Monthly Archives: November 2012

Physics and Astronomy at Western Blog, Physics and Astronomy at Western What's Happening

How long do we have? And I am not talking about meteoric impact….

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http://gosset.wharton.upenn.edu/mortality/perl/CalcForm.html

This link is to an actuarial tool.  That means that it tries to figure out what the probabilities of your living a certain length of time is, based upon how long people have lived in the past.  I invite you to try it, and then see how long you might live.  It pegged me at 89 which in many ways was encouraging.

This is useful.  It gives you some feedback.  It makes you think.  But, is it right?

Things are changing fast.  On any day in which you were to take the time you would find many headlines about scientific research that has the potential to massively extend life spans, along with good health.  Currently, the actuaries amongst us do not seem to pay too much attention to that, but there is a significant chance they are wrong.

Today I looked at some head lines….. (Today was a bad day, there was not a lot of health science news but there were still some)

·             Protein’s destructive journey in brain may cause Parkinson’s

·             Alzheimer’s Disease in Mice Alleviated: Promising Therapeutic Approach for Humans

·             From Degeneration to Regeneration: Advances in Skeletal Muscle Engineering

·             Scientists identify new risk gene for Alzheimer’s

Things are changing.  Massive leaps in both understanding and practical ability are taking place.  People are growing hearts using patients DNA (still not quite good enough to keep the blood pumping but heading that way).  Blood has been cloned and transplanted into people. The mechanisms of aging are being understood.  So it begs the question. How long do you think you will live?

http://www.easypolls.net/poll.html?p=50b3a70fe4b007bdc40afa86

 

Physics and Astronomy at Western What's Happening

Dance of the Leonids

The Leonid meteor shower peaked last week, on November 17th, with a predicted showering of about 10 per hour just before dawn. Reminded of that, I took the opportunity to wander outside during the morning hours. I managed only to spot two or three that evening, peering through the generally sodium-vapor emission saturated skies around London, but I thought it a rather good night.

Even when you study the sky for a living, it’s disconcerting how easy it is to forget to take time to sometimes soak up the night sky with one’s own eyes, rather than through a computer screen. Luckily, not everyone else is perhaps as negligent when it comes to watching these relatively rare showings:

 

Physics and Astronomy at Western What's Happening

Phin Perquin is the recipient of the Dean’s Special Award of Merit

Phin Perquin is the recipient of the Dean’s Special Award of Merit for 2012.

Department Chair Shantanu Basu stated that this award was given to recognize Phin’s extended service to the Department and Faculty and noted that this is a rare award that is handed out only in occasional years.

As well, Shantanu added that, “Phin has been a staff member in the Department for 36 years, bringing experience and wisdom to many roles over the years, including that of Department Renovations Coordinator the past few years. There were many competing interests that Phin had to manage, and the beautiful result is visible to all.”