This post doesn’t have much to do with science. I couldn’t believe what I read and so I had to write write about it.

I had heard a while back that a Saudi prince is purchasing a VIP Airbus A380 Super Jumbo as his private jet. In case you are wondering, the A380 is the largest passenger aircraft (it’s bigger than a 747).

At first I thought it was a joke. The plane is so huge that I could not imagine that somebody would want it for a private jet.

Just recently, I found out that the story is true. Here’s the plan for the proposed interior.

The custom VIP A380 costs $500 million; that’s half a billion dollars! It’ll cost him more to fuel, fly and maintain it. Considering that this same Saudi prince already owns a VIP 747, surely there could be better ways to spend $500 million than to purchase a bigger plane.

How about providing the best health care to his people? What about investing in education and technology so they’ll have something to rely on when their oil supply finally runs out?

Hey, it’s not my money so why should I bother, right? Think about it the next time you’re at the gas pump.

Dr. Dave

NASA’s mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope is taking top billing in the science news this week. (Take that swine flu!) Astronauts recently completed a series of grueling repairs that will extend the telescope’s functional life to 2014.

When the telescope was launched in 1990, NASA scientists soon discovered that the main mirror that allowed the Hubble telescope to “see” were slightly off from the design specifications by about a millimeter. In the everyday world, being off by a millimeter is no big deal, but for the Hubble telescope this tiny error meant that it was unable to “see” distant galaxies very clearly.

In 1993, NASA sent a repair mission to the Hubble telescope and fixed the problem. Since then, the Hubble telescope has returned amazing images of distant galaxies and helped astronomers and astrophysicists better understand our universe.

The website www.hubblesite.org has an amazing gallery of pictures taken from the Hubble telescope. I hope they don’t mind, but I’ve posted a few pictures that are simple out of this world!

Mars


Jupiter

Galaxies


I think it’s amazing that the bright dots in each galaxy is a star. Keep in mind that the Sun is also a star, which means it’s possible for other stars to have orbiting planets, perhaps even one similar to our own!

Dr. Dave

By now, everyone has heard that the swine flu is slowly spreading around the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the pandemic threat level to 5, which means that an outbreak is imminent; a threat level of 6 means an outbreak is occurring. To me, the word “outbreak” makes the swine flu sound more ominous. Maybe it’s because I only expect to hear about an outbreak of this scale in a Hollywood movie.

In this post, I’ll try to give you the basics of the flu and explain why a swine flu is now infecting humans. The information below was gathered from reliable health sources, such as the WHO and CDC.

What’s in a name?
Influenza, the flu, is believed to have been around for a few thousand years. The ancient Greek doctor Hippocrates, who is considered to be the father of modern medicine, has described the symptoms of the flu in 412 B.C. but it didn’t have a name.

Fast forward to the 1700s–most people believed that astrological or occult occurrences caused health outbreaks and so an old Italian word influenza, which roughly meant influence of the stars, was given during an outbreak in Italy and the name stuck.

The flu virus
The flu is spread by a virus, which is very different from a bacteria. A bacteria has the machinery of life, which allows it to copy its own DNA, make energy, and reproduce. A virus does not have this machinery; instead it relies on a host cell to do all the hard work for it.

Viruses come in many shapes and sized, but most have a few common features, such as a protein shell on the outside and precious DNA (or RNA) blueprints on the inside. Below is a cartoon of a flu virus I found on the web. The blue and green spikes are the proteins and the genetic blueprints are on the inside.

The flu virus has many proteins, but two key proteins are haemaggluttinin and neuraminidiase, and are abbreviated H and N, respectively. Haemagglutinin allows the flu virus to enter a cell and neuraminidase allows the virus to exit the cell.

By the way, flu viruses are named by their H and N proteins. The flu goes by names like H1N1 (swine flu) and H3N2, etc.

How it works
The flu virus uses the H protein to enter cells in the back of the throat and in the lungs. Once inside, the virus falls apart and the blueprints eventually find their way to the cell’s machinery which contain instructions to make more viruses; eventually the cell becomes full of newly made flu viruses. When the time is right, the viruses use their N proteins to escape and spread to other cells, and eventually to other people.

Here’s a cartoon of the flu virus “life cycle” I found on the web.

How do humans get the swine flu?
All sorts of animals get the flu. Most flu viruses that infect animals are specific to the species. This means that a flu virus that infects dogs have H and N proteins that can only enter dog cells.

Interestingly, some flu viruses that infect humans can also infect birds and pigs! These viruses have H and N proteins that allow the entry and escape process to occur without a hitch.

Pigs are considered mixing vessels since they can be infected by human and swine flu viruses. Why mixing vessels?

Imagine this, if a pig is simultaneously infected with two different flu viruses (swine and human), there is a chance that the viruses can infect the same cell. As the viruses use the cells machinery to assemble copies of themselves, there is a chance that mixing can occur, that is some of the proteins and blue prints from the human virus can mix with the proteins and blueprints from the swine virus. In the end, a new flu strain can be created that is different from the original human strain and can cause new cases of the flu.

Below is a cartoon from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases that shows how new flu strains form.

Bird flu worries
Not too long ago, health scientists were worried about an avian flu (bird flu) called H5N1. Many deaths were reported in Pacific Asian countries but no pandemic alert was raised.

Doesn’t the flu vaccine help?
Even if you get a yearly flu vaccination, you are not immune to the new H1N1 swine flu strain. Unfortunately, the flu virus undergoes subtle changes each year. This means that an H1N1 strain from this year could be different from the H1N1 strain next year. This is why it is always important to get a yearly flu vaccination.

In the end, your best bet is to use common sense and wash your hands regularly. If you are sick, stay at home and get plenty of rest.

Please visit the following websites for more information:

WHO Influenza Page
CDC Influenza Page
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Influenza Page

Dr. Dave

Although I moved into my home 6 months ago, the process of unpacking miscellaneous things takes a very long time. Some say that laziness is to blame; I blame nostalgia.

The other day, I pulled out a box labeled “Miscellaneous,” which is a catchall for “I don’t know where this goes so throw it in here.” The optimist within me figured that this was an hour’s task. When I came across a video tape labeled “The Furleys” the memories began to flow and time stood still.

Memory
The human brain is an incredible computer. Everybody has special abilities, whether it’s athletics, mathematics, or art, people harness the power of their mind to accomplish great things. My special gift is memory. In my world, smells, sights, tastes, and sounds transport me back in time and play memories like a movie in front of eyes. This happens when I am asleep or awake. It’s an amazing experience that I wish I could bottle and share with others.

Dr. Dave in a “Music Video”
So when I unearthed a VHS tape (yes, old school, I know) of my high school garage band, “The Furleys,” my memories brought the unpacking process to an abrupt halt.

I really wanted to learn how to fly in high school, but the costs kept me grounded. I convinced my parents that drumming would be a cheaper option. It was. They agreed. They tolerated the noise. Bless them.

As my skills improved, I started playing in various garage bands and we eventually became good enough to play at house parties. Although I felt out of place at these parties, as long as I was playing the drums, I had a great time.

In my senior year of high school (1996), The Furleys were invited to play and be filmed for the school’s TV Media program. We played a 2-hour set of original and cover songs, which were all contained within that tape.

I watched the entire tape and made a digital copies of two of my favorite songs, “Natives are Restless” and “My TV.” You can watch the videos below. Enjoy!

Dr. Dave

Natives are Restless

My TV

In response to a post about my favorite Chicago TV meteorologists, I was invited to visit the Fox Chicago News studio by Chief Meteorologist Amy Freeze!

I was excited to hear from Amy; she’s the first science celebrity I have met since I started this website! I was also excited because I had never seen a TV news studio;

Just an update… I was invited to meet Fox News Chicago’s Chief Meteorologist Amy Freeze this past Thursday! Amy was very kind, as was the entire news team. I have pictures and videos to document the visit, which I will share with you. More details later, but here’s a picture of Amy Freeze and me together in front of her green screen:

That’s really cool! Tune in for more on the visit later!

Dr. Dave

Chicagoans have reliable TV weathermen and women who know how to interpret and report the weather. It’s a challenging job because the weather in Chicago is so erratic.

A weatherperson (called a meteorologist) gathers and interprets scientific data from a network of weather balloons, satellites, and local weather radar stations. (You may have heard the term “Doppler radar,” I’ll explain what it is in a later post.)

Data, such as winds at different altitudes, moisture content, temperature changes, etc., are used to generate weather maps and computer models that help to predict what the weather will be like in the future, which is called a forecast.

If you have to venture outside, pay attention to the weather forecast, it will let you know what to wear!

I often look forward to the weather report as others would look forward to the sports report. In Chicago, there are two meteorologists whom I enjoy watching, WGN’s Tom Skilling and WFLD’s Amy Freeze.

Tom Skilling

Tom Skilling does a fabulous job of presenting the weather data. He not only tells you what the weather will be like, he also tells you why it is going to be that way, but he does it in a subtle way. Tom Skilling’s weather reports are educational yet easy to understand. You can read Tom’s blog entitled Before the Forecast at the link below:

http://blogs.trb.com/news/weather/weblog/wgnweather/tom_skillings_before_the_forec/

Amy Freeze

Fox News Chicago’s meteorologist Amy Freeze has a very relaxed way of presenting the weather. Her weather reports are like having a conversation with your friend about skies above Chicago. Amy also has the easy-going educational style that Tom Skilling has, and, with a name like Freeze, she’s ideally suited to be a Chicago meteorologist! (I’m sure she’s heard that before!)

Read more about Amy at the links below:

http://www.amyfreeze.com/

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/Meet_Amy_Freeze

I work in the same building as WFLD-Fox News Chicago and I’ve seen Amy Freeze broadcast outside during a Chicago Fire Kick for Playoff Tickets Contest (I won a t-shirt that day)

Amy, if you read this post, I would love to visit the Fox News Weather Center!

Dr. Dave

President Obama renewed America’s commitment to science and outlined a new energy policy for the future during his inauguration address.
In my lifetime, America has held the dominant position in science and technology, but in recent years the scientific landscape has been shifting. Too many science jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries and although they reap short-term profits, ultimately it costs American jobs and ideas. An investment in American science, and keeping the research on American soil, will reap benefits in the future.

Don’t believe me?

In an earlier post, I wrote about runny noses in space. Yes, a nose can run in space, but not like it does on Earth. Why? Microgravity!