Curio Cabinet

These are a lot more useful than your average tattoos. Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have designed a spray-on temporary tattoo that might replace conventional electrodes for EEGs. Short for electroencephalogram, an EEG is a test that measures brain activity and is used to diagnose brain injuries, tumors, epilepsy, and a myriad of other conditions related to the brain. Yet, as essential and high-tech as the test is, actually getting an EEG is a cumbersome ordeal for patients. First, electrodes must be attached to the scalp using adhesive gels, but the application process can take hours. Hair can easily get in the way, leading to a sticky mess. On top of all that, the gel used to hold the electrodes in place is only effective for around six hours. After that, the adhesive properties of the gel diminish, which affects the signal delivered through the electrodes. That’s far from ideal when patients might need to be monitored for an extended period, not to mention that it’s awfully uncomfortable.
 
Enter the electronic tattoo. Developed by researchers at UT Austin, the tattoo uses a biocompatible, conductive polymer ink that can simply be sprayed directly onto the scalp. Since it’s applied as a liquid, it’s not stymied by hair and once it dries in a few minutes, it can carry a reliable signal for around 24 hours. But there’s more than EEGs in the future for these e-tattoos. Researchers believe that the conductive ink could one day be used to create unobtrusive brain-computer interfaces that people with disabilities could use to control prosthetic devices, or computers for communicating through. That sounds like something for the distant future, but similar e-tattoos are already being used by some athletes to monitor biometric information, like heartrates. It may well be an inkling of things to come.

 
[Image description: A gray brain against a black background.] Credit & copyright: KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA, Pexels

Math and logic are an inseparable pair, right? Well, they weren't always. Mathematics and logic existed separately for thousands of years before the two disciplines ever merged together, but their eventual marriage was possible thanks in part to a man named George Boole. Boole, who died on this day in 1864, is known as the father of binary logic, and by extension, a key figure in the field of modern computing.
 
Despite his later career as a revolutionary academic and educator, Boole never received much formal education. Instead, his early life was enriched by his father’s personal interest in math and science. Born on November 2, 1815, in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England, Boole was largely educated by his father, a shoemaker. As a child, he also attended local schools, but most of his knowledge in mathematics was self-taught. When his father’s business began to slow down, Boole started teaching at the young age of 16. By 20, he had opened his own school, and remained a dedicated educator throughout his life. He worked as the headmaster of his school for 15 years, during which time he took it upon himself to continue his own education. Beginning in the 1840s, Boole began to publish papers in the Cambridge Mathematical Journal. In 1849, he began his tenure as a professor of mathematics at Queens College in Cork, Ireland.
 
Before Boole, logic was considered part of philosophy. He published a pamphlet in 1847 titled The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, being an Essay towards a Calculus of Deductive Reasoning in which he argued that logic was not a matter of philosophy, but shared a domain with mathematics. He expounded on this idea in An Investigation into the Laws of Thought, on Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities, which he released in 1854.
 
With these two works, Boolean algebra was established, wherein math and algebraic symbols could be used to express a binary system of logic. Essentially, Boolean algebra is the mathematical representation of logic using boolean values: the values of true or false, often represented today as 1 and 0 in computer science. Boolean algebra also plays an important role in the theory of probabilities, information theory, and circuit design in digital computers. Boole’s integration of math and logic was a revolution millennia in the making, with much of his work based on Aristotle’s system of logic. Even Boole’s book, The Laws of Thought, was titled after existing fundamental laws of logic used by ancient philosophers.
 
Thanks to the recognition and acclaim he earned from his works, Boole was given an honorary membership to the Cambridge Philosophical Society and an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1858 and 1859, respectively. Sadly, Boole’s extreme dedication to his profession ultimately led to his death. One day in November of 1864, Boole walked through a cold and torrential downpour to reach his class at Queens College. Once in his classroom, he conducted an entire lecture in drenched clothes. In the following days, Boole contracted pneumonia and passed away at the age of 49, survived by his wife and children.
 
Even if Boole lived a long and healthy life, he wouldn’t have seen the advent of digital computing that relied on his principles with practical applications. While many programming languages exist today, digital computing is fundamentally based on circuits formed using the boolean values of true and false. Boole’s impact has been left on everything from algebra textbooks to the entire field of digital computing. All that, despite spending much of his life with little formal education. Who said a shoemaker’s son couldn’t accomplish great feats?

 
[Image description: Rows of white 1s and 0s against a back background.] Credit & copyright: Author’s own photo. The author releases this image into the Public Domain.

How can something so big be so small? Black holes conjure up the image of light and matter circling an unimaginably large void. Yet, while they’re theoretically capable of devouring entire galaxies, some black holes might be so small that they’ve gone unnoticed until now. According to MIT physicists who recently published a paper in Physical Review Letters, tiny black holes might have been responsible for shaping the cosmos and might explain the mystery behind dark matter. The existence of small black holes isn’t anything new. Stephen Hawking famously hypothesized the creation of “primordial” black holes soon after the Big Bang, which would have been regions of ultradense matter rather than anything like the supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies. MIT physicists, however, have discovered that the very same process that produced primordial black holes could have also led to the creation of even smaller, “super-charged” black holes that would qualify as a new state of matter. Both the primordial and super-charged black holes would have been created in the first quintillionth of a second at the birth of the universe, but while the former were likely scattered across the cosmos, the latter disappeared just as quickly as they came about. Most of them would have been about the size of an atom, but with the mass of an asteroid, though some may have been as small as protons and as massive as rhinos. While super-charged black holes no longer exist, they may have left their mark in ways that could be detectable in the future. During their brief existence, they could have affected the balance of fusing nuclei, and following their trail might reveal the nature of dark matter. Dark matter—invisible matter that outnumbers regular matter five to one but remains unaccounted for— could be primordial black holes, and tracking the effect of super-charged black holes might lead physicists to confirm the hypothesis. That would be a supermassive development indeed.

[Image description: A starry night sky with blue and purple streaks visible.] Credit & copyright: Felix Mittermeier, Pexels
 

Gangly yet fluffy, gentle yet combative, useful yet challenging to manage. Alpacas are interesting animals, that’s for sure! As winter weather sets in, you may well find yourself bundling up in earmuffs, a scarf, or a hat made from alpaca wool. This wool is actually the main reason that alpacas exist today—they were bred specifically so that people could harness its amazing warmth and softness.
 
Alpacas are often mistaken for llamas, and the two animals are related, but alpacas’ closest relatives are wild vicuñas, a South American animal native to the Andes mountains. Because of their soft, fast-drying wool, vicuñas were domesticated by the Incas, which eventually resulted in the alpacas we know today. Alpacas are still part of the Camelidae family, which also includes llamas and camels. Like most of their relatives, alpacas are tall, lanky animals with large toenails and soft foot pads, rather than hooves. Of course, they’re distinguished by their fluffy wool, which can only be sheared once a year.
 
Once alpaca wool is sheared and washed, it is called roving. Roving can be spun into yarn, which can then be made into anything from scarves to rugs. While alpaca wool can be profitable, keeping alpacas isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Despite their fluffy good looks, alpacas aren’t exactly cuddly creatures. They prefer the company of their own herd to the company of people, and they can be fussy and finicky. Like camels, alpacas aren’t afraid to spit a wad of sticky mucus at anything or anyone that annoys them. Alpacas mainly eat hay, but they’re more than willing to nibble any other plants that they encounter. With their flexible, almost finger-like lips, alpacas can pluck individual leaves from trees or bushes and grind them up in their strong teeth. So, while it may sound fun to start an alpaca farm, you might want to make sure that your pasture is free from foliage…and that your clothes are spit-proof.

 
[Image description: Two newly-sheered alpacas. A brown alpaca looks to the left while a white one looks ahead.] Credit & copyright: Cybularny, Wikimedia Commons. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

They say that fashion trends repeat themselves;. Just look at all the 80s stuff everywhere: oversized sweaters, neon colors… salmon hats? While the fashionistas on land are thrifting for mom jeans, orcas are having an 80s fashion comeback of their own. Back when glam rock and shopping malls were thriving, orcas in the Northwest Pacific experienced something of a cultural trend. A female orca was spotted “wearing” a dead salmon like a hat in the summer of 1987, and soon, other orcas seemed to follow suit. There was no discernible reason for them doing this, at least none that any scientists could deduce, but like a viral trend on social media, the curious behavior spread. Then, like most viral fads, the salmon-hat trend seemingly disappeared without a trace by the following year with no explanation to be had.
 
Then, just last month, another orca was spotted in South Puget Sound in Washington state wearing a dead salmon. Scientists were baffled to see this same, strange behavior almost 40 years apart. Some believe that the behavior was passed on by orcas who were around in the 1980s and remember the trend, and that’s actually not too far-fetched. Individuals in pods learn from other orcas, and everything from the way they communicate to how they feed can be distinct from other pods. Pods are even known to have “dialects,” where their whistles and clicks sound different from one another. But why would any killer whale put a dead fish on their head and swim around with it to begin with? Some researchers believe that an abundance of food might trigger the behavior. Both this year and 1987 saw high food availability, and this behavior might just be a way for them to save food for later consumption. Orcas have been known to tuck food between their body and their pectoral fin, but salmon might be too slippery for that, forcing them to balance them on their heads instead. Form and function combined? Now that’s forward-thinking fashion.

 
[Image description: Two orcas leaping from the water.] Credit & copyright: Robert Pittman, NOAA. This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, taken or made as part of an employee's official duties.