Dino Feathers

Archaeopteryx is generally recognized as the first bird, despite some dinosaur-like features. When it was first discovered, many scientists did not accept it as proof that birds evolved from dinosaurs. It was a nice hypothesis, but there was little supporting evidence.

Since then, the body of evidence has grown quite a lot. In China, there are fossils of Velociraptors and other small theropods that have feathery imprints along the neck, skull, and arms. These feathers resemble pin feathers on a young bird, however; they are not fully developed feathers, like those you'd see on a bird.  Also, none of these feathers were much older that Archaeopteryx itself. This was a time paradox that needed resolution before paleontologists could definitely say that birds evolved from dinosaurs.

I said "was": the oldest feathers discovered to date were recently unearthed in China. In two separate locations, a species known as Anchiornis huxleyi was discovered. One of these specimens is incredibly well-preserved, showing detailed imprints of feathers all over its body. The way these feathers are structured shows that Anchiornis had 4 wings: two on the arms, two on the legs. And, the creature is over 150 million years old... 10 million years older than Archaeopteryx.

As paleontologist Michael Benton puts it, "Now these fantastic new discoveries by Professor Xu prove that [feathers arouse before Archaeopteryx appears in the fossil record] once and for all." It is an exciting, and fairly conclusive, piece of evidence, showing that birds truly are the dinosaurs among us.

Credit: BBC News-Dinosaurs had 'earliest feathers'
Archaeopteryx Image Credit: Wyoming Dinosaur Center

The Curious Case of the Cottingley Fairies

Sir Arthur Conan Dolye was without a doubt one of the great mystery writers. His famous detective, Sherlock Homes, had a sharp mind that was able to deduce the answer from a swarm of deception. Unfortunately, the mind that created one of the most famous detectives of all time could still be fooled by two little girls.

In July of 1917, two girls by the names of Elsie and Polly borrowed a camera and started taking pictures. By 1920, Doyle was asking them to take more of these amazing photos. The picture above is their first one. In total, there were five. At the time, spiritualists were accepting these as hard evidence that fairies are real. Doyle even wrote a book by the title "The Coming of the Fairies." Photographic experts came forward making various cases as to why the photographs could not have been faked. It was also argued that the two girls had no motivation for faking the photos. All of these things together lead the fairy photos to become very popular, but no more real.

This case is a great example of the many pieces of "evidence" that are often put forward for claims of the supernatural. First is the "Argument from Authority." Just because someone famous like Sir Conan Doyle agrees with a claim doesn't mean that it's right. Even the photographic experts were fooled. The simple reality of life is that no one is above being fooled. Just because a someone in a white lab coat says X is true, doesn't make it so.

They also accept the photographs and anecdotal reports as hard evidence. Photos can be faked in any number of ways. This is even more true now in the age of Photoshop than it was in the 1920's. Anecdotes are a good place to start a investigation, but are just too unreliable to base such extraordinary claims on.

In the end, the Cuttingly fairies were revealed to just be paper cutouts. It is so simple, and still it was dismissed as a possibility at the time. Before we accept fairies, maybe we should ask how even the researchers could have been fooled. Never underestimate how easy it is to trick even the experts.

Tiny T-Rex

Tyrannosaurus rex is possibly the most famous dinosaur of all time. It's a very impressive dinosaur. They could be as much as 50 feet long and 20 feet tall, weighing in at at least 5 tons. It sported a massive head, teeth the length of bananas (but much deadlier), lanky feet to run with, and two arms that seem puny compared to the rest of it. T. rex was one of the largest carnivores to ever walk this planet, and certainly seems to fit its name: "Tyrant Lizard King."

Millions of years before T. rex wandered the Earth, however, its "mini-me" was wandering China. Raptorex is very nearly a scale model of Tyrannosaurus rex, but it is 1/100th of the size. That makes Raptorex about the same weight as a human! It lived around 125 million years ago, and had all the Tyrannosaur halmarks: massive head, tiny arms, runner's feet, and a great sense of smell. According to Paul Sereno, from the University of Chicago, the scaleability of the tyrannosaurid body type is very impressive. Over the course of 90 million years, little Raptorex evolved and grew into a creature that dominated Asia and North America, until the end of the dinosaurs 65.5 million years ago.

Credit: Science Daily- Tiny Tyrannosaur: T. Rex Plan Debuted in Raptorex, But 100th the Size

Dynamic Earth: Volcanoes, Part 2

Volcanic eruptions are what make volcanoes exciting, and dangerous. There are a multitude of different types of eruptions, but I'll just cover some of the basic ones here. But before I can go into types, I should discuss why volcanoes erupt.

As I mentioned in Part 1, volcanoes form where molten rock from the mantle has bubbled up into the crust. This usually happens at subduction zones, but can occur elsewhere. For instance, the Hawaiian islands are located over a "hot spot" in the center of the Pacific Plate. There is a lot of pressure built up in these magma chambers, between the intense heat and the steam created by any water in the chamber. When this pressure reaches a critical point, the rock sealing the volcano breaks, causing an eruption.

There are a number of different types of volcanic eruptions, though they all occur this basic way. In no particular order, they are:

• Hawaiian: This type of eruption occurs on relatively small cracks or at a main crater. They shoot jets of incandescent lava into the air. They are very impressive, but less dangerous than other types of eruptions.
• Strombolian: This type of eruption, like the Hawaiian type, is very impressive. Clods of molten lava burst into the air, arcing down to the ground, where they run as fiery streams. These are less dangerous than other types of eruptions.
• Phreatic: Also known as "steam-blast" eruptions. They occur when water and a magma chamber meet. The superheated water shoots out of the ground as steam, breaking off bits of rock and shooting them into the air. There is no lava involved in this type of eruption. These tend to be weak, though are occasionally quite explosive.
• Peléan: Also known as Nuée Ardente or glowing cloud eruptions. These occur when a a plume of gas, dust, rock, and bits of molten lava shoot into the air, collapse back down, and roll down the side of the volcano in a fiery avalanche, known as a pyroclastic flow. These can be very devastating if they hit a populated area.
• Vulcanian: In this types, a tall cloud of white ash and gas forms above the cone of the volcano. Little magma is released.
• Vesuvian: This types of eruption is similar to the the Vulcanian types. A large amount of gas and ash is released, forming a massive, cauliflower shaped cloud. They can also have pyroclastic flows.
• Plinian: These are the most powerful volcanic eruptions. They erupt violently, shooting gas, ash, and molten rock high into the air. The ash fallout can travel hundreds of miles from the volcano, and pyroclastic flows often occur as well.

As I mentioned earlier, there are also the eruptions of calderas (supervolcanoes), which do not fall into any of these categories. So far, there are no eye witness accounts of a caldera eruption, as one has not occured in human history. It would be similar to a plinian eruption, shooting debris, ash, and molten rock high into the atmosphere. It would be on a massive scale, though, easily 2500 times larger than the Mt. St. Helens eruption (also a plinian eruption). According to research, the last time the Yellowstone caldera erupted, it sent 600 cubic miles of material into the air, having world-wide effects. The ash in the atmosphere would temporarily cool global temperatures. Most of the Western United States would be severely impacted, and much of it totally destroyed. Fortunately, scientists believe that the Yellowstone caldera is currently at an equilibrium, and so probably will not go off in our lifetimes. Nevertheless, it is an area under constant monitor. For, while volcanic eruptions are spectacular, they are also deadly. There is still a lot to learn about their effects on life and on the Earth as a whole.

For more information on eruptions, visit Windows to the Universe, the USGS, and the Extreme Science/Extreme Earth webpage.

Radioactive Water- "The Cure of the Century"

In the beginning of the 1900's, scientists discovered radioactivity.  With this discovery, it was found that many natural hot water spas were radioactive.  Some people made the correlation of health spa to radioactivity and boom; you had the birth of a medical pseudoscience.  So, why did so many people buy into something that we now know to be so harmful?

In the 1920's and 30's, ads for radioactive water, as well as other radioactive products, were very similar.  The Radium Spa was an at-home radioactive water cooler. One of their advertising slogans was "Radium Spä Duplicates Nature's Process! The Radium-Spa is a Water Jar, permanently lined, with especially selected high grade radium ore. This ore imparts to any water placed therein, millions of tiny gaseous particles known as Radio-activity, in exactly the same manner as Nature does herself."  


Notice that the ad tries to use scientific sounding language to build credibility.  They also invoke the all-natural claim.  Another ad for the "Curie Re-Generator Jar" uses that same approach.  "The Curie RadioActive Re-Generator and Stone Water Filter is a Water Jar in which is placed your local drinking water. In  this jar is also placed a Radium Ore Disc  -  this Disc throws off light Rays thereby forming Niton Gas, making the water RadioActive, the same as the Great Health Springs.  Radioactive Water is a proven means to Health as millions can testify."  Notice the use of anecdotal evidence to try to bolster the claim.


At the time, little was known about radioactivity. The medical community, however, showed their opinion in the November issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), in review of one of these radioactive water dispensers (ad pictured above).  The articles states "As is commonly the case with latter-day pseudo-medicine having large financial resources behind it, the Revigator concern puts forward an hypothesis for which there is no foundation."  In the same article, the effectiveness of radioactive treatments is equated to that of a two dollar watch.


The advertising techniques for these quack cures are, unfortunately, all too familiar.  We look back on this, and it is easy to say that these people must have been really gullible.  Maybe so, but are we any less gullible now? There are many, very popular, alternative medicine practices and "cures" today that the medical community has spoken out against.  Science-based medicine works by sorting out what works from what doesn't.  Treatments that are unsupported by evidence, even if they are popular, can be very dangerous.  Radioactive water was popular until a wealthy spokesperson and celebrity, Eben Byers, died of radiation poisoning in 1932.  


For more on radioactive treatments see http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/quackcures.htm
and you can read the JAMA article at http://www.museumofquackery.com/devices/revig.htm.