Lignin

Lignin (n): an amorphous polymer related to cellulose that provides rigidity and together with cellulose provides the woody cell walls of plants and the cementing material between them.

Lignin is an organic substance that helps to form cell walls in plant cells. It also binds cells together. There is no set chemical formula for lignin; however, lignin is generally classified as a dendritic network polymer of phenyl propene basic units. There are two basic categories of lignin: sulfur-bearing and sulfur-free.

This word comes from the Latin lignus, meaning "wood."

Bibliography

1. Internation Lignin Institute. "About Lignin." ILI.com. 2013. ILI. 5 November 2013. <http://www.ili-lignin.com/aboutlignin.php>

Current Dwarf Planets and Dwarf Planet Candidates

There are currently five official dwarf planets, and four being reviewed.

Pluto is by far the most famous. "Pluto" comes from the Latin god of the underworld. It was discovered on February 18th, 1930, by Clyde Tombaugh, an assistant at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. This observatory is named for the person who predicted Pluto's existence in the early 1900's, Percival Lowell. From the orbits of Neptune and Uranus, he inferred that another celestial body, what he called "Planet X," was further out in space, slightly altering their obits. He died in 1916, but his work was carried on by the Lowell Observatory. Pluto was declared a dwarf planet in 2006, when the IAU redefined what a planet is.
Pluto is located in the Kuiper Belt, an area of ice bodies past the orbit of Neptune. Pluto's elliptical orbit takes it from 30-49 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun (4.4-7.4 billion km). Its diameter is 2,302 kilometers. It has five moons, Charon, discovered in 1978; Nix and Hydra, discovered in 2005; and the provisionally named S/2011 134340 and S/2012 134340, discovered in 2011 and 2012 respectively. During its summer, Pluto's icy surface, which is comprised mainly of nitrogen ice with traces of carbon monoxide and methane, melts and forms a thin atmosphere, which freezes in the winter and falls to the surface as snow.

Ceres was the first of the current dwarf planets to be discovered. It is named after the Greek goddess of agriculture. It was discovered by the Sicilian Giuseppe Piazzi on January 1st, 1801. He found it by comparing data on a new star he thought he had found, but realized that it was not a fixed star, but a wandering star, a planet. He originally announced it as a comet, but by popular belief it became a planet. However, in the next few year other objects like it were discovered, it it was reclassified as an asteroid in 1850. Then, in 2006, it was declared a dwarf planet.
Ceres is located in the asteroid belt, the area between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where rocky leftovers from the formation of the solar system are located. It is the biggest object in the asteroid belt; the next largest is half its size. In fact, Ceres has one-third of the mass of the entire asteroid belt. Its diameter is 950 kilometers, and it is approximately 2.8 AU from the Sun (419 million km).

Eris is the other dwarf planet classified as such is 2006. It was discovered in January 2005 by Mike Brown and his team at the Palomar Observatory in California. It is named for the Greek goddess of discord and fighting. Its moon, Dysnomia, is named for the daughter of Eris, the daemon of lawlessness.
Eris is possibly larger than Pluto, with an estimated diameter of 2,326 km. However, since there is an error bar because of the Pluto and Eris' extreme distance from us, it is not certain whether Pluto or Eris is larger. Eris is currently much farther away from the Sun than Pluto, at 96.6 AU (approximately 14.4 billion km). This is almost its maximum distance (aphelion) from the Sun, as its orbit is very eccentric.

Haumea is one of two dwarf planets added to the official list in 2008. It was first observed by Mike Brown and his team in 2004. It is named after a powerful Hawaiian sorceress who, according to legend, gave birth to most of the creatures on Earth.
Haumea is one of the most unique of the dwarf planets, as it is shaped like an egg. It is likely that this odd shape was caused by a collision with another celestial body, which would also account for Haumea's rapd rotation--it rotates fully once every 3.9 hours. It is probably comprised of a solid rock with a thin coating of ice. Haumea has two moons, Hi'iaka and Namaka, named after the mythological Haumea's daughters.

Makemake is the other of the two dwarf planets officially classified as such in 2008. It was discovered around Eastertime in 2005 by Mike Brown's team, and was therefore unofficially called "Easterbunny" until it was officially named after the Rapanui people Easter Island's god of fertility who supposedly created humans.
Makemake's temperature is astoundingly low; on Makemake, -406 degrees Fahrenheit (-243 degrees Celsius) is warm. While Earth takes 365 Earth days to orbit the Sun, Makemake takes 310 Earth years. As of 2009, Makemake is at a distance of 52 AU (4 billion miles) from the Sun.

There are also four other Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) that are possible candidates for dwarf planets. These are Sedna, Orcus, 2007OR10, and Quaoar (KWA-o-war). They are not yet officially dwarf planets because the IAU has not, or has not finished, reviewing them.

Sedna was discovered in 2004 by Mike Brown and his team, the same team that discovered Eris and Makemake, and is named after the Inuit goddess of the sea. It is located 90 Astronomical Units (AU) away from the Sun, and is currently moving through the Kuiper Belt farther away, possibly to reach 900 AU away, or 83,700,000,000 miles. It takes even longer than Makemake to orbit the Sun; its orbit length is 10,500 Earth years.

Orcus is another of the KBOs that might be a dwarf planet. It is about the same size as Sedna, and is named for Orcus, also known as Pluto, god of the underworld. It was discovered in 2004, a month before Sedna was also discovered, and has the same orbital period as Pluto.

Quaoar, named after a Tongva Indian creation force, is about the size of Charon, one of Pluto’s moons, and orbits 43 AU from the Sun. It was discovered in 2002, and was one of the first of these possible dwarf planets to be discovered. 

2007 OR10 has not been given an official name yet. It was discovered in 2007, which is what its name comes from. It is the third-farthest object from the Sun, after Sedna and Eris.

Dwarf planets are a fascinating topic, and there will almost certainly be more discovered in years to come.

Bibliography

   1.    Aguilar, David A. 13 Planets: The Latest View of the Solar System. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2011.

   2.    Brown, Mike. How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming. New York: Spiegel and Grau, 2010.

   3.    Brown, Richard. “Orcus: The Other God of the Underworld.” Astrology.richardbrown.com. 2013.      Brown, Richard. May 21, 2013. <http://astrology.richardbrown.com/NewPlanets/Orcus.shtml>

   4.    Chapman, Clark R. “dwarf planet (sic).” Britannica.com. 2013. Britannica. 7 May 2013. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1224420/dwarf-planet>

    5.   Daniels, Patricia. The New Solar System. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2009.

    6.   Dwarfplanets.net. “Dwarf Planets.” Dwarfplanets.net. 2013. Dwarfplanets.net. May 19, 2013. <http://dwarfplanets.net/>

    7.   Moche, Dinah L. Astronomy: A Self-Teaching Guide. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009.

    8.   NASA. “1992 QB1.” Solarsystem.nasa.gov. April 30 2011. NASA. May 21, 2013. <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?Category=Planets&IM_ID=10688>

    9.   NASA. “Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud.” Solarsystem.nasa.gov. April 26 2013. NASA. May 23, 2013. <http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=KBOs&Display=OverviewLong>

   10. NASA. “Mysterious Sedna.” Science.nasa.gov. April 6 2011. NASA. May 21, 2013. <http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/16mar_sedna/>

   11.  National Geographic. “Dwarf Planets.” National Geographic. 2013. National Geographic. 7 May 2013. <http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/dwarf-planet/>

   12.   Rosenberg, Jennifer. “Pluto Discovered.” About.com. 2013. About.com. May 19, 2013. <http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/qt/Pluto.htm>

   13.   Scott, Elaine. When Is a Planet Not a Planet? New York: Clarion Books, 2007.

Syzygy

Syzygy (noun): the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (as the Sun, Moon and Earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system.

Syzygy is when three of the bodies in the solar system line up in a row. This term is most often used to refer to a Sun-Moon-Earth lineup. During one of these, the gravitational stress on the moon can cause a Moonquake, the Moon's equivalent of an earthquake. However, it is highly unlikely that a Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy can cause an earthquake, since the Earth is 82 times more massive than the Moon.

This word comes from the Latin syzygia, "conjunction," and the Greek syzygos, "yolked together."

Bibliography

1. Moche, Dinah L. Astronomy: A Self-Teaching Guide. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009.

2. Wikipedia. "Syzygy (astronomy)." Wikipedia. 31 March 2013. Wikipedia. 21 May 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzygy_(astronomy)>

Datum and Data

Datum (n.): something given or admitted especially as a basis for reasoning or inference; something used as a basis for calculating or measuring.

Data (n.): factual information used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation; information output by a sensing device or organ that includes both useful and irrelevant or redundant information and must be processed to be meaningful; information in numerical form that can be digitally transmitted or processed.

Datum comes from the neuter form of the Latin word datus, "given." A datum is a given piece of information. Since the neuter plural ends in -a, the plural of datum is data. However, in today's society we most often use data as a singular word. It is still grammatically correct to say, "These data are," although it sounds strange. But we usually say, "This data is."

The Four Elements and the Four Humours

The Greek philosopher/scientist Empedocles (490-430 B.C.) was the person who first thought up the theory of the four elements. Empedocles said that the whole world was made up of four elements, or roots: earth, air, fire, and water. They were governed by two forces: love, which brought them together, and strife, which drove them apart. Later on, the elements aquired four qualities: moist, hot, dry, and cold. Water was moist and cold; air was most and hot; earth was dry and cold; fire was dry and hot.

Empedocles also applied the four elements to medicine. He said that normally, the body had a balance of the elements; disease was brought on by an unbalance of the elements. This was later expanded to be the four liquids, or humours: phlegm, blood, black bile, and yellow bile. Water was associated with phlegm, air with yellow bile, earth with black bile, and fire with blood.

The four humours were so widely accepted that we have many words derived from them today. Humour, in the sense of a disposition, comes from the humours. Phlegmatic means stolid and unemotional; sanguine (from the Latin word for blood) means cheerful and optimistic; melancholic (from black bile) means depressed; and choleric (from yellow bile) means angry. These words come from the supposed affects of the humours on someone's attitude.

Bibliography

Youngson, Robert. Scientific Blunders. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, Inc., 1998.

Novas and Supernovas

Supernova (n.): the explosion of a star in which the star may reach a maximum intrinsic luminosity one billion times that of the sun.

An exploding star is called a nova (or, if it is a very large explosion, a supernova), which means "new" in Latin. This is because of the first person to notice a nova. In November 1572 the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe noticed a new star in the constellation Cassiopeia, where no star had previously been observed. The star was brighter than Venus but faded away after 17 months. Tycho did some calculating and found out that the star was incredibly far away. In 1573 Tycho published an account of his finds called De nova stella, translated from Latin as "On the New Star" or "About the New Star." Since then, such exploding stars have been called 'novas.'

Bibliography

Youngson, Robert. Scientific Blunders. New York: Carroll and Graf Publishers, Inc., 1998.

Orthodox

Orthodox (adjective): conforming to established doctrine, especially in religion.

Orthodox comes from the Greek orthos, "straight," and the Latin doceo, "to teach." Orthodox is "straight teaching," the accepted opinion. This term is also used in "Eastern Orthodox" and "Orthodox Judaism," denoting a specific religion.

Bibliography

Rev. Socias, James. Introduction to Catholicism: A Complete Course. Woodridge, Illinois: Midwest Theological Forum, 2011.

Flamingo

Flamingo: any of several large aquatic birds (family Phoenicopteridae) with long legs and neck, a broad lamellate bill resembling that of a duck but abruptly bent downwards, and usually rosy-white plumage with scarlet wing coverts and black wing quills.

Flamingo comes from the Latin word flamma, which means "fire," and the obsolete Spanish word flamengo meaning "German." Germans were generally thought to be ruddy-complexioned. Both of these words are used in "flamingo" because of the flamingo's coloring.