William George Unruh

            William George Unruh is a top Canadian scientist who was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba where he earned his bachelors of Science degree in physics at the University of Manitoba in 1966 before earning his PhD in 1971 from Princeton University. Unruh is currently a professor at the University of British Columbia where he studies topics such as quantum physics, gravitational theory and cosmology.

          His concerns about relationships between matter and particles, and gravity have led to further research in areas such as black hole physics and phenomena. What interests me about Dr. Unruh are the topics he researches, he researches theories about black holes and wants to go beyond current scientific knowledge. I like his attitude towards this topic, because even though it is a topic that is relatively hard to research as black holes aren’t that close to earth, he still does it. Unruh wants to find an explanation for the formation of the eternity-expanding universe and which forces were present at the time of formation. He has been trying to find a quantum theory of gravity which means interactions between particles and matter, and gravity. Much of his work is done on theoretical physics which makes him a true scientist in my opinion, always trying to contribute to the scientific community. Apart from studying the formation of the universe, his main studies are based on sonic black holes which Unruh calls "dumb holes" where fluid has the ability to flow faster than the speed of sound. He says that hot sound waves are produced in these holes, however the evidence is not there to prove his theory.

Unruh may be best known for his discovery in 1976 called the Unruh effect. He, along with Stephen Hawkings discovered that the number of particles found in a region depends on the acceleration of the measuring device used. He discovered that a vacuum which does not contain particles would be detected as having particles by a measuring device. In simple terms, the theory says a thermometer waved around in empty space such as a vacuum will result in a non-zero temperature due to acceleration. However, the Unruh effect is still under dispute as it is not evident that what he claimed to observe is actually true. In my opinion, the Unruh effect sounds believable, I believe that devices used to measure aspects such as temperature were designed to be used in normal circumstances where particles exist, that is one of the reasons I believe a non-zero temperature is detected within a vacuum.

His research has triggered many other researchers to research further on topics he discovered such as the Unruh Effect, for example, they are currently coming very close to proving that his theory is correct as in 2011 researchers claimed that in their experiment, the Sokolov-Ternov Effect, the Unruh effect may have also been proven. Unruh’s research means a lot to society because disputable topics about how the universe was formed for example is currently being researched by him along with other interesting topics. Through his research of quantum physics, we might actually understand entirely how black holes operate. He researches some of the biggest mysteries of the universe and if his research hasn’t already answered some of the questions he originally had, eventually it will through others’ research adding to his. The topics he researches might not interest some people but if they were to understand it more possibly through his research, it would make topics such as black holes a lot more interesting.  His discoveries and theories have contributed to him being named one of the top Canadian scientists of all time.

Sources

W.G. Unruh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._G._Unruh

Canadian Institute for Advance Research- William G. Unruh

http://www.cifar.ca/william-g-unruh

Science.ca-William G. Unruh

http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=228&pg=0

Unruh Effect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unruh_effect

A Mystery: The Bermuda Triangle

                 “The Bermuda Triangle” is a documentary by BBC’s SuperNatural series which depicts many theories and mysterious incidences which occurred in the Bermuda Triangle. The Bermuda Triangle is considered by many, to be the most dangerous area of water in the world. There have been so many cases to support this idea which the documentary makes evident.

                                         Part 1 of the documentary

                        This name “The Bermuda Triangle” is reserved for an area of water where many planes and ships have disappeared without any traces of evidence. The primary case and mystery of the Bermuda Triangle is “Flight 19” which consisted of 5 American bomber planes that never returned to land after leaving Florida’s naval base at 2:10 pm, on December 5, 1945. Taylor, the lead pilot of that day had originally planned to fly the 5 planes towards the Bahamas and then return to Florida’s naval base. While out there he became confused and did not know which direction they were in, Taylor believed he was over the Florida Keys instead of the Bahamas which is an easy mistake to make as they are so similar in appearance from above, so Taylor decided to fly north believing he would fly into Miami but instead Flight 19 never returned. Flight 19 was actually on their correct route and flying north of the Bahamas would have meant flying over open water, eventually they would’ve ran out of fuel as land is nowhere nearby when travelling just north of the Bahamas. While communicating with the base in Ft. Lauderdale, Melvin Baker, a radio man had been telling Taylor how to return back to Ft. Lauderdale, he realized that Taylor had to be over the Bahamas because the reception was too strong to be coming from the Keys. However, Baker did not have authority to order Taylor in which direction to head so Taylor stubbornly disobeyed Baker’s expertise and ended up flying flight 19 into a place that would never be known. That was not the end of the story as two Mariner planes were launched to search for Flight 19 and only one returned, the other had been said to disappear into thin air.

                        The disappearance of Flight 19 was just one of the mysteries; one of the many other cases occurred in 1967 in which the “cabin crews of witchcraft” disappeared, when the coastguard eventually reached their location, their boat was nowhere to be found. There are so many theories about the Bermuda triangle and ways in which how certain cases have been solved but there are just too many cases to say it was due to bad weather. In reality, many years after, research had been done and it had been discovered that in many ship and plane disappearances, bad weather had occurred those days but that cannot prove anything. One of the believable theories about how the Bermuda triangle is able to make all of these disappearances occur was the theory about Methane Hydrate which is a highly occurring solid in the Gulf of Mexico area. The problem is that when this methane hydrate is formed from methane gas, it creates an immense amount of bubbles which lowers the buoyancy of ships and it was proven by Dr. McIver in a smaller scaled trial at the University of Texas when their boat sank in the water filled with methane Hydrate, it was also explained as to how this would affect planes, the methane would penetrate the surface and the reach the air in which planes flew, then the methane would make the air highly combustible. However, a fatal flaw was found to his theory, if his theory was true, boats and planes would not be disappearing only in this concentrated area as methane is dispersed throughout the oceans. One theory that has not been proven wrong is the theory of microbursts which are quick powerful bursts of sinking air which can happen at any time and do occur in the area. Microbursts could easily bring down a plane keeping this theory alive.

          In my opinion the mystery of the Bermuda triangle is something that may be discovered in the future but there are just too many possibilities right now as to how all these disappearances have occurred. This documentary truly depicts all factors of this mystery, it proves how certain cases occurred which seemed to be mysteries at one time but later had a full explanation. But only few cases have had explanations and the current theories are called theories for a reason, many of the theories and cases that have been solved have been kept from the public’s eye making this mystery seem even more mysterious. If you ask the average person about the Bermuda Triangle they will most likely only know about the disappearances but not the solved cases and possible explanations. What I believe is that something is down there sucking all these planes and ships down because it can’t be a coincidence that these disappearances are concentrated into this small area of earth’s oceans. I don’t know what it could be, it seems to be one of the true mysteries of the world and it doesn’t look like it will have an explanation in the near future.

Sources

The Bermuda Triangle(Part 1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5muUQ3kiKjY

Flight 19 in Bermuda Triangle

http://www.bermuda-attractions.com/bermuda2_000063.htm

Eugenics

            Eugenics is and has been a controversial topic ever since it started in the late 1800’s in Great Britain. During 1883, the term “eugenics” was founded by British scientist Francis Galton whose philosophy was to encourage the ablest and healthiest people to make more children in order to improve his race as a whole. However, eugenics is not entirely based off of his philosophy, there are actually two types of eugenics which are positive eugenics and negative eugenics. The type of eugenics that Francis Galton encouraged is referred to as positive eugenics, on the other hand, negative eugenics is discouraging those with undesirable traits from making children. Negative eugenics has even gone as far as sterilizing and preventing undesirable humans from making children.

            Negative eugenics have occurred throughout history, a main example is what Charles Fremont Dight, a physician in Minneapolis campaigned for and received. In 1923, Dight organized the Minnesota Eugenics society which campaigned for a sterilization law which was eventually passed in 1925. This law allowed sterilization of residents within state institutions who were considered insane. Later in the 1930’s 25,000 Americans were sterilized due to physical or mental disabilities, this could be blamed on the movement Dight started.

            There are many reasons as to why this is a controversy. For example, If someone is a criminal or a drug addict, it does not mean they have genes with those traits embedded into them because that is not possible. Therefore whenever certain types of eugenics such as sterilizing criminals occur, it is senseless because personalities have nothing to do with genes. Identical twins share identical DNA, however their personalities can be totally different. When observing human DNA, we are all very similar unlike other animals such as monkeys, two randomly chosen monkeys from the same tribe would most likely have very distinct DNA from each other unlike humans who all share similar DNA. Since the human gene pool is already small to begin with, if a form of eugenics were to occur, biodiversity among humans would shrink to almost none. Lastly, the typical characteristic people wish for their children to have is intelligence. If two of the most intelligent people on earth were to have a child together, that child would be born intelligent but they would also be receiving all the undesirable traits their parents may have had, so to create the perfect human would be almost impossible. 

             A positive point about eugenics is that it will create a healthier and more desirable population over time. For example, If only the athletic and intelligent are allowed to reproduce, the future generations will contain those “desirable” genes more than if eugenics were to not occur.  Also, eugenics allows the future generations to have less genetic diseases and to have more sane people. Heart problems and obesity are some of the problems that would be less apparent in our world further improving the human race. Most people would be physically more appealing increasing the overall self-esteem of earth as people wouldn’t be ashamed of themselves as they would be at a similar level of attractiveness as others.

            After researching about the ethics behind this topic, in my opinion eugenics should not occur due to multiple reasons. In my opinion negative eugenics goes against human rights as people should have the right to reproduce if they wanted to, it’s not as if a criminal creates a child, their child would also become a criminal. Emotionally, I believe that preventing certain people from producing children could really affect them, it’s just not fair. Equality is a law that has a major impact in our world today, especially in the United States, so then why do they have restrictions on who can become a sperm donor? You must meet certain physical and intellectual requirements in order to be a sperm donor in the United States, this in a sense defies their equality law. For those of you who don’t know, the holocaust of World War 2 where many people were deprived of their lives due to their religion and shade of skin was eugenics, it was an extreme form but it is still eugenics. If eugenics were to be allowed to a small extent, who knows what it could turn out to be? As we know, when something is allowed to a small extent people take advantage of it and it easily turns into something much larger than it started out as.

Sources Used

Minnesota Eugenics Society & Founder Charles Fremont Dight

http://www.mnhs.org/library/tips/history_topics/117eugenics.html

Who am I? What is Eugenics?

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/WhoAmI/FindOutMore/Yourgenes/Howdoyoubecomeyou/Whatiseugenics.aspx

Why Eugenics Will Always Fail?

http://io9.com/5925024/why-eugenics-will-always-fail

What is Eugenics?

http://www.euvolution.com/euvolution/basiceugenics.html