ScienceBlog.ie

Happy Friday Baseball fans. With the opening day of the 2010 baseball season less than a week away (Opening game is a big one – April 4th, Sox v Yankees, 1am Irish time – be there!), this is as good a time as any to do a baseball book review. But it’s also sceintific!

Moneyball is one of the best selling sports books of all time. It is subtitled “The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” and it chronicles the paradigm shift to a then newly touted science technique called “sabermetrics”, which was brought in to the game in 2002, and began the transition of baseball from the historical way of scouting players to the new technique which involved statistics, statistics and you guessed it more statistics. It was the brain child of the newly installed manager of the (at the time) unsuccessful Oakland Athletics (locally known as the A’s – how do they come up with them), which rethought the basis on which a selector scouted for potential players. Traditionally a value was put on traits such as foot speed, defence and strength but this new system identified success based on stats for results  - such as the ability to get on base.

The story revolves around Billy Beane, a former player who has taken over the A’s, a team with little to no money compared to the powerhouses of LA, Boston and New York. It specifically focuses on the 2002 draft, the process of acquiring new players, and examines how Billy and his team are using these new techniques as opposed to the old school baseball scouting methods. For a game steeped so long in tradition, it was a bold and brave move to employ such an outside the box technique, and it is set against the entertain backdrop of Billy and his team (of statistical misfits), it makes for a fascinating page-turner.

I listened to the audio book recently (after having read the book a couple of years ago), and there are some genuinely laugh out loud moments. You will also find yourself Googling Kevin Youkilis, a fat slow third baseman, who earned himself the title of “the Greek God of Walks.” I especially love the part where Scott Hatteberg, a rookie in his first major league match steps up to bat and ended up geting whats known as easy double (essentially walks to 2^nd base). However, his childhood idol Don Mattingly was the first baseman for the Yankees that day and was not long from retirement. So to the shock of everyone in the stadium, Hatty stops on the first base bag instead, just so he can grab a few moments with the great man. You will find yourself trying to find pictures of “The Creature” a guy drafted without ever being seen, just because he seemed like a bargain. You will try to search for the events of Sept 4th, 2002 in Oakland on Youtube. You will try to find pictures of Chad Bradford scraping his knuckles as he pitches. And all your searches will add a little entertainment to your day!

It’s considered one of the best sports books of all time, and is oft cited by business leaders who are searching for alternatives ways around old problems. Highly recommended and you don’t need to be a baseball nut to appreciate. Far from it, although there is a risk you will become one!

To read more on baseball, check out Ireland’s best sports blog, dedicated to American sports.

Also coming soon to a cinema near you in 2011, Moneyball the movie – link.

-Brian (bhc at lifescience.ie)

Battery life decreases during in the cold.
Some studies suggest 20-40% reduction, although in modern batteries this is only temporary. This is due the the atoms (or ions in the case of batteries) randomly moving at a slower pace. We must thus impart them with more energy to make them move. A representation is trying to get something over a hill. We need to impart force to get them is, and after the crest of the hill they can “travel” the rest themselves. Thus the crest represents a threshold which must be crossed be movement is imparted. The cold weather essentially increases the steepness of the slope on the “hill.”

Salt lowers the melting point of water.
Link. Also, seemingly grit has little to no effort on it’s own, it’s simply used to bulk up the salt being spread and it serves as a physical sidekick to help mash the salt into the ice. This is because the rock salt is practically useless if it’s just sitting on top of the ice.

View from the top of the world’s tallest tower (Burj Dubai) – Youtube link

And to finsih: How long is a piece of string?

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

This week we’re in Christmas mood and looking at the Science of the carious aspects of Christmas and Santa Claus. We will attempt to answer the following:
-How can Santa get down the chimney?
-How is Rudolf’s nose red?
-The logistics behind the day itself.
-How can reindeer fly?

Right, plenty of work ahead so let’s get cracking!
-How can Santa get down the chimney?
OK, we know he’s not a small man, so let’s focus on his possible flexibility. Scientifically called hypermobility, this is a function which allows people to move the3ir joints in irregular ways. Factors which Santa must therefore possess are shallow ball & socket joints, supple ligaments, toned muscles (maybe underneath the insulating fat?) and ironically enough, a bad sense of joint movement.
Given his girth, we need to examine whether Santa can squeeze his girth down the chimney itself, given his relative girth. An average chimney size seems to be 14″/16″ diameter. We’ll give him some wiggle room and say 16″. Calculating the circumference (2 x pi x radius) give 50.24 inches. Let’s assume Santa is 6’3″ (he looks like a tall guy) and 300lbs (seems about right…). This would bring his waist size to about 44″s. So technically it IS possible for him to fit down a large chimney!

-How is Rudolf’s nose red?
Simple. Flourescent proteins! Red fluorescent proteins have been isolated from coral organisms, we would therefore have to assume that some sort of freak genetic mutation has morphed the epidermal proteins on Rudolf’s nose.

-The logistics behind the day itself.
As Christmas is only celebrated by a number of religions, and in places like Denmark they celebrate Christmas on the 24th Dec, Santa has more than 24hrs to play with. He has at least 31 hours due to the timezones, if we say he can Denmark and some other countries out of the way on the 24th in the evening, let’s say he has 42 hours in total. Figures:
~390m millions children in total
3.5 kids per household = 93.5m houses (assumes >1 good kid in each)
681 houses / second. Pretty unlikely……

-How can reindeer fly?
Given there are 30,000 undiscovered species in our world, it is possible that flying reindeer do exist. The vacuum force theory is also in existence here.
Speed is an issue, the reindeer would have to move so fast they would burn up almost instantaneously. To combat this Santa uses a protective ion-shield created with a very large magnetic field.

Some good links:
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

http://www.chainreactionbicycles.com/santaclaus.htm

http://www.physorg.com/news2487.html

If you have any further questions do let us know – we’ll try our best to discover the truth!

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

Teleflex Medical design and deliver specialised instruments and devices to touch nearly every organ in the human body. With 1 well established Original Equipment Manufacture plant in Limerick (TFX OEM) and a newly announced plant being created in Athlone, this is a relatively low profile player in the Irish medical device sector which looks set to grow. The recent jobs announcement involved the company setting up their European HQ in Athlone, with the creation of 150 highly skilled positions in the next 5 years (announced in 2007). This site now seems to be gathering momentum.
Their Limerick site as founded in 1983, and specialises in the contract manufacture of a number of various medical device products. With many patented and innovative materials, they would seem to be able to offer products that other companies stuggle to match. More information can be found here.

Brian – (brian dot c at lifescience dot ie)

Former Tour champion Greg LeMond has recently challenged yellow jersey holder Alberto Contador to prove he is clean after data published by the Festina Performace guru, Antoine Vayer, showed that he would need a VO2 max of 99.5 ml / min / kg to sustain the speed at which he recently climbed the Verbier mountain on Stage 17 of this years edition of Le Tour de France. In answering, Contador would not be drawn to the subject, giving the banale: “No comment” response.

Pantani winning the epic 17th Stage at Les Deux Alpes in 1998

To compare, let’s look at Marco Pantani, which involves the tragic downfall of El Pirata (The Pirate) due to horrific drugs abuse in the later stages of his career. I had the pleasure of visiting Pantani’s hometown, Cesenatico and visited his grave a number of years ago. I also caught a glimpse of the man’s first bicycle in one of the local bars.

The following graph gives an interesting view over power output over the last few years:

Graph showing winners and their respective power outputs

Here we can see compare the disgraced winners (Riis, Pantani and Ullrich) against the ‘Clean’ riders (Indurain, Armstrong). Note that I am utilising the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ in the above statement!

Considering Contador’s calculated VO2 max of 99.5 ml / min / kg against Armstrong’s widely reported max of 85 ml / min / kg, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that LeMond is right to be suspicious. If we plot his performance on the above graph, Contador’s Wattage comes in at the level of the disgraced riders. The physiology cannot lie!!!

Taking off my ‘innocent until proven guilty’ hat, surely it’s onlly a matter of time before this Champion-elect is found guilty, especially considering his gargantuan exploits the day after beating allcomers in the Stage 18 Time Trial.

Drugged?

-Brian

brian.c at lifescience.ie

According to the study one in six people of European decent carry two copies of the variant and compared to people with no copies of the gene had a 70% risk of obesity and could be an average of 3kg heavier.

However a more recent study has suggested that the effects of the variants can be counteracted with physical exercise. The research concluded that a person with both variants of the gene would have to burn an extra 900 kilocalories a day to offset the possible weight gain. The average heighted Irish male at 5 foot 9.8 inches, is considered obese at 15 stone (30.3 BMI). Therefore to burn 900 kilocalories is approximately equivalent of walking from the Guinness Brewery to the O2 Arena 3 times, 11.3km or playing a 90 minute game of football every day….

The study also showed that people that had variants of the gene and an average physically active life showed no sign of the effects.

-niamh

ScienceNews reports that a new type of dinosaur, Limusaurus inextricabilis, has been discovered at a fossil dig site in China. The find is especially exciting due to the dinosaur’s apparent close relation to birds, further proving some scientists’ theory that one group of dinosaurs actually evolved instead of dying out. This group of dinosaurs, called theropods, walked on two legs, and the new dinosaur fossils that was discovered in China extend the link between theropods and modern day birds because of its clear similarity to bird hand-bone arrangements.

Limusaurus inextricabilis is thought to have been a vegetarian, “ostrich-size dinosaur” according to ScienceNews and also had a beak. This dinosaur also has one less finger than most of the other theropods that have been found, a fact that helps some scientists prove that it is more closely related to modern birds than was previously hypothesized. If birds did evolve from this particular dinosaur, as scientists are now considering more seriously, then bird wings would have transitioned from the limusaurus inextricabilis’ unique hand structure, which favors a second, third and fourth finger arrangement, rather than a first, second and third finger design. This hand structure originally evolved from a five-digit hand design.

The dinosaur, whose new, given name means “mire lizard who could not escape” was so named because it is believed to have died by getting trapped in a mudflat in what would have been China 159 million years ago.It may have had feathers, but scientists are inconclusive on this theory. They do know, however, that Limusaurus inextricabilis had no teeth and primarily ate a vegetarian diet that was digested by swallowing small rocks to grind down food. Some rocks, called gastroliths, were found inside the stomachs of these dinosaur fossils and support this theory.

The fossil expedition was led by vertebrate paleontolist James M. Clark, of George Washington University and whose project was partly funded by The National Geographic Society. The expedition and findings are documented in the June 18^th issue of Nature journal.

This post was contributed by Caitlin Smith, who writes about the best online courses. She welcomes your feedback at CaitlinSmith1117 at gmail.com

From here and Novo Nordisk official press release here.

Interesting little article from the Danish Jylland’s Posten site on how Novo Nordisk, the Danish world leader in diabetes care, partook in the Saddam Hussain Oil-for-Food scheme run when the dictator was in power. The organisation’s head denied the whole thing in 2005: “I would like to inform the Danish public and the UN, that we were exposed to this negative press.”

The Danish pharma giant didn’t only pay large sums of money under the table to the then-dictator, but also went to great lengths to camouflage the illegal payments when scrutinised by the UN, so they could sidestep sanctions against Iraq. They’re now due to pay a 100MDkr (ca. €13.5M) to the US government in fines.

-BHC

Just saw this on RTE news, amazing story. Connie Culp, 46, was shot in the face by her husband in 2004 – he then turned the gun on himself. 30 operations later, she still did not have the ability to perform ‘ordinary’ facial functions. A 22 hr operation, led by 11 surgeons has reHer news conference afterwards was special too, kids used to call her a monster. Connie used to have to carry a photo of herself to show them what she used to look like. It will be very interesting to see if she regains the ability to smell and drink (not using a straw) – things we all take for granted.

Before shooting:

Connie Culp pre-shooting

After shooting:

Connie Culp pre-operation

After operation:

Connie Culp after operation

News conference
Pics of Connie Culp previously

-BHC