The Eggheads of Silicon Valley

Science Fridays

      Silicon Valley is a place known for anything to do with computers, software, and electronics.  How about eggs?  Does that create an image in your head of some old semi-retired hippie on that back of a tractor on a hobby farm selling eggs produced organically and green by really happy chickens?  Well get that image out of your head.  Now get an image in your head that looks more like something from one of Terry Gilliam's animations on Monty Python.  Instead of growing them from chickens, they are growing them from plants. 

      No, it's not quite like that.  Josh Tetrick and the people of Hampton Creek Foods are using various vegetables and things to create what they are calling the perfect eco friendly vegan substitute for eggs.  They are using peas and sorghum as their chief ingredients.  They call their product "Beyond Eggs."

      They say that their fake eggs are best used in baking.  They are using them in muffins, cakes, and cookies, and other baked goods.  They are 19% cheaper and have a much longer shelf life.  Their commercial possibilities have investors going crazy and wanting a slice of the pie (or rather slice of the egg).  Bill Gates is one of them.  
      Tetrick and his team tried out about three hundred plants in varying combinations until they got what they say are the perfect egg substitute.  They worked on getting the right taste and egg-like qualities first.  Then they used the "winning" ingredients list and honed it down until they got the right qualities.  "One combination (they had) made great cookies, that were really moist", Tetrick said, "but the cookies dried out after only a couple days."  
      They are also trying to create eggless mayonnaise.  They are making scrambled eggs too, but they tend to break up into powdery little balls.  The interviewers like the cookies they tasted, but didn't like the scrambled eggs.  They said the texture was all wrong, and didn't taste like scrambled eggs.  

      Tetrick says that he is working on this because of Earth's rising population, methane from chicken manure, and other Green issues. 

First Cities and the First Wall

      Time again for some palaeontology.  In the last palaeontological study we went from the Natufians to the advance of neolithic farming colonies in Europe.  Today we need to take a quick backstep, concentrating on the very first real cities in the Near east.  
      As has been stated before, during the Boller Interstadial Warming Period that followed the Pleistocene Ice Age, Natufian hunter gatherers discovered wild wheat and barley.  These two grains became their main stay.  In the Younger Dryas cold period, these grain gatherers planted their grain and survived the 1500 year drought.  They didn't just survive it, but they thrived.  They changed the course of human history.  
      Even during the middle of the Younger Dryas mini-ice age there was plenty of mountain water gathering in south central Anatolia.  This along with their new found farming skills provided them with enough food to live comfortably.  They even had a surplus.  They had enough surplus that they could spend some time focusing on the arts, but not before focusing on building a couple of cities first.  

                                                         Asikli Hoyuk


      At Catal Hoyuk, and Asikli Hoyuk they traded in their hunter gatherer huts (a short mud brick or clay wall with what was essentially a domed wigwam stuck on top) for houses that were built entirely of mud brick.  Even their roofs were made of mud brick, held up by a series of logs built in to the top of the house.  At Catal Hoyuk the houses became so compacted together, that they started to build their houses on top of one another.  People walked along the roofs to get through the city, an go to public buildings, such as the temple   With this version of city planning (none at all) they were able to fit a population of about 3000 people.  

                                                                                  Catal Hoyuk

                                               Inside a house at Catal Hoyuk


      One would suppose then that life for these people was just wonderful and great.  They had all the food they wanted plus more during a time of drought, food shortages and starvation.  Some peculiar eveidence to the contrary can be found in the third big neolithic city, Jericho.  
      Jericho began as a village during the time of the Natufians.  It was originally one of their camping sites during the warming period.  They would stay there for extended periods.  During the Younger Dryas it became a large village with about 70 dwellings.  Eventually Jericho and the surrounding area was over run by others (refugees?).  This new group did something that was never done before in human history.  They built a large wall surrounding their city.  What would possess them to expemd that much effort for a building project of that magnitude, if it wasn't needed?  
      Now let's go back to Catal Hoyuk.  Imagine what the starving hunter gatherers thought when they saw this thing rising up out of the horizon.  At first would be awe and maybe fear.  But, they would watch (from a distance) and they would see that these people had food, and lots of it.  Their hunger would eventually override their fear and trepidations to make a raid.  Were they successful in this raid?  Probably not, but that would now start to make the citizens of Catal Hoyuk uneasy.  In time more hungry people would arrive, and then more, and more.  The raids and attacks would become almost constant.  
      Finally there would be some of them that couldn't take it anymore and would leave.  They had already been trading with Jericho, so to Jericho they went.  When they got there they came up with a system of defense - a wall.  

      More on this subject later. 

It's All in the Waves

      Today's post is pretty much a follow up on yesterday's.  I went from a report on a hundred year old Lake Superior shipwreck just found, to going over other Great Lakes shipwrecks, and related storm damage.  I wanted to explain why the shipwrecks are so devastating during Great Lakes storms. 
      As the title of the post says, it's all in the waves.  Although looking across one of the Great Lakes pretty much looks the same as looking across an ocean the waves are completely different.  An ocean is thousands by many thousands of miles across.  You can't tell that standing from shore, because the circumference of the earth doesn't let you see past twenty miles (that's why it looks the same looking out over Lake Superior or one of the other Great Lakes - I've never been there, but I'm sure that looking across Lake Winnipeg or Lake Manitoba would give the same effect).  Not only do oceans have unbelievable amounts of surface area, but they are several miles deep as well. The Marianas Trench is about 8 miles deep.  That is some unimaginable volume.  The deepest part of Lake Superior, by comparison, is a little over 1300 feet, while the average depth is about 500 feet.  Lake Erie is very shallow by comparison to Lake Superior, and even the other Great Lakes, which have an average depth around 200 to 250 feet. 
      That much volume of water makes it behave in certain ways.  Waves of course are bigger and have a much wider arc.  Prevailing westerlies prevail, and the oceans are susceptible to the tidal forces of the moon and the sun.  Even big Lake Superior has no noticeable tide, and the winds blow across it from any direction.  Being so much shallower by comparison, the wave never reach the size or arc that they do on the oceans.  The biggest they get is about 20 feet high, and sometimes 30 feet have been reported, but that is only in storms.  20 feet is what you get on a "nice" day in the oceans when the "surf's up."  
      When you get waves that high in the Great Lakes they are more choppy.  They are still fairly narrow, compared with an ocean wave.  They still have a narrow arc.  They just get taller during a storm, but not much wider.  
      Think of your favorite fishing lake.  When you go out in your little 15 to 20 foot boat, and the winds pick up, the waves become very choppy.  If they hit your boat from the side, it has the tendency to want to roll.  When you steer your boat into the waves you hear and feel a big slap with each wave.  It is because of the shallowness of the lake the waves get taller, but not much wider.  
      The results of this principle can be seen in the pictures below. 

      An ore freighter on one of the Great Lakes on a normal day.  On an ocean on a normal day it looks pretty much the same. 

      On an ocean during a storm, the waves are huge, and often many times the length of a ship.  They ride within the waves going up them, over the peak, and back down again.  This is when many people get seasick and things roll all over in the galley and everywhere else.  Every time they hit the peak of the wave, it washes over them.  

      Lake Superior (or other Great Lakes) during a storm.  The waves get much bigger, but don't grow as wide as they do tall.  The result is that wave slapping phenomenon.  The waves slap the ship when they hit it, and then wash over.  Worse than that, in the bigger storms the ship is actually suspended between two waves.  Ships are not meant to be carried like that.  It doesn't do to well for their structural integrity.  

      The result of this stress, especially when repeated for wave after wave, is that the ship "breaks her back."  This is what happened to the Edmund Fitzgerald.  It has also happened to many other ships.  During the great storm of 1913 when the Henry B. Smith went down, many of the ships that were lost had their "backs broken."  The same thing happened to many of the ships that were lost during the storm that destroyed the S.S. Mataffa. 

Another November Victim Just Found

      Legends abound concerning Gichi Gama (big water/ Lac Superior).  "The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead when the gales of November turn gloomy."  Those words from a song by Gordon Lightfoot echo again as another lost ship has been recently found.  Being a life long resident of the Duluth, MN area, anything to do with shipwrecks is big news.  
      I still remember looking out the window of the cafeteria in Duluth Central High School watching the Edmund Fitzgerald go under the bridge and head out "to sea."  I remember watching the waves crashing against the end of the pier and lighthouse many times.  That day the waves were merely "sloshing" over.  I remember thing that I wouldn't want to be heading out on a day like that.  A couple hours later the waves had died down, so I quit thinking about it - until a day later when everyone got the news about the ship's fate.  I also remember not knowing what to say to my neighbor, and friend at the time, Brad B. when I learned that his dad had been on that ship.  Their family was so devastated.  I'm sure that every time there is news of a shipwreck, or even if they hear that Gordon Lightfoot song, their memories cascade forth, and their heart makes a small crunching sound. 
      The ore freighter Henry B. Smith, which was lost with all hands in a November gale in 1913 was found by shipwreck hunters just a couple of days ago.  Jerry and Karen Eliason found the ship near Marquette Michigan.  The Eliasons found the ship, which hadn't been seen since November 9th, 1913, after researching all the available records about the wreck.  All those records proved to be quite an accurate "X marks the spot" for the Eliasons.  The wreck was right where their research said it should be.  I'd say that's pretty dog gone impressive.  Good job, Jerry and Karen.  

      In other great Lakes Shipwreck news (that's not a statement one usually hears), just days before the Eliasons found the Henry B. Smith, another group of divers found the wreck of the Griffin, a 17th Century french ship.  This wreck was found in Lake Michigan.  

      November is a huge time for gales on the Great Lakes, and especially on Lake Superior.  In the storm that claimed the Henry B. Smith, there were many other ships that were lost.  There were a total of 42 wrecks in that storm across all the Great Lakes.  Not all the wrecks were losses.  Most of them sailed again after repairs.  
      The November 27 storm of 1905 was similar.  Many ships were lost in that storm.  Most notable of these wrecks (at least to those in Duluth) was the S.S. Mataffa.  My Grandmother and her brothers were just children when this happened, and this story was related to me many times in their lives.  
      They lived up the hill on about 11th St., and could hear a bunch of hollering through the sound of the storm.  There wasn't the continual noise of traffic then to muffle out sounds.  My great-uncles ran down the hill to the lake to see what the commotion was.  When they got there they could see the ship crossed sideways against the pier.  The waves kept slamming the ship against the concrete structure.  Half the town was gathered there, and they watched helplessly.  People wanted to help the men who were yelling for help, but there was nothing anyone could do on account of the waves.  They all just watched in horror as the ship finally broke in two.  The stern lodged in the ground against the pier.  After the storm a severe cold snap set in and the remains were frozen in place.  Some of the victims' bodies had to be chopped out of the ice,   It was amazing that only nine men lost their lives.  Fifteen survived.  

      In the early 1980's (in November) a huge ocean going vessel, the Socrates, was washed up onto the beach of Park Point.  I went down that night after work to watch the guys being rescued.  It was a very awesome sight, and the effects of the lights through the crashing waves and mist made the whole thing seem like scenes from a Steven Spielberg movie.   I'll have to tell this particular story in greater detail some other time

                                          The Socrates the morning after the storm

                                             The Socrates during the rescue

      Not only ships get claimed by the November gales, but so do mines - silver mines, that is.  The Silver Islet mine out from Thunder Bay was washed to oblivion three times in its short history.  It was built bigger after the first two times it was destroyed, but the Lake finally claimed her for good.  This story can also be found on the internet using a simple web search, and it was immortalized by the rockin' folk band Tanglefoot in the song "One More Night." 

"It Looks More Like a Dragon Than a Dinosaur"  

      About ten years ago, three amateur fossil diggers discovered a new type of dinosaur (in palaeontological terms, ten years is considered a new discovery).  They were digging in the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota when they unearthed this new specimen.  This palaeo-critter stands out from other dinosaurs from the same era.  This late Cretaceous herbivore had horned appendages sticking out from its skull and a flatter, elongated head.  Its nostril openings were huge too.  
      Its trio of discoverers were so impressed with these differences that they named the new genus "Dracorex."  "It's a very dragon-like looking dinosaur.", said Dr. Robert Sullivan of the State Museum of Pennsylvania.  (I'd like to know where he saw a dragon, in order to know what one looks like and make the comparison).  Sullivan and dino expert Dr. Robert Bakker studied the fossil and created its official description in 2006.  
      The trio of discoverers donated the fossil to the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  The children of the museum gave this creature its species name "Hogwartsia," news which J.K. Rowling was glad to hear.  Its full official name then is "Dracorex Hogwartsia" which translated means "the dragon King of Hogwarts."  

      The fossil of Dracorex Hoqwartsia on display in the Indianapolis Children's Museum.  

      Bakker and Sullivan are amazed to find this shape for a dinosaur head this late in the history of dinosaurs.  The longer, and flatter heads are found in the early archosaurs during the Triassic, and even the late Permian, but not in the late Cretaceous.  
      Dinosaur heads tended to be shorter and rounder from the Jurassic on.  A few exceptions were Spinosaurus and his smaller kin the Baronyx.  

          Above pictures: Various artist renditions and constructions of Dracorex Hogwartsia. 

     Jack Horner of the University of Berkley has far different thoughts about this fossil.  He and those who work for him believe that the Dracorex is not any new dinosaur.  They postulate that it is a juvenile Pachycephalosaurus.  They theorize that a pachy- starts with a long, flat head, and that they grow into their snouts and grow their boney dome. 
      Personally I think that's a lot of guessing.  He and his crew say this, but have they ever seen evidence of an immature pachy- going through these theoretical changes?  Maybe they have - I don't know - I'm just asking.  I'd like to know how much they say is based on evidence, and how much is postulating  I'm personally more inclined to go along with the views of Sullivan and Bakker.  Bakker is the one who turned the world of dinosaurs on its head.  Although exceptionally unorthodox in his appearance and mannerisms, for several decades has been thinking outside of the box.  He's the one who imaged the inside of skulls, replicated these shapes, and determined how they sounded.  Now everybody does that.  He was the chief proponent of the warm blooded, and the proto-bird theories (based upon fossil evidence and logic), and now these theories are the accepted theories.  
      Horner is an occasional naysayer to the things Bakker or Sullivan say.  I've watched them in some documentaries, including one that included information about both the Pachycephalosaurus, and the Dracorex Hogwartsia.  Bakker, Sullivan or others would explain something about one of the dinosaurs, and then Horner would be interviewed and say just the opposite, and then call the other views stupid.  I get the feeling that Horner is to them as Kripke ("Kwipke") or Leslie Winkel are to Sheldon Cooper, Leonard, Walowitz, and Kuthrapali.  He just doesn't talk wike Kwipke.  
      The name is a good choice, as Dracorex Hogwartsia looks a lot like the Thestrals from the Harry Potter movies, except they don't have that pesky third pair of appendages.  They only have hind legs on which they walked and forelegs that were more like arms by which the grabbed stuff.  Their sharp teeth look more like those of a predator too (just something that stuck out to me).  What they really look like though is Vermithrax from the 1981 cult classic "Dragonslayer." 

                                                                  Vermithrax

      As always, in all of my posts, if you want to learn more about these, just plug them into a search engine, and you will find more than plenty on the subject. 

Scientists Studying the Lazy Gene 

      People have said things like this for as long as there have been people to say it.  They say things like, "He's a lazy, no-account do-nothing, just like his father.", or "That whole family is lazy."  Now according to recent genetic studies, statements like that just might be true.  

      Scientists in the Genetics Department at the University of Missouri published the findings of their recent study on laziness on April 3 this year.  They have identified 36 different genes that could play a role in determining activity level, and the willingness to be active.  
      An ironic twist to this study is that it was a result of an obesity study.  Researchers wanted to know if obesity was the result of laziness or if it was genetic.  The answer now may be yes, and yes, and both might be genetic.  
      Michael Roberts, one of the key researchers involved in this study said that, "this could be an important step in identifying the causes of obesity."  Obesity has been on the rise exponentially over the past few generations.  Obesity itself in turn fuels heart disease and diabetes.  Fellow researcher Frank Booth added, "It would be very use­ful to know if a per­son is ge­net­ic­ally pre­dis­posed to hav­ing a lack of mo­tiva­t­ion to ex­er­cise, be­cause that could po­ten­tially make them more likely to grow obese." 

      Roberts and Booth compared highly active individuals with those who are extremely inactive.   They compared  body composition, and mitochondria levels in the muscle cells of the individuals tested.  In this they saw some, but very little difference between the two extremes.  It was the genetic differences that stuck out to them.  36 different genes were identified.  They plan next to study each gene separately to measure its effect on motivation.