| So you're into sci fi? But what about sci fact?
Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction...
Each month our very own Voyager Science Queen* will bring you interesting,
quirky and downright bizarre tasty morsels from the world of science.
And its all completely, totally, 100% true!
November Sci-Facts
|
Science Page November 2007
Anti-Science
There have been bizarre and fantastic theories presented over the centuries as science. The earth is flat. The earth is the centre of the universe. The stars and planets were held up by magical crystal spheres. Everything is made up from the four elements: fire, water, earth, and air. Clever, thoughtful people could get into a lot of trouble for questioning this knowledge. Asking, “Hey, maybe the world is round?” could get you burnt at a stake as a witch or a heretic. Often, execution was the soft option. People and societies don’t like anyone who appears to be undermining the pillars of knowledge and belief.
So let’s do some digging...
#
Benjamin Franklin believed that electricity was weightless fluid, but he wasn’t alone at that point in history. Mainstream investigators thought electricity could be a resinous or vitreous fluid, while Mr Franklin believed liquid electricity behaved differently when it was at different pressures. He was the first to label electricity as ‘positive’ and ‘negative’.
#
From Greek and Roman times until the nineteenth century, it was believed that the human body contain four humours: bile, blood, phlegm, and black bile. An imbalance between the four humours was what caused ill health. They were also linked to four types of personality temperaments, blood to sanguine, bile to choleric, phlegm to phlegmatic (no surprises there) and black bile to melancholic. Now there’s a bit of interesting information for anyone trying to build up characterisations.
#
Aristotle believed the stars, sun, and planets were fixed to hollow, invisible crystal spheres, all nested one inside the other like Russian dolls. He wasn’t the only astronomer to believe this; this idea started with the Greeks and lingered on until nearly modern times. The spheres were placed in the aether, a mystical fifth humour that sat in the heavens and held everything up. Aether was the substance though which light travelled and propagated; its existence persisted in some circles until Einstein and his theories. These days, aether has a modern equivalent in Dark Matter... no one has actually found it, but it needs to be there for the current astronomical theories to work.
#
Once upon a time, people thought it was bosh that little, invisible animals living in the water could make you sick. We now know that to be correct. Science isn’t as cut and dried as people think, what is considered fact is often only because of community consensus. Look at the theory of Global Warming, which is moving from ‘wacko theory’ into general acceptance.What is ‘wacko’ today might become considered fact, and what is considered fact may be relegated back into ‘wacko’. It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open that any old junk will fill it up. |
*The Voyager Science Queen is also
known as Lynne Green
So, who is this woman who attempts to entertain us with Science?
Well, I really am a scientist. I have a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Queensland, in Zoology. And, at the moment, I am working in a Pathology laboratory.
I have always been intensely curious about every aspect of our universe, from the teeny tiny workings of the gene right up to the mind-bending forces that are twisting and knotting inside a blackhole. So, now I am sharing a brain stuffed full of trivia...and hopefully entertaining people at the same time.
As well, I write Fantasy stories and novels. One day, I hope to have a book published, but don't hold your breath. Reading is my other major love, and my favourite authors are Terry Pratchett and Isaac Asimov, though I could list hundreds of others. If I had one wish, I ask for more time to write!
Read previous Sci-Facts:
Colour My World
Lynne's Top Five Science Books
Animals at War
Busy Little Bees
Thinking Outside the Square
Water-Saving Tips
The Dark Side
Strange Objects
Updates: Bad New, Good News
Happy Holidays
Happy Birthday
Carnivorous Plants
What Makes Matter, Well Matter?
Putting the Science into Science Fiction
The Vortex
The Baddies on Your Bread
Scientific Updates on Previous Articles
Talking not Choking
Searching for the Lost Eden
A Comment on Comets
Mari Lwyd
The Pandemic
Zombie Insects and other oddities
You'll Be A Star!
Twisting
the Light
Green by name, green by nature
A No Science Page...
The Art of Statistics...
Ice, Ice, Baby...
Oddities
Bang, crash...Thud!
The Concept of Time
Fact versus Fantasy
Sci-Facts review
Incy-Wincy Teeny-Weeny Itty-Bitty Small Things
Flavour versus Flavonoids
The Third Eye
X Marks the Spot
The Horseshoe Crab
Pathology
The Tenth Planet
Science News Updates
The Sweet Keen Smell
Indulgence
Hollywood Crimes
Natural
Oddities
A Rainbow of Emotions
When is a star, not a star?
The Red Planet
Minerals
Hot Topic - Vitamins
A brief glimpse of New Technologies
Cuddly
Australian Animals
Something light-hearted
Living
in Interesting Times
New Hope
for Our New Year
The Meaning
of Life...
As the worm turns
Forensics
A Grab Bag of Facts
Bits and Bobs
Australian Achievements
Getting Your Attention
May Sci-Facts
After the Big Bang
The Big Bang
Ashes to
ashes; Dust to dust
Twists in
the tale
Robots in
the Swim and other things
The Tachyon
and other things
Looking for more scientific oddities? Have you checked out Dr
Steven Juan's website? He is, quite literally, the wizard of odds! |
