GUSTAV BECOMES A POWERFUL CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE

A Natural Phenomenon

A natural phenomenon is an observable fact or event that occurs naturally, without human intervention, in the earth's environment, or in outer space, following the laws of physics or chemistry. Some natural phenomena are harmless, but there are those that could be extremely dangerous for humans and animals as they greatly affect man's environment. Wind, rain, tornadoes, lightning, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, etc. are natural phenomena.

Phenomenon (singular), phenomena (plural).

The Fargo, North Dakota F5 Tornado of 1957

Whitedeer, Texas Tornado

South Dakota Monster F4 Tornado

Inside the Tornado, from the NationalGeographic

Iowa Deadly Tornado

Atkins, Arkansas Tornado

F5 Oklahoma Tornado

Tornado

A tornado is a very violent wind that blows at a great speed in a rotatory fashion, forming a tall, funnel-shaped column of air and debris. Also called twister, a tornado covers a small area, but moves from place to place in this funnel-like fashion, wreaking havoc on its path. Tornadoes come in many sizes with wind speeds between 40 mph (64 km/h) and 300 mph (480 km/h), stretching more than a mile across, and moving for dozens of miles.

A tornado or twister's intensity can be measured on a scale known as Fujita Scale, which was introduced in 1971. It consists of six ratings from F0 to F5 with damage rated as light to incredible, though sometimes an F6 category is included on the scale. Since the Fujita Scale is based on damage and not on wind speed or pressure, it is not perfect. The primary problem is that a tornado can only be measured on the Fujita Scale after it has occurred. Secondly, the tornado can not be measured if there is no damage when the tornado occurs in an area without any features to be damaged.

Tornadoes often develop from a class of thunderstorms known as supercells, which contain vortexes of air, approximately 2 to 10 km in diameter, known as mesocyclones. A tornado begins when increasing rainfall drags with it an area of quickly descending air known as the rear flank downdraft. This downdraft accelerates as it approaches the ground, and drags the supercell's rotating mesocyclone towards the ground with it. As the mesocyclone approaches the ground, a visible condensation funnel appears to descend from the base of the storm, often from a rotating wall cloud. As the funnel descends, the downdraft also reaches the ground, creating a gust front that can cause damage a good distance from the tornado. Usually, the funnel cloud becomes a tornado within minutes of the downdraft reaching the ground.

The United States has the most tornadoes of any country, about four times more than estimated in all of Europe, not including waterspouts. This is mostly due to the unique geography of the continent. North America is a relatively large continent that extends from the tropical south into arctic areas, and has no major east-west mountain range to block air flow between these two areas. The United States averages about 1,200 tornadoes per year. The Netherlands has the highest average number of recorded tornadoes per area of any country with more than 20, or 0.0013 per sq mi, annually, but most are small and cause minor damage.

Researchers Report Advances in Cell Conversion Technique

(From the New York Times)

Biologists at Harvard have converted cells from a mouse’s pancreas into the insulin-producing cells that are destroyed in diabetes, suggesting that the natural barriers between the body’s cell types may not be as immutable as supposed.

This and other recent experiments raise the possibility that a patient’s healthy cells might be transformed into the type lost to a disease far more simply and cheaply than in the cumbersome proposals involving stem cells.

The new field depends on capturing master proteins called transcription factors that control which sets of genes are active in a cell and thus what properties the cell will possess. Each type of cell is thought to have a special set of transcription factors.

Last year a Japanese biologist, Shinya Yamanaka, showed that by inserting four transcription factors into an adult cell he could return it to its embryonic state.

In a variation of this technique, a team led by Qiao Zhou and Douglas A. Melton at Harvard has now identified three transcription factors active in the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas.

They hitched the genes for these three factors onto a virus that infects another type of pancreatic cell, known as an exocrine cell. In mice made diabetic by a drug that kills beta cells, the transformed exocrine cells generated insulin, allowing the mice to enjoy “a significant and long-lasting improvement” in their diabetic state, the researchers are reporting Thursday in the journal Nature. Although many steps remain before the technique could be considered for human use.

Besides producing insulin, the transformed exocrine cells looked like beta cells and ceased making proteins typical of exocrine cells. But they did not organize themselves into the pancreatic structures known as islets where beta cells usually cluster. The researchers claim only to have made “cells that closely resemble beta cells.”

Even so, Robert Blelloch, a cell biologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said, the Harvard experiment was “a very nice story — it’s pretty impressive that you can make such a switch just by adding three factors to a quite different cell type.”

Last month Patrick Seale and Bruce Spiegelman of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston showed how with a single transcription factor they could make white fat cells generate brown fat cells, a very different type of cell. The Harvard work “is not occurring in a vacuum, but it’s a very important piece of work,” Dr. Blelloch said.

Human Exoskeleton Suit Helps Paralyzed People Walk

By Ari Rabinovitch

HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - paralyzed for the past 20 years, former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof now walks down the street with a dim mechanical hum.
That is the sound of an electronic exoskeleton moving the 41-year-old's legs and propelling him forward -- with a proud expression on his face -- as passersby stare in surprise.

"I never dreamed I would walk again. After I was wounded, I forgot what it's like," said Kaiof, who was injured while serving in the Israeli military in 1988.
"Only when standing up can I feel how tall I really am and speak to people eye to eye, not from below."

The device, called ReWalk, is the brainchild of engineer Amit Goffer, founder of Argo Medical Technologies, a small Israeli high-tech company. Something of a mix between the exoskeleton of a crustacean and the suit worn by comic hero Iron Man, ReWalk helps paraplegics -- people paralyzed below the waist -- to stand, walk and climb stairs.

Goffer himself was paralyzed in an accident in 1997 but he cannot use his own invention because he does not have full function of his arms. The system, which requires crutches to help with balance, consists of motorized leg supports, body sensors and a back pack containing a computerized control box and rechargeable batteries.

User picks a setting with a remote control wrist band -- stand, sit, walk, descend or climb -- and then leans forward, activating the body sensors and setting the robotic legs in motion. "It raises people out of their wheelchair and lets them stand up straight," Goffer said. "It's not just about health, it's also about dignity."

EYE CONTACT

Kate Parkin, director of physical and occupational therapy at NYU Medical Centre, said it has the potential to improve a user's health in two ways.
"Physically, the body works differently when upright. You can challenge different muscles and allow full expansion of the lungs," Parkin said.

"Psychologically, it lets people live at the upright level and make eye contact."
Iuly Treger, deputy director of Israel's Loewenstein Rehabilitation Centre, said: "It may be a burdensome device, but it will be very helpful and important for those who choose to use it."

The product, slated for commercial sale in 2010, will cost as much as the more sophisticated wheelchairs on the market, which sell for about $20,000, the company said.

The ReWalk is now in clinical trials in Tel Aviv's Sheba Medical Centre and Goffer said it will soon be used in trials at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute in Pennsylvania. Competing technologies use electrical stimulation to restore function to injured muscle, but Argo's Chief Operating Officer Oren Tamari said they will not offer practical alternatives to wheelchairs in the foreseeable future.

Super Typhoon Man-yi

Typhoon

Typhoon is a severe, tempestuous tropical storm of northwestern Pacific Ocean. It has 75mile-per-hour winds which rotates around a calm central area, covering a huge surface. A typhoon has the same mechanical and climatological characteristics of a hurricane. The basin is demarcated within the Pacific Ocean from Asia, north of the equator, and west of the international date line. Although a typhoon may arise any time in the year, most storms tend to form between May and November.

Typhoon paths follow three general directions: 1) Straight; a general westward path affects the Philippines, southern China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. 2)Recurving; storms recurving affect eastern China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.
3) Northward; from point of origin, the storm follows a northerly direction, only affecting small islands.

Unlike hurricanes, typhoons are not named after people. Instead, they generally refer to animals, flowers, astrological signs, and a few personal names. However, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) retains its own naming list, which does consist of human names. Therefore, a typhoon can possibly have two names.

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane

A hurricane is a very violent, tropical storm of the western North Atlantic with strong winds that blow in circle around a calm central area, known as the eye of the storm, at a speed of 74 miles per hour or faster. Originating somewhere off the coasts of Venezuela and Guyana, this rotatory storm system generally moves rapidly in a north-westernly direction, affecting the Caribbean region, the Yucatan peninsula, the Gulf of Mexico, Florida, and sometimes the American eastern seaboard.

As it moves, a powerful hurricane pours down copious precipitation from its cumulonimbus clouds as its strong winds destroy homes and buildings on its path. A hurricane is characterized by a low pressure center and feeds on heat released when moist air rises. This is the hurricane primary energy source. Condensation leads to higher wind speeds, as a tiny fraction of the released energy is converted into mechanical energy. The faster winds and lower pressure associated with them in turn cause increased surface evaporation and thus even more condensation. Much of the released energy drives updrafts that increase the height of the storm clouds, speeding up condensation. This positive feedback loop continues for as long as conditions are favorable for tropical cyclone development.

Experience shows that the use of short, distintive given names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and less subject to error than the older more cumbersome latitude-longitute identification methods. These advantages are specially important in exchanging detailed storm information between hundres widely scattered stations, coastal bases, and ships at sea. The use of easily remembered names greatly reduces confusion when two or more tropical storms occur at the same time. For example, one hurricane can be moving slowly westward in the Gulf of Mexico , while at exactly the same time another hurricane can be moving rapidly Northward along the Atlantic coast. In the past, confusion and false rumors have arisen when storm advisories broadcast from radio stations were mistaken for warning concerning an entirely different storm located hundreds of miles away.

The deadliest hurricane on record to hit the American coast before the hurricanes began to be named was The Great Galveston Texas Hurricane Disaster which arose in September 1900, killing 6,000 people, damaging property worth $150 millions at the time, category 4 at landfall. But the most famous hurricanes with names are: Carol, August, 1954; Hazel, October, 1954; Diane, August, 1955; Audry, June, 1957; Donna, September, 1960; Carla, September, 1961; Betsy, September, 1965; Camille, August, 1969; Agnes, June, 1972; Hugo, September, 1989; Andrew, August, 1992; Fran, September, 1996; Charley, August, 2004; Katrina, August, 2005. Katrina caused a lot of material damage and killed many people because it hit the coast of Louisiana, greatly affecting New Orlean as this city is below the sea level.

Storm

A storm is any disturbed state of the atmosphere caused by the flow of huge mass of air, affecting the surface of the earth, and strongly implying severe weather. It may be marked by strong winds, thunder and lightning, heavy precipitation such as rain, hail, snow, or ice (ice storm), or wind transporting some substance like sand through the atmosphere.

Storms are created when a center of low pressure develops, with a system of high pressure surrounding it. This combination of opposing forces can create winds and result in the formation of storm clouds, such as the cumulonimbus. Small, localized areas of low pressure can form from hot air rising off hot ground, resulting in smaller disturbances such as dust devils and whirlwinds.

Rain

Rain occurs when atmospheric water vapor condenses, falling down from clouds to the Earth's surface as separate drops of water. As in a closed circuit, the sun heats the Earth's surface; water on it evaporates; the warm air carries the vapor up into the sky where the vapor concentrates and becomes clouds. At high altitude temperature is much lower, and when it is low enough, the vapor condenses into water which falls down to the Earth's surface in drops as heavy rain or drizzle. Not all rain reaches the surface; some of it evaporates while falling through dry air. When none of it reaches the ground, it is called virga, a phenomenon often seen in hot, dry desert regions. Rain is the primary source of fresh water for most areas of the world, providing suitable conditions for diverse ecosystems, as well as water for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation.

Falling raindrops are often depicted in popular culture as "teardrop-shaped" — round at the bottom and narrowing towards the top — but this is incorrect. Only drops of water dripping from some sources are tear-shaped at the moment of formation. Small raindrops are nearly spherical. Larger ones become increasingly flattened on the bottom, like hamburger buns; very large ones are shaped like parachutes. The shape of raindrops was studied by Philipp Lenard in 1898. He found that small raindrops (less than about 2 mm diameter) are approximately spherical.

Light

Light is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength that is visible to the human eye. In the electromagnetic spectrum, visible light has wavelengths which ranges from 400 nm to 700 nm, between ultraviolet and infrared light. This electromagnetic radiation consists of photons, which are massless particles of energy.

All electromagnetic radiation travel at the speed of light. In empty space, the speed of light is 300,000 km/second, that is to say 187,000 miles/second. Different physicists, such as Galileo and Ole Rømer, have attempted to measure the speed of light throughout history, but the more accurate measurement was performed by Leon Foucault in 1862 through an experiment using rotating mirrors to obtain a value of 298,000 km per second. Albert A. Michelson, however, refined Foucault's methods in 1926 using improved rotating mirrors to measure the time it took light to make a round trip from Mt. Wilson to Mt. San Antonio in California. The precise measurements yielded a speed of 299,796,000 km/s.

Matter

Matter is the physical substances the universe consists of and which can be found in three different states, solid, liquid and gas. Matter is made up of tiny physical structures known as atoms. Each atom consists of even smaller particles such as protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons and neutrons form the nucleus around which the electrons orbit, just like a tiny solar system. A proton is charged with positive energy, and an electron is negatively charged. Because of the fundamental law in physics that different charges are attracted to each other, electrons keeps orbiting about the nucleus which contains protons. A neutron is neutral as it represent the mass of the atom.

Matter is present in the universe with different atomical structures. These different atomical structures are called elements. The symplest element in the universe is hydrogen which is made up of the symplest atom which consists of one neutron, one proton, orbited about by one electron. Atoms combine to form molecules. A molecule can be composed of different elements. For example, one atom of oxygen + two atoms of hydrogen combine together to form one molecule of water. For a better understanding each elements is designated with one or two letters to represent them; oxygen with O, and hydrogen with H. Thus a molecule of water can be represented as H2O.

Elements are divided into two groups, metalic, and non-metalic. Iron (Fe), for example, is a metalic element, whereas potassium (K) is a non-metalic element. The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev devised a table in 1869 containing all the elements, metalic and non-metalic, each one with their atomic numbers and weights. It is called the periodic table of elements.

Mass & Inertia

Mass: Mass is a fundamental universal property that gives a body inertia, or that is a measure of its inertia and the amount of matter it contains, giving the body a gravitational field of its own. So, we can say that mass is directly proportional to inertia, and the amount of matter a body contains; the more mass an object has, the more inertia it will embody. We should not confuse mass with weight, for weight is the pull of gravity. For example, a truck weighing 20 tons on the surface of the earth, out there in space free from the force of gravity, the truck will be weightless, but it will continue to have mass and inertia.

Inertia: Inertia is the property that a body has to maintain its state of motion, or rest, in which it finds itself. Inertia is directly proportional to mass and to the gravitational field a body has, that is to say, the more mass a body contains, the more inertia it deploys, and the stronger the gravitional field it will exert.

Gravity

Gravity is the natural force by which celestial bodies are atracted to each other, specially when a body with a large mass pulls a smaller one towards it. The gravity is directly proportional to the mass, the larger the mass, the stronger the pull of gravity. In space stars are the bodies with the strongest gravitational attraction, as celestial bodies, but as celestial entity, it is the black holes.

To make it graphical for a better understanding of this natural phenomenon, let's imagine that space were a big mattress. Let's put a wooden ball on the mattress. The ball will distort a bit the surface of the mattress, but if we put a marble ball of the same diameter nearby, the distortion will be deeper as the wooden ball will roll down towards the marble ball. What will happen if we put a steel ball of the same diameter? The two former balls will roll down the mattress slope towards the steel ball. So, the moon is under the gravitational attraction of the Earth, and the Earth is under the sun's gravitional pull, as the sun has a much greater mass. So, we can say that mass warps space.

It was the English mathematician Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) who formulated the Law of Gravity in 1687. Gravitational force = (G m1 . m2) / (d2)
where G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two objects for which you are calculating the force, and d is the distance between the centers of gravity of the two masses.