Like many people I watch films and read books and I often scoff at the outrageous story lines or antics of the central characters. Then things happen in the 'real' world which make such fantasies out of touch with what really happens.
Fiction Sometimes Does Not Cut It
I remember reading an old Tom Clancy novel when some disgruntled guy flies a passenger plane into the Senate building and thinking, 'nice story but load of tosh. It could never happen'.
Some years later I received an urgent call from a colleague in the New York area telling me a small plane had flown into the World Trade Center and to turn on my TV. I watched in dumb horror as the events of 9/11 unravelled and found out the enormity of reality in the world of terrorism. On that day nearly 3,000 people died and planes were flown into both towers of the WTC and even the Pentagon. You could not make it up.
This weekend, after watching Clancy's 'Patriot Games' on TV I was reminded of our violent heritage in Britain and thanked God we had seen the last of it. Then the chilling news appeared that two soldiers had been brutally murdered in Northern Ireland, the first such casualties since 1997 and a shiver went down my spine as it appears 'The Real IRA' has been apportioned the blame. The old reality of Irish 'Troubles' flashed back to haunt us and we hope that is just that.
On Lighter Matters
I watched Star Trek when I was young and marvelled at the crew's ability to reach light speeds and transport their bodies from one place to another. Quantum physics gives us some hope that that both can be a reality, and that it even could be possible to travel back in time. But there are so many issues attached to both that it would be easy to believe that neither could ever happen. Then in some laboratory somewhere, we find that scientists have succeeded in sending tiny particles short distances and reforming. Maybe, 'Beam me up Scottie' is not such a daft idea after all.
Yesterday I read something that would be a great hope to all beer-swilling men, that fart molecules could be the next Viagra. The stink of flatulence and specifically hydrogen sulphide can cause erections in rats. The penis is packed with spongy tissue that fills with blood to cause an erection. Nitric oxide causes the walls of arteries supplying the penis to relax to allow this to happen and Viagra works by blocking the enzyme which destroys nitric oxide. It has now been found that hydrogen sulphide does the same thing too.
Romance may never be the same again. 'Darling I'm home and I have a little surprise for you - 6 pints of lager and a curry, baby.'
How Can You See A Black Hole?
Two scientists at Nottingham University came up with a way to actually see what a black hole may look like. By suspending droplets of water in a diamagnetic field and then spinning them, they were able to see who the droplet changes shape remarkably. The triangular shape they saw in an instant advanced fluid dynamics but they also found the shapes simulated cosmological events like black holes, which are thought to have a water like membrane at the event horizon, and even subatomic levels.
Beats switching on the LHC and experiencing a real one.
This week also, it appears that the grave of the first 'vampire' has been discovered in Colorado. The skeleton dates back since before the famous Dracula book by Bram Stoker and was found with a stake driven through the unfortunate person's mouth. Since the revelation there have been many more cases brought to light suggesting the practice of killing 'vampires' was quite widespread around the 1750s onward. Watch out, Dark Lord Mandelson.
Just today we hear that scientists have come up with a way of putting 'scaffolding' into voids in the brain caused by stroke damage - again mimicking the action of Dr. 'Bones' McCoy's Thingie which he passed over wounds and heads to instantly heal them.
Acupuncture is something I have always been sceptical about but when I recently had a very bad stomach virus that made me feel sick all the time, my neighbour stuck a few pins into my wrists and I can actually say the treatment alleviated the symptoms for several hours. I felt bad again the next day but there was no doubt I got an instant 'hit' from acupuncture - and I have no idea why.
Sometimes fact is far stranger than fiction.
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