Today, science is concerned about: CO2, neutrinos and such at Town Hall, a skull archaeologists dug up, and how IBM has made the world’s smallest stop-motion film.

Jamestown skull confirms cannibalism by early settlers
When the settlers in Jamestown, Virginia, faced a deadly winter from 1609 to 1610, known as the “starving time,” they surrendered their hunger to cannibalism. One victim of this ultimate desperation appears to have been a 14-year-old girl, who was butchered and eaten. Marks on the skull and leg bone of the individual, now being called "Jane," indicate she was likely dismembered and her skull cracked, presumably to eat her flesh and brain.

Speaker series at Town Hall provides interesting ideas about the nature of everything you've ever seen and will see: Two talks at Town Hall.

The first features two UW graduate students:

Physics PhD candidate Alan Jamison explores the unique, sometimes confounding properties of atoms and a particular method of analyzing them: using lasers to cool them to a temperature “10 billion times colder than a winter’s day in Antarctica.” Then UW researcher Jared Kofron takes you on a journey through the history of the neutrino, the lightest known particle. Since the early 20th century, physicists have been trying to determine and explore its properties.

The second features theoretical physicist Lee Smolin:

Smolin tackles the reality of time and takes a very different side from the one indicated by most physicists, from Newton to Einstein. While the generally accepted concept is that people think time passes, but it’s an illusion, Smolin argues that time might be the ONLY thing that’s actually real. Read more on Smolin here.

Where: Downstairs at Town Hall (enter on Seneca)
When: Tuesday, May 7 at 6:00 & 7:30 pm, respectively. One ticket ($5 adv) is good for both talks.


Global CO2 measurements likely to reach a landmark high this month
For 55 years, an infrared laser near the summit of Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii has been taking hourly readings of CO2 concentration. Because of its long record and location away from major pacific ocean pollution sources, this observatory is considered the “gold standard” of global CO2 measurement. Scientists expect it to surpass 400 parts-per-million this month—a concentration that hasn’t been reached in several million years.

A boy and his atom
IBM created the world’s smallest stop-motion video using two scanning tunneling microscopes cooled to -450 degrees fahrenheit. The microscope’s tiny needle attracts the atoms. The frame you’re seeing is magnified about 100 million times.

Here is a link to the actual stop-motion film, A Boy and His Atom, but their short documentary is actually more interesting than the movie itself: