Science All Around Us - - - Episode I

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AKA "Science Moments With Miss Keetha"

My children groan, moan, and walk away when I begin to wax on and on about science. So - - - if this "leaves you cold" - - - just click away to something else.

Recently a bloggy friend over at "Raise Them Up" posted about a lightning strike in her back yard. We chatted a bit about some lightning facts which gave me the idea of periodically doing some fun, trivia type science posts.

So - - - if you're "game" hop on board for the first ride!!!

(photo from library.thinkquest.org)


Lightning bolts are in the 4th state of matter - plasma.
Plasma is composed of tiny, highly charged bits of particles.
While there isn't a lot of plasma on Earth - - -
(Lightning & northern lights to give a couple of examples)
Scientists theorize that plasma is the main state of matter in the universe.

A lightning bolt has a temperature of 30,000 degrees Celsius.
Uh - - - that's just a TAD HOT,
(Room temperature is about 20 degrees Celsius.)
As this REALLY HOT bolt of plasma rushes through the air,
It instantly heats the air molecules it touches.
However, they cool just as quickly when the bolt is gone.
Warmed molecules "jump" apart from each other,
Cooled molecules "jump" back together - - -
This bumping of molecules is passed through the air
In a wave - - - a wave of vibration we call SOUND.
That is what we hear as thunder.
Hearing is in the receiver - - -
But perhaps that is a topic for another
Moment with Miss Keetha.

"Class, who can tell us why we see the lightning FIRST
And THEN hear the thunder?"

The average lightning bolt packs about 1 billion volts of electricity.

Lightning can travel from the sky toward the ground,
From the ground toward the sky,
And even 50 miles sideways.

No WONDER my friend's yard suffered
This damage.

I enjoy watching crime solving dramas on TV. I am WELL aware of the fact that they make technologies which as yet AREN'T readily available look common place. I'm also aware that they make science mistakes from time to time. I enjoy them anyway, for they are, just as Star Trek was, on the cutting edge of technology.

Recently while watching some taped episodes, I found TWO GLARING science errors in two different shows. I'm SURE when I point them out to you, you will ALSO realize immediately the folly that was presented as fact. Here they are:

1) One of my FAVORITE shows repeatedly, in the same episode, referred to anthrax as being a virus. The investigators took cipro to try to safeguard themselves from anthrax exposure.

2) In the second show, the lab tech while viewing human tissue slides said: "This body was frozen, the cell walls are ruptured."

Did you get it??? Did you CATCH the glaring errors???? (I know YOU DID, Dr. LaBar - - - I'm talking to our nonscienc-career friends here)

Well - - - when you are finished puzzling over it, scroll on down where I will explain:

(photo from accd.edu)

This is a photo of anthrax BACTERIA. They are not viruses at all, but rather they are bacteria. (Bacteria is plural for bacterium) A bacterium is a living unicellular organism. A VIRUS is a tiny particle of DNA or RNA wrapped in a protein coat. There is debate as to the "life" status of a virus- - - it does not perform ANY life functions EXCEPT reproduction, which it cannot do on it's own but must depend upon a living host cell (maybe in you or me) to do the reproductive work for it.

The show made a DOUBLE boo-boo on this one. While taking cipro as a prophylaxis for a BACTERIAL invasion would be beneficial, THERE IS NO ANTIBIOTIC IN THE WORLD THAT WILL "kill" a virus, so taking an antibiotic for a virus is useless. The mistake in the show wasn't that they TOOK cipro, it was that they said they were taking it for a virus.

Little lesson: We overuse antibiotics in this country and are creating antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria by so doing. If your doctor says, "No, you don't need an antibiotic because what you have is a virus - - - BELIEVE HIM. Please don't pressure him into prescribing an antibiotic you don't need. I'm just sayin ' - - -

(both diagrams from enchantedlearning.com)

Now for the cell wall faux pas.

As you can clearly see from the above diagrams of generic cells, animal cells (and humans are mammals of the Kingdom Animalia) do NOT HAVE CELL WALLS. Plant cells, bacteria cells, fungi cells, and some protist cells do have cell walls around their cell membranes, but animal cells have only a flexible bilayer plasma (not the same plasma as lightning) phospholipid membrane. We do not NEED a cell wall because we have a skeleton for structure and support.

So, what my dear laboratory friend in the crime show SHOULD have said was: "This body was frozen because the CELL MEMBRANES are ruptured."

Tune in again soon for another episode of "Science Moments with Miss Keetha" and until then I return you to your regularly scheduled blog viewing!

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