Science Saturday - Three Accidental Science Discoveries That Changed The World

As a matter of fact ...

I believe science changes the world. It's easy to see the technology, medicine and knowledge gained over the centuries by rigorous research done by ambitious scientists. An idea is proposed, thoroughly experiemted with and the result is new information that can be applied to real world problems. It's simple enough and sounds very deliberate, right?

However, more often than not, science is not very deliberate. Accidents happen that lead to new discoveries: ones that people never foresaw or were even looking for. Some of these happy accidents in science have gone on to change the world. Here are three of my favourites ...

1) Penicillin 

Alexandar Flemming looking stern in his lab

Probably the most famous and for good reason. To date, an estimated 82 million lives have been saved since the discovery and application of penicillin. It was first discovered by Alexandar Flemming on September 3rd, 1928. Flemming had returned to his laboratory from a holiday to find he had accidentally left a lid open on a petri dish containing a strain of cold-causing bacteria he was studying.

To Flemming's surprise, a mold had grown inside the dish that had no bacteria growing around it. The mold was inhibiting its growth. The mold was 'penicillium notatum' and Flemming realised its importance immediately. It was soon manufactured into its drug form and by the 1940's, with the help of the US, it was being shipped globally and saving countless lives. Well, not countless - 82 million since then to be precise!

2) Big Bang

The Big Bang left an echo in all of time and space

Yes thats right, even the origins of our universe were an accidental discover. In New Jersey, 1964, scientists Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson were studying the transmition of radiowaves on 'echo balloon' satelites. The signals were extremely faint and so they had to eliminate all other interference.

Despite their efforts, they were still picking up a low, steady and mysterious nice that was 100 times stronger than they had expected. After meticulously checking their equipment and even removing such variables as a pair of pigeons and their nests that were roosting in the antenna dish, they tried again. The noise persisted. They concluded it couldnt have come from Earth, the Sun or even the galaxy. It was everywhere they pointed the radar, day and night, never stopping.

It wasn't until they heard of nearby researches Robert H. Dicke, Jim Peebles, and David Wilkinson's theory of background radioation being leftover from the big bang that the pair realised the gravity of their discovery. They met with the other team and published their discoveries together. What they had been hearing was the echo of the big bang, left in every corner of the universe. 

3) Microwave 

The first microwave 'ovens' really lived up to their name

From big to small radiation now. The humble microwave is a staple piece in every home across the world. It's hard to believe that it was only created in 1945 from an accident!

Perry Spencer was a self taught engineer working on an active radar set for the company 'Raytheon' in Maine. One day, he noticed that the chocolate bar in his pocket had melted as a result of the radiation he was working with. 

Spencer quickly replicated the radiation and contained it within a metal box. His team noticed that the temperate of food rose rapidly when placed inside. The first food cooked was popcorn and then an egg. As the cliche goes, the rest is history. Flemmings box of 'micro-waves' went on sale in the US in 1947 and hasn't looked back since! 

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Accidents happen, accidents are great. 

Science Saturday - Why Do Volcanoes Exist?

As a matter of fact ...

The Mount Ontake volano erupted in Japan today. The last time it erupted was 2007. Although that doesn't seam frequent, I cant imagine living nearby an active volcano and having it erupt twice it 7 years.

Japan is known for having high volcanic activity with over 100 volcanoes a year. My home, the UK, has none. Why is this? Why are some places seemingly packed with volcanoes and in others they are just stories?

The recent Mount Ontake eruption in Japan

Plate friction forcing magma to the surface in the form of a volcanoe

It's all down to tectonic plates. The Earth's surface has 17 of them. They're the huge, hard and rigid surface of the Earth's crust and whenever they diverge, converge and rub against each other, you can be sure to find volcanic activity. The friction from the plates forces the less dense magma from nearer the Earth's core to rise upwards, eventually spewing out onto the surface. This was first notice by Alfred Wagner when he proposed his 'continental drift' theory of moving tectonic plates and landmass over long periods of time.

This concept is best demonstrated using the map below. You can see that sure enough, Japan is sitting right on a tectonic fault line in the top right hand corner. The UK, the the upper middle of the map, is nowhere near a fault line. A convergent line runs right along the northern tip of India and is responsible for creating the Himalayas some 45 million years ago.

Tectonic plate map

See how far you live from a fault line on the map. Who knows, perhaps you might travel to one of the active volcanoes along it and see this awesome power of nature.

Science Saturday - Are There Too Many Humans?

As a matter of fact ...

The world's population is expected to reach 12.3 billion by 2100. It's currently at 7.2 billion. That's an astonishing 5.1 billion increase in the next 86 years. This recent and somewhat shocking report by the United Nations goes against previous world population estimates of 10 billion people by 2100.

So should we be worried? Well, Earth does only have a finite amount of resources and so therefore has a limit to human population; but where is the limit? And if we surpass that, do we risk mass famines that may lead to conflicts over the scraps of resources left?

Overcrowding at a swimming pool in China; the world's most populous country

It's not a nice prospect to dwell on. However, some scientists think there is nothing to be alarmed about as we may make a U-Turn before that and reverse the current growth trend. 

UN findings show that the fertility rate across most countries has been steadily falling since the 1950's and is rapidly approaching the optimum rate of 2.1 children per woman; the rate at which children replace their parents and make up for any loss of young life. If that happens, that world population should stabilize somewhere between 9 - 10 billion; an amount that pushes the upper limit of what Earth can support. 

Our future still seems unclear at this point but our past is set in stone. To understand how we're growing, you need to understand how we've grown and this chart shows it best:

Graph from Scott Manning, compiled from various studies and U.N reports

On the right you can see the different studies used to create this graph. Starting with an estimated 5 million people in 10,000 BC, you can see it took almost 12,000 years for Earth's population to reach the 1 billion mark in 1804.

Then, the agricultural and industrial revolutions happened. This catapulted the Earth's population into overdrive and it took just 123 years for it to double to 2 billion in 1927.

Fast forward to 2014, only 87 years on, and we're at 7.2 billion. That's a crazy rate of growth. So will we reach 10 billion by 2100? Probably. Will exceeding that spell doom for the human race? Possibly. Will the trends reverse and the population stabilize? Who knows!

The figures from Asia, the fastest growing continent, suggest things are slowing down but just as nobody foresaw the industrial or agricultural revolutions, so too are we somewhat blind to what lies around the corner for our species. 

I think that population stabilizing is just one answer to our problems. We apply these limits and boundaries on our growth within the context of our current capabilities. In this technological age, it would be foolish to think we have reached our peak when it comes to maximising the food and energy this planet has. 

I'm quietly confident that there will be an environmentally friendly and game changing breakthrough within this century that will set our fears aside. Perhaps I'm just a naive optimist, but history speaks for itself. 12.3 Billion people in 2100 might seem too close for comfort, but a lot can happen in 86 years. 

Science Saturday - See The Northern Lights

As a matter of fact ...

I've just got back from a trip to northern Ontario. We shot bows, fished and drank beers beneath the stars - lots of fun. One thing we did miss out on though was the expected appearance of the Aurora Borealis otherwise known as the northern lights. Pretty gutted to be honest. I'm jealous of anyone who has seen the spectacle in their life. If you don't know what they are, check this picture out. Unfortunately, the night was just too cloudy and the lights just not strong enough to see. Still, it didn't stop me wondering what causes the phenomenon. Where do these northern lights come from?

The picture above was taken in Kanata, not too far from Toronto. The northern lights are rarely seen this far south. Normally, the solar winds that hit the Earth's magnetosphere are not strong enough to cause the light display. However, when a 'geomagnetic storm' occurs, the strength and therefore the visibility of the lights extends the auroral zone/to lower lattittudes such as Toronto. 

Above is a nice little image showing how the Sun's solar winds interact with the Earth's magnetosphere. You can see how the Van Allen belts deflect most of them away towards the Earth's poles. This is why their interaction with the particles in our atmosphere are seen most predominantly the closer you are to the poles.

Unfortunately, it doesnt matter how strong they are if you have a cloudy night like we did. Fortunately, the solar flares are somewhat predictable, so if you live anywhere considered quite north or south, keep your eyes peeled for reports of them coming in! The Aurora Boreali are quite a sight to see!

Science Saturday - Lightning Every Day

As a matter of fact ...

There is currently a HUGE lightning storm in Toronto, Canada! My girlfriend and I are hiding away and watching the news warnings. I have never seen anything like this back in England! It got me thinking, why? Why do same places have more lightning strikes and where has the most in the world?

Welcome to Tororo. Country? Uganda. Population? 43,700. Average lightning strikes a year? 251. Yes that's right. That's 70% of the year.

So what did this town do to deserve the wrath of Zeus? Well, apparently it's all in the soil. There is a large amount of iron in the ground. As with most metals, iron attracts lightning. 

When a lightning storm takes place, most of the strikes occur between clouds. It's only when a bolt hits the ground that things turn lethal. In a place like Tororo, the iron rich ground attracts more strikes than pretty much anywhere in the world!

This has always been bad news for the people of that town, with 10% of the strikes resulting in death and an additional 70% leading to permanent injuries. In most places, natural minerals in the ground are a blessing but this iron appears to be more of a curse!






The storm outside is still pretty bad as I write this but I feel better in the knowledge that it could always be much worse!