Category: Smcquaid

The Question
Aaron asks:

In celebration of this glorious spring, I beseech thee, McQuaid. Why do some animals hibernate during the winter, and others (like squirrels, which you would think would hibernate) don’t?

The Answer

Wow, I’m answering a question in the same season it was asked in. That, my friends, is progress!

(The picture you see is a marmot, ready to hibernate. Marmots hibernate for up to 7 months of the year.)

Animals hibernate in general to avoid burning energy that they can’t replace in the winter. For example, black bears (which are not “true” hibernators, by the way) will enter a period of inactivity where the body temperature drops, the heartbeat slows, and activity ceases. A true hibernator will allow its body temperature to drop to extremely low temperatures (like 60 degress) and will not wake easily. A torpid animal (like the bear) will drop to maybe 85 degrees and can be woken up fairly easily.

In any case, the question is why do some animals hibernate and others do not. The answer is a combination of evolution and chemistry. As far as evolution goes, some animals who have become accustomed to life in warmer climates have lost the ability to hibernate. A good example are pet hedgehogs, which are based on an African breed. While local hedgehogs do hibernate through the winter, a pet hedgehog cannot. It can enter a hibernation-like state if it gets too cold, but it no longer has the ability to safely come out of it. This is true for other animals as well; if the animal has evolved to match the surroundings, and they are warm most of the time, it will have lost the ability to hibernate.

Another point is that hibernation is only one of the ways that nature has come up with to deal with winter food shortages. Some animals (like the squirrels we have around here) have evolved a different mechanism – instinctual food storage. This allows them to survive the winter since they have a food supply ready to go. Other animals migrate when it gets too cold and food is scarce. The point is, there’s more than one way to survive the winter, and it’s not likely that all animals evolved towards the same method.

On to chemistry. It turns out that some squirrels do, in fact, hibernate, and that a substance known as “Hibernation Induction Trigger” (HIT) can be extracted from the blood of the hibernating animal. When injected into another squirrel, the squirrel will go into hibernation. This has been shown to be extremely useful, because hibernating cells don’t need much oxygen; they are kind of suspended. Hence, organs that have been donated and are being transported can last longer if they are infused with HIT. Neat, eh? Anyways, animals that have the ability to generate HIT can hibernate; others cannot. This goes back to the “different methods to solve the same problem” discussion.

NASA is interested in HIT and hibernation in general, since it would be useful to hibernate the crew during a flight time of years.

I hope this answers your question to your satisfaction.

The Question

Where do we get the helium to put in tanks and balloons and such? If it’s lighter than air, wouldn’t all of the helium on earth just float to the top of the atmosphere?

Roland says:
According to Wikipedia, “On Earth it is created by the radioactive decay of much heavier elements (alpha particles are helium-4 nuclei produced by alpha-decay). After its creation, part of it is trapped with natural gas in concentrations up to 7% by volume.”

The Answer

Roland’s data is, it seems, technically correct. But it’s only half the story!

Helium is the second-most-abundant element in the universe. Most of the helium on Earth is helium-4 (which, as Roland states, is produced by radioactive decay). However, most of the helium in the universe is helium-3, which is produced by nuclear fusion in the heart of a star.

(interesting aside: if we take the long view, eventually (trillions and quadrillions of years from now) there won’t be any hydrogen left in the universe to form stars and burn. Helium will be the new hydrogen. Of course, trillions of years later the lowest element around will be something like iron, and iron can’t fuse, so the stars will go out. Huh.)

Like Roland says, most of the helium that we harvest (the United States is, in fact, the top helium producing country in the world) comes from natural gas deposits. The helium is removed via the liquification of all the other gasses in the mix. Helium has an extremely high boiling point, so, as the temperature drops, all the other gasses in the mix liquify before the helium and can be simply poured away.

But what happens to the helium that isn’t stored in the crust of the planet? Well, some of it gets stuck in the very top of the atmosphere. But the rest of it “escapes into space”.

Now, if I escaped into space, I’d do more than just lolligag around, enjoying the emptiness. Helium feels the same way.

Helium goes to Mars!

That’s right, all the helium that escapes the Earth goes to Mars and visits the city it was named for; Helium. Helium (the city) is the main bastion of civilization on Mars, and is the home city of John Carter from the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories. Helium (the element) likes to visit Helium (the city) and wreak havoc in serious conversations by slipping in to people’s lungs and making them sound silly.

(another aside: There is another non-poisonous gas called sulfur hexafluoride that has the opposite effect; when you inhale it, your voice gets really LOW. Weird, eh?)

In any case, that’s the story on helium. Remember, don’t inhale helium from pressurized cylinders, because that could explode you. Also, don’t inhale too much helium, because the breathing mechanism is triggered by too much carbon dioxide, not missing oxygen, so it’s easy to asphyxiate. Cheers!

The Question

Jocelyn asks:

Ok with the Olympics here, I have a question. Why is it that Pro Figure Skaters are no longer allowed to compete, but Pro Basketball players can? What are the rules??

The Answer

Well, I was tempted to not answer this question until the next Olympics came around, in an effort to not show how long it’s taken to get to this one…but alas, I cannot resist the call of duty.

It seems to me that the Olympics now allow professional competitors in all sports but 2 – boxing, and men’s football (soccer to us Americans). All other sports are open to amateurs and professionals alike, including figure skating. The reason for this is that some competitors were working full-time on their sport (just as if they were professionals) but they were employed by the government (generally in Communist states). To even the playing field, professionals were allowed in.

In any case, I hope this provides a satisfactory answer. And it’s less than a year late! Woo!

The Question

Ben asks:

What’s with the pink and yellow line painted on the tread of new tires?

The Answer

Ben, I wish I had something interesting to report here. But this answer is lame.

The pink and/or yellow line on new tires is applied to show you that, since testing in the factory, the tire hasn’t been driven on. The point is, they aren’t trying to pawn you off with a used tire but making you pay for a new one.

I’m disappointed. I was hoping that there was perhaps a code buried in the color, or that tires were marked with quality grades, or that there was NO EXPLANATION whatsoever, and I’d have the chance to write about aliens marking new tires in the night. Or that the line never really fades, just our perception of it.

But it was not to be.