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The growing acceptance of autism in the workplace
from CBS News, Feb 11, 2018
We like to think that good work is always rewarded. But what if some people who could do good work can’t their foot in the door in the first place? That’s where recent hiring initiatives that look beyond unfair stereotypes come in, as Lee Cowan reports in our Cover Story:
Twenty-seven-year-old Christopher Pauley thought he had it all figured out when it came to looking for a job.
He had a detailed spreadsheet of each and every position he applied for — at least 600.
But despite his degree in computer science from California Polytechnic State University, he went two years with barely a nibble.
Did he get discouraged? “Oh my gosh, my morale really started to drop towards the end,” he said. “In fact, there were days where I would either hardly fill out any applications at all, or just simply not apply on anything.”
He knew he had the smarts for most jobs; he was a former Spelling Bee Champ, after all. But Pauley struggles with social and communications skills because he’s also autistic.
While precise numbers are hard to come by, by some estimates at least 80% of adults with autism are unemployed, even though their IQs are often well above average.
Sometimes their job skills can present themselves in unique ways. For Christopher, it’s video games. His ability to recognize patterns and his acute attention to detail — both hallmarks of autism — make his playing the video game Rock Band look pretty easy. And they are the same skills he was hoping would impress prospective employers in the computer programming world. But he always had to get past that interview, which was a challenge at best.
Cowan asked, “Was there, in any of those interviews, a time where you just wanted to tell somebody, ‘Look, I know my social skills maybe aren’t quite what you expect, but I know I can do this job, and I know I can do a really good job if you give me a chance’?”
“Yes.”
“But you never said that to anybody?”
“Most of the time, no,” he replied.
“Because why?”
“I just wasn’t comfortable. It makes me come across as desperate.”
At Microsoft, however, there was no need to hide his autism; they were looking for it.
“It’s a talent pool that really hasn’t been tapped,” said Jenny Lay-Flurrie, the chief accessibility officer at tech giant Microsoft outside Seattle. “There really is, and was, a lot of data on the table that said to us that we were missing out. We were missing out on an opportunity to bring talent in with autism.”
Cowan said, “So in a way, it sounds like this was almost a business imperative.”
“Heck, yeah!” she laughed. “People with disabilities are a strength and a force of nature in this company, myself included.”
Lay-Flurrie, who is profoundly deaf, communicates by reading lips and working with an interpreter. She helped create a hiring program for Microsoft back in 2015 designed to better identify candidates with autistic talents.
Instead of the traditional job interview focusing so heavily on social skills, the company has replaced it with a vetting process that lasts for weeks, and team building exercises like one called the Marshmallow Challenge.
“Being able to watch a candidate in that environment as opposed to sitting across the table interviewing them makes all the difference in the world,” said Cowan.
“Every difference,” said Lay-Flurrie. “Every day, in any company, in any role, you’re going to be asked to work with someone else to figure out a problem or a challenge, or a project.”
“And yet in that scenario, they’re not as self-conscious that they’re being observed for a job — they’re just doing a task.”
“It’s marshmallows!”
After Christopher Pauley went through a similar, unconventional interview process back in 2016, Microsoft quickly hired him as a software engineer. His manager Brent Truell says he was immediately impressed by Christopher’s “out of the box” thinking.
“When we are faced with really complicated problems, the solutions to those aren’t always simple,” said Truell. “And Christopher always kind of brings new insights. And having that creative mind, he always brings something new to the team, which is really exciting.”
“Which is exactly why you hired him, right?
“Right.”
It’s an idea that’s catching on.
Last April, 50 big-name companies — including JP Morgan, Ford and Ernst & Young — came together for a summit on how to bring more autistic adults into the workforce.
It was hosted at the Silicon Valley campus of German software maker SAP, which was one of the first large companies to reach out to the autistic community.
It started its Autism at Work Program almost five years ago, and since then it’s hired 128 people on the spectrum, with the goal of hiring more than 600.
“I have been in this industry for close to 30 years, and I can tell you it’s probably the single most rewarding program that I have been involved with,” said Jose Velasco, who heads the program.
The biggest surprise for him, he says, has been the variety of candidates applying. “Very quickly we started getting resumes from people that had degrees in history, and literature in graphic design, attorneys … the whole gamut of jobs,” Velasco said.
“So really, you went into this thinking that people with autism would be good at certain jobs, and what you ended up discovering is they’re good at all jobs?” asked Cowan.
“They are good at just about every role.”
And they’re expected to perform in those roles, just like anyone else.
Mike Seborowski, for example, was hired three years ago and works in cybersecurity in SAP’s office outside of Philadelphia. When Cowan was visiting, Jose was helping Mike get ready for a long stint at the company world headquarters in Germany. “If you would had told me six years ago that we would have an employee who was openly autistic in the company, going on a business trip to Germany for a month, I would have not believed you,” said Velasco.
Almost everyone has been a surprise, he says. He points to 26-year-old Gloria Mendoza.
She told Cowan, “You should see some of the videos I had when I was a child. I was not very socially skilled with the other kids. Not showing interest with other people, displaying some of the challenging behaviors that a child on the autism spectrum would have.”
Her parents, Rosaura and Enrique Mendoza, helped get Gloria years of speech and occupational therapies, as well as access to top doctors. “When she was very young, I used to worry so much because I never thought she will overcome all what she has done,” said Rosaura. “So, it was like a very dark cloud.”
Gloria made huge strides in her childhood, but her parents were still concerned about how autism might affect her future.
“We worry about her adult life — well, first of all, could she make it through high school?” said Enrique. “Then, once she does that, you know, can she make it through college? Can she be independent?”
She made it through both high school and college; in fact, she got two degrees from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania — one in music (she has a beautiful singing voice), and another in computer science. And yet, a year after graduating — and hundreds of resumes later — she still couldn’t find a job … until she applied to SAP.
“Probably the best part about working here is that I can use the skills which I have studied whilst being among people that understand who I am and how I’m different from everybody else,” she said.
SAP put Mendoza through five weeks of training, which included working on her social skills.
She’s now in something called Digital Business Services, where she deals directly with customers.
Cowan asked, “What’s the one dream you really want to come true?”
“Probably that I can be really up there in my department, earning a lot of money, and still keeping the friends that I have,” she replied.
Her new friends are mostly co-workers in the autism program, and they try to get together regularly. Cowan watched as Mendoza and her friends participated in Game Night.
“And that, CBS, is how you play Smash Brothers!” said Gloria.
She told Cowan, “I never really had that many friends when I was younger, and having this wide variety of friends that understands me really makes all the difference for me.”
How so? “‘Cause I can express myself in ways that people won’t look at me weird. And it turns out that a lot of people have common interests as I do.”
SAP boasts a retention rate of about 90% for their autistic employees. Part of that may be due to the fact they’re not just set adrift in the workplace all alone. Each participant in the program is assigned a mentor from within the company — like an on-site guardian angel.
Gabby Robertson-Cawley, who has a cousin on the spectrum, volunteered to work with Gloria. “I think it’s just the rewards of getting to be friends with these colleagues who have autism — it’s not something you get in your typical corporate day-to-day experience,” Robertson-Cawley said.
Microsoft also has mentors. Melanie Carmosino, who works with Christopher Pauley, has a personal connection as well; she has a son who’s autistic.
Cowan asked, “What have you taken away from this whole experience, personally?”
“Hope,” Carmosino replied. “I think that this program gives hope to the autism community. It gives hope to parents like me, and it gives hope to people like my son that a company can, and will, look past their differences and see their gifts and let them contribute to society just like everybody else.”
Christopher Pauley is now independent, living on his own in a high-rise apartment, something he’s always wanted.
Cowan said, “I don’t want to ask how much you’re making, but you’re doing pretty good, it sounds like, yeah?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Could you ever imagine you’d be making this much money?”
“No, I never did! Honestly I would have been perfectly happy with, like, half the money I’m making now.”
He bought a car and drives himself to work — and for the first time, he says, looks forward to arriving at a place where he’s accepted for who he is.
He knows there are still challenges ahead, but given a chance to prove his worth, says Christopher, has given him an optimism he never had.
Cowan asked, “If other kids, or young adults, or adults with autism are watching this, what’s your message to them?”
“Don’t give up, and make sure to always aim high,” he replied. “Don’t aim in the middle You know, shoot for the stars every time, ’cause you never know what might happen.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-growing-acceptance-of-autism-in-the-workplace/
See our article on issues relating to Asperger syndrome and Autism
The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb
In his book The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb develops two ideas, Mediocristan and Extremistan, to help explain his Black Swan Theory.
Mediocristan is where normal things happen, things that are expected, whose probabilities of occurring are easy to compute, and whose impact is not terribly huge. The bell curve and the normal distribution are emblems of Mediocristan. Low-impact changes have the highest probabilities of occurring, and huge, wide-impact changes have a very small probability of occurring.
Bell curve describing Mediocristan
Examples: Nature is full of things that follow a normal distribution. Height of humans is a simple example. If you take a few hundred people, and take their average height, there is no human whose height would significantly disrupt the average if added to the sample. Height/weight of people, or life expectancy, are from Mediocristan.
Properties: In Mediocristan, nothing is scalable, everything is constrained by boundary conditions, time, the limits of biological variation, the limits of hourly compensation, etc. Because of such constraints and the limits of our knowledge, random variation of attributes exists in Mediocristan, and can be usefully described by Gaussian probability models.
In such “orderly” randomness models, probability distributions are such that no single instantiation of the value of an attribute can greatly affect the sum of all values in the distribution. Even the most extreme attribute values do not materially affect the mean value of a distribution, because the more extreme any value is, the more improbable it is that the extreme value will actually occur in nature.
Exstremistan is a different beast. In Extremistan, nothing can be predicted accurately and events that seemed unlikely or impossible occur frequently and have a huge impact.
Examples: In Extremistan, a single new observation can completely disrupt the aggregate. Imagine a room full of 30 random people. If you asked everyone their salary and calculated the average, the odds are the average would seem pretty reasonable. However, if you added Bill Gates to the room and then calculated the average salary, your average would jump up by a huge margin. One observation had a disproportionate effect on the average. This is Exstremistan. Things like book sales, whether a movie becomes a hit, or a viral video on the internet all have similar characteristics, and therefore reside in Extremistan.
Properties: A winner takes all competitions. As in: a small number of individuals or companies win everything. More inequality and less social justice are inevitable. Actions by individuals and small groups generate increasingly extreme results. As in: “eventually, one man might be able to declare war on the world and win.” Systemic events, both negative and positive, will occur at a high frequency, faster and with more extreme outcomes than ever before.
[Taleb’s central critique of bell curves is that they are often applied to areas that are subject to the dynamics of Extremistan, even though it only accurately describes Mediocristan.]
https://assaadmouawad.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/mediocristan-vs-extremistan/
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the bestselling book, The Black Swan, divides the world into 2 countries: Mediocristan and Extremistan. Looks like these two countries have completely different laws governing them. What are these laws? And how are they different? Let’s look at these questions in this article.
Mediocristan: Let’s start with Nassim’s favorite thought experiment. Assume that you round up a thousand people randomly selected from the general population and have them stand next to each other in one stadium. Imagine the heaviest person you can think of and add him to the sample. Assuming he weighs three times the average, between 400 and 500 pounds, he will represent a very small fraction of the total weight of the entire population (in this case about half a percent).
In Mediocristan, when your sample is large, no single instance will significantly change the aggregate or the total. So who all belong to Mediocristan? Things like height, weight, income of a baker or a prostitute, car accidents, mortality rates, IQ etc.
Strange country of Extremistan: Now, let’s turn to the same people whom we lined up in a stadium and add up their net worth. Add to them net worth of Bill Gates which according to wikipedia is $58 billion. Now ask the same question: How much of the total wealth would he represent? 99.9 percent? Indeed, all others would represent no more than a rounding error for this net worth. For someone’s weight to represent such a share, he would need to weigh fifty million pounds!
Same thing can be observed about book sales of randomly selected authors and adding J. K. Rowling to the list . In Extremistan, inequalities are such that one single observation can disproportionately impact aggregate, or the total. Nassim calls such events/things black swans. Matters that belong to Extremistan are: wealth, book sales per author, name recognition as a “celebrity”, speakers of a language, damage caused by earthquake, deaths in war, sizes of companies, financial markets etc.
How does this help? Nassim observes that the law of averages or the bell-curve statistics works well in Mediocristan. When friends from Mars will visit earth, they can check a small sample of people and learn a lot about people from Mediocristan. However, if you try to apply bell-curve to Extremistan it can get you in trouble. Let’s say you want to cross a river during your wildlife trek and you ask the local villager, “How deep is the river?” Villager says, “On an average 4 feet”. Now, in Extremistan, you don’t know whether it is: 4 feet +/- 1 foot or 4 feet and in one or two places 50 feet deep. Thanks to Satyam scam and the money I lost in a single day, I didn’t take time to understand what a black swan means. Next time you apply bell curve statistics to your decision (such as stock purchase), ask whether you are applying the right law in the right land.
Source
http://www.catalign.in/2009/01/black-swan-and-laws-of-mediocristan-vs.html
In his remarkable book, “The Black Swan”, Taleb describes at length the characteristics of environments that can be subject to black swans (unforeseeable, high-impact events).
When we make a forecast, we usually explicitly or implicitly base it on an assumption of continuity in a statistical series. For example, a company building its sales forecast for next year considers past sales, estimates a trend based on these sales, makes some adjustments based on current circumstances and then generates a sales forecast. The hypothesis (or rather assumption, as it is rarely explicit) in this process is that each additional year is not fundamentally different from the previous years.
In other words, the distribution of possible values for next year’s sales is Gaussian (or “normal”): the probability that sales are the same is very high; the probability of an extreme variation (doubling or dropping to zero) is very low. In fact, the higher the envisaged variation, the lower the probability that such variation will occur. As a result, it is reasonable to discard extreme values in the forecasts: no marketing director is working on an assumption of sales dropping to zero.
Now, the assumption that a Gaussian-shaped curve’s fit with a potential distribution of outcomes will be the best fit is just that: an assumption. It is based simply on observation of the past. Never before have our sales dropped by 20%, 50% let alone 100%. 10, 20 or 30 years of data can confirm this (observation of the past on a large number of data). But this is only an observation of the past, not a law of physics.
Now, if we reason theoretically, not historically, on sales trends, we must recognize that there are many situations in which sales can vary widely. A sudden boycott of our products, for example (Danish dairy products in the Middle East after the Muhammad cartoons), a tidal wave in Japan, which deprives us of an essential supplier, a technological breakthrough that makes our products obsolete (NCR in 1971), the collapse of the Euro, etc. Suddenly deprived of oxygen, our sales are collapsing.
This is the black swan. The reason is simple: sales, like many statistical series, do not follow a Gaussian distribution. The probability of a large variation may be relatively low, but the reality is that in fact it cannot be calculated, because the distribution is unknown and cannot be estimated (this is what economist Frank Knight calls true uncertainty). We can thus be in a year in which the extreme value radically changes the historical distribution. We are in the domain of “fat tails”, ie unlike normally distributed series, high values can have a high probability of occurring. …
source https://silberzahnjones.com/2011/11/10/welcome-to-extremistan/
A black swan is an unpredictable, rare, but nevertheless high-impact event. The concept is easily demonstrated and well known but naming these events as “black swans” was popularised by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book of the same name, which was described in The Sunday Times as one of the 12 most influential books since the Second World War.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Black_swan
New research Psychopaths Don’t Care If They Hurt You
Psychopaths Don’t Care If They Hurt You. This Is Why. New research shows why the psychopathic are so likely to harm others.
Susan Krauss Whitbourne Ph.D. Jun 03, 2017
A key feature of psychopathy is insensitivity to causing harm in others. Researchers have long attempted to understand why people high in psychopathy have this emotional blind spot. A recent investigation by University of Padova (Italy) psychologist Carolina Pletti and colleagues (2017) tested a new model to provide insight into the reasons why those high in psychopathy fail to care about the suffering of their fellow humans.
According to Pletti and her team, it is well-established that people with high levels of psychopathy are less able to recognize distress cues, including facial and vocal expressions of fear and sadness by people in need of immediate help. The potential relationship between emotions and morality is, as Pletti et al. note, addressed in the Integrated Emotion System Model (IES). Most of us, according to the IES, learn early in life to prefer to avoid making other people sad or afraid. Those who are psychopathic, though, do not, and therefore are less likely to base moral decisions on their potential to cause suffering to others.
The reasoning behind the IES model involves simple reinforcement. We’ve learned over our lives that it’s bad to cause pain and suffering in others. Consider what happens when an ordinary toddler pushes a playmate, causing the playmate to burst into tears. Toddler #1 will feel sad at having hurt Toddler #2, and may even start crying, too.
Such encounters teach children to avoid causing negative emotions in other people. Individuals with psychopathy, though, don’t make this connection and go on to become adults who aren’t deterred from harming other people.
Neuroscientists trace this lack of empathy in part to a deficit in the amygdala, a part of the subcortex which processes emotional stimuli. The other deficit occurs in a part of the cerebral cortex involved in decision-making that would utilize this emotional information.
A classic dilemma used in studies of moral decision-making is the so-called “trolley” problem, in which individuals are given a scenario involving a runaway train that threatens to kill five people. In this hypothetical case, you’re told that if you send the train down another track, one person will die but you’ll save the original five in the train’s way.
Another variation of this dilemma is a bit more extreme, asking individuals whether they would push a man off an overpass in order to stop that runaway train. In this scenario, the man you push off will die, but he’ll save the five because his body on the track will stop the train.
Most people will find the choice less agonizing in the original, two-track version of the problem than in the overpass version, even though the actual problem is fundamentally the same in both scenarios. It seems worse, somehow, to actively cause the death of the man on the overpass, even though it would save the life of the five down below.
According to the IES model, the arousal of negative emotions associated with the overpass version of the problem leads most people to make the irrational decision of not saving him, but sacrificing the five. People high in psychopathy experience less of an emotional dilemma, and therefore make the more rational decision of sacrificing one for five regardless of what’s involved in doing so.
Fortunately, it’s not too often that we’re faced with such extreme choices. Pletti and her colleagues believe the trolley problem and its related footbridge variant are too extreme compared to the decisions most of us must make in the course of our everyday lives. Instead, we face situations involving other moral transgressions, such as lying.
The research team believed that they could gain greater insight into the role of emotions in moral decision-making in people high in psychopathy versus those who are not by comparing reactions to these lower-stakes moral dilemmas involving deception. One set of these everyday moral dilemmas involved causing harm to others through deception; the other set still involved lying, but were considered relatively harmless in their outcome.
Starting with a sample of 281 undergraduates, the University of Padova researchers first identified the highest and lowest in psychopathy using a standard measure that identifies those with the least emotional responsiveness to causing harm in others. The sacrificial dilemmas asked participants to imagine that they were firefighters or construction workers who had to decide whether to allow one person to die in order to save five others at risk. The everyday scenarios involving harm asked participants, for example, whether they would engage in deceptive behavior that would cost someone else money. A harmless deception-type of scenario asked them if they would fake illness to get out of going to a social event to which they’d already accepted an invitation.
As other researchers have noted, the high-psychopathic individuals were less distressed in the life-or-death sacrificial situations compared to low-psychopathic peers. The highly psychopathic also were equally likely to lie in the harmful versus harmless everyday situations, and were less emotionally distressed at the prospect of causing harm through their lies.
Interestingly, the highly psychopathic seemed able to judge whether it was morally right or wrong to deceive others, but this judgment didn’t deter them from making the harmful choice. As the authors concluded, “Psychopathic individuals are less inclined to refrain from pursuing a personal advantage involving harm to others because of their emotional hypoactivity” (p. 364).
To sum up, people high in psychopathy are able to distinguish between right and wrong, but don’t let this distinction affect their decision-making. They also will pursue choices that benefit them, even if they know they’re morally wrong, because they don’t have the same negative emotions associated with those choices that non-psychopathic individuals do. We can’t say that people high in psychopathy are unable to make moral choices, then, but it does appear justified to say that they will feel less anguish when they have to do so. The rest of us don’t want to cause harm to others and feel stressed when forced to do so, but those high in psychopathy seem to be able to make the “utilitarian,” logic-based choice without feeling particularly distraught.
If you’re in a relationship with someone you believe is high in psychopathy, this study shows the dangers you may run into if that individual would need to make a sacrifice on your behalf. All other things being equal, you’re far better off being in relationships with people who both know, and care about, what’s best for you.
References
Pletti, C., Lotto, L., Buodo, G., & Sarlo, M. (2017). It’s immoral, but I’d do it! Psychopathy traits affect decision‐making in sacrificial dilemmas and in everyday moral situations. British Journal of Psychology, 108(2), 351-368. doi:10.1111/bjop.12205
source https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201706/psychopaths-dont-care-if-they-hurt-you-is-why
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You’re Not Going to Believe What I’m Going To Tell You
from theoatmeal.com/comics/believe_clean
From “You’re Not Going to Believe What I’m Going To Tell You”, from The Oatmeal/ Matthew Boyd Inman.
You’re Not Going to Believe What I’m Going To Tell You.
I’m going to tell you some things.
You’re not going to believe these things that I tell you.
And that’s Ok. You have good reason not to.
But I need you to keep listening, regardless of what you believe.
I don’t care if you’re liberal, conservative, or somewhere in between.
I don’t care if you’re a cat person, a dog person, or a tarantula person.
Morning person or night owl. iPhone or Android. Coke or Pepsi.
I don’t care. All I care about is that you read this to the end.
Sound good? Then let’s begin.
“You’re Not Going to Believe What I’m Going To Tell You”, from The Oatmeal
The neuroscience of changing your mind
By David McRaney
We don’t treat all of our beliefs the same.
If you learn that the Great Wall of China isn’t the only man-made object visible from space, and that, in fact, it’s actually very difficult to see the Wall compared to other landmarks, you update your model of reality without much fuss. Some misconceptions we give up readily, replacing them with better information when alerted to our ignorance.
For others constructs though, for your most cherished beliefs about things like climate change or vaccines or Republicans, instead of changing your mind in the face of challenging evidence or compelling counterarguments, you resist. Not only do you fight belief change for some things and not others, but if you successfully deflect such attacks, your challenged beliefs then grow stronger.
The research shows that when a strong-yet-erroneous belief is challenged, yes, you might experience some temporary weakening of your convictions, some softening of your certainty, but most people rebound and not only reassert their original belief at its original strength, but go beyond that and dig in their heels, deepening their resolve over the long run.
Psychologists call this the backfire effect.
This episode is the first of three shows exploring this well-documented and much-studied psychological phenomenon, one that you’ve likely encountered quite a bit lately.
In this episode, we explore its neurological underpinning as two neuroscientists at the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute explain how their latest research sheds new light on how the brain reacts when its deepest beliefs are challenged.
The neuroscience of changing your mind
Physics of Batman: The Dark Knight
Let’s assume that the memory fiber used in “The Dark Knight” is real.
In the movie it is used to change the shape of a cape into wings with the application of an electrical current.
No such material yet exists, but materials scientists are getting close.
If this kind of fabric existed, would it work? What kind of forces would this put on the human body?
(Remember: For every force there is an equal and opposite force – this is one of Newton’s laws.)
http://www.popsci.com/entertainment-%2526-gaming/article/2008-08/physics-batman
Adapted from “The Physics of Batman: The Dark Knight – High Dive”, Adam Weiner, 08.15.2008
Let’s start with the basic situation: Batman spreads the cape-wings & moves into a circular path.
Therefore his motion goes from vertical to mostly horizontal.
The force of air resistance increases dramatically when he expands these wings.
This force turns his linear path into a circular path.
This inward pointing force is a centripetal force.
Law of physics: No object travels in a circular path (Newton’s 1st law), unless some force continually pulls it radially inward.
The balance of inertia and a radially inward force can create circular motion.
Centripetal force depends on the radius of the curve (r) and the radial velocity (v)
F = mv2/r
When a glider – or a Batwing – is bent into the wind, one can use the force to deflect the glider, plane or Batman.
Red arrow to upper right = “lift” (due to the wind hitting the wings)
Red arrow down = weight
Horizontal green arrow is the horizontal component of lift (aka centripetal force)
Vertical green arrow is the vertical component of lift. (If it is big enough then one can glide for long periods of time)
What about Newton’s 3rd law of motion?
To hold his arms out, Batman has to exert the same force back on the air.
So while he moves in a circle, we can calculate the force that will be exerted on Batman’s arms.
circle radius = 20 meters
man + equipment mass = 80 kg
speed remains constant during this turn
Let’s estimate the force on Batman’s arms as he sweeps through the bottom of the arc.
F = weight + centripetal force
F = m g + m v2/r = m ( g + v2/r )
= 80 kg (9.8 m/s2 + [40 m/s]2 /20 m) = 7200 N
= about 1600 pounds
This means that Batman has to hold 800 pounds on each arm!
Imagine lying on your back, on a workout bench, holding your arms out and having 800 pounds of weights placed on each one! This is probably impossible for someone to do without super-strength.
Perhaps there is a way out of this. Maybe there are some hinges that connect the wings to the Bat suit. If so, then these hinges could be doing some of the supporting, rather than Batman’s arms.
Cartoon Laws of Physics
Cartoon Law I
Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation.
Daffy Duck steps off a cliff, expecting further pastureland. He loiters in midair, soliloquizing flippantly, until he chances to look down. At this point, the familiar principle of 32 feet per second per second takes over.
Cartoon Law II
Any body in motion will tend to remain in motion until solid matter intervenes suddenly.
Whether shot from a cannon or in hot pursuit on foot, cartoon characters are so absolute in their momentum that only a telephone pole or an outsize boulder retards their forward motion absolutely. Sir Isaac Newton called this sudden termination of motion the stooge’s surcease.
Cartoon Law III
Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation conforming to its perimeter.
Also called the silhouette of passage, this phenomenon is the speciality of victims of directed-pressure explosions and of reckless cowards who are so eager to escape that they exit directly through the wall of a house, leaving a cookie-cutout-perfect hole. The threat of skunks or matrimony often catalyzes this reaction.
Cartoon Law IV
The time required for an object to fall twenty stories is greater than or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it off the ledge to spiral down twenty flights to attempt to capture it unbroken.
Such an object is inevitably priceless, the attempt to capture it inevitably unsuccessful.
Cartoon Law V
All principles of gravity are negated by fear.
Psychic forces are sufficient in most bodies for a shock to propel them directly away from the earth’s surface. A spooky noise or an adversary’s signature sound will induce motion upward, usually to the cradle of a chandelier, a treetop, or the crest of a flagpole. The feet of a character who is running or the wheels of a speeding auto need never touch the ground, especially when in flight.
Cartoon Law VI
As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once.
This is particularly true of tooth-and-claw fights, in which a character’s head may be glimpsed emerging from the cloud of altercation at several places simultaneously. This effect is common as well among bodies that are spinning or being throttled. A ‘wacky’ character has the option of self- replication only at manic high speeds and may ricochet off walls to achieve the velocity required.
Cartoon Law VII
Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot.
This trompe l’oeil inconsistency has baffled generations, but at least it is known that whoever paints an entrance on a wall’s surface to trick an opponent will be unable to pursue him into this theoretical space. The painter is flattened against the wall when he attempts to follow into the painting. This is ultimately a problem of art, not of science.
Cartoon Law VIII
Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent.
Cartoon cats possess even more deaths than the traditional nine lives might comfortably afford. They can be decimated, spliced, splayed, accordion-pleated, spindled, or disassembled, but they cannot be destroyed. After a few moments of blinking self pity, they reinflate, elongate, snap back, or solidify.
Corollary: A cat will assume the shape of its container.
Cartoon Law IX
Everything falls faster than an anvil.
Cartoon Law X
For every vengea nce there is an equal and opposite revengeance.
This is the one law of animated cartoon motion that also applies to the physical world at large. For that reason, we need the relief of watching it happen to a duck instead.
Cartoon Law Amendment A
A sharp object will always propel a character upward.
When poked (usually in the buttocks) with a sharp object (usually a pin), a character will defy gravity by shooting straight up, with great velocity.
Cartoon Law Amendment B
The laws of object permanence are nullified for “cool” characters.
Characters who are intended to be “cool” can make previously nonexistent objects appear from behind their backs at will. For instance, the Road Runner can materialize signs to express himself without speaking.
Cartoon Law Amendment C
Explosive weapons cannot cause fatal injuries.
They merely turn characters temporarily black and smoky.
Cartoon Law Amendment D
Gravity is transmitted by slow-moving waves of large wavelengths.
Their operation can be wittnessed by observing the behavior of a canine suspended over a large vertical drop. Its feet will begin to fall first, causing its legs to stretch. As the wave reaches its torso, that part will begin to fall, causing the neck to stretch. As the head begins to fall, tension is released and the canine will resume its regular proportions until such time as it strikes the ground.
Cartoon Law Amendment E
Dynamite is spontaneously generated in “C-spaces” (spaces in which cartoon laws hold).
The process is analogous to steady-state theories of the universe which postulated that the tensions involved in maintaining a space would cause the creation of hydrogen from nothing. Dynamite quanta are quite large (stick sized) and unstable (lit). Such quanta are attracted to psychic forces generated by feelings of distress in “cool” characters (see Amendment B, which may be a special case of this law), who are able to use said quanta to their advantage. One may imagine C-spaces where all matter and energy result from primal masses of dynamite exploding. A big bang indeed.
© 1997 William Geoffrey Shotts. Last update: Thursday, December 4, 1997
Hovercraft build project
Essential Questions:
How do objects move in response to forces? (Mechanics/kinematics)
How does energy relate to the motion of objects?
When building a hovercraft, where does the energy from the hovercraft initially come from?
Where and how is this energy stored?
How is this stored energy turned into kinetic energy (the energy of the craft in motion)?
Shown: Kits from Kelvin Educational
I. Build and demonstrate a hovercraft, or
II. Write a typed report, with a cover page, 3 double-spaced pages of text, and 1 page of citations/references, on what a hovercraft is, how they work, and how they use Newton’s laws of motion, or
III. Create a computer presentation on what a hovercraft is, how they work, and how they use Newton’s laws of motion. Present it to the class.
Grading (customize as needed)
The hovercraft should not be pushed at the start.
It cannot be adjusted after it starts, except by remote control.
A remote control, if used, must be wireless. (i.e. no strings!)
Each foot the craft moves gains 10%. If it goes 10 feet you get a grade of 100%.
If it goes 20+ feet, then you get 105%. If it goes more 30+ feet then you get 110%.
How to build your own hovercraft
Photos from a hovercraft project
Build a remote control hovercraft!
Can a hovercraft go up the walls?
A simple to build project
Mod your toy helicopter; turn it into a hovercraft
Kelvin Educational Kits
Kelvin Educational online catalog
EGR 100 — Hovercraft Design Project: College freshmen majoring in engineering build and design hovercrafts
http://www.eng.uab.edu/me/faculty/amcclain/hovercrafts.html
Hovercraft calculator – used only for building larger hovercraft that can actually carry passengers.
http://www.olshove.com/HoverHome/hovcalc.html
Learning Standards
Next Generation Science Standards
DCI – Energy is a quantitative property of a system that depends on the motion and interactions of matter and radiation within that system. That there is a single quantity called energy is due to the fact that a system’s total energy is conserved, even as, within the system, energy is continually transferred from one object to another and between its various possible forms.
Conservation of energy means that the total change of energy in any system is always equal to the total energy transferred into or out of the system.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transported from one place to another and transferred between systems.
Mathematical expressions, which quantify how the stored energy in a system depends on its configuration (e.g., relative positions of charged particles, compression of a spring) and how kinetic energy depends on mass and speed, allow the concept of conservation of energy to be used to predict and describe system behavior.
The availability of energy limits what can occur in any system.
Next Generation Science Standards: Science – Engineering Design (6-8)
• Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
HS-ETS4-5(MA). Explain how a machine converts energy, through mechanical means, to do work. Collect and analyze data to determine the efficiency of simple and complex machines.
HS-PS3-3. Design and evaluate a device that works within given constraints to convert one form of energy into another form of energy.
• Emphasis is on both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of devices.
• Examples of devices could include Rube Goldberg devices, wind turbines, solar cells, solar ovens, and generators.
Appendix VIII Value of Crosscutting Concepts and Nature of Science in Curricula
Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science and engineering is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts or design solutions.
Mousetrap racer build project
Your task is to build a mousetrap powered car!
It can be built from wood, paper, plastic, metal, erector sets, pens, rulers, old toys, Legos, and other materials.
We need a fair comparison between race cars. Therefore it must be powered by only 1 mousetrap.
You may not modify the mousetrap, such as by over-winding the metal coil, because that would unfairly increase its potential energy storage.
A rat trap, or trap for any other animal, is not safe or acceptable.
2 people may collaborate to make 1 car.
If you do not have your car on the day that it is due, you lose 5 points per day.
I suggest working in groups, making your own local mousetrap racer “factory”. This approach is easier and more fun.
Clearly print your names somewhere on the car!
Giving time to do this
Day 1 – We introduce the project, discuss the physics and engineering principles, show some videos and photos.
Day 2 – (Which could be any day that fits our class schedule) – Have students bring in the building materials they have procured so far. Also, as a teacher I will help make materials available in class. Both teacher and some volunteer students will show in class how to assemble a mousetrap racer. The way that it is shown in class is not the only way to do it.
Day 3 – Classroom build. Students individually or in pairs work on the mousetrap racer. First start off with a brief review of physics principles – storing energy as PE, simple machines, how mechanical devices can transform PE into kinetic energy, etc.
Day 4 – Run the mousetrap racers! Find a long hallway with a smooth floor. We will have competitions:
(A) Fastest: Which car goes to the finish line in the shortest amount of time?
(B) Furthest distance: Which car goes the furthest?
Much information on mouse trap racers is available online. However, you may not use a kit to build your racer.
Instructables (several ideas here)
Mousetrap cars and kits from Doc Fizzix. Great for ideas
Gallery of great mousetrap racers. from UCI Summer Science Institute
What is a mousetrap powered car? How does it work?
It is a vehicle powered by a mousetrap spring. We tie one end of a string to the tip of a mousetrap’s snapper arm, and the other end of the string has a loop that is designed to “catch” a hook that is glued to a drive axle.
Once the loop is placed over the axle hook, the string is wound around the drive axle by turning the wheels in the opposite direction to the vehicle intended motion.
As the string is wound around the axle, the lever arm is pulled closer to the drive axle causing the mousetrap’s spring to “wind-up” and store energy.
When the drive wheels are released, the string is pulled off the drive axle by the mousetrap, causing the wheels to rotate.
How do you build a mouse trap powered racer?
There is no one “right way” to build a mousetrap powered vehicle. The first step to making a good mouse trap powered car is simple: put something together and find out how it works.
Once you have something working you can begin to isolate the variables that are affecting the performance and learn to adjust to improve your results.
Build, test, have fun spectacular failures, and improve, just like SpaceX rockets.
What’s the difference between a FAST Racer and a LONG distance traveler?
When you build a mouse-trap car for distance, you want a small energy consumption per second or a small power usage. Smaller power outputs will produce less wasted energy and have greater efficiency.
When you build a vehicle for speed, you want to use your energy quickly or at a high power output.
We change the power ratio of a vehicle by changing one or all of the following:
* where the string attaches to the mouse-trap’s lever arm
* the drive wheel diameter
* the drive axle diameter.
The amount of energy released by using a short lever arm or a long lever arm is the same, but the length of the lever arm will determine the rate at which the energy is released and this is called the power output.
Long lever arms decrease the pulling force and power output but increase the pulling distance.
Short lever arms increase the pulling force and the power output by decrease the pulling distance but increasing the speed.
Building for speed
If you are building a mouse-trap car for speed, you will want to maximize the power output to a point just before the wheels begin to spin-out on the floor. Maximum power output means more energy is being transferred into energy of motion in a shorter amount of time. Greater acceleration can be achieved by having a short length lever arm and/or by having a small axle to wheel ratio.
Building for distance
Minimize the power output or transfer stored energy into energy of motion at a slow rate. This usually means having a long lever arm and a large axle-to-wheel ratio.
If you make the lever arm too long, you may not have enough torque through the entire pulling distance to keep the vehicle moving, in which case you will have to attach the string to a lower point or change the axle-to wheel ratio.
Supplies
Most parts can be scavenged from toys, or recycled materials. You may also consider stores such as Michael’s Art Supply, Home Depot, or A. C. Moore. Mousetraps are available in 2 packs, for less than $2, from supermarkets.
Learning Standards
Next Generation Science Standards
DCI – Energy is a quantitative property of a system that depends on the motion and interactions of matter and radiation within that system. That there is a single quantity called energy is due to the fact that a system’s total energy is conserved, even as, within the system, energy is continually transferred from one object to another and between its various possible forms.
Conservation of energy means that the total change of energy in any system is always equal to the total energy transferred into or out of the system.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transported from one place to another and transferred between systems.
Mathematical expressions, which quantify how the stored energy in a system depends on its configuration (e.g., relative positions of charged particles, compression of a spring) and how kinetic energy depends on mass and speed, allow the concept of conservation of energy to be used to predict and describe system behavior.
The availability of energy limits what can occur in any system.
Next Generation Science Standards: Science – Engineering Design (6-8)
• Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
HS-ETS4-5(MA). Explain how a machine converts energy, through mechanical means, to do work. Collect and analyze data to determine the efficiency of simple and complex machines.
HS-PS3-3. Design and evaluate a device that works within given constraints to convert one form of energy into another form of energy.
• Emphasis is on both qualitative and quantitative evaluations of devices.
• Examples of devices could include Rube Goldberg devices, wind turbines, solar cells, solar ovens, and generators.
Appendix VIII Value of Crosscutting Concepts and Nature of Science in Curricula
Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Explanation. Events have causes, sometimes simple, sometimes multifaceted. A major activity of science and engineering is investigating and explaining causal relationships and the mechanisms by which they are mediated. Such mechanisms can then be tested across given contexts and used to predict and explain events in new contexts or design solutions.
Suggested reading
..I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.
~Anna Quindlen, “Enough Bookshelves,” New York Times, 7 August 1991
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
~Groucho Marx
The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.
~ Mark Twain
Classic Fiction
At the Mountains of Madness, The Complete Works of Howard Philips Lovecraft, Arkham House, Wisconsin
Here are all the novels of Howard Phillips Lovecraft in one volume: At the Mountains of Madness, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Shunned House, The Dreams in the Witch House, The Statement of Randolph Carter, The Silver Key, and Through the Gates of the Silver Key.
The Annotated Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien
Annotated by Douglas A. Anderson, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002
Fiction (cautionary)
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, 1953
This dystopian novel presents a future American society where books are outlawed and “firemen” burn any that are found. The lead character, Guy Montag, is a fireman who becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge.
Despite its popularity it is widely misunderstood book: Books, in general, are not banned in Fahrenheit 451! They have cookbooks, manuals, magazines, reality TV show articles – what is banned are books with ideas, themes, and anything that proposes a particular point of view unless it is acceptable to everyone. In this novel the government does not censor books – censorship came from multiple groups, from the ground up, till it became a societal norm
Ray Bradbury writes
The point is obvious. There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every [political, religious, ethnic, social] minority… feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc‐mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme….
Fire‐Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the libraries closed forever.
– Ray Bradbury, Coda to the 1979 Del Rey edition
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
Also see Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted
1984, George Orwell, 1949
Newspeak, doublethink, thoughtcrime – in 1984, George Orwell created a whole vocabulary of words concerning totalitarian control that have since passed into our common vocabulary. More importantly, he has portrayed a chillingly credible dystopia. In our deeply anxious world, the seeds of unthinking conformity are everywhere in evidence; and Big Brother is always looking for his chance. – Daniel Hintzsche
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley, 1932
A dystopian social science fiction novel, 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, all people are engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarchy. The novel anticipates scientific advancements in reproductive technology, sleep-learning, psychological manipulation and classical conditioning that are combined to make a dystopian society which is challenged by only a single individual: the story’s protagonist.
Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., 1961
A classic dystopian short story in which every American is forced to be equal and average by the Handicapper General. It illuminates explains the tyranny of forced egalitarianism.
Animal Farm, George Orwell, 1945
An allegorical novella which tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately the rebellion becomes perverted by individuals seeking power for themselves. The farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon. According to Orwell, the fable reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.
Society and culture
The Souls of Black Folk, W. E. B. Du Bois
A seminal work in African American literature and an American classic. Du Bois proposes that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.” His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting “double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others,” have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. He offers an assessment of the progress of the race, obstacles to progress, and possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
DuBois eloquently advocates for a classical education – “I sit with Shakespeare, and he winces not. Across the color line I move arm and arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls. From out of the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed Earth and the tracery of stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension. So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the veil.”
The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students, Allan Bloom, 1987
The author criticizes the supposed openness of relativism in academia and society, as leading paradoxically to the great “closing” referenced in the book’s title. In Bloom’s view, “openness” and absolute understanding undermine critical thinking and eliminate the “point of view” that defines cultures.
The Western Canon
Increasingly people on college campuses advocate removing the last 3000 years of classics. Instead of evaluating each work separately, books are collectively condemned as being written by ‘dead white males.’ What’s astonishing is that many of these “dead white males” are the classic philosophers of ancient Greek, Arab and Jewish culture, most of whom wouldn’t be considered “white” by white supremacist groups.
Great philosophers – Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Maimonides, and Ibn al-Haytham didn’t write about subjects based from a male or white perspective – rather, they asked questions about the nature of reality, truth, and justice. They asked readers to critically analyze the world that we live in. They asked people to stop always accepting things at face value and instead to inquire as to whether claims could be proved by fact and reason.
Great Books. My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World by David Denby
At the age of forty-eight, writer and film critic David Denby returned to Columbia University for courses in Western civilization to confront the literary and philosophical masterpieces — the “great books” — that are now at the heart of the culture wars. In Great Books, he leads us on a glorious tour, a rediscovery and celebration of such authors as Homer and Boccaccio, Locke and Nietzsche. Conrad and Woolf. The resulting personal odyssey is an engaging blend of self-discovery, cultural commentary, reporting, criticism, and autobiography — an inspiration for anyone in love with the written word.
The Great Conversation, Robert Maynard Hutchins
Not a book, this is a classic essay, the intro to the “Great Books of the Western World” series by Encyclopædia Britannica. The author shows us that there has been an ongoing dialogue among great thinkers and writers of Western civilization: their works build upon and respond to each other over time. This ongoing exchange of ideas – which he calls the Great Conversation – is a defining characteristic of Western civilization. This exchange of ideas underscores the value of liberal education and a spirit of inquiry.
The Great Conversation
I don’t recommend The Western Canon by Harold Bloom
Critical thinking
How To Think About Weird Things, Schick and Vaughn
Teaches us to think critically about the many New Age claims and beliefs that abound in our culture. In an examination of over 60 paranormal, supernatural, or mysterious phenomena, the authors focus on types of logical arguments and types of proofs. This is a versatile supplement for logic, critical reasoning, and philosophy of science courses.
Science
Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman, Richard Feynman
The outrageous exploits of one of this century’s greatest scientific minds and a legendary American original. In this phenomenal national bestseller, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman recounts in his inimitable voice his adventures trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek, painting a naked female toreador, accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums and much else of an eyebrow-raising and hilarious nature. A New York Times bestseller; more than 500,000 copies sold.
Quantum Reality, Nick Herbert, Anchor books.
This clearly explained layman’s introduction to quantum physics is an accessible excursion into metaphysics and the meaning of reality. Herbert exposes the quantum world and the scientific and philosophical controversy about its interpretation.
History and ethics
The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, Simon Wiesenthal
While imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, Simon Wiesenthal was taken one day from his work detail to the bedside of a dying member of the SS. Haunted by the crimes in which he had participated, the soldier wanted to confess to–and obtain absolution from–a Jew. Faced with the choice between compassion and justice, silence and truth, Wiesenthal said nothing. But even years after the way had ended, he wondered: Had he done the right thing? What would you have done in his place?
In this important book, fifty-three distinguished men and women respond to Wiesenthal’s questions. They are theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China and Tibet. Wiesenthal’s questions are not limited to events of the past.
Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen, Touchstone Books, New Press
Americans have lost touch with their history, and in this thought-provoking book, Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying twelve leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past.
From the truth about Columbus’s historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring to it the vitality and relevance it truly possesses. Winner of the 1996 American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship
Just and Unjust Wars, Michael Walzer, Basic Books
Is it ever ethical to fight a defensive war or an offensive war? If so, then under what circumstances? Prof. Walzer takes us through the morality and immorality of many ancient wars, the two world wars, the Vietnam war, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Persian Gulf war, and in the third edition of this book, the war in former Yugoslavia, Bosnia and Kosovo. “A classic treatment of the morality of war written by one of our country’s leading philosophers, with a new introduction considering the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo.
Just and Unjust Wars examines a variety of conflicts in order to understand exactly why, according to Walzer, “the argument about war and justice is still a political and moral necessity.” Walzer’s classic work draws on historical illustrations that range all the way from the Athenian attack on Melos to this morning’s headlines, and uses the testimony of participants-decision makers and victims alike-to examine the moral issues of warfare.”
Fun books about science, build projects, and science in movies
There are so many great books that I put them in a separate section: Science books
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Liver
The liver is a multifunction organ. Has these jobs:
Part of the digestive system
Detoxification
Stores energy
Produces cholesterol
Produces bile to break down fats
Liver produces bile, a detergent that breaks up fat into small particles.
Bile is stored in the gallbladder, and released when you are digesting a meal.
Here we see bile salts emulsifying a globule of fat.
from pathwayz.org
Detoxification
“Almost all the blood in your body passes through the liver.”
US Dept of Veterans Affairs, Liver as Filter
“As blood passes through the liver, it breaks down substances, such as prescription or over-the-counter drugs, street drugs, alcohol, and caffeine.”
“Our bodies naturally produce some harmful (toxic) chemicals or poisons, and those are also broken down by the liver.”
“In this way the liver acts as a filter to clean your blood.”
Energy storage in glycogen
The liver takes excess sugars and links them together into a large molecule called glycogen.
Glycogen is stored until energy is needed.
Image from National 5 Biology, nat5biopl.edubuzz.org
Makes cholesterol
The liver makes cholesterol.
Contrary to popular belief, cholesterol is not bad for you: In fact, you’d instantly stop living if you didn’t have any in your body. All cell membranes in animals have some cholesterol as part of their structure. And many critical hormones are made by using cholesterol as a starting point.
Why do people think that cholesterol is bad? Over the last 200 years the American diet has changed. People now have vastly less whole foods, vegetables, whole grains, fruits, beans and legumes, and instead now eat more fatty foods, and more cholesterol-rich meats. As a result, most people now have far more cholesterol in their bodies than is necessary, and for some people, high levels of cholesterol increase the risk of many diseases.
The solution is not to make our bodies cholesterol-free; the solution is to change one’s diet to reduce the excess added cholesterol.
Cholesterol used to build bile
from Wikimedia by Mcstrother. CC BY 3.0
Cholesterol used to build hormones
Cholesterol used in all cell membranes
Image from sliderbase.com/spitem-808-1.html
References
Cholesterol & heart disease – there is a relationship, but it’s not what you think
Kidshealth.org – Liver
How does bile break up fat?
Think of washing dishes after dinner, without using detergent. Very hard to clean the plates. The fats in your food aren’t water soluble, so they clump together, stick to surfaces, and are hard to remove.
Now add detergent: that’s a two-sided molecule. One side attracts water, while the other side attracts a fat. Once the water, fat and detergent are all held together, it is easy for fats to dissolve. Dishes can be cleaned.
Same thing for digesting food. Your body can’t digest clumped up fats. Your digestive enzymes only touch the fats on the outside of clumps. But now that we add bile, it acts like a detergent. Water and fat are held together, so the clumps break up, and the small bits are now easily digested.
KaiserScience 