At the end of the 16th century Europe was just wrapping up with the Medieval period and freshening up for the coming Renaissance. Russia was nearing the end of Ivan the Terrible, and England had just gotten past King Henry VIII with his beheading phase. A young upstart by the name of William Shakespeare was feverishly writing plays about the sorts of things never seen before… the troubles of everyday life.

Shakespeare is credited with inventing thousands of words and phrases that we still use today, but it’s not quite as simple as that. (imagine yourself going to a play with a few hundred made-up words… how could you follow it?) Rather, it’s a question of timing, and Shakespeare was there to adopt these words, writing them down and embedding them into the culture.

It was right around this time that English was first accepted as a legitimate language. Prior to that decree, all legal business in England was conducted in French, and academic writings were in Latin. So, with Shakespeare being one of the early significant English authors, his influence was strong. Many of his colourful phrases remain in common use.

• Break the ice
• Clothes make the man
• Elbow room
• Give the devil his due
• Heart of gold
• Too much of a good thing
• In a pickle

I’m hesitant to give him too much credit for inventing all the individual words, but it was his record that spread them far and wide. Frugal, gloomy, countless, critic and thousands more show up first in the bard’s manuscripts.

*Footnote: I used the word “enwisened” off the top of my head when speaking to an audience last Saturday. Turns out, I can’t lay claim as it was previously recorded in the 1997 book “Women Who Run With Wolves”.

• Source: Shakespeare’s influence – Wikipedia
• And here’s a list of more words and phrases credited to Shakespeare

Related Facts

• FACT: the word ‘salary’ comes from the history of salt
• FACT: a woman in high heels is more deadly than an elephant
• Try not to enjoy eating fish too much… or else!

Yesterday I was talking about the hypersphere as one of the proposed shapes for the universe, but I ran out of space (trying to keep things snappy) before I got to the more interesting idea. Some theories peg the universe as having no shape at all… it just goes on forever.

Have you ever heard the expression that an infinite number of monkeys banging away on an infinite number of typewriters will eventually produce the complete works of William Shakespeare? Statistically, that is a guaranteed fact. Given enough time, the “random sequence” of letters that correspond with Hamlet will eventually turn up. That’s the curious thing about infinity.

If the universe is truly infinite, that means Shakespeare was not the only Shakespeare. If you traveled far enough you would come across another galaxy, with another solar system, and another planet very much like earth. (having been formed with the same random sequence of evolutions) Walking this planet would be people very much like you and I. It may be off by a bit… Mary would actually be Sara, and with red hair rather than brown. Their pet dogs would have six legs.

Given enough distance covered in the infinite sequence, you will eventually stumble upon a place which is identical in every way to Earth, with identical people hanging around. Actually, the physicist Max Tegmark once calculated (for fun) how far away this mirror world would likely be according to the mathematics of probability:

A mere 10 to the power of 10²⁹ meters. That’s a 1 with 100 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 zeros behind it.

In fact, if the universe goes on forever then anything that you can imagine… exists. It sounds crazy, but that is actually the simplest answer regarding the universe. It’s easy to explain how everything exists. However, it’s very difficult to explain why some things would exists while others would not. The question becomes the dividing line between can exist and can’t exist. How would such a rule come about? Does that mean our “laws of nature” are not universal?

Finally we come to the theory that the universe may not be the universe, but rather one little puddle of space in the infinite multiverse. As such, each pocket universe can be distinct unto itself, mind-numbingly large, but not infinite. More interestingly, each universe can then have it’s own unique set of natural laws forged as the universe was born.

As I said in Part 1, all this is theory. There is no way for us to know things on this scale, as we cannot see that far. The speed of light and the “cosmic horizon” means we can only observe a (relatively) very small portion of space around us. But as Richard Feynman said… “It’s fun to imagine!”

• Source: All this and more covered completely in “The Goldilocks Enigma” (Amazon link)
• Also, Max Tegmark has posted many of his articles regarding the Multiverse on his website.

Related Facts

• The Shape of the Universe (part 1): the Hypersphere
• FACT: all the gold on earth came from outer space
• Superman, hamburgers, and the Coriolis effect

I will begin with the only hard fact I have on this topic: Nobody knows the structure or form of the universe. It’s debatable whether or not we will ever be able to know with any certainty. Still, the scientific process marches on. We observe the available evidence, and make intelligent guesses.

One fundamental question is whether or not the universe is infinite. Is there an edge, or does space and time just keep on going forever? We may never know, as we can only observe as far as the cosmic horizon. That is the point at which we can no longer see anything because there has not been enough time (in the 13.7 billion years of existence) for light to travel to, and be seen by earth. So it’s a bit like trying to determine the shape of the earth without being able to get out of your chair.

We have decided that there is no noticeable center to our universe. When we think of the Big Bang origin we picture an explosion happening in one spot, and everything spreading outwards from that spot. But that’s not really the case, according to the available evidence. The way that every galaxy is moving away from every other galaxy suggests the big bang happened everywhere-all-at-once.

The way we think about the space around us is in three dimensions. There are a very limited number of ways we can move, and we’re stuck being in only one place at any given time. In order to make sense of certain things, scientists are seriously considering that there are more dimensions than meets the eye.

One proposed shape for the universe, and a solution to the everywhere-all-at-once conundrum, is called a hypersphere. It’s a round ball, but rather than having a flat surface (like the earth) the outside edge of this ball is in itself a three dimensional space. (I admit, I still haven’t really wrapped my head around that image) Perhaps you could picture a balloon. There’s nothing on the inside, but the balloon wall is “thick” with three dimensions. (is that more or less confusing?)

So now consider the Big Bang in context of this balloon being inflated. It starts as a little ball of solid latex. (that balloon, not the universe) As it is blown up, it expands outward and the hyperspherical wall grows. If you were to have dots on the surface of this balloon, all the dots would be moving farther away from all the other dots, just like our galaxies.

Note: While the balloon analogy hopefully helps to explain the affect of a hyperspherical universe and uniform expansion, it doesn’t get you any closer to actually picturing the true shape of a hypershpere. Sorry. It’s tough to grasp without advanced mathematics. When I understand it myself, you’ll be the first to know.

So, that’s just one concept for the shape of the universe. With the hypersphere, there is a finite volume of space. In fact, if you could travel in one direction long enough, you would eventually loop around back to where you started. (like walking around the globe, but in a crazy 4-dimensional way)

We’ll pick this up again in the next story as we consider the strange consequences of an infinite universe.

• Source: I just finished a great book about the origins and structure of the universe called “The Goldilocks Enigma” (Amazon link) It does a very good job explaining the many fascinating theories of cosmology to a layman like me.

Related Facts

• The Shape of the Universe (part 2): Infinity and Beyond
• Superman, hamburgers, and the Coriolis effect
• FACT: when curling plastic ribbons you should go slow

Hysteria, and particularly the act of promoting hysteria, ranks pretty high on my pet peeves list. As such, I have a distaste for FOX news. Here’s one such headline they offered up in January:

Scientists Not So Sure ‘Doomsday Machine’ Won’t Destroy World

Since knowledge immunizes fear, let’s take a closer look at understanding this machine; the Large Hadron Collider. The big picture goal of this machine is to understand more about the physical structure of particles the form the universe. They do this by re-creating conditions as seen shortly after the “big bang” that got this party started.

The LHC itself is a 27 kilometer loop, a racetrack of sorts, that is built underground near Geneva in Switzerland. It is a particle accelerator with the job of getting two particle beams going around this racetrack in opposite directions. These beams travel as close to the speed of light as possible (0.999999991) and finally the beams are crossed as the particle collisions are observed.

The energy of that collision is equivalent to a head-on crash of two Subaru cars traveling at 1712 kilometers per hour. Sounds like a wild Friday night at the CERN lab, but this is serious business. Many scientists share the LHC and run various experiments to test their own research projects, but on the top of CERN’s “most wanted” list is to prove existence of the Higgs boson particle.

The Higgs boson is the missing piece of the particle puzzle. Currently it is entirely theoretical. It fills a hole in the picture scientists have of the fundamental structure of all matter, and it is a significantly important gap. So important that it has been nicknamed “the God particle”.

Now bear with me as I attempt to summarize my own semi-understanding of this thing in a very brief fashion.

There are four fundamental forces in the universe. Electromagnetic force, the Strong nuclear force, the Weak nuclear force, and Gravity. In the 1970s it was proposed that the Electromagnetic and Weak forces are in fact two ends of the same stick, with only subtle differences. An attempt was made to unify them into one mathematical theory, but a hiccup prevented this. It would only work if the particles responsible for the force had no mass. Enter the Higgs boson.

It is proposed that a soup of these Higgs particles is all round us, in every corner of the cosmos. All other particles have zero mass, and it is only through interacting with the Higgs field that they can achieve mass. So one of the experiments at the LHC is to separate and identify this elusive Higgs particle, which would be a huge step forward in our understanding of “stuff” in the most general sense.

Being an immensely complex machine, the Large Hadron Collider has spent more time under maintainance and repair than actually in operation, but as these bugs get worked out we can expect some serious scientific progress. (which is probably what has FOX so riled up)

• Source: the official CERN site abdout the LHC
• In case you’re curious to read an article that offers nothing of value, here’s a link to the FOX News fear-mongering story

Related Facts

• The Shape of the Universe (part 2): Infinity and Beyond
• The Shape of the Universe (part 1): the Hypersphere
• Superman, hamburgers, and the Coriolis effect

Generally I try to avoid writing about politically-charged topics because the facts are difficult to navigate. Every potential source article may or may not have an agenda skewing its figures. My own goal for today is to do my part to help with some education about the food we shove in our collective faces, but I’m having to tread carefully.

There are a lot of organizations/people offering calculations of the “true” cost of a hamburger. I’ve found number ranging from $50 to $200, or just a non-quantified list of side-effects from the beef industry. In an effort to be conservative with my facts, I’ll just say that your 99 cent hamburger costs more than 99 cents.

One third of the grain crops in the world (this being the very same world with a shortage of good farming land) goes to feeding livestock. It takes about 12 pounds of grain to produce one pound of beef.

Grazing land for cattle is the leading motivation for cutting down forests (most notably the rainforests of Brazil and India). I don’t like the hype around “global warming”, but this is a concern. Cows produce more greenhouse gas than our automobiles, while simultaneously needing to remove our leafy green air filtering friends from the face of the earth.

Livestock are injected with 50 percent of the antibiotics used in the world. To me, the troubling part is that these are largely preventative measures. Which means, for the most part, these antibiotics are unnecessary. What it does is give the bacteria the chance to interact and evolve to become immune to these antibiotics requiring new, stronger antibiotics. (the microbial arms race)

The last consideration I’m going to mention is water use. Not only the amount of water running through the livestock production system but the gross amount of pollutants that are flushed out the other end. Taking 8 percent of global water use, and leaving behind a third of all nitrogen and phosphorous pollutants.

Unfortunately, all this back-end stuff is not showing up in that 99 cent hamburger price tag. Somebody else, and most often somebody far away from you, is footing the bill.

Here in Canada we were the first to put strong health facts on cigarette packages, showing pictures of lung cancer and other negative considerations of the product within. I’m curious what would happen if the same thing would be required on the hamburger box.

• Source: Livestock impacts on the environment – UN Food & Agriculture

Related Facts

• FACT: the so-called global warming crisis is a lot of hot air
• Try not to enjoy eating fish too much… or else!
• The origin of the hamburger: Great sandwich or greatest sandwich ever?

With the exception of salmon steaks, I’m really not much of a fish-fan. Thus, it’s easy for me to exhibit rational and reasonable self control when faced with an all-you-can eat seafood buffet. As such, I will never be accused of being an opsophagos. Thank goodness!

In ancient Greece it was a terrible thing to be an opsophagos. It meant that you had an uncontrollable desire to consume fish. That meant that you were, quite frankly, a horrible person.

You see, at the time when religion had a pretty tight grip on daily life, all food had to be sacrificed by priests except for fish. So to have this strong desire to eat fish was an insult to the gods. It showed a corrupted soul. There were even legendary tales of certain obsessive fish-eaters becoming so evil that they trained themselves to consume massive quantities of fish.

So the stories go, these hedonistic opsophagoi had developed tough padded fingers and heat-resistant throats so that they could leap on freshly cooked fish while it was too hot for others to touch or eat.

So for the sake of all that is good, be sure you chew your fish-sticks slowly. In fact, gorging on any favourite food could qualify you as an opsomaniac.

Source: Opsophagos – Wikipedia

Related Facts

• Orange the fruit vs. Orange the colour
• FACT: the extra bun in a baker’s dozen is stained with ancient blood
• FACT: in fruit punch, the punch comes from the word for five

With Valentine’s day coming up, this promises to be a chocolaty weekend. I heart chocolate. But I won’t be blinded by my love… let’s look at the cold, hard, bitter chocolate facts.

Theobroma Cacao (more commonly called cocoa) is an evergreen tree native to Central America. They grow to 60 feet tall in the wild, and have 3 to 5 main branches that grow outward. The branches sprout thousands of small, white, scentless flowers. A small amount of flowers produce a berry which, over a period of six months, grows to a ripe pod about the length of your hand. One tree will produce only 30 of these pods per year.

Inside the pod is the cacao bean, the source of my tongue’s best friend. Through my affair with dark chocolate I’ve come to a greater understanding of how others enjoy wine. The process of turning cacao beans into chocolate requires similar care, from drying, through fermenting, to extract the richest flavour. Mind you, the majority of cacao beans get used for low-end candy bars where the milk and sugar overpower any such flavour… so they don’t worry about the details so much.

While the cacao tree originated in Mexico, now the majority of cacao is produced in Africa. My personal favourite chocolate bar features beans exclusively from Madagascar. Like most other things that come from the secluded island, the flavour of these beans is entirely unique. You have probably bought wine from specific regions of France, but you may not have considered the same principle applies for chocolate bars!

Going back to the origins, the Mayans and Aztec both produced a drink from the native cacao plants. For the Aztecs, it was a spicy, bitter chocolate drink reserved only for those of the highest status, drank from golden goblets that were tossed in the lake after one use. They called it xocoatl (pronounced shoco-latle).

The drink traveled back to Spain with Cortes, and once they added a bit if sugar to it, really caught on across Europe. The rest is history… but the above was history too.

• Source: Cocoa & Chocolate Facts – Yachana Gourmet

Related Facts

• FACT: The bananas we eat are all clones
• FACT: pumpkin pie is not made from any old pumpkin
• FACT: in the US a tomato is legally a vegetable for tax reasons