A fatty world record

Spot the outlier. Okay, the fact that it is in red is a bit of a giveaway. What this chart shows is the weight of a very, very exclusive club - people who have run a 10,000m race in under 27 minutes (that's over six consecutive miles at 4:20 pace).

Until earlier this month there were just 30 members of this club. Then in a fast race at Stanford, set up so Galen Rupp could have a go at the American Record (27:13) Chris Solinsky simply ran away from the field over the last two and a half laps and got to join this exclusive club. Rupp did beat the old American record but it was a bit of a moot point since Solinsky had just crushed it. Just watch:


What is so unusual about Solinsky's win is not his ethnicity but his size. Yes, the other members of the club are all African but they are also all very light. Solinsky, at 161 pounds was 20 pounds heavier than the next heaviest runner to break 27 minutes and about 40 pounds heavier than the average (121 pounds).
My teammates always make fun of me for being a fatty and stuff, and the first thing they said after the race was "that's probably a fatty world record."

Of course from the perspective of almost everyone else Solinsky is hardly a 'fatty'. In fact he's almost exactly the same height and weight I am, I think he's about 1" shorter and essentially the same weight, giving him a BMI that is smack in the middle of normal.

This all relates to several issues related to human physiology that we covered last week and will cover tomorrow. Of particular interest is the suggestion that a 'large' runner such as Solinsky can only match the smaller runners in cool conditions - as heat and humidity rise even human runners approach limits set by their ability to shed heat. A notable example was seen in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics where the unexpected winner was the 95 pound Josiah Thugwane of South Africa. In the hot and humid conditions the tiny Thugwane had a considerable advantage that allowed him to win in the relatively slow time of 2:12.

Removing Carbon From the Atmosphere

How can we absorb all that excess carbon dioxide that is being released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels? Preserving Earth’s forests and planting more trees might help, but it won’t be sufficient. One idea is to use carbon-scrubbing machines that would pull the carbon dioxide out of the air. The recovered carbon dioxide could then be used in such products as high-carbon cement, dry ice, or synthetic gasoline. Or it could be stored deep underground again.

Current technology would need to be improved before carbon-scrubbing is economically feasible. But the basic techniques are in place already – they’ve been used in submarines for decades.

Reference: Lackner, Klaus S. Washing Carbon Out of the Air. Scientific American pp. 66-71, June 2010.

Final exam

Write an editorial about the news that researchers led by J. Craig Venter have built a genome from scratch and used it to control a cell. Is this a giant step forward or just another day at the office? Some distinguished folks discuss the issue here.

(Not an actual final exam, but I hope that you all have some background and some enthusiasm for the topic that you could attempt this).

New campus seminar calendar

Did you know there are dozens of research-related events from all disciplines happening on campus every week? Now you can get all the details in one place with the Office of Research’s new events calendar at http://www.research.ucsb.edu/resources/events.shtml

The calendar includes seminars, lectures, symposia, conferences, colloquia, and other events from UCSB-affiliated researchers and visiting scholars that are open to a campus audience.

The events are stored as a Google Calendar, so you can subscribe with a Google account or export the information for use in other calendar programs including CorporateTime.

Stephen Colbert's Inner Fish

I mentioned this book earlier in the quarter and it is a very good read. I hadn't realized that the author, Neil Shubin, had been on the Colbert Report until Vincenzo mentioned it to me. He does a pretty good job at getting his points across, letting Stephen Colbert get his laughs, and not coming across as a clueless scientist. Nice job.

STRESS

So as finals and the end of the year approach us, I thought it would be appropriate to bring up a feeling that most of us are feeling at the moment--stress. As Claudia and John talked about in class a couple weeks ago, stress in humans is really wacky because we have the ability to kind of turn it on whenever, and in some cases this is not exactly a good thing. It can lead to shorter life-spans, gray hair, heart problems, lack of sleep, you know not good stuff. However, in a pinch under some sort of chaos, it can really help you out. I'm a firm believer and lover of podcasts, and I just happened to come across this great one by Radiolab about stress. They've included a bunch of people's stories about how they have used stress to help/hurt themselves, and a lot of interesting commentary. I strongly recommend you guys listen to it, it's really interesting.

here's the link:

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2005/02/11

Nicotine mode of action

By binding to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, nicotine increases the levels of several neurotransmitters - acting as a sort of "volume control". It is thought that increased levels of dopamine in the reward circuits of the brain are responsible for the euphoria and relaxation and eventual addiction caused by nicotine consumption.