BAN #397: Under Pressure, The Tantrum That Saved the World

[Hubble image of NGC 3603. Credit: NASA, ESA, R. O'Connell (UVa), F. Paresce (NIA, Bologna, Italy), E. Young (USRA/Ames Research Center), the WFC3 Science Oversight Committee, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)]

Subscribers are smart enough to point the bottle away from them

Apropos of nothing

Not everything needs to be themed

My wife and I watched a movie last night called “Pressure”, where four men are trapped 200 meters underwater in a deep diving vessel. It’s not a great flick, to be honest; the setup and plot are very formulaic and I gave up halfway through.

But there was a scene where they’re in a hyperbaric chamber getting pressurized for the dive and a rookie opens up some sort of lotion bottle despite the admonition of a veteran. When he opens the bottle it explodes lotion all over him, and forced jocularity ensued.

That scene made me laugh ruefully. When we first moved to Colorado from California we went from sea level to an elevation of about 1500 meters or so. Air pressure here is about 85% what it is at our old house.

So you know where this is going, kinda. After we moved into our house in Boulder I was unpacking the boxes in our bathroom. I had a bottle that was unmarked, so I unscrewed the lid to give it a sniff to see if it was shampoo or lotion or what and KABLAM. Face full of lotion.

You’ve maybe experienced something similar to this yourself if you’ve ever flown in an airplane; you pull out the bag of chips you spent $4 on at the airport and it’s expanded like a balloon due to lower pressure in the cabin. Or the opposite, when the plastic water bottle you drank from on the plane collapses when you land due to the higher air pressure.

Same principle happened to me. I packed it at sea level and the air inside the lotion bottle had expanded after we moved due to the lower air pressure outside it at elevation. This put pressure on the inside of the bottle itself, so when I opened the lid the pressure equalized, the tension in the bottle was released, the plastic contracted, and out came the lotion at high velocity and wide dispersion.

I understood the science of this pretty well but didn’t think of it before opening the bottle, and paid the price: Itchy stinging eyes for hours and embarrassment as my wife laughed at me for being a doofus.

Cut to a month later and I’m rummaging around looking for a new bottle of shampoo. I found one from the move, and guess what happened. Guess.

I had to laugh the second time it happened. Doofus.

The lesson? Morpheus was right. There’s a difference between knowing the science and walking the science. Or unscrewing it.

Blog Jam

What I’ve recently written on the blog, ICYMI

[A decently large solar flare erupted on the Sun in 2003. It’s capable of much larger ones. MUCH. From Friday’s article. Credit: NASA/SOHO]

Monday 24 January, 2022: There are 40 quintillion black holes in the observable Universe. More or less.

Tuesday 25 January, 2022: Three planets found that are doomed to be eaten by their stars

Wednesday 26 January, 2022: So is there liquid water under the Martian ice cap or not?

Thursday 27 January, 2022: An enormous black hole is blasting out chaos and… acting as a midwife for stars?

Friday 28 January, 2022: In 7176 BCE, the Sun erupted in what may be the biggest blast in 10,000 years

Is it hot in here, or is it just anthropogenic global warming?

Climate change is real, y’all

I don’t know how many kids books there are about climate change, but there should be a lot. As I’ve been saying for years it’s the single most important issue facing humanity right now. We’re dealing with it right now, which means kids born today are very much going to have to deal with whatever we do, or more importantly, don’t do.

A great way to get children into the topic is via books. So here’s one I recommend: The Tantrum That Saved The World, by writer/illustrator Megan Herbert and climate scientist (and my friend) Michael E. Mann. If you’ve been reading my blog since the Slate days, you may recognize Michael’s name as the single biggest target for science deniers to attack, including former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who repeatedly tried to use the legal system to harangue him, and who repeatedly failed (and who, delightfully, may be in some legal trouble himself for his involvement with the Jan. 6 2021 insurrection).

[Cover of The Tantrum That Saved the World. Credit: Megan Herbert and Michael Mann]

Anyway, the book (listed as being for ages 5 – 9) is about a little girl who has climate change trouble literally coming to her door in the form of people and animals impacted by it. After hearing their stories she realizes their problems are all connected, and gets fired up enough to do something about it. At first she’s ignored, but she builds up a head of steam until her voice cannot be ignored.

The book is cute, engagingly written, and I think kids will like it. Plus, after the story itself ends, there are many pages of info about what climate change is doing to our environment and how that’s affecting all of us. There’s also a glossary and, most helpfully an action plan with things even a kid (and their folks) can do to help.

It comes out mid-March 2022. You’ll be able to find it online and at bookstores. If you can, preorder it! That helps the authors and the publisher, and of course makes sure you’ll get it ASAP. If you have a kid in your life, this will make a fine — and important — gift.

Et alia

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