Thursdays According to a French Fry: Epic History People

Hello! I must apologize. I have neglected my blogging duties for the past couple weeks. I can only offer the excuse of a history exam one week, and being distracted by my newfound love for the pairing Naomi/Emily from Skins the next. I shall now attempt to make up for it. I humbly present my post.

So, this week, we're going to talk about an epic historical person you may not have heard about. A woman named Hypatia.

Actually, there was a movie made about her:

(Rachel Weisz as a really smart woman in Egypt. Well, that's a new one.)

Now, despite what the IMDB page would have you believe, the main character of the movie is Hypatia. The story follows her life from when she taught science (the movements of the stars) to men in Alexandria, to the burning of the library of Alexandria, through the rise of Christianity, and finally to her death. It also shows her discovering the idea of a heliocentric model of the solar system (for those of you who don't know, "heliocentric" means that the planets orbit the sun). Now, it would be really, exceptionally cool if that were true. But it probably isn't. However, the real things Hypatia did were still pretty amazing.

(We don't really know what Hypatia actually looked like. This is a photograph of an actress who played her in a theatre production.)

For one thing, she was a scientist. Her father, Theon, taught her mathematics, science, astronomy, literature and the arts. In itself, that is amazing. Women didn't exactly have the same opportunities in Roman Egypt as woman do today. They had some freedom, but were generally expected to be wives. Not only was Hypatia educated, but she taught men about all she learned. She wrote on mathematics and astronomy, and may have invented a couple awesome things (like the plane astrolabe). In essence, Hypatia was a really amazing woman, born before her time.

Unfortunately, her scientific abilities were her downfall.

Hypatia had a fair amount of political influence, particularly over the Prefect of Alexandria, Orestes. Orestes was a pagan (although it's possible he was Christian), like Hypatia, and was in conflict with a man named Cyril, who was the Bishop of St. Mark. Cyril's mission was to rid Alexandria of non-Christians. Orestes and Cyril butted heads, and Hypatia was caught in the middle. A rumour was spread that she was the one obstacle preventing Orestes and Cyril from reconciling.

And one day, while riding her chariot through the streets of Alexandria, an angry mob pulled her out, stripped her naked, beat her and scraped the skin from her bones with shells (or shards of pottery). She died, and her body was torn to pieces, then burned.

It is thought that with Hypatia's death, so too came the end of science in antiquity. She was an incredible woman, who loved science and knowledge, and ultimately died for it.

If you want to find out some more details about Hypatia's life, you can google her, or go to the sites I used to make this post:

http://www.womanastronomer.com/hypatia.htm
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/hypati1/a/hypatia.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia

I would also really recommend the movie, Agora. It is currently one of my favourite movies, and it's a great story.

Rubberduck Tuesdays: Winter, CERN (again), Being Yourself, and a Bit of Romance...

In honour of the cold outside my window, the first link I shall present you with is a beautiful selection of comics from a duo you probably know and love. Yes, my pretties, Calvin and Hobbes, all of the best winter comics, in one spot! I know, it`s beautiful. What would you do without me, I wander...

In keeping with my rather physics-y theme, I wish to present something rather funny I discovered on the CERN website. It`s a description of a theoretical physicist, by a theoretical physicist. It made me giggle at the over-all silliness of it all, and I think it proves rather well that you don`t every have to grow up if you don`t want to. :) Take this to heart, Ladies and Gents! Growing old is mandatory, but growing up has always been optional.

Another theme which seems to be returning on this blog is human rights. More specifically, the right to be who you are without discrimination (except if you`re a psychopath. In that case, please keep it way down deep inside of you). About a week and a half ago, I read a newspaper article on a pair of biologically male twins. One, Jonas, loved spiderman and pirates, the other, Wyatt, loved tutus and beads. It became obvious to Wyatt`s parents over time that Wyatt was not their son. She was their daughter. Wyatt now goes by the name Nicole, and she says that she`s happy who she is. Nicole just knew who she was, and when her parents realized that, they made certain to support her and help her out. It was at that point in the article that I broke down. I see too many articles about cases where people hurt or kill other people who can be perceived as different. It`s nice to see a bit of humanity in the world, for a change. For those interested, the article is here. It`s a brilliant read, I recommend it for pretty much anyone with a heart.

And finally (my my, this was a very short blog...) a bit of sappyness, courtesy of China. A young man fell in love with a widow who was 10 years older than him. knowing that society would have trouble accept them, they eloped to the mountains where they lived together for the rest of their lives. To help his wife get down the mountain, he carved out over 6000 steps into the side of the mountain where they lived so that she could get to the town below.

can I hear an awwwwww?

Until next time, Rubberduck out!

Rubberduck Tuesdays: My Physics Craziness

So, today I was going to do the same thing as I did last time and post some neat little links, some of them nerdy, some of them quirky, and then something happened. Then I went on a minor physics binge.

It all started yesterday, when two things happened.

1) I read this article, which, for those of you who don't want to click out of sheer laziness, states that we might not need dark matter for the universe to work the way it does. WHOA! For those of you uncertain about what dark matter is, I suggest reading the article - it explains it heaps better than I can. The gist of it, though, is that we may have to redesign our current theory of the universe.

2) My physics professor told our class that he wouldn't be here come December 13th because he'd be in Europe.

At CERN.

For an event that he wouldn't tell us about (this story just keeps getting more intriguing, no?).

He then urged us to read up on the CERN blogs that are kept. Being the person that I am, I did just that.

I currently attend a university which is very involved in the ATLAS experiment. for those curious, the ATLAS experiment is a part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which, apart from also looking for the Higgs boson, also looks at antimatter, extra dimensions, and examines the origins of the universe by simulating the big bang in the LHC. A quick note here: this is from what I understand from reading about ATLAS and, once again, I am open to being corrected.

Here is a picture I found of the machinery behind ATLAS. Yes, that is a model made entirely out of lego. Isn't it awesome?

Another definition which you may or may not need is the Higgs boson particle - it is the particle which gives us mass. If my explanation isn't satisfactory (and I know that it isn't) I'd recommend that you go here, which is a very neat description of what our dear Higgs boson is. My writing here is the summary of their summary, so naturally, there is a fair amount missing.

So, while reading up on the blogs, I found this entry very interesting. According to this blog, we still haven't found the Higgs boson, even though we've done quite a fair amount of searching for it. However, there is only a small area left for it to hide in, which makes me excited. You see, one of two amazing things will happen.:

       One: we find the particle, and we start experimenting and re-writing physics as we go along.

       Two: we fail to find it, at which point we have to re-write a huge chunk of modern theories
            regarding physics and the way the universe works.

So, no matter which way you put it, physics is going to be re-written and science history will be made!

It was at this point in my search that I realized that I could type 'December 13 CERN' into Google and find out what my professor was talking about.

So I did exactly that.

And that's when I found this awesome article and several others like it. Yes, apparently there might be news regarding the Higgs boson soon!

My reaction:

Oh. My. God.

Side note: I love this picture of Bush. He looks more like an overgrown monkey than he usually does.

Anyway!

Think of the things that have been happening in physics lately!

Neutrinos might be faster than light (I covered the reason this might be big news in my last Tuesday entry)!

There might not be such thing as dark matter (though this one is new, so I'm not sure how much I should freak out about it)!

And soon there could be big news about the Higgs boson!

If things continue as they are, physics could be in for a bit of an information revolution soon. Our entire understanding of how the universe works might have to be rewritten!

Take a moment to consider the implications of this.

Several theories with which we've built our knowledge of the universe might have to be scrapped. we'll have to rebuild several models from scratch. Wow, right?

And now, for a note that is only vaguely linked to physics: a theory regarding the Lascaux Caves in France. The Lascaux Caves are a series of caves which have some of the oldest artwork in the world painted on to them. You'll probably recognize the art, it's referenced in pop culture quite a fair amount.

Someone noticed recently that some of the mysterious dots on the walls align with constellations that we know today.
The full article is here, if you're interested. It's fascinating! It gave me shivers. Can you imagine?
Before cities! Before the roman's built roads! Before empires, and astronomy and calculus, and even before agriculture, 17000 years ago, our ancestors stared at the stars.