doctr Who work.

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Winner: Game of Thrones: “Blackwater” Written by George R.R. Martin, Directed by Neil Marshall. Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss (HBO)
• Doctor Who: “The Angels Take Manhattan” Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)
• Doctor Who: “Asylum of the Daleks” Written by Steven Moffat; Directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Wales)
• Doctor Who: “The Snowmen” Written by Steven Moffat, Directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Wales)
• Fringe: “Letters of Transit” Written by J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Akiva Goldsman, J.H.Wyman, Jeff Pinkner. Directed by Joe Chappelle (Fox)
  
  I really don't like the 'Game of Thrones' TV series, but I do understand it's popularity. I would have much preferred Fringe or Doctor Who winning. Being said I have not watched the last season of Fringe yet, and out of the three Who episodes, "The Snowmen" was the better. I really did not appreciate "The Angels Take Manhattan".

The Try-Out Outfits for the Eleventh Doctor

The Doctor Who Tumblr has revealed photos from the Eleventh Doctor costume fitting back a few years ago. How different could the Eleventh been with a different outfit?

Also, this is what Peter Capaldi is probably doing right at this moment.

Sherlocky

Hipster Piratey

Rockabillyey

Formalley

Geronimoey!

Things Cut in Half

https://twitter.com/HalfPics