The Science of Volunteering

Many of us volunteer, and we do it for many different reasons. Lots of us got started because we say a need, perhaps for our own children or family members, and decided to fill that need – and it grew from there. Nearly all of us would be resistant to admit that we also gain something from this seemingly selfless donation of our time and efforts. However, we most certainly do gain.

It is the very volunteering of the act that makes it so rewarding - by volunteering we learn how to help others, and in doing so help ourselves as well. Volunteering may also allow you to explore (new) career and personal interests, enrich your education, build your resume, gain marketable skills, and earn valuable recommendations. You will develop leadership skills and gain leadership opportunities. You will almost surely make a difference for an individual or in your larger community, which in an incredible ‘feel good’ opportunity. You just might even have fun and make new friends!

But, believe it or not, the act of giving your time or effort to others is actually shown, scientifically, to improve your overall health. Volunteering is often recommended by mental health professionals as an activity to increase your own personal self-esteem and to overcome shyness or loneliness. A recent report compiled by the Corporation for National and Community Service (sponsors of the AmeriCorps program) and the USA Freedom Corps shows that there are solid studies by social and medical scientists to support this, and more, claims (http://www.nationalservice.gov/about/volunteering/benefits.asp). The 30 scientifically-controlled studies included in the report collectively found that volunteering leads to improved mental and physical health. The volunteers that were tracked in these studies experienced higher functional ability, greater longevity, and lower rates of depression.

Volunteering is also thought to increase people’s perceptions of their quality of life, increase people’s satisfaction with their own life, increase people’s activity levels and physical and mental fitness, and helps people to feel that they ‘belong’. According to PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), that’s the secret of volunteering. People who become volunteers usually lead richer, happier, and more satisfying lives than those who don’t volunteer.

PBS has a wonderful website aimed at kids, called It’s My Life (http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/). We could learn a lot from those kids. My favorite quote is this one:

Michele, 12, says: “It teaches humbleness, something I could use. Also, it teaches you how many people need help around the world. You want to help more and more people. It gets kind of addicting.”

Smart kid! These children are tomorrow’s leaders, and we can help them out today with our skills, talent, and time. Every act, no matter how small, can help. So, help yourself, and help your community at the same time. Go Volunteer!

The life and death of a planet

Scientists have discovered a new planet, and it is spiraling to its doom, or so the predictions go. WASP-18b, so named because it was discovered by the United Kingdom’s ‘Wide Angle Search for Planets’ program, is destined to crash into its parent star, aptly named WASP-18. Fortunately for us, this planet is not in our solar system and its parent star is not our sun. But still…wow.

WASP-18b, described in the August 27 issue of the international journal Nature, is not an insignificant planet. It is ten times the mass of our Jupiter.

The trouble for poor WASP-18b is that it orbits way too close to WASP-18, a mere 1.4 million miles away. Ok, 1.4 million miles seems pretty far. But, WASP-18b is so close to WASP-18 that it can complete its orbit in just over 22 hours. It takes the Earth 8760 hours, or 365 of our so-called days (a.k.a. 1 year), to orbit our sun. The concept of a ‘day’ depends on how fast we are spinning on our Earth axis; our day is 24 hours. It takes 24 hours for us to see the sun, spin all the way around, and see the sun in the same position again. A day on WASP-18b is going to be remarkably different, because it spins on its axis slower than it traverses its orbit. So, a ‘day’ lasts longer than a ‘year’. Too bad, since ‘daytime’ temperatures on WASP-18b reach a broiling 3,800°F.

WASP-18b will be pulled to its doom, and relatively soon by planetary terms, by the gravitational forces that exist between the two bodies. These are the same sorts of gravitational forces that exist between the Earth and our Moon, and subsequently cause the tides. However, our moon orbits the Earth much more slowly than the Earth itself is rotating, thusly our moon is actually moving ever so slowly away from us. At the blinding speed of 0.2 seconds a century (so don’t lose sleep over this).

However, WASP-18b is spiraling inward, and its spin is speeding up. Because of the distance between WASP-18b and WASP-18, WASP-18b experiences gravitational forces so strong that there is huge a bulge at its equator literally dragging behind the planet. Thus, the real mystery is why it has not been sucked into the center of WASP-18 already.

Scientists admit that there is another alternative for the outcome of WASP-18b – it could be shredded to bits by gravitational pull, creating rings of gas and debris not unlike the rings of Saturn.

The really cool thing about the discovery of WASP-18b is that scientists will know if their predictions will be borne out in the next 5 to 10 years. No, the crash is not that eminent. But, the change in trajectory of WASP-18b will be.

So, how often are new planets discovered? Well, 30 more were discovered just in 2009. WASP-18b is number 374 on the list maintained by the Paris Observatory. WASP-17b was discovered on August 11 of this year. It is twice the size of Jupiter, but has only half the mass, earning it the truly adorable designation of ‘puffy planet’.

2009 - The Year of Science

Explore, Empower, Engage… That is the by-line for the international Year of Science. It is already July, meaning the year is half over. But, there is still half a year left. So, the optimist in me says there is a lot left to be gained.

What does the International Year of Science mean for you? Well, it means that a whole lot of scientific groups and societies are working right now to make their science more accessible. If science has always seemed like some mysterious endeavor that takes place in dark museum basements and smoke-filled laboratories, this is your year. As their press release states, the goal of the Year of Science 2009 (a.k.a. YOS 2009 – of course, we need an acronym for it to be any sort of official endeavor!) is to engage the public in science by showcasing how science works, who scientists are, and why science matters in our communities and everyday lives. Entire states, including California, are embracing YOS 2009 through proclamations and special collaborative activities. And, universities, scientific societies, K-12 schools, science centers and museums, federal agencies, corporations and other non-profits have created a grassroots network dedicated to celebrating YOS 2009.

A special web site (www.yearofscience2009.org) has been created help the general public learn more about this year –long national event. Every month throughout the year, the site will feature a new scientific theme, in which organizational leaders in that discipline share the excitement of their science. The web site also provides engaging resources and highlights FREE events connected to the monthly theme such as science cafes, festivals, open houses, blogs, podcasts, and school visits by scientists to share their work.

Two of my personal favorites within this new and pretty awesome collection of resources are the Why Science Is Important site (http://whyscience.co.uk/), which features statements, videos, movies and personal reflections from scientists and non-scientists alike, and the Understanding Science site (http://understandingscience.com), which explains how science really works, what it is, and what it hopes to achieve. The latter is a really great resource for teachers and families.

I want to share something else I learned from this website that really touched me. A lot of people out there say; “I am just not good at science.” What this can mean, especially when it comes from our kids, is “I just have not found the part of science that interests me.” Classroom science may be challenging. But, as in all walks of life, what one learns in the classroom is only part of being a scientist. Scientific research involves a lot of creative thinking, problem-solving, logic, and communication skills – and those aren’t always tapped in the classroom. I am going to freely admit that the class I disliked the very most my freshman year of college was my Biology class. And the class I did the worst in (and took a couple of times over) was Physics. Lucky for me, science is also an incredibly diverse suite of fields ranging from astronomy to zoology, and every letter of the alphabet in between. I found a career that blended my interests, played to my personal strengths, and ironically includes biology and physics. But, you don’t have to choose a career in science to enjoy it. Science really is for everyone, at some level.

Science is Never Out of Style

Check out the new Science Nation feature

http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/about.jsp

The tiny world around us

In the wake of the Influena A-H1N1 chaos, you must have known I’d get around to writing about germs eventually. Hopefully most of us have calmed down now, and been able to put the H1N1 threat into the proper context and realized that, like seasonal flu, it tends not to affect healthy individuals all that severely, and it is best prevented with the same old remedies Mom taught you of good hand-washing and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze. And, if you are sick, with any ailment, stay home and don’t spread it. But, it gets me around to the concept of germs, or more specifically, viruses, bacteria, and other tiny micro-organisms (oh my!).

Viruses, like H1N1, are just tiny packages of genetic material wrapped in a cozy protein coat. They reproduce inside host cells (i.e., you) using the hosts’ genetic machinery (i.e., yours). They make thousands of copies of themselves and then spread, implementing their little genetic programmes. Viruses do not always cause disease, but they usually cause an immune response, and once your body has produced that response you often have lifetime immunity to the virus (notable exceptions would be the herpes virus, hepatitis B, etc which elicit an incomplete immune response and remain with the host for life). Vaccines typically contain killed virus in order to cause the body to produce the desired immune response, when then protects the host from future invasions by this particular viral agent. Viruses are not killed by antibiotics, specifically because they are not “biotic.” Viruses lack the components of living cells that make them susceptible to antibiotics. Viruses, however, are the most abundant “life” form on the planet.

Bacteria are living cells. They live everywhere on earth, and we are able to culture only a tiny fraction of them. The vast majority are completely harmless, many are quite helpful, and a special few can be devastating. Most are easily dispatched by our immune system, and those that aren’t can sometimes be killed by antibiotics (but, not every harmful bacteria has a known antibiotic, and many are evolving resistance to known antibiotics). There are perhaps ten times more bacterial cells in your body than human cells. You are your own walking bacterial ecosystem.

A recent study [Science, 23 May 2008, p. 1001] looked to quantify the numbers of different types of bacteria living on the human body, and where. They swabbed all the places you might normally think of as well as some you probably don’t want to think of (mostly external), and the big winner? Not what you might think…it was our forearms; 500 to 1000 species of bacteria live on our skin.

Other tiny biological structures include prions, which are proteins that re-fold themselves to adopt a shape that causes them to interfere with normal protein function. And, fungi, which come in many forms, ranging from microscopic to the size just right for veggie pizza and portobello burgers. Mold is in this group, which is good for cheese, bad for heating and ventilation ducts, and pretty useful as a class of antibiotics.

When it comes to these tiny organisms, we humans are greatly outnumbered. Just a little humbling, isn’t it?

This is a test

This is a test of my ability to post from my iPhone. This is only a test. Had this been a real post, you would have been directed to think critically about something in your life. This is only a test.

Spitballs, Splitballs, Dry Spitters, and Physics

In 1920 the spitball was outlawed in baseball. Arguably this was in response to the death of Ray Chapman of the then Cleveland Indians, who was hit with a ball and killed while at the plate. Witnesses state that he never attempted to avoid the ball, which led to speculation that he never saw it coming. This was the end of the era known as the dead-ball era in baseball, which I wrote about previously in “Into the Swing of Things”.

The dead-ball era was characterized by the use of balls that literally wore out and died during the game, because they were practically never replaced. Knowing this, every pitcher considered it his responsibility to hurry along the death of the ball with the application of any and every substance possible: spit, tobacco juice, grease, licorice, sand paper, nail files, nails, blades, spikes, you name it. Dead balls were hard to see clearly. It is unknown if the ball that hit Chapman was simply dead from over use, or if the pitch was a spitball, as many speculate. According to the Society of American Baseball Research, pitcher Carl Mays was famous for his spit ball (then legal), and the sound of the ball hitting Chapman’s skull was so loud that Mays thought the ball had been hit by the bat, fielded it, and threw it to first. Chapman died twelve hours later. His team went on to win the World Series.

Spitballs were banned that year. Batting helmets were not made mandatory until 1971.

Since 1920 we have been in the ‘live-ball’ era. Balls are replaced routinely. Spitballs, shine balls, mud balls, emery balls, and cut balls are illegal. The reason for this is that dead or manipulated balls are no longer smooth or truly round; therefore, they fly through the air with an unpredictable trajectory.

When a ball is thrown, it rotates while in the air. So long as the ball is essentially the same everywhere on its surface, with the center of mass being at the center of the ball, the rotation is symmetrical and the ball flies straight and true. As soon as you change the surface, you change two aspects of the ball. First, you change the airflow over the ball, or friction. Second, if you change the outside enough, the ball is no longer round, and the center of mass is shifted away from the center.

Lets deal first with friction. Friction induces drag, or resistance to flow. If there is more drag on one part of the ball, caused by say, roughing up the surface, then it is not going to slide through the air as easily at that point. Air slides easily past all the other points, and the rough bit actually starts to be slowed down relative to the rest of the ball. The result is that a rotation is going to be caused at that point. Hence, the trajectory of the ball will eventually begin to curve.

Shifting the center of mass causes a similar problem. If you have ever tried to spin a top, you know that if you keep the handle or center bit straight and true, and in the center of the top, the top spins cleanly. As soon as you move the handle to one side, you’ve got wobble. Out-of-round baseballs with a shifted center of mass will wobble during the pitch in much the same way.

Of course, really good pitchers can pitch the dry spitter; legal because nothing is being added to the surface of the ball, so- named because they behave like spitballs. Knuckleballs and split-balls fall into this category. By controlling the release of the ball, the pitcher can control the spin of the ball and therefore the flow of air over the ball. Knuckleballs don’t spin as much, or at all, compared with fastballs. This makes them slow. Without spin and, importantly, without speed, the differences in airflow over the smooth parts of the ball compared with over the stitches are more pronounced. The points on the ball with stitches experience increased drag, and the ball’s trajectory eventually will tend to curve around those points. Faster pitches like the split-ball rely on basically this same principle –controlling the release of the ball so that you can impart a predictable rotation or drop onto the ball’s trajectory.