EVOLUTION OF TEXT

EVOLUTION OF TEXT – Prior to printing, scribes copied books by hand, in laborious fashion. Drawings became pictographs, Egyptians used reed brushes to write on papyrus pages quickly and cleanly. Phoenicians developed a phonetically-based alphabet before the Romans. The Celts wrote runes on tiles with thick tight set angled ascenders and descenders, a precursor of upper/ lowercase. Christianity pushed Bibles, often by force, but led to the development of the illustrated manuscript.  A jumble of bones that became Old English ended up on the shores of the island. Oddly enough, it became a world language. Very few early written fragments survived, mostly as short inscriptions. A Chinese inventor makes movable type of earthenware around 1100 but there are no surviving examples. Gutenberg created his movable type press, around 1400, imitating a writing style used by scribes of his day. The penmanship craze, tied to social status, pushes the use of easily carved copperplates featuring script-like letters influenced by elegant handwriting. Single sheets known as incurables, a pamphlet recognized as the origin of the publication business, were created in 1501 using wood block stamps. Editor Edward Cave coined the term ‘magazine’ as a word for periodicals in 1731, with Gentleman’s Magazine. Penguin paperbacks are a new idea, cheaper than hardbacks, ushering in the dawn of the modern paperback in the 30s. American children still learn both cursive and printed handwriting styles in the 70s. As early as the 80s, online newspapers like The Columbus Dispatch were being read on CompuServe computers. Grocery store aisles across the country stock cheap plentiful tabloids and women’s print magazines, peaking in the 80s and 90s. Print books/ newspapers/ magazines first became available on stationary desk top computers, and later downloaded to increasingly portable devices. Every version of e-books are formatted exactly like paperback novels. Desktop to laptop to e-reader to kindle to smartphone to audiobook. Listening to audiobooks on long commutes becomes a new user experience for an old concept.  In the future, people will wear smart glasses and smart watches to take audio/ books everywhere. Might it become too much of a good thing? We will see what happens next, in the evolution of text.

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2017/02/evolution-of-sound-first-recordedmusic.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-evolution-of-text.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2017/09/evolution-of-images.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-evolution-of-flight.html

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2017/04/evolution-of-computing.html

DIFFUSE GALAXIES

DIFFUSE GALAXIES – Astronomers discovered another new galaxy that contains almost zero dark matter. But diffuse galaxies aren’t new, since Dragonfly 44 was in the news a few years ago. Here’s the difference.

DRAGONFLY 44 – Astronomers reported In August 2016 its composition was made almost entirely of dark matter. A dark ultra-diffuse galaxy with similar mass to our own, but strangely, showed no evidence of rotation. With 1% the light we’re used to, its 99% darker than the Milky Way.

NGC 1052-DF2 – This clear ultra diffuse galaxy contains only 1/200 the number of stars and also has roughly the size as our own galaxy. Here’s where things get weird. It doesn’t look like a spiral or elliptical  galaxy but appears malformed. It contains at least 400 times less dark matter than normal and possibly none at all. This large fuzzy diffuse galaxy is so clear, distant galaxies can be seen behind it.

What’s so unusual about this? – Typically galaxies coalesce from dark matter forming dark matter halos, gas blobs turning into stars beginning to build, organized in typical galaxies such as the Milky Way with orderly rotation and shape.

The discovery demonstrates dark matter is separable from galaxies since NGC 1052-DF2 has none. Dark matter is conventionally believed to be integral structurally to all galaxies. NGC 1052-DF2 challenges notions of how galaxies form. Interesting stuff, indeed.

TRAPPIST-1e UPDATE

TRAPPIST-1e UPDATE – Precise data from NASA’s Spitzer and Kepler space telescopes reveals more interesting possible features of Trappist-1’s remarkably stable planetary system. Data has been gleaned from observing minute variations of the planetary interactions in their orbits. The TRAPPIST-1e planet is rumored to be the most Earth-like, the system’s rockiest planet with an iron core nearly identical to our own, and the potential to host some liquid water with maybe an atmosphere. TRAPPIST-1 has the most rocky planets orbiting the sun, the greatest number of potentially habitable worlds and more is known about this system besides our own precious Planet Earth. 

EUROPA CLIPPER

Europa Clipper – Europa is an icy moon that orbits Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. The Galileo space probe confirmed the moon has a thin atmosphere, is covered by thick ice and flexes tidally. The surface is covered with reddish-brown hatch marks, possibly left behind by irradiated salt water deposits. The Hubble telescope found water vapor shooting sixty miles in height, prompting the theory of a subsurface ocean on this strange world. The USA has planned a new mission of discovery, the Europa Clipper, named for high seas ship voyages in the not so distant past. For the first time, a space probe might discover life outside Earth. Still in the planning stages, the radiation-tolerant spacecraft will use Jupiter’s gravity to slingshot by the moon, 45 revolutions within 16 miles of the surface. Passing through the water above the surface will allow analysis of the chemical makeup but avoids the need to drill through ice layers. NASA is sending instruments aboard including cameras, spectrometers, radar, magnetometer, thermometer and instruments to detect atmospheric water and particles. Every great story starts the same way. What if? Could unimaginable creatures inhabit this familiar yet so alien underwater world? Truly, this is a new age of exploration. 

EVOLUTION OF IMAGES

EVOLUTION OF IMAGES – The 30,000 year old figurative paintings discovered in the Chauvet cave date back to the Paleolithic age.  The art materials used were sticks, rocks, hand prints, mud, charcoal and red ochre. Fast forward to the year 1665 to peek into Johannes Vermeer’s art studio. His painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, looks like it might have been shot with a modern camera. His painting materials, techniques and rumored use of a camera obscura have been lost to history. Prior to the 1800’s, photographic attempts resulted in a crude finished product. That changed in 1839 with the Daguerreotype. Whereby a sheet of silver-plated copper was treated, exposed to light inside a camera, subjected to mercury vapor and sealed in a glass case. In 1888, the next evolution in stills was ushered in by the Kodak camera. Now, anyone could snap a photo and pay the company to process the images. First in black and white, then soon afterward in color Kodachrome film. Moving images, AKA movies, were a revolution of entertainment in the silent film era, from roughly 1895 to 1930. The Kinetograph was one of the first, watched through a peephole on top of the device. The word ‘film’ comes from a strip of celluloid material with a series of still shots that run through the projector, displayed on a movie screen with a reflective coating in a darkened movie theater. By the time the Great Depression came about ‘talkies’–otherwise known as sound films–became the standard in American entertainment. Black and white gave way to color but not entirely. The Wizard of Oz was filmed in Technicolor with some scenes shot in black and white. Film Noir employed severe angular shadows juxtaposed against razor sharp light to set a stark mood. Broadcast television was undergoing its own evolutionary process. NBC transmitted a pioneering broadcast in 1941 but earlier crude experimental iterations came earlier. At the time a cathode ray tube captured a moving image by interpreting a signal from a series of lines picked up by the set. NBC was also the first network to provide a color television signal as early as 1953. But the digital age changed everything–for still as well as moving images–beginning in the 1990’s due to computer capabilities. Still images came first, followed by televisions, monitors and portable hand held screens. By 2009 older analog TV systems were obsolete. Not long afterward, high definition televisions and displays became available. Most display screens today rely on LCD technology. Variations on this include 4K Ultra HD, OLED, curved monitors, VR goggles and even transparent monitors. Images are displayed on smart phones, static displays such as the Kindle Paperwhite, and on tablets including the Samsung Note. Images have come a long way in 30,000 years. I wonder what will come next, in the evolution of images? 

THE VISIONS OF TESLA

THE VISIONS OF TESLA – When Nikola Tesla saw a drawing of Niagara Falls as a boy he told his uncle he’d place a wheel underneath to harness its power. He went to university but didn’t finish, before immigrating to America from Europe in 1884. Tesla found work quickly at Thomas Edison’s laboratory, often interacting closely with the brilliant inventor. Edison’s electrical system, based on direct current power (DC), was supplying light to homes in Manhattan but its reach was limited to a mile. Not long after leaving Edison, Tesla showed his alternating current (AC) motor design to George Westinghouse, another captain of industry. AC waves have gaps between the peaks, transmitting a secondary wave to fill in, thus switching directionality back and forth. A vision of AC came to Tesla in the form of a picture, allowing him to see the transmission of power over long distances. Meanwhile, Edison was shut out of the company he founded (Edison Electric) and further humiliated with a name change to General Electric. When Niagara Falls was harnessed as a power source in 1896 as Tesla predicted, General Electric dropped DC which obliterated it forever. Even today, AC is still the standard. Tesla’s ideas surpassed what he was able to accomplish in his lifetime. Particle beam weapons, the Tesla coil, radio antennas, the quark, remote control, neon/ fluorescent lights, X ray, seismic activity, radar and atmospheric energy transmission. Tesla demonstrated the principles behind the radio nearly ten years before Guglielmo Marconi. Radio patents were issued to Tesla, then reversed to Marconi, only to be posthumously credited back to Tesla. Westinghouse convinced Tesla to foolishly give up his patents early on during the AC/DC energy wars. At the age of 86 in 1943, Tesla died penniless, the recipient of more than 800 patents. Science looks to his notebooks for new discoveries to this day. 

 

THE EVOLUTION OF FLIGHT

THE EVOLUTION OF FLIGHT – Around the year 1500, Leonardo da Vinci produced sketches, mostly ornithopters, of flying machines and bird flight.  The man-powered helical airscrew might have been able to lift off the ground. Unfortunately the engine wasn’t available at that time to produce a functioning helicopter. Prior to 1700, kite jumping and tower jumping were the earliest forms of human flight. The first manned hot air balloon was piloted in 1783 by Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier on the order of King Louis XVI. The design consisted of a fire in an iron basket under a balloon neck, it sustained for 25 minutes at a distance of 5 miles. Gas balloons, blimps, dirigibles and zeppelins came later – relying on the tenants of the original design. Sir George Cayley developed a flying machine concept in 1799, actually built a glider in 1849, which carried a boy on a short flight. He correctly predicted a flying machine wasn’t possible without a powerful engine. After years of experimentation, the Wright brothers made their first flight in 1903 at Kitty Hawk. Orville and Wilbur’s manned/ powered flight measured 120 feet in length and lasted 12 seconds. Biplanes, monoplanes, jets and bombers succeeded one after the other – each one improving on previous designs. The world’s first practical helicopter took flight in 1939, invented by Igor Sikorsky, it was based on a single blade design still in use today. The Soviet Union launched the first human in space, Yuri Gagarin on the Vostok 1, for a single orbit around Earth in 1961. With the Apollo 11 spaceflight in 1969, the United States landed Charles Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon. They spent 2 hours on the surface and collected rocks to bring back to Earth. NASA is planning a human surface expedition to Mars slated for mid-2030. The crew will explore the Martian surface for a year, 6 decades after the first human stood on another celestial body. And the next step into our solar system? The Milky Way … and beyond. 

  

STAR UPDATE

STAR UPDATE – Data from this star gets stranger still and it’s back in the news again. On May 19, when a dimming of 3% below normal was observed, a global call went out to astronomers. They were asked to track the star in order to determine the cause of this mysterious behavior. Flickering was first confirmed in 2015, one possible theory stated it might be an alien megastructure, such as a Dyson Sphere. KIC 8462852, Boyajian’s star, or Tabby’s star demonstrated irregular dimming followed by a return to it’s original brightness. This month’s event is the first seen in real time, which presents an opportunity, attempting to see what’s blocking it’s light. Something–a planet, comet storms, or a Dyson Sphere–has to be passing in front of it. Want to know more? Check out the new show on the Science Channel entitled Space’s Deepest Secrets which will feature an eposide on Tabby’s Star. The series premieres on June 6.

https://chadschimke.blogspot.com/2016/01/keppler-megastructure-discovery.html?spref=pi

http://www.space.com/36983-strange-signals-spaces-deepest-secrets-episode.html

EVOLUTION OF COMPUTING

Evolution of Computing – The punch card machine read holes pierced in paper. The Turing machine, more of a concept than a machine, is the logical basis for modern computing. The ENIAC could be reprogrammed, its panels were switched around to perform functions. The teletype was the precursor to the modem as we know it today. Mainframe computers referred to the large cabinets that housed the units used by companies and universities. Vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors, eventually leading to microprocessors. The Arpanet–precursor to the internet– began with 4 connected computers, transmitting digital packets. The Altair 8800 microcomputer caused a sensation when it appeared on the cover of Popular Electronics. The following year Apple I came onto the hobbyist market. It worked using a keyboard and TV. The Apple Lisa, with an early mouse and GUI (graphical user interface), was too expensive and didn’t sell well. The IBM PC, Commodore 64 and Macintosh followed each other in rapid succession. Windows 1.0 and the Mac OS appeared about the same time. Photoshop brought images the same way HTML brought text to web pages. Did you know that there were only 26 web sites in 1992? Laptops, tablets, smart phones and e-readers are making computers smaller and smaller. I wonder, what will be next in the evolution of computing? 

 

 

TRAPPIST 1

Trappist 1 – Perhaps science has found our future home or a world already populated by aliens. Look up in the night sky towards the Aquarius constellation, where there’s an ultra-cool dwarf nearly 40 light years away. Named Trappist 1–for the TRAnsiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope in Chile–astronomers spotted regular dimming, a signal when planets transit the bright face of a distant sun. OK, a star, but what about planets? Further inspection revealed 7 planets total, 6 of which are Earth sized, 3 of which are in the life supporting habitable zone. For the first time, multiple planets around the same star, all in one spot. Amazing, since most of the exoplanets discovered to date have been large gas giants too near the host sun. But it’s much cooler, less than half the sun’s heat and much smaller, one-twelfth the mass as compared to our own sun. What does all this mean? Potentially, a habitable world. Science hasn’t yet verified signs of life such as oxygen and methane. However that might come to be, once the James Webb Space Telescope is launched, in 2018. It will observe distant events, such as forming stars/ planets, and be capable of capturing direct images of exoplanets. Such as those orbiting Trappist 1? Let’s hope so.