Category Archives: Science

Reaching for the Stars

Seven years after the last successful Mars landing, the Mars rover Spirit renews Earth’s fascination with the Red Planet.

By Ed Reynolds

The sight of 3-D glasses on the faces of awestruck observers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory briefly lent a 1950s sci-fi touch to the 2004 Mars Rover headquarters. It had been seven years since a spacecraft had successfully landed on Mars, and the smiles on the faces of scientists, engineers, and reporters as they viewed a panoramic 3-D image from the Mars Rover Spirit encapsulated the excitement of America’s successful return to space.

/editorial/2004-01-15/Mars.jpg
shadow
Red Planet Fever: An artist’s conception of the Mars Rover Spirit on the planet’s surface. (click for larger version)

Landing on Mars is a supremely difficult task. In 40 years, only 3 of the 36 attempts have been successful. A pair of Viking craft landed in 1976, sending back the first photos of the planet’s surface. It would be 21 years before another mission achieved the same accomplishment: a 3-foot roving robot named Sojourner slowly rolled across the reddish-orange surface in 1997 after parachuting out of the Mars Pathfinder spaceship, spearheading a flurry of attempts by nations, including the United States, to duplicate the amazing feat. None were successful. Some crashed into the planet. Others simply flew right by, such as a 1999 NASA spacecraft whose landing was foiled because a programmer had earlier failed to switch from English to metric units of measurement. Several weeks ago, when it became obvious that it would not be able to land, a Japanese craft was jettisoned out of Martian orbit and on an eternal trip to nowhere. On Christmas Eve, the European Space Agency, a scientific conglomerate of 15 countries, tried to land the British Beagle 2 on Mars. The lander has yet to communicate with Earth and is presumed dead, though the vehicle that carried it on its seven-month journey continues to transmit data about the Martian environment. It was the European Space Agency’s first Mars attempt, made with a shoestring budget of $40 million. The NASA Spirit mission has a price tag of well over $200 million.

The ultimate objective of the rover Spirit is to search for signs of water in Mars’ past—the key to life as Earthlings know it. Polar ice caps presently exist on Mars, and scientists suspect that channels of warm running water may lie beneath the surface, which would perhaps allow some form of life to thrive. The six-wheeled Spirit robot is the size of a golf cart, and it’s equipped with a drill to bore into rocks, then to study them with a microscope and mineral analyzer. It takes at least 10 minutes for commands from Earth, traveling at the speed of light, to reach the Spirit. Therefore, the rover must be “smart enough” to make many of its own decisions, such as how to navigate around hazards that lie in its path. High-resolution stereo vision is employed by Spirit to survey the landscape, hence the reason for using 3-D vision. Infrared cameras locate minerals that could have formed after coming into contact with water at some point long ago. On January 24, an identical rover, Opportunity, is scheduled to land on the opposite side of the planet.

Considering how far we’ve come in the Space Age, it’s ironic that in the week before Christmas, on the 100th anniversary of the first engine-powered flight, experts could not get an exact replica of the Wright Brothers’ airplane off the ground. Two weeks earlier, the space probe Stardust not only beamed back to Earth the best photos ever taken of a comet, but also scooped up dust samples from the nucleus of the comet Wild 2. The probe will deliver the samples in 2006. In July, the U.S. spacecraft Cassini will complete its seven-year journey to set a lander on the surface of Titan, one of the large moons circling Saturn. Space exploration has not been this thrilling since Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon. Appropriately, President Bush has expressed a desire to return to the lunar surface. So have the Chinese, who launched their first taikonaut (the Chinese version of an astronaut) into orbit in October 2003. (China reportedly covets the moon’s abundance of helium 3, a rare isotope that is used in nuclear reactors but is in short supply on Earth.)

What began as a Cold War showdown for interstellar supremacy in 1957 when the Soviet Union beat America into space, eventually evolved into a surprising spirit of cooperation. In the mid-1970s, the United States and Russia docked orbiting spaceships. It was the first crack in the Cold War ice between the two superpowers, leading the way to years of collaboration as cosmonauts and astronauts shared spaceships in a common goal to construct the International Space Station. Talk radio wackos currently warn that the U.S. must establish a foothold in outer space in order to claim a military advantage. It may come to that someday. But for the near future, the spirit of discovery should be the world’s primary reason for embarking on such daunting adventures as space exploration. There’s no telling what we might find. &

Wright Brothers Replica Coming to Town

Leave a reply

Wright Brothers Replica Coming to Town

By Ed Reynolds

write the author




	John Reynolds spent four years building this replica of the Wright Brothers first airplane, which will be in Birmingham on November 15.

A replica of the first engine-powered airplane that Wilbur and Orville Wright successfully flew will be on display at the Southern Museum of Flight from November 15 to 30. Built by John Reynolds and his wife, Carol, the Wright Flyer celebrates the 100th anniversary of the maiden voyage of an aircraft in sustained, controlled flight. Reynolds describes the project as an all-consuming, “almost religious” task that took four years to complete, much longer than he expected. “I thought I could knock it out in about six months. If I knew then what I do now, I probably could have,” he laughs. The biggest obstacle was visualizing the finished airplane in his mind, explains Reynolds, who completed the project with his wife in 1994. “When you’re working off a set of plans, it’s hard to translate that into a three-dimensional image. I found you just had to make it according to the drawings and it would come to itself, so to speak.” Reynolds relied on drawings supplied by the Smithsonian, where the original is on display. The Wright Brothers left no detailed sketches behind, so the Smithsonian had plans drawn when the plane was restored in 1985.

Reynolds was determined to approach problems of construction much as the Wright Brothers did. “I built the aircraft as authentically as I could, if we assume the Smithsonian is the standard. Some of the [original] fabric and pieces of wood just weren’t practical. The Wright Brothers used Pride of the West Muslin [for the wings] and I just used pima cotton, which approximated the same thread count and density.” He’s amazed that many people don’t realize the lasting impact the Wrights had on the future of airflight. “They were scientists and engineers even though they’d never had any formal training in those areas, and the airplane alone has probably seven or eight inventions that are original ideas developed by them. The propeller, they originally invented that. There was no data on aviation propellers. They started their invention using boat props . . . that just goes to show you how amazing these guys were. They weren’t a couple of kids who got lucky. A lot of people think they just kinda cobbled this thing together and just went out there and flew. But that’s not the case at all.”

John and Carol Reynolds will be at the Southern Museum of Flight on November 15 to introduce the Wright Flyer to Birmingham in honor of the First Flight Centennial at Kitty Hawk on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. And yes, Reynolds’ aircraft was built to fly, though it’s powered by a different engine than the Wrights employed. Reynolds has an 18 horsepower Briggs and Stratton tractor engine because he wanted to fly his plane repeatedly. According to Reynolds, the Wright Brothers’ engine can be made “fairly reliable, but it just doesn’t have the reliability to where I felt comfortable with climbing in the plane.” In the decade since he completed the project, he has yet to try it out. “I built it to fly and I plan to, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to put it in the air,” he says. “I think it’ll be best to wait until after the Centennial celebration (December 12 through 17) that way if I break it, I won’t let anybody down who wants to see it.” Reynolds claims he will fly it himself, eventually. “I don’t think I can find anybody else crazy enough to do it.”

Call 833-8226 for details.

—Ed Reynolds

Vet On Wheels

Leave a reply

2002-10-10 Features

Vet On Wheels

By Ed Reynolds

write the author

For dogs and cats devastated by the anxiety of veterinarian waiting rooms, Dr. Vaughn Walker offers an option that resurrects a tradition long forgotten by the modern world: a doctor who makes house calls. “Seventy years ago that’s how veterinarians worked, going to homes,” says Dr. Walker, who started Comforts of Home Vet Care last April, one of only two licensed small animal mobile practices in the state.

“Lots of animals do better in their own environment. They’re usually calmer, more willing to be worked with,” explains Walker. “I pretty much handle the routine things: vaccinations, heartworm checks, check-ups-minor stuff. I’m not really equipped to handle emergencies. No general anesthesia, just mild sedation. I don’t put them totally under because that requires things such as oxygen and monitoring.”

Front porches, living room floors, and kitchen tables generally serve as examination areas. Pregnancy tests, gastrointestinal problems, ear infections, and the treatment of minor injuries are among the services offered. Walker occasionally sees exotic pets but most of those are difficult to treat. “I’ve seen a few sick lizards, and I do wing and beak trims on birds,” says the Doc.

Home vet care can be an indispensable asset for the elderly who can’t drive or have difficulty corralling an animal for the arduous trip to the vet. Most of the dogs Walker has seen have been large breeds, which can be difficult to squeeze into an automobile. Dr. Walker will even transport your pet to the clinic in his Jeep Cherokee (which he keeps stocked with iced-down vaccines) should the need arise. His fee for a house call is a flat $40, regardless of the number of animals to be examined. Any vaccinations, blood work, or other tests are additional costs.

Dr. Walker services Jefferson and north Shelby Counties from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and is affiliated with the Galleria Animal Clinic. He can be contacted at 907-4000. For pet emergencies, call Emergency Pet Care at 988-5988.

A Wizard’s Touch

Leave a reply

A Wizard’s Touch

By Ed Reynolds

write the author

The most prolific and despised weed known to mankind is Toxicodendron radicans, or poison ivy, a member of the cashew family. The plant’s oily resin is absolutely malevolent, an evil essence legendary for driving humans to the edge of madness. The toxic ingredient is urushiol, an element so potent that a drop the size of a pinhead is enough to affect 50 people. Eighteen years ago, pharmacist Roland Nelson, owner of Reynolds Drugs on Green Springs Highway, decided he’d had enough. He began swapping ideas with other chemists to combat the dreaded menace and one day conjured up a potion revered for its remarkable powers to soothe the torturous itch of poison ivy. (without the aid of prescription ingredients). “This is just something that intrigues me,” Nelson explains about his fascination with blending medicinal compounds. “Compounding has always been one of my loves. Mixing drugs and putting things together.”

Nelson calls his concoction Medi-Summer Gel. His customers call it “goat juice” or “Roland’s magic poison ivy medicine.” Whatever the label, Nelson’s reputation as a wizard is not unfounded. “When I can do something like this and my patients come back to me and say this works, I get a real good feeling out of it,” Nelson confesses. The pharmacist brews a new batch weekly in a lengthy five-hour process.

The blend is really not so mysterious. “It’s mostly over-the-counter,” Nelson says, revealing the secrets of his homemade tonic: “We put diphenhydramine in, and we put promazine in it for the itching. We put hydrocortisone in it and put it in a base. And when it dries, it forms a film over the poison ivy so it kind of protects it a little and keeps it from draining. And we put a little menthol and camphor in it to help stop the itching and to give it a cooling effect.” Nelson doesn’t hesitate to brag about the potency of his mystical ointment, though he envisions no pot of gold at the end of the alchemy rainbow. “It has worked really well. It’s not something that I go out and advertise in the magazines and all that. Basically, I do it for my customers.”

A Pack of Lies

Leave a reply

A Pack of Lies

By Ed Reynolds

write the author

Malignant tumors are no laughing matter, but the gallows humor of the exhibit When ‘More Doctors Smoke Camels’ . . . A Century of Health Claims in Cigarettes prompts more than a few paradoxical giggles. Featured in the display on the third floor of the Lister Hill Library for the Health Sciences at UAB are 25 print advertisements, all shameless tobacco promotions, which make the diabolical claim that good health and the pleasures of smoking are intertwined. And who more reliable to reassure generations of smokers of the vitality of cigarettes than the family physician?

The tobacco industry’s brilliant 20th-century marketing ploys are the essence of the exhibition. In the 1930s, cigarettes were touted for being “less irritating” to the throat due to having been “toasted.” Post-World War II Camel ads acknowledged the benefit of war-time cigarette shortages that forced smokers to light up what they normally might not, implying that coerced smoking of other brands made smokers realize how good Camels really were. By the 1950s, filter tips were invented as a “safer” method of smoking, although at one time asbestos was used in the filters. Low tar cigarettes were the rage in the ’60s and ’70s, but a 2001 ad heralds the latest creation of the tobacco industry, Omni cigarettes, which boast the world’s “first reduced carcinogen cigarette.” In a letter of endorsement from the producers of Omni, the CEO of Vendor Tobacco admits that there are no safe cigarettes, but claims that Omni is “destined to change the future of cigarettes” as the “best alternative.”

Dr. Alan Blum, professor of family medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, home of the tobacco ad collection, labels reduced carcinogen cigarettes as the “latest fraudulent gimmick.” Dr. Blum founded the National Tobacco Archive at the center in 1977. The ad exhibit is presently on a tour of medical and public health schools across the nation.

A 1942 Philip Morris ad in Good Housekeeping takes aim at the

sensitivity of the “feminine throat.” Women were often depicted with children in cigarette ads, as in a 1946 advertisement for Camels touting increased life expectancy. A young child tells her pediatrician, “I’m going to grow a hundred years old” as her mom looks on proudly. Another features a mother cradling a newborn, promoting a new cigarette that is “born gentle, then refined to special gentleness in the making.”

Ads for Old Gold cigarettes show an American Indian proclaiming, “No heap big medicine talk. Old Gold cures one thing: the world’s best tobacco.” A Chesterfield ad declares, “Science discovered it, you can prove it” as a scientist peers into a microscope, a burning cigarette propped between two fingers. Actor Robert Young is portrayed during his “Father Knows Best” days, asserting that his “voice and throat were important factors” in his decision to switch to Camels. And a seductive nurse puffs the same brand, purring, “You like them fresh? So do I!”

Finally, a penguin dressed as a doctor talking on the telephone offers advice to a patient, a stethoscope around his neck as he smokes a cigarette: “Tell him to switch to Kools and he’ll be all right!”

Holy Cow, It’s Good!

Leave a reply

Holy Cow, It’s Good!

By Ed Reynolds

write the author

Promised Land Dairy in Floresville, Texas, is truly the land of milk and honey. On 1,300 acres of mesquite-covered countryside once occupied by honey bee hives, 1,100 Jersey cows graze in divine splendor, producing milk so hallowed that the dairy prints the words of Deuteronomy 26:9 on each bottle. Having sampled several flavors, we can attest to the fact that the milk is indeed richer and creamier than most brands. That’s because Promised Land milk flows from the supple, velvety teats of doe-eyed brown Jersey cows, rather than being jettisoned from the tough-nippled jugs of black-and-white spotted Holsteins, which are used by most dairies. Jersey cows produce milk with more calcium, protein, and nonfat milk solids.

Promised Land milk, a staple on Texas grocery shelves for 13 years and currently sold in 27 states, began appearing in Birmingham dairy cases at Super Target and Wal-Mart Super Centers a month ago. Glass quart bottles sell for about $2, and they are worth it. Homogenized white milk, 2 percent reduced fat, and fat-free milk are available, as are chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, banana, and peach flavors. The latter cries out for fresh peaches, vanilla ice cream, and a blender, ditto the strawberry flavor. As for the rich chocolate milk, Promised Land may have produced the current gold standard.

The Promised Land farm is an integrated independent dairy operation, an old-fashioned throwback to the days when a dairy controlled the herd and its diet, processed the milk, and supervised its distribution. “There are many dairies that have herds. But not many of them have cows and a creamery,” says Melody Campbell-Goeken, who handles public relations for the dairy. “It’s one of the last integrated independent dairies in Texas, and probably one of the few in the nation.”

The automation and biotechnology of the modern dairy industry has resulted in a bland product with little distinction between brands flavor-wise. Unlike its competitors, who inject cattle with artificial hormones to increase production, Promised Land refrains from the practice. “They tried using hormones with the product years ago, and the cows just would not produce the milk with the same flavor. So they decided not to use any more hormones,” explains Campbell-Goeken. The milk is available only in glass bottles, which add a nostalgic touch while keeping the product colder and fresher.

During the holiday season, the dairy offers its lavish egg nog, which tastes like melted ice cream. The egg nog is so distinctive that the label is adorned with its own Bible verse, Isaiah 11:6: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the goat, and the calf and the lion and the yearling together, and a little child shall lead them.”

Space Voyager

Leave a reply

Space Voyager

By Ed Reynolds

write the author

April 26, 2001

Astronaut Jim Kelly escaped the confines of gravity for a couple of weeks in March as he embarked on a two week voyage that included the first crew transfer for space station Alpha. Kelly has been an astronaut since 1996, fulfilling a dream that began after his five-year-old imagination was captured by Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon in 1969. Kelly was the first University of Alabama graduate to fly in space.

B&W: Was flying in space everything you expected?

Kelly: Everything and more. Like a trip you can’t imagine.

B&W: At what point did you realize that you had completely left Earth’s atmosphere?

Kelly: The first place you realize it is when you have main engine cut-off. As soon as that happens, you just start floating out of your seat, everything starts floating up from where it is. And you realize you’re some place you’ve never been before. Of course, the ride up is pretty impressive, too. Something that you’ve never felt before; the different forces on your body, the shaking, and the visuals out the window.

B&W: Describe what you saw.

Kelly: Well, when you’re going up, the first thing you see is the main engines of the solid rocket boosters. You see the light out the window in your peripheral vision. And as you go off the launch pad, the first thing we do is a roll program to get us pointed in the right direction, headed basically east, northeast. If you glance out the window, you can see the Earth rolling around as you go up. We launched right after sunrise and headed towards the east. It got brighter and brighter through the first part of ascent as we went towards the sun. But then you get this big blast of light when the solid rocket boosters come off. There are explosive charges that cut the connections between it and the external tank. And you can see the flash pretty much out your front window. As you keep going up, it slowly starts getting darker and darker until you’re in the black of space.

B&W: Is your brain or thought process affected at all by zero gravity?

Kelly: Yeah, it is. It’s kind of funny. As you get more and more used to it, it becomes the natural way of things. If you need to grab something with both hands, and you’ve got something in one hand, say you’ve got a drink or pencil in one hand. Instead of trying to find some place to set it down, you just let go of it. It gives you a chance to do what you want, and you just come back and pick it up. When I got back on Earth, I dropped a fork. It’s one of those things you unconsciously start doing when you get back on the ground if you’re not thinking or if you’re tired because you’ve been up [in space] for a couple of weeks. You just forget, and you have the same habit patterns. That must be a stronger thing for the space station Alpha crew after being up there for four months. You go, “Hey, I don’t need this pencil right now,” and just let go of it and it falls to the ground. And you’re like, “Huh, why did that happen?”

The other thing it changes is your view of the world, in that down here on the ground it’s real easy to figure out what’s up and what’s down. Up in orbit the first couple of days, you have in your mind the Earth version of up and down, which isn’t necessarily the orbit version of up and down. So it takes a little while. You find your brain adjusting to what the new up and down is. And sometimes you’ll be looking at it, and you’ll be one way and three other people will be different ways. All of a sudden you’ll feel your brain shift to a new version of what’s up. And it’s kind of an interesting feeling.

B&W: When we spoke before your flight, you mentioned that the “fly around” (a shuttle maneuver allowing astronauts to eyeball the space station on all sides to check for any problems before returning to Earth) was a particularly big challenge for you as the pilot. Can you elaborate?

Kelly: We undocked and did one and a quarter laps around the space station. We were on the “V-Bar,” which means we were on the front end as the space station flies through space. And we went from the front end to above it, so that the space station was directly between the Earth and us. We could see the space station and the whole Earth beneath it. And from there we did one complete revolution–we went all the way down until we were between the station and Earth, and then all the way back to the top. We did our separation burn from directly above the station.

B&W: How difficult is flying and landing the shuttle?

Kelly: It’s different than any airplane [Kelly is a jet fighter pilot]. Most commercial airliners will come down on a flight path where it’s about a three degree angle off the ground. But for most of the final landing phase, the shuttle is coming down at an 18 degree glide path towards the ground. It’s six times as steep as what you’ll see in a commercial airliner, so obviously you’re coming towards the ground a lot quicker. Plus you’ve just spent two weeks in space. So you’ve gone two weeks at apparent zero G, and we pulled as much as 1.6 Gs coming back in. You’re readjusting to gravity at the same time as you’re flying a vehicle that–to use [shuttle commander] Jim Weatherbee’s words–is a “runaway freight train.” Your body is trying to catch up with gravity, your mind’s trying to catch up, ’cause all of a sudden your inner ear can sense gravity again, which it hasn’t done for two weeks. At the same time you’re flying this vehicle that’s slamming into the atmosphere and heading towards the ground at an 18 degree flight path. You have to stay ahead of it.

B&W: Would it be accurate to say that the landing is as disorienting as the launch?

Kelly: Oh, yeah. But a big difference is that on the launch up, when we go into orbit, if all goes well, between the two of us we each throw one switch. And on our ascent we were fortunate that we didn’t have any anomalies at all. The launch phase is set up where the computer controls everything, and we pretty much just sit on our hands unless something goes wrong. Luckily nothing went wrong, so we basically sat on our hands for the first eight and a half minutes. We were cycling through displays and checking systems and ensuring that everything was going right, and except for one, we didn’t have to throw any switches or make any critical decisions. On entry, that’s not the case. Once you get below Mach 1, it’s a hand-flown vehicle and the commander flies it. The flight engineer is throwing some switches, and it’s a lot more of a hands-on experience coming in for entry than it is on ascent.

B&W: I guess you were aware that Discovery was the name of the spacecraft in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Kelly: Yeah, we sure were. It’s kinda funny. We took DVDs and CDs for our spare time–which, it turns out, you have almost none of. Although we use the CD player and listen to music up there in space. I took some music that some friends gave me to take along. I think, amongst the whole crew, we flew eight or nine copies of 2001. We listened to a bunch of stuff–popular music, things from high school. A couple of others had CDs that friends had made of space-related tunes. We waived off for 90 minutes, which means we were supposed to come down on entry, but the weather wasn’t good enough for us [to land]. So we fired up the CD player with classical music and relaxed for a little while before getting ready to come down on the second landing revolution.

B&W: Shuttle missions include different nationalities, as well as both military personnel and civilians. Is there any type of military protocol, saluting, traditional things, followed on space missions?

Kelly: Not the typical military protocol of “yes sir” and “no sir,” saluting and those kind of things. However, there’s a lot of military tradition that’s been put into the space station. The first change of command ceremony [on the space station] from the Expedition One crew to the Expedition Two crew involved reading out of the ship’s log book and words spoken by all three of the commanders. There was a bell-ringing ceremony, which is a long naval tradition, that is done. So there’s been several really nice military traditions, primarily naval traditions, that have been incorporated into the special events that happen onboard the space station. But as far as day-to-day protocol, there’s not any of that.

B&W: Is there any Russian protocol recognized?

Kelly: Yeah, in Russian culture they’re really big on toasting, and that’s part of the ceremonies–toasting each other, toasting the ground. In this case, it wasn’t literally, obviously, with glasses or anything [laughs]. But they’re very gracious at doing that type of thing.

B&W: Any communication problems between the Russians and Americans?

Kelly: No, as a shuttle crew member it wasn’t required that I know Russian. The three cosmonauts we flew with were all fluent to different degrees in English, and I had no problem communicating with any of them. But our Expedition crew members that go up there [to the space station] to live and work are also fluent in different levels of Russian.

B&W: Are you ready to go to Mars?

Kelly: Oh, I’m ready [laughs]. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re ready yet. But hopefully sometime during my astronaut lifetime we’ll start heading back to the Moon and Mars. &