Sciency Words: I.A.U. (An A to Z Challenge Post)

April 11, 2017April 11, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 24 Comments

Today’s post is a special A to Z Challenge edition of Sciency Words, an ongoing series here on Planet Pailly where we take a look at some interesting science or science related term so we can all expand our scientific vocabularies together. In today’s post, I is for:

I.A.U.

Yesterday I mentioned the International Commission on Stratigraphy (I.C.S.), the organization that assigns names to the geological strata of our planet. When you really get into this sciency words stuff, it seems like just about every single field of scientific research has its own international commission or union or organization like the I.C.S.

Which brings us to the International Astronomy Union or I.A.U. I’m willing to bet you already know about this organization, even if you didn’t know its name. They did something that made them very famous. Or perhaps I should call them infamous. And what did the I.A.U. do to become so infamous?

Yup. They’re the people who decided Pluto isn’t a planet.

Also, if you’ve ever wanted to name a star after your girlfriend or boyfriend or most beloved pet, the I.A.U. would like you to know that you’re not allowed to do that. Sorry. (They’re not actually sorry.)

Okay, it’s easy (and fun) to get mad at the I.A.U. over Pluto, and I know it’s disappointing to find out your thoughtful star name gift isn’t valid. I’ve known people to get pretty upset about that star name thing.

But according to the I.A.U.’s website, their goal is to establish “unambiguous astronomical nomenclature” for use in scientific literature. That means assigning official names to astronomical objects and writing official definitions for terms astronomers use, so as to avoid confusion or miscommunications in scientific discourse.

While I’m not exactly a big fan of the I.A.U., I do get where they’re coming from. Having dozens of stars named Jessica or Mary or Bobby would create a lot of confusion. And as for that matter with Pluto… we’ll come back to that later this month.

Next time on Sciency Words: A to Z, we’ll say hello to NASA’s Juno mission.

Sciency Words: Holocene (An A to Z Challenge Post)

April 10, 2017April 10, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 10 Comments

HOLOCENE

Real dinosaur fans can tell you that dinosaurs lived in the Mesozoic Era, a geological era that is subdivided into the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods.

Real fans of humans can tell you that humans live in the Cenozoic Era, in a subdivision called the Quaternary Period, in a further subdivision known as the Holocene Epoch—a name which can be translated from Greek to mean “entirely recently.” Again, scientists, you can be more creative than that.

This “entirely recent” epoch began approximately 11,700 years ago, a time which corresponds loosely to the end of the most recent ice age and also corresponds loosely to what archeologists call the mid to late Stone Age.

Major developments during the Holocene include melting glaciers, the extinction of animals like the woolly mammoth and saber-toothed tiger, and of course the rise and spread of human civilization.

The Holocene ends with… well, obviously we don’t know how it ends. Or maybe we do.

There’s an ongoing debate among geologists about whether or not the Holocene has ended already. Some say a new geological epoch—called the Anthropocene—has begun. Anthropocene is derived from the Greek word for human, and it would be characterized by the effects human activities are having on the geology of this planet.

The International Commission on Stratigraphy is in charge of naming geological time periods and defining their start and end points, and the I.C.S. has a working group studying the Holocene vs. Anthropocene issue.

If the Anthropocene is accepted as an official geological epoch by the I.C.S., then the Holocene may have ended about two hundred years ago with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. There’s an alternative proposal that would have the Holocene end in the mid-20^th Century with the dawn of the nuclear age, because changing levels of radioisotopes in rock strata would make the boundary between the two epochs easier to identify. And there’s a proposal to make the Anthropocene a subdivision within the Holocene, rather than making it its own separate epoch.

Whatever the I.C.S. decides to do, their decision will probably be controversial. But it won’t be the first time an international organization like this stirred up controversy over how to define scientific terms. More on that tomorrow.

Sciency Words: Gravity (An A to Z Challenge Post)

April 8, 2017April 3, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 16 Comments

GRAVITY

We’ve all heard the story about how Isaac Newton discovered gravity.

But Newton’s discovery was not just that objects fall to the ground. Other people had noticed this before.

Newton’s real breakthrough was realizing that the same force which causes apples to fall also holds the Moon in its orbit around the Earth. Previously, it had been assumed that earthly physics here on the ground must be different from the celestial physics of the Moon, the planets, and the stars.

This is why Newton called his discovery the law of universal gravitation: because he believed his law must apply no matter where you are in the universe. Of course Newton didn’t know the planet Mercury was “breaking the law,” so to speak, nor did he know about black holes.

But I don’t want to get into Einstein and general relativity. Not today, at least. For today’s post, I just want to focus on the word gravity itself. Where did that word come from?

I used to think it was really cool how a scientific term like gravity had spread out and acquired additional shades of meaning in the English language. Think of a phrase like “the gravity of the situation,” where gravity means something like importance or seriousness.

But I’ve since learned that it actually happened the other way around. English originally borrowed gravity from French, and the word can be traced back to Latin. It originally meant something like dignified or serious. It could also mean weighty, in the sense of either metaphorical or literal weightiness.

But the idea of defining gravity as a physical force permeating the universe, causing objects to be attracted toward one another—that’s apparently an invention of Newton and his contemporaries. So now I think it’s really cool how science can take a word we already had and give it a whole new meaning.

Next time on Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge, we’ll talk about humans. Oh no, wait… that’s not my pick for the letter H. I have a much more interesting H-word to talk about; but humans will be involved.

Sciency Words: Frost Line (An A to Z Challenge Post)

April 7, 2017April 3, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 16 Comments

FROST LINE

They say it’s cold in space. That’s not quite true. First off, how do you define what temperature means in a vacuum? That’s a much harder question that you might think.

But secondly—and more importantly for today’s post—a lot depends on where you are in space, because if you happen to be anywhere near a star, I guarantee you will feel the heat.

If you read enough scientific literature about space, you’ll eventually encounter the term “frost line,” and you’ll probably be able to guess from context what it means. Objects on one side of the line are close enough to the Sun for ice to melt (or more likely, sublimate), while objects on the other side are far enough away that ice remains frozen.

In our Solar System, the frost line is usually placed somewhere in the middle of the asteroid belt.

But there’s a lot of disagreement about where specifically the frost line is, in large part because there’s a lot of disagreement about how, specifically, the term should be defined.

Some astrophysicists define the frost line based on temperature conditions in the Solar System today. Others define it based on conditions from back when the Solar System was still forming. Also, there can be different frost lines for different chemicals, because the freezing point of water is different than that of methane or nitrogen or carbon dioxide.

This is a case of how some scientific terms are more clearly and precisely defined than others. And yet despite all the ambiguity about the frost line (or lines), it is still an incredibly useful term to help describe the layout of the Solar System. Which is why, if you read enough scientific literature about space, you are bound to come across this term eventually.

Next time on Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge, where did the word gravity come from?

Sciency Words: Earth (An A to Z Challenge Post)

April 6, 2017April 3, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 10 Comments

EARTH

What planet do you live on? What is its name? Officially?

If you’re a regular reader of science fiction, you may have seen your home planet referred to by several “official” names: Terra, Gaia, Telluria, or perhaps Sol III.

But in real life, the International Astronomy Union (I.A.U.) is the only organization that gets to decide what planets and other objects in space are officially named. We’ll be hearing a lot about the I.A.U. as this Sciency Words: A to Z challenge continues.

And according to the I.A.U., our planet is officially and unambiguously named Earth. Except when it’s not. The I.A.U. makes the concession that Earth’s name is different in different languages, though they do insist that it should always be treated as a proper noun.

That may seem like common sense. It would be extremely culturally insensitive to force the English name for our planet on every other culture in the world. But in fact the I.A.U. seems to be making a special exception for Earth (and also for the Sun, the Moon, and the Solar System) by allowing other languages to use other names.

For example, they want you to call Mars Mars regardless of what language you speak, at least for the purposes of scientific discourse. Saturn should always be called Saturn, and Pluto should always be called Pluto—and don’t you dare call Pluto a planet!—according to the I.A.U.

As I said, we’ll be hearing a lot about the I.A.U. as the month progresses.

Next time on Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge, we’ll leave Earth (or whatever it’s called) behind and visit a frostier region of the Solar System.

Sciency Words: Dinosaur (An A to Z Challenge Post)

April 5, 2017April 3, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 13 Comments

Programming note: If you’re here for today’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group post, please click here.

DINOSAUR

When I was a kid, dimetrodon was my favorite dinosaur. It has a sail on its back. How cool is that?

Then I found out that dimetrodon is not a dinosaur. It’s just a lizard. Then I found out from this video that it’s not even a lizard.

Also, pterodactyls aren’t dinosaurs. Neither are plesiosaurs or ichthyosaurs. None of my favorite dinosaurs were actually dinosaurs! Frustrating, isn’t it?

So today, I thought I’d give you a quick tip on how to tell when a “dinosaur” is actually not a dinosaur. Sciency Words is all about defining scientific terms, and paleontologists use several key features to define what is or isn’t a dinosaur. For example: the number of openings in the skull, the shape of the hip bone, the type of joint at the ankle….

If you’re a professional dinosaur scientist, you need to know this stuff. But for the rest of us, the easiest way to tell (in my opinion) is by looking at the orientation of the legs. Dinosaur legs are vertical to the ground, not horizontal. They go straight up and down, rather than being splayed out to the sides.

So if you think it’s a dinosaur, but the legs are splayed apart, it’s not a dinosaur.

If you’ve ever seen a crocodile or salamander try to run, you can understand why having your legs splayed apart like that is a disadvantage.

Standing upright on their vertical legs, dinosaurs had a much easier time walking and running on land. Also, vertical legs can support more weight, allowing dinosaurs to become much bigger and much heavier than their cousins, the amphibians, reptiles, and whatever the heck dimetrodons were.

Next time on Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge, we’ll find out what our planet’s name is.

Sciency Words: Centaur (An A to Z Challenge Post)

April 4, 2017April 3, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 4 Comments

CENTAUR

As I mentioned in my first Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge post, some scientific terms are kind of dumb. This isn’t one of them. I actually think this one’s pretty clever. There’s a class of large objects in the Solar System that astronomers have decided to call centaurs.

Eh… no. These objects have nothing to do with horses, but they are sort of half one thing and half another! When they were first discovered, astronomers were confused because centaurs appeared to have the characteristics of both asteroids and comets.

I first learned about centaurs in this article from Discovery News. It’s now believed that centaurs originally came from the Kuiper belt—a sort of second asteroid belt that lies beyond the orbit of Neptune. Basically, they came from Pluto’s neighborhood.

Due to gravitational interactions with the gas giants, these objects were pulled inward. The now have highly unstable orbits crossing between the orbits of Neptune and Jupiter. Eventually, further gravitational interactions may hurl a centaur into the inner Solar System, putting it within melting distance of the Sun and transforming it into a full-fledged comet.

Originally, the International Astronomy Union wanted to name all the centaurs after actual centaurs from Greek mythology. But they quickly ran out of names. Now the official naming theme includes all mythical hybrids and/or shape-shifters. Examples include Typhon (half man, half dragon), Ceto (half woman, half sea monster) and Narcissus (a man who transformed into a flower).

Next time on Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge, we’ll find out why dimetrodon is not a dinosaur.

Sciency Words: Brontosaurus (An A to Z Challenge Post)

April 3, 2017April 3, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 13 Comments

BRONTOSAURUS

I’ll never forget that sad moment in my childhood when I found out that brontosaurus is not a real dinosaur. Someone made a mistake, and we had to call brontosaurus apatosaurus instead.

Here’s a quick rundown of events in the brontosaur/apatosaur naming controversy:

1877: A dinosaur skeleton is discovered and given the name scientific name (genus and species) Apatosaurus ajax.
1879: Another dinosaur skeleton is discovered and given the name Brontosaurus excelsus.
1903: Upon further examination, it’s determined that these two dinosaur specimens are too closely related and should be classified as the same genus. Since the genus Apatosaurus was identified first, Brontosaurus excelsus became Apatosaurus excelsus.

On a personal note, I was stunned to find out all this happened way back in 1903. When I was a kid, I was under the impression that this was a much more recent development.

Anyway, there’s some good news for brontosaurus fans. In 2015, Brontosaurus was reinstated as its own genus. Turns out that while those two skeletons are very similar, there’s enough of a difference in the structure of the neck to justify classifying them separately.

By the way, brontosaurus means “thunder lizard,” because of the sound it must have made when it walked. Apatosaurus apparently means “deceptive lizard.” I’m not sure why they called it that back in 1877, but after this case of attempted identity theft, I’d say the name fits.

Next time on Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge, we’ll head out into space and meet some centaurs.

Sciency Words: Acetic Acid (An A to Z Challenge Post)

April 1, 2017March 31, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 38 Comments

ACETIC ACID

Chemists have several different ways to define what an acid is (specifically, they have three definitions for acids and bases). But in many if not most cases, the key distinguishing feature of an acid is what I like to call a “dangling proton.”

By that I mean there’s a single proton (a.k.a. a hydrogen ion) sort of sticking off the side of the molecule. This proton is only loosely attached, and it could easily break off given the opportunity. With that in mind, I’d like you to mean acetic acid.

You probably know acetic acid best for its staring role in vinegar. Vinegar is a mix of water, acetic acid, and sometimes traces of other things for flavor.

I probably first heard about acetic acid in school, long before I had any reason to care about chemistry. It wasn’t until more recently, when I committed myself to learning this science stuff for the sake of becoming a better science fiction writer that I really found out what acetic acid is.

I decided to start the A to Z Challenge with acetic acid because the name illustrates something that I think is an important thing to know about scientific terms: some of them are kind of dumb. The “acetic” in acetic acid comes from the Latin word acetum, which means acid.

So acetic acid literally means “acid acid.” Not very creative, chemists.

Next time on Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge, we’ll find out what the deal is with the name brontosaurus.

Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge

March 31, 2017March 30, 2017 ~ J.S. Pailly ~ 4 Comments

I’ve wanted to do this for a while now, but every year I chicken out. It’s a lot of writing. That by itself is intimidating. For me, it’ll be a lot of research and a lot of drawing as well, all packed into twenty-six days.

I nearly chickened out again, but this year I’m finally doing it. I’m doing the A to Z Challenge. Throughout the month of April, I’ll be posting every day (excluding Sundays), with each post proceeding through the alphabet letter by letter. And my theme will be Sciency Words (obviously).

For those of you who might be new to my blog, Sciency Words is a weekly series where we look at some interesting new science or science related term so we can all expand our scientific vocabularies together.

I’m going to use the A to Z Challenge as an opportunity to cover some terminology that I’ve never really had a good reason to cover before. I’ll also revisit a few terms that I’d like to say more about. And while we’re at it, we might touch on a few controversies surrounding the definitions of certain terms.

Don’t worry, Pluto. We’ll get to you.

So tune in beginning tomorrow for the Sciency Words: A to Z Challenge. We’ll be starting with acetic acid.

A to Z Challenge Links

Main Website: www.a-to-zchallenge.com

Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/atozchallenge

Twitter: @AprilAtoZ

Twitter Hashtag: #atozchallenge