Iridescent Feathers... Fossil Feathers

The field of paleontology has a sister field in the art realms. Any picture or sculpture of a dinosaur (or other prehistoric creature) that you see was created by a paleoartist. They're the ones with the creative licence to guess what colors the dinosaurs might have been, among other physical characteristics. They use modern birds and the largest animals alive today to guess at what the dinosaurs might have looked like, but don't know specifically. New observations of fossilized feathers may give them, and anyone interested in paleontology, a better clue about what ancient birds, and perhaps even the dinosaurs, looked like.

There are quite a few species of birds alive today that have iridescent feathers. Think of a raven, for instance; in some light, it looks solid black. However, if the light strikes it correctly, it has a blue sheen. This color change is caused by the difference in the angle the bird is seen from. Oil slicks also have iridescence; that's what causes the rainbow colors on it.

Some fossil feathers have odd, microscopic structures on them. When they were first noticed, around 25 years ago, paleontologists thought they were bacteria, working the decompose the feathers before and during fossilization. The paleontologists and ornithologists re-evaluating these structures on a 40 million year old fossil discovered they were actually melanosomes, a protein that scatters light. These indicate that the feathers would have been iridescent.

The fact that they've been able to document this iridenscence is awesome. Perhaps even cooler, however, is that this insight might lead to being able to determine the actual colors of ancient birds and dinosaurs, or at least the ones with feathers. It's an exciting prospect. The color of dinosaurs has been a mystery bothering paleontologists since paleontology came into being.

Credit: Science Daily- Evidence of Iridescence in 40 Million-year-old Feather Fossil

Flat Earth Theory and Ways to Spot Pseudoscience

People will believe anything.  This is just the way the world is.  Some of these beliefs can be fun to look at and give us ways to spot the clever forms of nonsense.

Flat Earth "Theory" is a really interesting example of a pseudoscience, because obviously the proponents have jumped off the deep end.  Their arguments however, are very similar to many other brands of pseudosciences.  This makes it an excellent example of things you can look out for when you examine claims.

The first thing that should make you question any idea is when it requires the rewriting of all science textbooks.  If the Earth is flat, you need to come up with new explanations for gravity.  The usual explanation for this is that the Earth is accelerating at 9.8m/s2.  The problem with this is that as we moved faster and faster, you would need more and more energy to keep accelerating the earth (this is one of the effects of relativity).  Flat Earther's also believe the Earth to be 6000 years old.  A constant acceleration of 9.8m/s2 for 6000 years would mean that the Earth would now be traveling a significant fraction of the speed of light.

Another red flag for any idea is the necessity of a mass conspiracy.  For the Earth to be flat and not have it be common knowledge, you need to assume that every government in the world is working to keep it quiet.    You also have to include all astronauts, all of NASA, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, high altitude pilots, the list goes on.  When you have so many people involved in such a large conspiracy, you have to question why we don't have tons of whistle blowers.  This is usually explained away by saying that the government threatens people of pays them off.  That may work within a small group of people, but do you really think that with hundreds of thousands of people involved, not even a small number of them would be speaking out?

It is easy to laugh at someone who thinks that the Earth is flat.  We might call them a stupid or a kook, but we must be careful.  The idea that the earth is flat is ridiculous.  Very smart people can however, be brought to believe very stupid things.  Unless we make a concerted effort not to, it is easy to believe convincing rhetoric.  This is why we must ask for evidence before accepting a claim.  Skepticism is a tool that allows us to tell the difference between a flat earth and the wondrous claims of science.

Google and Unexplained Phenomena

Today, September 5th, Google put up a doodle on its homepage. This isn't particularly unusual, as Google puts up a doodle for most holidays, birthdays of important people, or other major event. But, today's doodle doesn't seem to have anything to do with an event. Instead, it simply shows an alien spacecraft stealing one of the Os. If you click it, it takes you to a search on unexplained phenomenon.

The September 5th Google Doodle

As to why this is the doodle for today, I have no idea. But there are lots of interesting, unexplained phenomena out there. And, along with all of these, are paranormal and pseudoscientific explanations. One of the top search results, from LiveScience, lists 10 of the top phenomena that science has yet to explain.

• The connection between the between body and mind: this includes things like the placebo effect. Medical science is just uncovering some of these complex connections, but specific answers haven't been reached yet.
• Psychic powers: There is no scientific evidence that psychic powers or ESP actually exist. It cannot be proved in controlled, experimental conditions. However, the idea of psychics is highly popular, for whatever reason. So, it is also considered an unexplained phenomenon, even though its very existence is unlikely.
• Near-death experience and the afterlife: Individuals who have had near-death experiences often report some "light at the end of a tunnel" experience. This may suggest a mystic afterlife. However, this is impossible to prove scientifically. There is no way to die, conduct research on the afterlife, and then return to publish a scientific paper on it. Many skeptics suggest that this experience of the "other side" is simply hallucination caused by brain trauma.
• UFOs: Technically, a UFO is simply an unidentified flying object. Typically, these get attributed to alien spacecraft. Further investigation normally reveals them to be much more mundane things: meteors, military aircraft, a thrown hubcap, etc. There are some objects that simply can't be identified, though. The probability that these are aliens visiting planet Earth, however, is extremely slim, as the universe is a gigantic place. (Carver has discussed the idea of UFO's before, here.)
• Deja vu: This is that sneaking feeling that you've already done something before. For instance, you might be walking down the street in a state you've never been, and feel like it's very familiar, and that you've been there before, despite the fact that that's impossible. There are scientific explanations, suggesting why deja vu might be triggered. Psychology still hasn't shown why exactly it occurs, or the nature of these "memories" yet, though. It's still unexplained.
• Ghosts: Shows such as "Ghost Hunters" on SyFy suggest the existence of spirits of the deceased. However, there isn't any scientific evidence proving the existence of these either. There are many individuals who consider themselves "ghost investigators," and try to definitively prove that ghosts are there. But, as I mentioned above in regards to the afterlife, there is no person who has died, come back to life, and published a scientific paper on the nature of death and beyond. So, ghosts are also an unexplained phenomenon, which science does not support.
• Mysterious disappearences: Unfortunately, people often vanish, whether because they ran away, were kidnapped, or had some sort of accident. Sometimes, police work and forensic science can help to find them, or at least determine what happened. Other times, people vanish without a trace, like Amelia Earhart or the crew of the Marie Celeste. When there is no evidence and no leads, not even the best forensic scientist can find them.
• Intuition: Also known as instinct, a gut feeling, or a "sixth sense", intuition is easy to observe. What is more difficult to explain is why these gut feelings are often correct. Psychologist speculate that we subconsciously pick up information and cues, and then can consciously apply them to a situation. How exactly this works, though, is undetermined.
• Mythical creatures: Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and other mythical creatures are also unexplained. The likelihood of their existence is small, and the evidence proving they exist is not there. (See It's Nessie on Google Earth!) However, science cannot definitively prove a negative. These creatures might exist. Until we have strong evidence, however, these creatures are just a myth.
• Strange sights and sounds: There are certain locations that people claim to hear unusual sounds, hallucinate, or see unusual activity, such as Area 51 or Taos, New Mexico. The Taos Hum is a common one. Visitors claim to hear a buzz in the area, which is supposedly very annoying. However, many residents do not hear it, and neither do some visitors. The sound is probably natural or psychological; however, its source is indeterminate.

With nearly all of these phenomena, there is simply not enough evidence to draw solid conclusions. I'll try to go more in depth with each of these, and other unexplained phenomena, in the future. They pose interesting questions, and can be areas of research in the future.


Thanks to Google for the inspiration, even though no one really understands why this doodle is there.

Bad Science: The Bandwagon Fallacy

Logical fallacies are types of arguments that are invalid.  Once you know the logical fallacies, you can recognize them in arguments constantly.  Knowing these can really help to decipher what is true and is what is pure baloney.

The first logical fallacy I wanted to do is a clear example of just how ridiculous these arguments can be.  The argument basically says lots of people agree with what I am saying, therefore I am right.  The number of people who agree with something has no bearing on whether or not it is true.  For thousands of years people believed the Earth was flat; that didn't make it true.

You hear this fallacy used in advertisements a lot.  They try to convince you that because other people use their product, it works.  Just think of how many times you have heard the line "the trend that is sweeping the nation."  This says nothing about the product being advertised except that it is widely used.  Don't believe in or use something just because it's popular. Look for the evidence.

Googling Extinctions

If I had to hazard a guess, most of you reading this right now have used Google. In fact, maybe you found us using Google. You've probably noticed as well that Google has a system for ranking the pages for a search. This algorithm is very useful for finding what you're looking for on the web. For ecologists, a very similar algorithm is now being used to rank food webs.

The idea behind the ecological Page Rank algorithm isn't all that different from the Internet one. Online, Google says a page is important if other important pages link to it. The ecologists put in a series of species (instead of websites), then use the equation to determine which species is most important to the ecosystem. It's a simple idea, but a very important one for deciding how to protect the natural environments.

Even better, this new application of a useful algorithm may trigger similar developments for network-related sciences: gene regulation, for instance, or protein interaction. Basically, any process that works on a "web" could make use of the Page Rank algorithm to determine the key elements. Who knew that the math behind Google would reach out beyond the realms of the Internet?

Credit: Science Daily- Web Page Ranking Algorithm Detects Critical Species in Ecosystems