Believe It or Not

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Fred Fearing, the original Rose Buddy - Scrapbook
Elizabeth City, North Carolina
Main St - Business Section - Early 1900's
Taken from www.elizcity.com

In a publication about Elizabeth City printed in the early 1900’s, it was predicted that the thriving coastal city would become one of the largest, most progressive towns in North Carolina by the year 1915.

Based on the number of successful businesses, rate of construction, number of boats licensed to do business on the river, the number of farming, fishing, and lumber businesses, the future success of the town was a sure thing.

Events happen, things change, and predictions fail.

The dawning of the new year always prompts people to make predictions about many areas of life such as business, the economy, the stock market, sports, politics, natural disasters, pandemics, scientific discovery, weather, and many others.

Author Sean Covey shares the “Top 10 Stupid Quotes of All Time” which includes the following predictions:

• “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”-C.H. Duell, US Commaner of Patients in 1899.
• “The earth is the center of the Universe.”-Ptolemy, Egyptian Astronomer in the second century.
• “Man will never reach the moon, regardless of all the future scientific advances.”- Dr. Lee DeForest, inventor and Father of Radio, 1967.
• “Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at the plywood box every night.” -Darryl Zanuck, Head of 20th Century Fox in 1946.

People have always had a compulsion to know the future. For centuries, Greeks consulted the Oracle at Delphi, an old woman who lived in a cave and was believed to have the power to see into the future. Ben Franklin created his Poor Richard’s Almanac which put forth predictions about weather and other bits of useful wisdom.

Other famous predictors from many areas of thought include Nostradamus, Leonardo Da Vinci, H.G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, and Alvin Toffler. Most non-scientific seers of the future use their powers of observation, past experiences, and individual knowledge to project what the future holds.

Making predictions is part of all scientific experimentation. Even young students working on their science fair projects must predict, form a hypothesis, collect data, test their ideas, and come to a conclusion.

American statistician and author Nate Silver has garnered much attention for his work in several fields of prediction. As a sabermetrician, an analyzer who uses baseball statistics to make predictions, he gained world recognition for his amazing accuracy. In the area of politics, his ability as a psephologist was demonstrated when he correctly predicted the outcomes in both the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections.

Using polls, finance information, and voting data, Silver was correct in 49 of 50 states in his pre-election analysis. His book, The Signal and the Noise-Why So Many Predictions Fail-But Some Don’t, was named Amazon’s number one non-fiction book for 2012. Silver’s methods have changed the science of prediction.

Some predictions might be called prophecy, but others are the result of careful scientific and mathematical study and calculation.
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Science News for 2012

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

Science News for 2012
Reflections, reviews, and resolutions parade before us during the week between Christmas and New Years. Deciding which scientific events of 2012 will have an impact on mankind would perplex most people.

Science News Magazine has decided on several most notable stories because they literally kept them up by breaking in the middle of the night. Their top twenty-five best stories list included “You Really Can Learn While You Sleep,” “Milky Way Will Bite the Dust,” “Earth’s New Neighbor Looks Familiar,” and “Bionic Women (and Men) Get Closer to Reality.”

New species are still being discovered on the planet. A monkey with a blue rear end and blonde mane, the world’s smallest fly, a sponge shaped like a harp, and a “cave robber” spider are among the 16,000 to 20,000 new species that will have been described by biologists during 2012.

Although scientists have described about 1.9 million species so far estimates predict 6.8 million more to be discovered. It may take another 400 years to accomplish this task at the current rate.

Having been hit with cuts to the space program NASA enjoyed the successful landing of its newest rover, Curiosity, on Mars. Enthusiastic space scientists and millions of fans watched the perfect landing online. Dubbed “Seven Minutes of Terror” for the space scientists, the remarkable touchdown was broadcast on the big screen in New York City’s Time Square. It seems we will never get over our fascination with attempting to find signs of life on the Red Planet.

Prosthetic science produced some of the most promising moments for mankind during the year. Cathy Hutchinson, paralyzed by a stroke, was able to control a robotic arm through the use of an implanted brain chip. Olympic athletes ran on high-tech carbon blades and a young man was able to climb Chicago’s Willis Tower with a thought-controlled limb. Sight in patients suffering macular degeneration may be helped in the near future by a prosthetic that will be placed in the back of the eye. It is already on the market in Europe.

A naturally occurring event presented a rare picture in the sky during June. Venus steadily passed across the surface of the sun allowing scientists to see more of Venus’ upper atmosphere and its gaseous clouds that have been such a mystery. The last time the planet crossed the sun was in 1882 and 1874 and the next time will be in 2117 and 2125.

Nicolle Rager Fuller

The biggest news in physics was unveiled by Joe Incandela of the University of California, Santa Barbara. Finally, the answer to decades of scientific questioning appeared in the form of the Higgs, a subatomic particle which will help explain why the universe looks the way it does.

While you and I are tucked in our beds and fast asleep, scientists of our world are constantly making discoveries. Read about more 2012 discoveries in “Science News Top 25” at www.sciencenews.org.
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Spirits Everywhere

By: Judi Stuart
Port Discover - Visitor Services Manager

SPIRITS EVERYWHERE
Mannheim Steamroller has created my favorite versions of Christmas music for the last twenty-five years. I always get some growling from Hubby when he gets his fill of it during the holidays. A couple of years ago he changed his tune when he heard Mannheim’s “Up Above the Northern Lights on Christmas Night.”

The piece is a hauntingly dramatic musical reflection of the astronomical phenomenon scientifically known as the aurora borealis (northern) or aurora australis (southern) which usually occurs near the two poles of the earth. One of his bucket list goals is to go to see the lights in all their glory.

Proclaiming that “magic fills the air” and “spirits are everywhere” the lyrics get in your mind and won’t leave you. You can see it and hear it on www.youtube.com with a video (see below) of the scientific wonder in action.

The lights have been observed since ancient times, but the earliest account is from Babylonian clay tablets during the time of King Nebuchadnezzar II in approximately 568 B.C.

The dancing curtains of magical colors have fascinated humans for thousands of years. Aristotle called them light torches, and Europeans of the Middle Ages thought that they were flaming heavenly castles or armies of warriors who had died in battle.

Children of Norway believed that the lights would swoop them up into the sky if they waved a napkin at them. Eskimos thought that the aurora was dancing animal spirits of deer, seals, and salmon. Inuit tribes thought that the spirits of the dead were playing football with a walrus skull across the sky.

Named after the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, and Boreas, the Greek name for north wind, the Northern Lights can appear as patches of light, streamers, arcs, or rays painted in colors of green, blue, violet, red, and yellow. On rare occasions, when solar storms are extremely violent, the lights can be seen much further south or north than the poles.

Solar winds from sun storms send charged particles to earth in the form of clouds of gas. Earth has a protective shield called the magnetosphere. When the particles collide with the magnetic field, they cause changes and generate currents which flow along the lines of magnetic force into the Polar region. When they run into oxygen and nitrogen atoms, they produce the dazzling aurora lights.

Auroras tend to be more spectacular during periods of high solar activity which cycles every eleven years. The activity has been known to damage our electrical power grid and satellite operations. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sent satellites on several missions called FAST, POLAR, and IMAGE to observe the activity of the Northern Lights.
The best places to see the northern lights are closer to the poles such as Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and Antarctica. They happen all the time, but can only be seen with the naked eye at night.

As the song proclaims, “Christmas night...Let your dreams take flight.”
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