Science

Looking 13 Billion Years into the Past is Just the Beginning

In the Headlines, Science, Technology / By /

On July 12th 2022, NASA released the first five images taken by the powerful James Webb Space Telescope.

A photo of the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA. A frontal view of the large, gold, hexagonal mirrors held aloft in a large room. Underneath the mirrors stand a crew of NASA workers in white protective suits. Some workers are viewing the telescope, others are holding cables and instruments.
The James Webb Space Telescope in 2017. Image credit: NASA/Desiree Stover (https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2017/james-webb-space-telescope-mirror-seen-in-full-bloom)

After 17 years of construction and testing, Webb was launched into orbit in 2021 as a successor to the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. Built to create high-resolution images by detecting infrared light, scientists expect that Webb will be able to look farther and deeper into space than we’ve ever seen before.

Looking Into the Deep Past

Telescopes allow us to look into the past, rather than see objects as they are now. The further an object is from the telescope, the longer it takes light emitted from the object to reach us. It takes about 8 minutes for light to travel to Earth from the Sun, so on sunny days, you’re seeing the sun 8 minutes in the past.

Now imagine you’re looking at an object one billion light years away. Light from that object has been traveling towards us for one billion years! So when we look at that object in the telescope we’re seeing what it looked like when that light first left the object a billion years ago.

One of first images Webb has taken is a deep field image. This image looks towards a very small, distant part of the cosmos and took 12.5 hours for the telescope to capture. Webb is able to look so far, we can view some of these galaxies as they were about a billion years after the big bang! The farthest galaxy appears to be 13.1 billion years old. Some of the galaxies in the image appear stretched or distorted. Those galaxies are much further away from us and the light they emit is distorted by the immense gravitational pull of galaxies in the foreground.

Thousands of small galaxies appear across this view. Their colors vary. Some are shades of orange, while others are white. Most appear as fuzzy ovals, but a few have distinct spiral arms. In front of the galaxies are several foreground stars. Most appear blue, and the bright stars have diffraction spikes, forming an eight-pointed star shape. There are also many thin, long, orange arcs that curve around the center of the image. For more details, download the Text Description.
Webb’s First Deep Field. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. (https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/2022/035/01G7DCWB7137MYJ05CSH1Q5Z1Z)

What’s Next for Webb?

Webb will continue to look deep into the history of our universe, looking for some of the earliest star formation, but will also look at places closer to home, like the outer planets and other structures in our solar system. We may even learn more about exoplanets, planets in other solar systems!

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Recommended Reading/Viewing from MVCC Library

Wildfires can make their own weather!?!

In the Headlines, One Book: All We Can Save, Science / By /

After I finished my library degree, I had the privilege of living in southern Oregon for three of the most adventurous years of my life. Back then, wildfires were frequent, but they rarely turned into the monsters they can be today. Recently, the largest fire in Oregon, the Bootleg Fire, was said to be creating it’s own weather – it even spawned a firenado! This fascinating article by Wired magazine entitled Oh Good, Now there is an Outbreak of Wildfire Thunderclouds, will explain how they do that and what they mean for climate future. For more resources about wildfires, pyrocumulonimbus clouds, or other environmental research questions, please Ask a Librarian for help.

The Science Behind Why We Wear Masks

Covid-19, General Information, History, In the Headlines, Science / By /
Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

Do you remember at the beginning of the pandemic when many were saying that masks don’t protect against Covid-19? At the time, based on a long standing myth in the physics, it was thought that the virus could not be airborne because the particles were too large to remain aerosol. Last summer, a group of scientists challenged that thought which finally lead the World Health Organization and CDC to acknowledge that SARS-CoV-2 is, in fact, airborne. You can read about the origin of the myth and the research that lead to uncovering it in Wired magazine’s article, The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup that Helped Covid Kill. You can also read about it in this British Medical Journal editorial, Covid-19 Has Redefined Airborne Transmission or this government document Dismantling Myths on the Airborne Transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). If you would like to do more research on SARS-CoV-2 or any other scientific topic, you can try one of the Moraine Valley Library’s science databases or our nursing and biological science databases. For help with this or any other research inquiries, the librarians are always happy to help. Just Ask a Librarian.

Understanding Covid-19 Vaccines

Covid-19, Science / By /

This week, I was thankfully able to receive my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine for Covid-19. I am truly grateful to all of the scientists, and production and healthcare workers that made this possible. The Covid-19 vaccines that we now have available to us are nothing short of a scientific breakthrough and are a real showcase of human achievement. This amazing piece from the New York Times, How Pfizer Makes Its Covid-19 Vaccine, explains the science behind the vaccine and looks at the testing, safety, and quality controls involved in the development and production of the vaccine.

Pfizer understood from the beginning that it was science that was going to save the world from this pandemic. They gave their scientists everything they needed, no questions asked, to get the job done. In this National Geographic video, Mission Possible: The Race for a Vaccine, you can learn about the science, development, testing, security, and production involved in getting this shot into the arms of the world.

Smoke on the Prairie

General Information, Local News and Info, Science / By /
MVCC Campus 4/12/21

The Moraine Valley campus is surrounded by Cook County Forest Preserves. Most of us drive by without much appreciation of the open land. The amount of work that goes into sustaining these green spaces is staggering, not only financially but also the amount of strategic planning to keep these spaces viable for future generations.

You may have recently noticed the smoke billowing out of the Preserves that surround the college. During the spring and fall, the Cook County Forest Preserve conducts a prescribed burn. This procedure “helps to stimulate the growth of native plants and hinder invasive vegetation. Simply put, native plants in this area evolve alongside periodic fires, while most invasive species introduced to this area later did not.” View this short video on A Day in the Life of a Cook County Burn Crew.

Check out the MVCC catalog or the science databases for more information on this topic

Covid-19 Vaccines: The Science & the Psychology (Video)

Biology, Covid-19, Events, Science / By /

Faculty members discuss the biology, public health aspects, and the psychological factors around the Covid-19 vaccines in the United States. This panel is organized by the MVCC Library. Panel members include: Judy Corcoran, Nursing Laura Lauzen-Collins, Psychology Peter Porter, Biology The discussion is moderated by librarians Hannah Carlton and Troy Swanson.
Don’t miss our 2020 panel “Racial Health Disparities: Equity in the Light of Covid-19“

You’ve Heard of the Nobel Prize… But Have You Heard of the Ig Nobel Prize?

Award Winners, Science, Technology / By /

“The Stinker”, the official mascot of the Ig Nobel Prizes

Sometimes research is funny. No, really! Using actual money and resources to study if roller coasters can help move kidney stones? Comedy GOLD.

When research, either good or bad, is funny and thought provoking it can earn an Ig Nobel Prize. Organized by the Annals of Improbable Research, ten prizes in different fields have been awarded in September every year since 1991.

Here are some highlights from the 2020 award winners:

  • Psychology Prize: for devising a method to identify narcissists by examining their eyebrows
  • Peace Prize: For the governments of India and Pakistan, for having their diplomats surreptitiously ring each other’s doorbells in the middle of the night, and then run away before anyone had a chance to answer the door
  • Economics Prize: for trying to quantify the relationship between different countries’ national income inequality and the average amount of mouth-to-mouth kissing
  • Medicine Prize: for diagnosing a long-unrecognized medical condition: Misophonia, the distress at hearing other people make chewing sounds
  • Materials Science Prize: for showing that knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work well

That last one is my personal favorite. Where would we be without this VITAL research?!?!

Here are a few of my all time favorite winners:

  • Medical Prize (2018): for the medical report “Colonoscopy in the Sitting Position: Lessons Learned From Self-Colonoscopy.”
  • Economics Prize (2017): for experiments to see how contact with a live crocodile affects a person’s willingness to gamble
  • Psychology Prize (2016): for asking a thousand liars how often they lie, and for deciding whether to believe those answers
  • Literature Prize (2012): The US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.
  • Archeology Prize (2008): for measuring how the course of history, or at least the contents of an archaeological dig site, can be scrambled by the actions of a live armadillo.
  • Literature Prize (2006): for the report “Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly.”
  • Peace Prize (2005): for electrically monitoring the activity of a brain cell in a locust while that locust was watching selected highlights from the movie “Star Wars.”
  • Psychology Prize (2004): for demonstrating that when people pay close attention to something, it’s all too easy to overlook anything else — even a woman in a gorilla suit.

Think these are fake? They sound like clickbait, but you can check out the full list and read the original research articles yourself!

Want to find entertaining research at MVCC? Check out our databases and ask a Librarian for help!

Are There Really Farting Microbes on the Planet Venus? This is a Job for Research!

In the Collection, In the Headlines, Science / By /

Maybe you were scrolling through a news feed today and saw some headlines about aliens on Venus, or at least this weird gas that maybe means aliens. Maybe you’re not sure what to make of that or even if it’s true.

So we’ve got this library full of reliable news sources and books just waiting to be explored. Let’s do a little SCIENCE RESEARCH!

Oh, come on, don’t you want to know about the alleged aliens? Let’s check out some different databases and see what we can find!

If we’re looking for science news, a great place to start is Science Magazine Online, where we can find a news article describing the research that lead to the discovery.

If we are looking for more news, maybe we should try a news database, like the New York Times. If we search “life on Venus” under news, we find another article about the research that looks at this specific gas found in the Venusian atmosphere that we know is produced on Earth by tiny microbes. The production of that gas could mean there are living microbes, like bacteria, in the Venusian clouds! ALIEN BACTERIA!

Maybe now you’ve been bit by the knowledge bug and you want know more about Venus or the other planets. Follow me down the rabbit hole of astronomy information! We’ve got some great books in our collection that you can find through our Catalog! You might find a few books that look interesting…

As for life on Venus, we may not have the answer yet, but with a little bit of research we can discover what the headlines really mean. It wasn’t that bad, was it?

Librarians are always ready to help you dig into the databases to find what you need. All you have to do is ask us!

De-stress with Nature

Covid-19, General Information, Local News and Info, Science / By /

Spring is my favorite time of year. I love all the flowers, ornamental trees, and seeing everything turn green. I find spending time in nature definitely helps lower my stress level. This year, because of the pandemic, many natural areas are closed or restricted, but there are still many open.

According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the following state parks in Northeastern Illinois remain open for limited day use: “Adeline Jay Geo-Karis Illinois Beach State Park / North Point Marina, Chain O’ Lakes State Park, Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area, Illinois and Michigan Canal State Trail (includes Buffalo Rock, Channahon, Gebhard Woods, and William G Stratton), Kankakee River State Park, Moraine Hills State Park, Silver Springs State Fish & Wildlife Area, Volo Bog State Natural Area.” “Parks will be open from sun-up to sundown. Guests will be allowed to engage in activities such as wildlife observation, hiking, biking, equestrian use and fishing (both from the bank and boats with a limit of two persons per boat. For additional information on recreational boating, please see guidance issued by DCEO) and mushroom hunting. All visitor centers, campgrounds, playgrounds, shelter reservations, interpretive educational programs, beaches, special events and concessions will remain closed; turkey hunting will remain suspended at state parks.” Remember to social distance and to only gather with members of your household.

Some of the Forest Preserves of Cook County are also open for day use, with restrictions that are currently in place until May 31st. “We urge you to follow social distancing guidelines and wear a mask when in the forest preserves.” They also ask that you only visit with members of your household, do not use the picnic tables, and if you need to, step off the trails to maintain 6 feet of distance from others. For more information on their restrictions and for a list of closures, please refer to the Forest Preserves of Cook County’s Covid-19 news page. You should also know that other counties may be restricting usage to residents only.

I wish I had a spring photo of the geese at Saganashkee Slough, but this one from March will have to do.


How Did the Outbreak Begin? Conornavirus Pandemic on Frontline

Covid-19, Science / By /

This is an important exploration of the pandemic from award winning documentary series.

Frontline: Coronavirus Pandemic
SEASON 2020: EPISODE 16
How did the U.S. become the country with the worst known coronavirus outbreak in the world? FRONTLINE investigates the American response to COVID-19 — from Washington state to Washington, D.C. — and examines what happens when politics and science collide.

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