Fire Science

Obviously, the California wildfires have been leading newscasts and newspaper front pages this week. Perhaps not-so-obviously, there is a scientific side to the story.

Time magazine gives us an idea of the basic science behind wildfires.

There's a geographic take on the fires over USA Today.com. It's an interactive map you can manipulate to show different landmarks and weather data in relation to the fires.

The National Weather Service forecast offices in Los Angeles and San Diego are keeping close tabs on the Santa Ana winds that fan the flames.

And just what are the Santa Ana winds, anyway? How do they form, and what makes them so dangerous? NPR's Morning Edition offers up some answers. If you want a more in-depth explanation, you can get it from UCLA.

Weather or Not

One of the great figures in biology is in trouble for remarks he made in a newspaper--and not for the first time. James Watson, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, told the London Sunday Times that he's worried about the future of Africa, because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours, whereas all the testing says not really." The 1962 Nobel laureate has since apologized, saying he didn't mean to imply Africans are less intelligent than other people. Nevertheless, he was suspended from his post at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, and an upcoming British book tour has also been quashed.

Seismologists have known for a while that, famous though San Andreas may be, it's not the most dangerous fault in California. Another fault, the Hayward, poses a bigger risk to the San Francisco/Oakland area, largely because the public doesn't understand the threat. Geologist Andrew Alden takes us on a tour of the Hayward Fault, and tells us why we need to pay more attention to it.

Turning to local issues in science, Alabama is moving quickly toward the fall tornado season. Folks in west Alabama got a preview Thursday as two tornadoes touched down in Winston County. The National Weather Service's Birmingham office has more. NWS' Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, has great background information on the science behind tornadoes and severe storms.

Next week in the Chanticleer, look for my feature story about the present and future of Jacksonville's water system. The recent drought is making the headlines, but it's population growth that will shape the course of water supplies in Jacksonville. It depends on geology, climate, hydraulics, gravity, politics and many other factors that may give you pause next time you turn on the tap.

Nobel, Meet Ig Nobel

The week in science was dominated by a series of events that always manages to spark curiosity and debate--two very good things in humanity.

First, the Nobel Prizes were awarded this week. Of the six categories, three are specifically for science: physics, chemistry and medicine/physiology. This year, even the Peace Prize had a scientific overtone; Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won for research into global warming.

The International Herald Tribune takes a look at facts and fiction when it comes to the Nobel Prizes.

And of course, no Nobel week is complete without the annual Ig Nobels, which honor dubious studies and useless discoveries. The prizes are awarded annually by the Annals of Improbable Research, a honest-to-goodness science journal.

This year, some of the recipients won for developing a "gay bomb," figuring out the effects of Viagra on jet lagged hamsters and figuring out why sheets wrinkle. The studies are all real, but the awards...just for fun. NPR's Science Friday airs a recap of the ceremony each year; when that happens, I'll be sure to post it here.

See? Science does have a sense of humor.

Fifty Years On

It's been a busy week in science. Here are some of the highlights:

The University of Alabama's got a brand-new microscope capable of seeing atoms in 3-D. Far out.

The results from a round of testing indicate that X-ray colonoscopies are just as good as the traditional kind at detecting polyps. The procedure is also less invasive than current endoscope methods.

Geologists are closer to understanding the mechanics of the San Andreas Fault. This week, U.S. Geological Survey scientists held a press conference to discuss the latest core samples recovered by the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD). Those samples came from a depth of 2.5 miles and may shed light on earthquakes as far back as the 1906 temblor that decimated San Francisco.

Finally, it's been fifty years since the launch of Sputnik 1, the Soviet satellite that jumpstarted the Space Race. National Public Radio has assembled a page of special reports on Sputnik at 50, all of which are worth a listen.

And we couldn't escape Sputnik Fever over at the Chanty, either. Read my editorial on the promise (and disappointment) of fifty years of space exploration.