When he runs, Usain Bolt — the fastest man that any of us have ever seen — maxes out at a top speed of 27.3 miles an hour. But scientists now believe we’re capable of running faster, perhaps as much as 40 miles per hour, if only we could increase the speed with which our muscle fibers contract.
Previously, it was thought that we were limited by the amount of brute force it takes to push our bodies off the ground, but the new findings are leading to speculation of ways to increase muscle contraction:
One option would be to increase the proportion of ultrafast 2X type muscle fiber, one of three types of mammalian muscle fibers. Studies have shown that athletes can slightly increase their 2X fibers by training intensely and then taking a break for a few weeks, he said.
Even this kind of training, however, wouldn’t let us catch a true speedster like a cheetah. Their four legged gait remains a much better way to run, if speed (and not endurance) is your ultimate aim.
If you were to fall from a plane six miles up, your chances of survival are very, very small. But I am saying there is a chance. While some stories are impossible to verify, there are about 44 reported incidents of human beings having survived a fall from a plane at cruising altitude.
Historian Jim Hamilton reports that 31 individuals lived through a fall encased in wreckage, while 13 survived a true free fall. Of the latter, the most famous is Alan Magee, who was blown from a B-17 flying a combat mission over occupied France in 1943.
The most important factor for survival might be where you are able to land:
Magee’s landing on the stone floor of that French train station was softened by the skylight he crashed through a moment earlier. Glass hurts, but it gives. So does grass. Haystacks and bushes have cushioned surprised-to-be-alive free-fallers. Trees aren’t bad, though they tend to skewer. Snow? Absolutely. Swamps? With their mucky, plant-covered surface, even more awesome. Hamilton documents one case of a sky diver who, upon total parachute failure, was saved by bouncing off high-tension wires. Contrary to popular belief, water is an awful choice. Like concrete, liquid doesn’t compress. Hitting the ocean is essentially the same as colliding with a sidewalk, Hamilton explains, except that pavement (perhaps unfortunately) won’t “open up and swallow your shattered body.”
The other crucial piece of advice? Don’t land on your head.
Before he was famous, Leonardo da Vinci was a guy who needed a patron. And while we know him best as an artist, when he was 30, da Vinci thought his most marketable skills were those of weapons maker:
7. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.
That said, in times of peace, da Vinci made it clear that he had some other talents, writing, “I can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.”
Indeed.
Tie designer David Hart explains:
Palaeontologists working in northeast China have pulled a type of pigment cell (called melanosome) from the fossils of a set of dinosaur feathers, which for the first time, give researches an indication of dinosaur hue:
The team discovered two types of melanosome buried within the structure of the fossil feathers: sausage-shaped organelles called eumelanosomes that are seen today in the black stripes of zebras and the black masks of cardinal birds, and spherical organelles called phaeomelanosomes, which make and store the pigment that creates the rusty reds of red-tailed hawks and red human hair.
The color also leads scientists to believe that the dinosaur feathers were also used primarily for display (instead of flight).
NASA recently awarded a $500 million contract to two companies for the development of a new space suit for astronauts. The feature that makes it a game changer — beyond even the life support system or computer linked back to earth — is modularity. The new plug-and-play design will cut significantly down on weight:
Previously, to fly inside a rocket/space shuttle or do a space/moon walk required two separate suits. (The latter weighing 300 pounds alone.) By contrast, the Constellation has arms and legs that can be used for any mission. But the torso can be switched out, for either greater mobility inside a craft, or greater ruggedness outside it. In addition, for space walks, a kevlar sleeve protects the exterior from tiny meteors.
The new suits should be online before 2020.
In The Greatest Show on Earth, Richard Dawkins writes about how wolves became dogs:
We can imagine wild wolves scavenging on a rubbish tip on the edge of a village. Most of them, fearful of men throwing stones and spears, have a very long flight distance. They sprint for the safety of the forest as soon as a human appears in the distance. But a few individuals, by genetic chance, happen to have a slightly shorter flight distance than the average. Their readiness to take slight risks — they are brave, shall we say, but not foolhardy — gains them more food than their more risk-averse rivals. As the generations go by, natural selection favours a shorter and shorter flight distance, until just before it reaches the point where the wolves really are endangered by stonethrowing humans. The optimum flight distance has shifted because of the newly available food source.
The answer, at least in part, is that wolves helped to domesticate themselves. (via)
If state maps were redrawn to create population equality (creating 50 states with between 5 and 6 million residents), the result might be something like this. The political implications would be a radically different Congress. (via)
