Ben Gilliland's blog

How small stuff hit the big time (celebrating 80 years since the discovery of the neutron)

Mon, 06/11/2012 - 07:29 — Ben Gilliland

It is half of the ultimate double act – the particle equivalent of Ernie Wise or Oliver Hardy – the neutron is the particle straight-man to the proton’s charged-personality.

Like all great double acts, the neutron and proton spent years plugging away in anonymity until, one day, they were discovered, plucked from obscurity and thrust into centre stage.

The proton and neutron can be found at the heart of every atom (apart from hydrogen, which possesses just a lonely proton) and without them matter as we know it couldn’t exist.

Strangely, this most fundamental of double acts didn’t find fame together – and it was the proton that would enjoy the the first taste of international celebrity.

Did the Moon give life a kick up the bum?

Mon, 05/28/2012 - 07:36 — Ben Gilliland

In last week’s Cosm, ‘Why existence is miracle enough’, we alluded to the idea that the Moon may have been instrumental in development of life on Earth.
Several readers enquired how this could possibly have been the case...

Ever since the first man downed the tools of labour and took to thinking, he has wrestled with one question above them all: where did we come from?

In the middle ages, European thinkers believed that small, creepy-crawly life (such as insects and mice) appeared spontaneously by a process of natural self-assembly of nonliving ingredients – maggots, they thought, formed from the decaying matter they seemed to ‘spontaneously’ appear from.

In the 19th century, Charles Darwin suggested that life might have first arisen in ‘some warm little pond’ rich in chemicals and minerals and imbued with heat and electricity.

Why existence is miracle enough

Sun, 05/20/2012 - 17:12 — Ben Gilliland

We really don't need a god to see the miraculous in our existence. Image credit: Ben Gilliland (with a little help from Michelangelo)

Which is the more impressive: a man who has become the CEO of a global company when, (a) His powerful dad created the company for him and installed him at the top, or, (b) he worked his way up from nothing after years of struggle? Obviously the answer is b.

So why are so many people more impressed by the idea that mankind was created by a god and installed at the head of Earth corp than the idea that we started from nothing and worked our way to where we are?

Why do we need religion to see miracles in the world around us, or to find significance in our existence? Let’s set aside the religionist creation story and examine how we really got to where we are now.

The next space age: Cuberty

Mon, 05/14/2012 - 07:46 — Ben Gilliland

It is human nature to superimpose human characteristics onto the world around us (it’s why cars can talk to us and misshapen marshmallows can look like your Uncle Barry), so let’s anthropomorphise the space programme for a moment.

There was its conception in early 20th century (a screaming, loud, often messy affair). There were the baby years (it fell over a lot) of the Second World War as folks like Werner von Braun tried to turn rockets into weapons. Then came the toddler years (frantic, shouty and everything done at full pelt) of the Apollo era and the space race.

Recently though, the space programme has had to grow up. Trying to find its own way in a recessionary world, it has struggled to do big things on smaller budgets. But why struggle to do a few big things when you can do many small things?

Back to the cosmic drawing board – source of cosmic rays remains a mystery

Mon, 04/30/2012 - 07:10 — Ben Gilliland

In 1912, scientists discovered that the Earth is bombarded by a constant stream of high-energy particles from beyond the solar system. They called the mysterious particles ‘cosmic rays’ and set out to find out where they were coming from – 100 year later, they are still looking.

The charged particles that make up cosmic radiation can be produced in all sorts of astronomical processes – such as the nuclear reactions in stars. But the origin of the highest energy of these particles, which can strike the Earth with energies up to a hundred million times higher than those created in man-made particle accelerators, remains a mystery.

Over the years there have been several contenders, but the most promising was thought to be a phenomenon known as a ‘gamma ray burst’ (GRB) – a massive burst of energy released when a massive star explodes in a supernova.

To test the theory, scientists built an array of particle detectors 2.4km high and 800m wide and inserted it beneath the ice at the South Pole.

The way of the dodo

Mon, 04/23/2012 - 07:40 — Ben Gilliland

For thousands of years the island of Mauritius was a paradise. Spat out of the ocean floor by a volcano eight million years ago, it was soon colonised by bird and reptile life. With warm sun, plentiful food and no predators to speak of, the island’s life was carved by the idilic isolation into new species – a cornucopia of flightless birds and unique reptiles.

Then, in 1598, demons came to make paradise their own. Accompanied their accustomed host of animal familiars – dogs, pigs, cats (and not a few rats) – the invaders found themselves facing an army of innocents. Curious and unafraid, Mauritius’ wildlife offered itself up for slaughter and, within just a few decades, much of the island’s uniqueness had been extinguished for eternity.