Birding

For Starters

If you were just starting out in the bird watching game and wanted to add a significant number of birds to your life list where would you go to see birds? Would you try to get into as many habitats as possible—or maybe try to cover a large area? If you are in a part of the country that is new or strange to you how would you go about exploring it for new birds? According to long time birder, fish and wild life expert, and IdT correspondent Earl Baysinger you would not do any of the above. First you would check out the local sewage plant. Second you would check out any local landfills. Next you would check out the local garbage dumps.

The Ross Gull

According to Dr. Baysinger, as this is written, a Ross Gull has taken up temporary residence in a land fill near Baltimore and birders from far and wide are coming to see it. License plates from Texas, Alabama, Ohio, Michigan were neatly parked near the land fill.

The inevitable consequence of development is habitat destruction and while it does not fully compensate for the loss, habitats of sorts are created by development. Next time you're in the vicinity of a sewage plant, a land fill, or a garbage dump, stop by to see the birds. "How many people," asks Dr. Baysinger, "would travel as far to go to the Kennedy Center?"

...Ted Sudia...
Washington, DC

Physical Systems

T,I,M,E,S

Before the big bang there was a singularity. After the big bang, the universe we now have. Present after the creation were time, information, matter, energy, and space. Space was up from a pinhead to a universe thousands of light years in extent. (I am indebted to Tom Robertson for pointing out to me the acronym TIMES for time, information, matter, energy, and space.) Taken together TIMES is a physical system that can be described mathematically. The physical system is the interaction of matter and energy in space through time and in accordance with information contained in the system.

Out of the Singularity

The clock of the universe started with the big bang. Information was in the singularity from the start. It was the recipe for the singularity and it was and is the recipe for everything that followed. Matter precipitated out of the near infinitely dense and hot singularity with much energy. In the singularity matter and energy were identical. Space was created by the expansion of the singularity to the present universe. In an instant the universe — a system-was formed and time, information, matter, energy and space were and are its principal characteristics. The principal outcome of this system is work. In terms of the universe, work is any matter-matter, energy-matter interaction, or interconversion. Information is the recipe for doing the work and tools are the mechanism by which the work is done. If energy-matter interconversion can only occur in an intense coulomb field, then the field is the tool that provides the mechanism for interconversion. A spinning election that provides a magnetic field is the tool for chemical reaction since the magnetic attraction of the spinning electrons is the mechanism by which two atoms bind with each other. The formation of stars and galaxies is a product—work—of this system as were the formation of quarks, electrons, protons, atoms and molecules. The elements—iron, calcium, potassium, sodium, etc. were formed in the atomic furnace of the stars.

Associated with matter and energy in the universe are four forces. These forces constrain the possibilities for the interactions of matter and energy in space and time and determine what information sets are acting at any time.

Gravity

The first force is the weakest, but it can act over long distances. That force is gravity. Gravity is the force that causes all bodies of matter no matter how large or small to to be attracted to each other. If the universe is expanding and gravity cannot pull it back together it will expand forever and go out. If gravity can pull it back together it may form another singularity and start over again. In the end it will be gravity that determines the fate of the universe.

Electromagnetism

The second force is electromagnetic force. It is positive or negative. Electrons are negative and protons are positive. The electromagnetic force holds electrons in orbit around atomic nuclei—where the protons are. When electrons in a substance such as iron line up with their north and south poles properly aligned, magnetic force emanates from the substance. When electrons enter orbit around a nucleus or change from a higher orbital level to a lower one, energy is lost as the electron slows down to enter its stable new position around the nucleus. This loss of energy is accomplished by the emission of a photon from the electron. The photons may have wavelengths that are visible, that is they may be in the visible electromagnetic spectrum.

The Electronic World

Electromagnetic forces rule the world we live in. We live in an electronic world. The nuclei of the atoms give the atoms their weight (protons and neutrons) and the protons determine the fundamental charge. A number of electrons equal to the number of protons is usually associated with the typical atom making the atom neutral in electrical charge. The electrons of the atoms by the way they are placed in space determine the kinds of chemical reactions that can take place. With never ending repetition these electron bonds hold matter together. When you touch a thing you are touching that thing's electrons. To be sure the atomic nuclei are there too but you can't touch them. You meet the world with electrons and the electrons of the world are with what you interact.

The Weak Nuclear Force

The third is the weak nuclear force. The weak nuclear is associated with radioactive decay of atoms. Unstable nuclei gain stability by losing particles or energy to achieve a more stable state. The excess matter or radiation moves usually at high speed stripping the electrons from nearby atoms. This cause these atoms to form ions i.e. charged particles, hence the term ionizing radiation. The principal forms of radiation are alpha particles which are the nuclei of helium atoms—two protons and two neutrons, beta particles—high speed electrons and gamma rays, extremely short wave energy with very high quantum energies.

Alphas

Alpha particles are relatively massive and lose their energy in a relatively short distance. Coming from outside the body they can barely penetrate skin. They are absorbed by about 40 microns of water. But inside a cell they can lose all their energy within the cell, leaving a path of destruction.

Betas

Beta particles—high speed electrons—are also ionizing and can inflict radiation damage. When the beta particle enters an orbit around an atom, its high speed means it has a lot of energy to lose to enter orbit. That high speed is translated into a high energy photon—an x-ray. X-rays travel at the speed of light and can inflict sever radiation damage. All forms of radiation are destructive of living tissues since they inflict damage on the cells and cause cancer.

Gammas

Gamma rays are formed when the mass of a nucleus adjusts by losing the mass in the form of energy. Gamma rays are so energetic that when they enter the columbe field of a nucleus they can actually form electrons and positrons which then will mutually annhilate.

Neutrons and Protons

Neutrons and protons are emitted during some radioactive decay and frequently when atoms are split. Atomic reactors that get energy from splitting atoms emit large quantities of neutrons and in the fusion process where hydrogen atoms are smashed together to form helium neutrons and a large amount of photonic energy are released. Radioactive elements are really alien matter and do not belong in our electronic world.

The Strong Nuclear Force

The fourth force is the strong nuclear force. The fourth force holds quarks together to make neutrons, electrons and protons and holds the protons and neutrons together in the atomic nucleus. The fourth force is responsible for the elements as we know them.

The grand puzzle of our time is to figure out the state of being in which all the four forces are interconvertible, that is to say a state in which all can operate interchangeably and simultaneously as one force.

In the process of their creation, matter and energy together with time, information, and space became our universe. This system created humans, trees, nematodes, and the rocks and sand and soil and water and air and all the things the earth and the universe is. The variety and stability of the universe is a result of the interplay of time, information, matter, energy and space in myriad systems which because of their inherent properties produce self-generating systems, self-regulating, decision systems.

...Ted Sudia...

© Copyright 1990
Institute for domestic Tranquility