Shifting skies give new meaning to 'star-crossed'

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POCONO LIFE

Shifting skies give new meaning to 'star-crossed'

April 14, 2006

Q. Tired of your astrological sign? Is there anything you can do

about it?

 

A. Actually, due to constantly shifting stars and constellations,

your sign may not be what you think it is.

 

Picture planet Earth like a spinning top, whose axis from pole to

pole today points in the northern hemisphere at the North Star,

Polaris, say Georges Charpak and Henri Broch in "Debunked!"

 

But due to gravitational effects of the sun and moon on our planet's

equatorial bulge, plus other factors, the axis "precesses" slowly,

taking 25,790 years to go around completely. At that point the North

Star will again be Polaris, but 12,000 years from now it will be

Vega.

 

Since the zodiac was first developed by the Sumerians 4,000 years

ago, the constellations have moved more than 30 degrees, says

Suzanne Traub-Metlay of Fiske Planetarium at the University of

Colorado, Boulder. In fact, since the astronomical constellations,

fixed in 1930 by the International Astronomical Union, are different

sizes than astrological constellations, some people's birth signs

are off by as many as two constellations!

 

Newspaper horoscopes still use the old Greek names, conveniently

ignoring Ophiochus the Snake Wrestler, a constellation for 2,000

years and the 13th sign. Yet serious Western astrologers use the

Vedic India technique of realigning their work to actual star

positions and decouple their star charts from old calendars, says

Traub-Metlay. So if you astrology buffs haven't already done so, you

might consider going Vedic.

 

Q. When an astronaut sneezes in deep space, what's in the droplets

that wouldn't be there back at home?

 

A. Viruses, in a much higher count than normal even though there are

no other signs of infection, says Nigel Calder in "Magic Universe."

 

On the Apollo Moon missions, astronauts showed reduced numbers of

protective white blood cells. In various tests, T-cells altered

their internal structure within 30 seconds of the onset of

weightlessness.

 

"The force of gravity is somehow involved in the functioning of the

immune system," Calder says.

 

Cosmonauts on the Russian Mir space station had test toxins painted

on their skin and developed rashes they wouldn't have on Earth.

 

It takes about two weeks for the immune system to return to normal

back on the ground.

 

The key puzzle is to separate the effects of weightlessness from

those of general space travel stressors, such as close physical

confinement, freewheeling body clocks, radiation.

 

Said Switzerland's Augusto Cogoli, "It's really quite urgent to get

to the bottom of this for long space journeys because there are no

hospitals on Mars."

 

Q. What's the strange biological "afterlife" of a dead whale at sea?

 

A. When the carcass sinks to the seabed, called a "whale fall," soon

the mobile scavengers show up — sleeper sharks, hagfish and king

crabs, that can take 10 years or more to complete the stripping for

a 160-ton blue whale, says Graham Lawton in New Scientist citing

marine biologist Craig Smith.

 

Then come the smaller creatures, going for the blubber-drenched

sediment first, but their real target is the bones: A whale skeleton

can be up to 20 tons, and 60 percent fat by weight!

 

"Exposed whale bones quickly become covered in a writhing mass of

lipid-slurping worms, snails, clams and limpets," Lawton says.

 

Next flourish the anaerobic bacteria that help sustain a complex

community of "sulphide lovers" — crustaceans, mussels, etc. A

typical whale skeleton in this third stage harbors 185 species, and

this stage may go on for 100 years.

 

A large blue whale's skull is 4 meters long and 2 meters in

diameter, with huge stores of lipids. Nothing else at this depth

could sustain an entire ecosystem for decades.

 

Some 70,000 great whales die each year, estimate Smith and

colleagues, with 850,000 active whale falls at any given time and

with more than 400 species found at whale falls alone. Lots more

species will be found — "It's a big ocean!"

 

Q. What's the trick to ear wiggling?

 

A. No trick at all, it's in the genes and runs in families, like the

ability to curl one's tongue, says R. Steven Ackley, communication

disorders specialist at Gallaudet University, and a wiggler.

 

The three extrinsic muscles of the ear are probably becoming

vestigial in humans. Moving the ears and tightening the forehead was

probably part of early man's bluffing challengers for a mate, much

like other primates still do. After all, we do not need to orient

our pinnas toward a sound source the way wolves can do.

 

Some of us throwbacks can still contract at least the "auricularis

posterior," which pulls the pinnas back. "But give our species

another hundred thousand years or so and there may be no more Stan

Laurels among us."

 

Send strange questions to brothers Bill and Rich Sones at

strangetrue. The Sones brothers are co-authors of

"Can a Guy Get Pregnant? Scientific Answers to Everyday and

Not-So-Everyday Questions."

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