Klein Bottles and Kool Stuff

According to wikipedia, in mathematics, the Klein bottle is a certain non-orientable surface, i.e., a surface (a two-dimensional manifold) with no distinct "inner" and "outer" sides. Other related non-orientable objects include the Möbius strip and the real projective plane. Whereas a Möbius strip is a two-dimensional surface with boundary, a Klein bottle has no boundary. (For comparison, a sphere is an orientable surface with no boundary.)

What that means, for those of you that don’t speak math, is something rather mind boggling. It’s a 3 dimensional object that has no dimensions.

Wait, let’s back up and see if we can make this make sense. Most of us played with Mobius strips when we were kids. For the benefit of those that didn’t, a Mobius strip is a long strip of paper that is given a half-twist then taped together. It makes a sort of slightly twisted figure eight. You place the strip on the table, and start drawing a line down the center of the inside, moving the paper along as you go. After a while, without raising your pencil, the line you are drawing gets back to where it started in one continuous loop. And when you look at the strip you see that you’ve drawn on both the inside and the outside, all without breaking contact with the paper. Pretty neat trick, that.

Well a Klein bottle works the same way except that you give a sphere a half twist and after you do that, no matter where you put the liquid, and you CAN fill it up with liquid, all the volume is on the outside of the sphere. There’s no inside any longer. Figure that one out. After all, it’s still a three-dimensional object. It still had height, depth and width. It just doesn’t have any volume any longer.

There are lots of things like this Klein bottle in math. Strange abnormalities that make fun of the solid world we live in and most of us more mundane types take comfort in the fact that they’re all fantasies and daydreams that scientists just theorize about. But the Klein bottle is real and you can buy mugs and bottles right now. Not that they’re easy to clean. You’d think that a mug which keeps all it’s liquid on the outside would be a snap to wash up after you’re finished with it, but unfortunately gravity exists so in order to keep all that liquid from hitting the floor the outside where you pour the beer is inside, umm under… well maybe behind… there’s glass in the way! The liquid winds up between two surfaces and you can’t get to them all that easily.

Sounds confusing? Maybe, but think just how freaked out your dinner guests will be the next time you serve them their favorite libation in a Klein mug and tell them to be careful, all the liquid’s on the outside!

For more information, or to order your very own Klein bottle, just go to http://www.kleinbottle.com/

Science Fiction in a nutshell

So what is Science Fiction? What is Fantasy? Why do some people hate them and others find them the coolest stuff around?

Science Fiction is nothing more than fiction based in science. If you tell a story where technology of some sort plays a part, you're technically telling a science fiction story. However for the term Science Fiction to be meaningful, something else is necessary. Here's an example. Assume the story is about 2 cave men. One of them creates a brand new device that comes to be known as the wheel. Technically, that's a science fiction story. The wheel is certainly technology. But would we, today, consider a simple wheel to be all that amazing? Not as amazing as the cavemen do. So for the story to meet what the majority of readers consider science fiction, the technology needs to be something that they themselves consider at least a little bit amazing. Either that or the plot needs to be written so well that they are able to identify with the characters to the point that for the short time they are reading the story the science that the characters are encountering feels amazing.

In the example of the cavemen and the wheel, if the story is all about Og and Blog fighting over Oola and her cave, and the wheel just gets a side mention, the reader isn't likely to feel any amazement about the technology. But if the story is written through Og's eyes about the amazing things that suddenly happen in his life because of the wheel, it stands a far better chance of being considered some form of science fiction by those that read it.

Science Fiction comes in a wide variety of flavors as well, from "Hard" science fiction where the story is mostly about the technology and the plot is secondary to "Soft" science fiction where the entire setting is in some kind of technological setting but the plot and characterizations are primary. Space opera, science fantasy (such as star wars) and other sub-genres such as space westerns serve to muddy the waters when trying to define science fiction.

Fortunately for most readers, it's not necessary to worry about what subcatagory a book they happen to be enjoying might fall into. Those are details that marketing people, publishers, bookstore owners and the like agonize over, but for the general reading public if the story is fiction (I.E. made up), it's written well, and they can connect with the science then it qualifies as good science fiction.

If you're looking for a few science fiction authors to check out, I suggest starting with the greats: for example Issac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. Then move on to some new, fresh authors such as Sarah Wagner, Michael H. Hanson and Douglas E. Richards.

Review: PUSH

PUSH - PG-13
Cast: Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle
Director: Paul McGuigan
Released: February 6, 2009

Synopsis: A group of Americans with "abilities", some of which include telekinetic and clairvoyance hide from a U.S. government agency called The Division, in Hong Kong.

The Division a shadowy government agency tasked with finding and enhancing people's psychic power with the intent of creating an army of super powerful people for assassinations, espionage and it's like. Nick Gant played by Chris Evans, a telekinetic "mover,” has been in hiding since the Division murdered his father. Nick is forced out of hiding when Cassie Holmes, a 13-year-old clairvoyant “watcher,” seeks his help in finding an escaped “pusher” who may hold the key to ending the Division’s program.

As you can see, the plot line is much like say Firestarter, XMen, Mutant-X and their ilk. Oh and if this movie doesn't remind you of Painkiller Jane I don't know what would! Oh and Heroes? Oh yeah, this could almost be Heroes Hong Kong!

I would like to say that what was lost in originality was made up for with a really interesting plot, but that's not the case, Quaid, Scott and Barrymore could have done this movie with nary a rewrite. I would like to say that the special effects were better...but every time we see a physic power in action all we are given is an X-files black eye thing oh and the pushers have neat pastels when they start smackin on each other and a serious lower bowel rumble every time they hit something....I suspect that there was some skivies being changed after the fight scenes. I swear I saw a "these are not the driod you are looking for" scene!

Ok, well, for those of you that have NOT checked this movie out, here is the trailer. The movie is available on DVD.

Strange backward orbiting planet discovered

Tim Sayell sends in an odd article from Yahoo News. I will probably get this wrong, but let me see if I can set it up right. It is a given that planetary systems like ours are made up of interstellar dust that that condenses and becomes stars and sometimes planets. Planets orbit the primary in the same direction as the primary which is simple Newtonian physics which in this case means that any angular velocity is retained as the material of the system condenses. Which means that whatever way the primary is spinning, the planets will spin for the most part in the same direction. Whats more, the system as a whole will spin in the same direction as the original cloud's motion. So whatever way the parent star rotates, so do the planets and the planets will orbit in that very same direction.

Except for a recently discovered planet that orbits the wrong way, backward compared to the rotation of its host star. Discovered by the UK's Wide Area Search for Planets, W.A.S.P. 17, as it has been designated, is 1000 L.Y.s away, and may have had a close encounter with another huge planet that may have acted like a sling-shot, throwing WASP 17 into a retrograde orbit. Another option is that WASP 17 may have been a rogue planet that was captured by its sun in its odd orbit. It is thought that this was the case with Neptune's large moon Triton.

Post by Tim Sayell

Space.com's article

2009 Hugo Awards

Here is a partial list of the 2009 Hugo Award winners:

• Best Novel: The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
• Best Novella: “The Erdmann Nexus”, Nancy Kress
• Best Novelette: “Shoggoths in Bloom”, Elizabeth Bear
• Best Short Story: “Exhalation”, Ted Chiang

for a complete listing, click the article title or here to go to the official award site

Picture from IO9