INKtober! 2019

Day 6—Normal Curve

We can not avoid the normal curve. Not only does it speak to probability, see yesterday’s post, but to normality which turns out to be, when quantified, the average. It informs our cultures and our finances.

I was recently delivering a teacher training and used a pop culture quiz as an activity. Turns out the teachers were delighted to be normal. As one put it very succinctly, “I don’t want to be different.”

When I was in college, we wanted the professors to ‘grade on the curve’. But I didn’t realize I was asking to be compared to other students’ grades instead of the Standard.

Turns out there are six common types of probability distributions—Bernoulli, binomial, uniform, Poisson, normal, and exponential. But they are all about describing empirical data, that is, how often will a repeated event produce the same result.

Day 7—Zero

When you are standing on line, and someone comes and stands in front of you they are cutting in, or someone may be holding their place. You can’t see the place, but if you step into it, you will be made aware.

In Maths, zero is a place holder, a number that is not negative or positive, though it is treated as whole number, an integer, and there seems to be some debate about whether or not it is a natural number.

Zero has no beginning and no end. It is relative to other numbers. It is not quantifiable, whereas Nothing is.

There is an interesting series, Zero is Not Nothing, for younger learners that I would like to read. It might make a great text for second language learners.

On the point of nothing, in physics, we used to believe Space was empty, and that the space between molecular particles was also empty. We used to think that vacuums were empty. Nothing is something. Zero is not nothing (think about having 10 of something versus 100). Is zero something?

Day 8—Genetics

Brown eyes and blue eyes; left and right-handedness; Drosophila experiments in freshman year biology, the nature versus nurture question; it’s in the genes; the Human Genome Project; Gregor Mendel’s peas—it’s all about genetics. Genes are life instructions that we are learning to read. Thank you molecular biology!

Like most science there is the actual science and the popular culture understanding of the science. It’s not just about the genes, but also about how they are expressed and regulated. At the genetic level we may interact with our environment.

Many advances in health and medicine are now coming from the connected fields of genetics, biochemistry, and biophysics. If you want to get serious about this watch this series from UCSF School of Medicine.

Sociology has its hand in genetics and so does archeology. There is now a field of study called Archaeogenetics. Historical human migration is informed by genetics. The Genographic Project by National Geographic is exploring this migration.

Note: I am not suggesting, in any way, that you participate in the Genographic Project. As an educator though, I do like it’s educational materials.

Day 9—Codes

They keep secrets, they validate data, and they are everywhere.

Typing in code brings up sites for learning how to code. I strongly recommend it because they look like fun and I can see them as part of a Project based learning unit or term.

As a child I loved the ‘PigPen code’. I even wrote in code for myself, in my notebooks. Yes, I’ve always been a notebook keeper. Of course I was fascinated by the Enigma Code. To see how the code machine was set up, watch this video. To learn more about the history surrounding the Enigma Code, enjoy the popular movie Imitation Game.

And before we go any further, let’s clarify the difference between a code and a cipher. Ciphers are letter by letter and codes are words or phrases.

Digital Codes Back in when I was doing some computer programming we were concerned with parity bits and checks. Now, there is digital code signing, and SSL, and certificates, and other IT tech words that I do not know about. And then there are the ubiquitous QR codes.

Day 10—PI

I choose this as the final MATHS drawing prompt because it was recently in the news. In March 2019, Emma Haruka Iwao calculated π to 31.4 trillion digits. That’s one million x one million x 31.4. This is the world’s most accurate calculation of π and beats the previous world record of 22 trillion digits. She used a program called y-cruncher and it took 25 computers (I don’t know what type) 121 days to accomplish the task.

But what is π? It is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. To reiterate, it is a ratio, not a length; and it is a constant. My birthday lies in the series of digits, counting after the decimal point it occurs at position 91766825. Find yours here. Yes, it’s a nerdy thing to do.

Last year I read How to Bake Pi by Eugenia Cheng. Ms Cheng has a wonderful way of communicating about math and some good recipes. Do not confuse this with Life of Pi by Yann Martel, although there seems to be a lot of eating in both.

Day 11 - Cepheid Variable Stars

In 1912 Henrietta Leavitt discovered Cepheid variables.

delta Cephei is a variable star. It is the namesake star for the Cepheid Variable class of stars. The brightness of these types of stars varies cyclically, getting brighter and darker, over a measurable period of time. delta Cephei has a cycle of 5.366 days. This characteristic allows astronomers to calculate their distance.

Queen Cassiopeia, wife of King Cepheus, of greek mythology, is the representation of the constellation that ‘points’ to delta Cephei, with her foot.

Her story is not a particularly pleasant one, so I have drawn her not as vain, but strong and sure of herself.

DAY 12 - Red Shift and Quasars

With this topic I quickly find myself in over my head. Red shifts I understand, they are the visual equivalent of the Doppler effect that can be witnessed any time a siren roars towards and then past you. And it seemed that quasars are red shifting. Simple I thought, they are moving away from me. But no.

Before we continue, a quasar is a galaxy, which consists of gases and stars held together by gravity. As I delved into quasars, it turned out that it is really important to know when an article was written because our understanding of the cosmos is changing rapidly.

The clearest article (for me) is from a 2015 IAS article entitled titled The Odd Couple: Quasars and Black Holes: A cosmic detective story by Tremaine. From this I learn that quasars are black hole furnaces. He puts forth three main arguments for his case and I can read them but not critique.

And then there is this National Geographic article on ‘lensed quasars’ and while I can read, I cannot parse it for you; yet. But it seems to indicate that our model of the universe may need to be reconsidered. Hurray!

As I looked at quasar images and renderings, I was drawn to how much they look like hurricanes.

DAy 13 - Neutron capture

Neutron capture lead me to neutron production. I had no idea that neutrons were a commodity. I also had to learn a new word—spallation, a process in which fragments of material (spall) are ejected from a body due to impact or stress.

Neutrons are an amazing method of ‘seeing’ at the molecular level, and as such, are front and center in medical discoveries and practiced medicine. This page, Neutrons: the Science of Everyday Life*, on the ESS site lists 9 major areas of neutron research and contribution to everyday life.  But I digress from Neutron Capture.

That search led me to some very math intensive sites, because of course there are formulas for that. I tried Neutron Capture for Dummies… no luck. Basically it seems that the act of neutron capture forms a heavier isotope of the element that has captured the extra neutron(s). Most, but not all, isotopes are radioactive, and that is why they are useful in agriculture, industry, biology, chemistry, and back again to medicine. Some isotopes are stable and some are not.

Naturally occurring isotopes include thorium and uranium; commonly produced and medically used isotopes are iodine-131, samarium-153, and phosphorus-32. I was once treated with radioactive isotopes, T131. 

There is an Minor League Baseball team called the Albuquerque Isotopes, which is, for all intents and purposes, my home town. J

 *This website has vast quantities of accessible information.

Day 14 — Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, CMBR

Cosmologists believe this is radiation left over from the Big Bang. As such it is a relic, and it is literally everywhere. Its existence was accidentally discovered in 1964/5 by Penzias and Wilson, and their work won a Nobel Prize. Along with the red-shift, we base our model of the universe on this precisely measured phenomenon.

CMBR consists of microwaves, very tiny waves, and is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, of which x-rays and visible light are also a part. The CMBR was once very high energy, but now it is low. Lucky us!

As I sit at my desk, looking out the window across the megalopolis of Bangkok and to the clouds in the sky, I try to image that I am in a miasma of cosmic radiation that is universal—through it I am connected to the far reaches of the universe. I wonder, is it like when I stick my toe in the ocean and feel I am connected to another continent? And there is Dark Matter too (coming soon). I imagine them to be the weft and weave of the material of nothingness that we once thought existed in space. How can I know if they affect me or not, as I have never known their absence.

Day 15 — Baryon-antibaryon Symmetry

Baryons are small sub-atomic particles for example electrons and protons. Baryonic matter is the matter of everyday life, and antibaryonic matter is, well, missing for the most part. Scientist have created almost unimaginably small amounts in colliders. And this asymmetry of matter is big deal and experiments based at Cornell are exploring this asymmetry.

A popular culture thought is that antimatter is the opposite of matter. But let’s explore. On and off, dark and light, left and right are ‘either or’ types of things; they are opposites, yet one can exist without the other—a light can always be on. But symmetry, that’s a different story, and an important one because antimatter is not the opposite of matter, but half of a symmetrical relationship.

So one might think that symmetry is equal in some sense. And it is believed that at the time of the Big Bang both matter and antimatter were created equally from an intense energy source (E=mc2). But it turns out that in the universe matter and antimatter are not equal (mini TED talk here), there is very little antimatter in existence, that can be found. And that fuels a lot of cosmological thought.

On the site Symmetry: dimensions of particle physics, there is a fun and informative post: Ten things you might not know about antimatter by Diana Kwon. It is written accessibly.

Penning traps are a piece of fancy equipment to capture or restrain plasmas (the fourth state of matter and comprised of particles). Images of them reminded me of finger traps.

Day 16 — Dark Matter

Dark Matter has a close friend, Dark Energy and scientists are “pretty sure” they exist and measure them, combined, to make up about 95% of the known universe. What it is they are not sure, but conclude so far that it is “stuff with gravity”. Current science believes that it “consists of a fundamental particle or combination of particles”. Neutrinos are an option? And this (dark) gravity, might not be gravity as we know it.

Dark Matter theories, and they are only that, are related to the redshift and expansion of the universe. Dark Matter is NOT a black hole and it is NOT antimatter. Its existence forces us to question our concepts of ‘empty space” and “nothing”, which have both turned out to be something, we simply don’t know what. The term black, evokes a light absorber, like a black hole. But dark matter does not seem to interact with light at all. It is more transparent in that sense. Areas of Dark Matter concentration seem to act as a gravitational lens, yet, objects are not stretched in our perception.

In April of 2019, a galaxy, dwarf galaxy NGC 1052-DF2, was discovered that has no dark matter. It is now one of two galaxies that appear to contain no dark matter. Fascinating, but yet to be proven.

Dark Energy is closely associated with the Cosmological Constant, which, if the universe IS expanding, AND dark energy is related to the density of the universe, is ΩΛ ≈ 0.7. To put a number on it.

Today’s illustration is personal and came about from the following associations: brush stroke images of the Greek letter Lamda >> mirror image of Chinese character ren, which means human. The Omega letter is half of ΑΩ, >> Christian concept of god. So then god-human. The brush strokes for Omega >> line under a circle >> ancient symbol of the circumpunct, a dot in a circle, >> symbol of god force, some say feminine. Leap to (also ancient) symbol of the dot/circle/line >> dot = the cause, line = the means, and circle = the end. Finally >> iterations of my tattoo.

Day 17 — Great AttractoR

The Earth, along with our entire neighborhood, the Milky Way Galaxy, is moving faster than expected, in fact, greater than its own escape velocity. (Can we escape from ourselves?) The reason appears to be The Great Attractor, which lies the Zone of Avoidance, is an anomalous gravitational behemoth, a concentration of mass equal to ’10,000 x the Milky Way’. Difficult to study because it is “hiding” behind the Milky Way, scientists believe it may be located in the Shaply Supercluster of galaxies, 150-250 million light years away. It is pulling us towards itself at an estimated 2.2 million kilometers per hour. That is not a typo.

Its study incorporates the concept of Dark Flow, which is used to help describe and explain our flying through space faster than the rate of expansion of the universe.   

This phenomenon stretches my ability to imagine. Continuing to search for a reasonable video describing this phenomenon, I found this piece of information: a dipole pattern in the CMBR.  My imagination veered towards the appearance of the universe in a yin yang state of being.  An old NASA page has an image of Dark Energy and Gravity being the yin and yang of the universe. So, alas, my imagination is not original. But I am sharing it anyway. J

Day 18 — Non-zero Cosmological Constant

I wrote a little about the Cosmological Constant on Day 16 —  Dark Matter. Further investigation shows that there is (suspenseful music here) a Cosmological Constant Paradox.

…the fact that when one calculates, based on known principles of quantum mechanics,… one obtains the incredible result that empty space "weighs" 1093 grams per cc (one trignillion grams) when “the actual average mass density of the universe is 10-28 grams per cc (minus ten octillion grams). That is, the measurable amount is roughly 120 orders of magnitude less than the predicted value. Obviously, this is not a small difference.

Einstein originally calculated the cosmological constant to be ZERO, but that was when we believed the universe was static, neither expanding or contracting. Now it is believed that it is expanding, and the expansion is accelerating. Evidently, when the universe was not believed to be expanding or expanding at a steady rate, this was not a problem for physicists, but now that expansion is believed to be accelerating, it is problematic. Though I cannot tell you why. It may have something to do with Dark Energy. Or inflation, as per the coupled scalar theory.

Day 19 — Sloan Great Wall, SGW

A giant wall of galaxies, aka a galaxy filament, was discovered in 2003. It is 1.38 billion light-years in length and was, at one time the largest know object in the universe. (In March 2016 BOSS was named the largest.) From our distance, approximately 1 billion light-years away, it appears as a wall of light. It is located “close to” the Shapely Cluster Region of space which I mentioned on Day 17.

It consists of a complex of galaxy superclusters. Superclusters are 1,000 to 10,000 times the size of the Milky Way. Theses superclusters are held together by dark matter. Scientists are leveraging what they are learning about Galaxy Walls to understand the structure of the universe.

The best I can do to visualize the immense size of this structure is to imagine a it drawn across the 160 degree of view from my bedroom window.

You might enjoy this innovative soundtrack entitled Sloan Great Wall.

Day 20 — Boötes Void

The Boötes Void is a supervoid that is 330,000,000 light years across with only 60 known galaxies sprinkled throughout. I really like the video I’ve referenced because the graphics make the sizes of things in space somewhat comprehensible. And supports what I’ve learned from other sites, that the most common image of the Boötes Void is really a dark molecular cloud called Barnard 68 and not the Void!

So why Boötes Void as my last cosmology based exploration and drawing? I was going to go with ‘Direct Observations of the Cosmic Web’ by Michele Fumagalli and this amazing interactive site to see and play with three models of web connections. But then I started thinking about Voyager’s travels through “The Void” in episode Night of the Star Trek Voyager series.  That settled it. Even on a cosmological scale, being immersed in nothing, the absence of something, is disturbing. Remember the advent of the ‘sensory deprivation tank’, aka isolation tank?

It was a trend/practice that came to popularity on the 1960s on back of personal drug explorations. People reported being deeply relaxed, having reduced anxiety, and also hallucinating and finding god. I wonder, is it a primal connection to nothingness, going back to before the Big Bang, the ultimate ‘almost’ Nothingness?

And one last thought, Do voids always have boundaries?

Day 21 — Details in Nature I

My image is redder than the original because I only have a few Copic pens, mostly greys. But I wanted to add some color to this image. It makes for a lovely fall tone.

Day 22 — Details in Nature ii

Make a wish… Every fall the dandylions would go to seed. As a child we would pick them, and while blowing as hard as we could, make a wish.

Day 23 — Large Structure

This is a large wooden structure that caught my eye. I believe it was in a piece about a museum. I imagine it as a Star Trek space.

Day 24 — Burning Tree

This is based on a photograph of the California wildfires that I saw online, most likely BBC. It spoke to me of the intensity of the fires and the completeness of their destruction.

I bought a couple of new pens, and some white ink. :)

Day 25 - patterns in Nature 1

Well, I lost my way here a bit. Maybe because I struggle with the directionality or because I’m converting blues to greys in my mind. and I wasn’t sure how to do the foam. I choose not to use white ink, but stick with the Copic brushes. I'm slowly becoming more patient.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the drawing.

Day 26 —Patterns in Nature II

This images takes us back to day one— the Spiral of Theodorus. However this is a more curvaceous version. I think I saw this image on a Guardian Nature series.

Day 27 — Details in Nature iii

Citrus slices have this wonderful reaching towards the center. Here is a slice with the protective rind hidden from view.

Day 28 — Patterns in Nature iii

There have been some beautiful images of tree canopies in the recent months, often taken by drone photographers. I find them very pleasing, but do not always agree with conclusions that may be drawn from them.

Day 29 — Details in NAture iV

xxx

Day 30 — patterns in nature iv

Day 31 — Wrapping up the last day with a little reflection