Transcript

5.22.25 · Smithsonian Magazine

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Speaker 1: Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye and to
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day I will be reading the Smithsonian magazine dated April
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May twenty twenty five. As a reminder, Radio I is
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a reading service intended for people who are blind or
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have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.
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Please join me now for the first article, titled A
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Peculiar Short Lived Office at the Smithsonian once explored reports
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of bizarre natural phenomena, from surprising squirrel migrations to islands
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popping up out of nowhere. The organization's scientists tracked strange
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events as they happened. By Ben Nadolf Hafrey, something was
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wrong with the squirrels of Appalachia. It was the fall
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of nineteen sixty eight, and they appeared to be making
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a sudden pilgrimage, attempting improbable swims across lakes, sprinting over highways,
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and bursting into buildings. One squirrel, while fleeing, climbed into
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a critical piece of infrastructure and reportedly short circuited power
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to much of Clarksville, Georgia. The squirrel, the Wire Services reported,
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was also extinguished. The highways were lined with hundreds of
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dead squirrels. One scientist spotted thirteen squirrels swimming due north
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across the reservoirs of North Carolina. Nothing could make them
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turn round. Assuming the squirrels must be starving, Concerned citizens
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began sending boxes of acorns and hickory nuts to the
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afflicted areas, and grocery stores put up signs encouraging shoppers
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to feed the squirrels. The problem was that the squirrels
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were by and large well fed. There was no shortage
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of food, yet by some estimates, twenty million squirrels were
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on the move. Wildlife officials were flummixed, so they notified
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the Smithsonian Center for Short Lived Phenomenon. The c s
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LP was a kind of clearing house for news of
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intriguing phenomena that scientists might want to study, as they occurred,
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from volcanic eruptions to oil spills, meteorite strikes, sudden islands,
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unusual migrations, and explosions in the populations of non native species.
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Every day, an odd phenomenon occurred somewhere, offering a priceless
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natural experiment, but researchers worried they were missing most of them.
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For years, scientists have been aware of the almost total
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lack of the essential research information on the very earliest
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beginnings of natural events. Sydney Gawler, then Assistant Secretary for
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Science at the Smithsonian Institution, told Newsweek about how the
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idea for the c s LP had come about. We
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come in the middle and have to go back and
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attempt to reconstruct what actually happened. But now the SMITHSONI
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had built an unprecedented network to help scientists get fast,
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accurate information about developing situations. We have our finger, said
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Robert Citron, the director of the Center on the Pulse
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of the Planet Earth. In its seven years of existence,
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the c s l P loved oil spills and ashened snowfalls,
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chased still warm meteorites, laid the foundation of an essential
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global database of volcanic activity, and heralded the erroneous discovery
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of at least one prehistoric sea monster. And it left
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in the archives of the Smithsonian a rather large paper
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trail decades later. Those archives are a window into a
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moment of epistemological uncertainty, at the dawn of the environmental Age,
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when nothing quite seemed to make sense any more, and
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concerned researchers were starting to piece it all together. One
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strange event at a time, word of freak events like
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a mass squirrel migration arrived at the well appointed CSLP
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offices in what was then the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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The observatory had the kind of communications infrastructure that this
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new global scientific hotline required. At the center, at various
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points in its existence, a staff of nine hovered across
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four phone lines, teletypes, cable machines, and a shortwave radio set,
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fielding as many as thirty thousand letters and cables per month,
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reporting short lived phenomena. On the wall, it had a
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gigantic map of the world and a clock keeping military time.
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In the staff's minds, they kept a working, if broad
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definition of short lived phenomena, rare natural events that might
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otherwise go unobserved or uninvestigated. The CSL relied on a
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network of scientists who sent in news of odd happenings.
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If something strange, sudden, and unexpected occurred anywhere on the planet,
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word would spread until a correspondent caught wind and sent
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the news to the center. There the staff would generate
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a list of other correspondents who studied the relevant field.
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Volcanologists presumably for the Sudden Islands, geologists for the diamond
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and crested meteorite that ripped through a finished farm's roof,
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ornithologists for the four million blackbirds suddenly roosting in Scotland
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neck North Carolina, entomologists for the ballooning spiders in Saint Louis.
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Depending upon the urgency of the situation, Britain's Daily Telegraph explained,
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correspondents are informed by telephone, short wave radio, cable, telegram
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or postcard, which is air mailed if they live outside
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the New England area. Short lived phenomena, it turned out,
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were often urgent. One center employee described the workplace atmosphere
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as sometimes amounting to almost a panic situation. In its
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first nine months, CSLP expanded its network to three hundred
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eighty four correspondents in seventy one countries. By nineteen seventy,
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it would grow to twenty four hundred scientists in one
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hundred thirty four countries, plus many scientists in the US government,
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from the Department of the Interior to NASA. The Smithsonian
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had a lot of experience with this sort of citizen science.
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In the eighteen forties, its volunteer network of weather observers
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became the precursor to the National Weather Service. But the
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CSLP was attempting to collate first drafts of scientific work
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at greater and more varied scale than the Smithsonian had
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ever done. Correspondents positively deluged the center. Some sent stray
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data like bits of dirt and descriptions of strange mounds
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forming in Peru. Had the Center seen anything like that?
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High school teachers and members of the Soviet Geophysical Committee
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alike wrote to express their gratitude for c s LP reports.
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Advertising account executives wrote to ask if the center could
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provide a reference for an active volcano that would serve
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as a set for a TV commercial. But the center's
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core work had to do with the sort of escalating
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environmental crises that would lead only two years after its
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opening to the first Earth Day and the founding of
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the Environmental Protection Agency. During those same years, the Center
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was established in the popular imagination as a kind of
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index of just how out of control everything had gotten.
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New Smithsonian Center investigates natural disasters as they happened. Ran
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one business week headline Smithsonian keeps tabs on Nature's violent ways,
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proclaimed the Fort Lauderdale News and Sun Sentinel. C SLP
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even launched a Dial of Phenomenon phone line in nineteen
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sixty nine, which any one could call to hear recorded
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descriptions of unfolding phenomena. If you think you have problems,
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a calumnist wrote, call dial a Phenomenon Yesterday. For example,
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a cheerful sounding young woman told callers that a huge
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comet was heading for Earth. The antics of the Center
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were entering the public consciousness. Dick Cavett had Citron, the
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center's director, on his popular talk show the same night
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as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and the novelist Ranata
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Adler wrote about the center in her acclaimed haunting nineteen
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seventy six novel speed Boat. In the end, though the
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cslp's read relative fane could not sustain it, the problem
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the center was trying to solve would be much more
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simply addressed by a technology that debuted just one year
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after its founding, arpinnet, the precursor to the Internet. In
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short order, digital technology would make c SLP's strenuous networking,
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the frantic phone calls and air mailed postcards quaintly irrelevant
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and certainly too expensive. Facing perennial budget challenges, Citron began
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trying to reposition the Center's work to contribute to the
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growing pool of networked global data that would power the new,
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intensively legislative phase of the environmental movement. Citron wrote, as
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a prototype of the monitoring systems that must surely follow,
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the Center has shown that worldwide reporting networks, even when
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composed of loosely bound volunteers, can contribute to a significant
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over view of the planet. He became involved in the
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United Nations Environment Program, where he was a driving force
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behind a plan to integrate many environmental tracking systems around
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the globe the Global Environment Monitoring System. That system exists
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to this day, but it can be difficult to see
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all the hard, very human work behind a global data set,
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for instance, the work of investigating a mass migration of
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gray squirrels. As soon as c SLP got that report
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about squirrels on the move in nineteen sixty eight, the
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Center called the scientists it knew might be interested in
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such a thing, including a University of Maryland zoologist named
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wagen Fliger. Fliger headed to North Carolina almost immediately and
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set up a laboratory in a motel room in a
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town called Boone, where he examined squirrel specimens. Meanwhile, the
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Center kept in daily contact with fair various scientists and
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wildlife officials in the afflicted region, and sent updates to
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seventy one interested correspondence around the world. Squirrel migrations occur unannounced,
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and by the time a biologist arrives on the scene
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to investigate the situation, the event has usually ended, Flagger wrote,
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but this time was different. Flagger was studying it as
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it happened, and in the end he could offer an explanation.
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The squirrels weren't fleeing because of fleas or psychological factors,
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as some had previously suspected, nor because of any immediate
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threat of starvation. They were fleeing because in nineteen sixty
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seven the trees had produced a strong crop of winter nuts,
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which led to more squirrels surviving the winter and hence
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to a larger squirrel population the next fall. Those squirrels
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were amply fed on berries and the like through the
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warmer months of nineteen sixty eight, but that a year's
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crop of winter ready foods was poor and would require
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stiffer competition with other squirrels. It was at this point,
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Flagger reasoned that the squirrels recognized their dilemma, and with
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an eye toward the long winter, lit out in search
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of better rations to bury confusing people all along the
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East Coast. Fliger's study made him one of the world's
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leading experts on squirrels decades later. It also goes to
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show how even the oddest of short lived phenomena tend
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to be hooked up to much bigger, slower, and more
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complex dynamics. As Citron once said, it is the short
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lived events in nature that tell you most about natural systems.
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You just have to know when to look next. See
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for yourself one of the world's rarest red diamonds at
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the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum. Unraveling the surprising sign that
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gives colorful diamonds their special allure by Kayla Randall. Laid
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out like an orchestra in a quiet gallery room, forty
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colorful gems have one of the planet's most distinguished conductors,
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a red diamond two point thirty three of the rarest
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carrots in the world, shining like a little bit of magic.
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It's called the Winston Red diamond, and what makes it
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so exceptional is the nature of its redness. Designated as
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a fancy red by the Gemalogical Institute of America g I, A,
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a global authority on gems, it's one of the largest
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of its kind ever found. The Moosaiah red diamond is
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the largest in the public record, at five point one
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one carrots. The stone takes its name from Ronald Winston,
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who gave it to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural
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History in twenty twenty three, continuing a tradition that began
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with his father, Harry Winston, the famous jeweler known as
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the King of Diamonds, who donated the Hope diamond to
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the Smithsonian in nineteen fifty eight. In the simplest terms,
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diamonds are carbon with the cubic atomic arrangement, and their
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shine comes from the gem's high refractive index, that is,
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an ability to bend light. Diamonds are full of fire.
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As gemalogists like to put it, there are very few
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red diamonds on the planet, says Gabriella Pharfan, a mineralogist
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and curator at the Museum, and fancy red is a
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very specific distinction. It's not reddish brown, it's not reddish purple.
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It's not reddish pink. It's red up close. The old
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mine cut diamond, shaped like a square with rounded edges,
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has a stunning saturated hue. Only about thirty percent of
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nature diamonds are considered gem worthy, and among those, less
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than one percent are fancy color diamonds, that is, diamonds
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of unusual color. While the latter comes in all hues,
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red seems to be the rarest. Fewer than thirty or
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so fancy red diamonds larger than one carrot exist in
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the public record. Fairfind says the Winston is the largest
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one going on public display. It's being featured alongside dozens
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of diamonds of many colors in a new ongoing exhibition,
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the Winston Red Diamond and Winston Fancy Colored Diamond Collection,
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running indefinitely at the Natural History Museum's Harry Winston Gallery.
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Ahead of the exhibition, Pharfhan invited seven experts from the Smithsonian,
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the GIA, and the Paris School of Mines to examine
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the diamond. Starting last June, Parfhan and her colleagues studied
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the dime meant for more than six months, culminating in
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a paper that is set to be featured as the
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spring cover story in Gems and Gemology, the peer review
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journal published by the GIA. Wu Yi Wang, vice president
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of Research and Development at the GIA, helped facilitate the
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study of the Winston red and emphasizes its significance. A
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natural diamond getting a fancy red color grade is extremely rare,
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he says. First, it needs to be a perfect color
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in that range, and then the saturation needs to be
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perfect as well. If it's too dark, it goes to black,
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and if it's too light, it goes to pink. Because
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so few fancy red diamonds are available to researchers, Farfan
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says this will probably be the most detailed study of
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a fancy red diamond. While the researchers had a lot
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of questions about the stone's origin, for example, and whose
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hands it has passed through, perhaps the most scientifically pressing
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is how and why fancy reds come to be in
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their pure form. Diamonds should be colorless, as carbon doesn't
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give off any color by itself, says Alouise Galieux, director
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of the Mineralogy Museum at the Paris School of Mines
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and one of the researchers who studied the Winston red,
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But sometimes a carbon atom is missing inside the diamond structure.
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That absence alone can produce some color because the structure
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is disturbed and light interacts with the material differently. Other times,
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the color comes from the replacement of a carbon atom
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by another element in the environment of the diamond when
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it grows. For example, gemologists attribute the color of fancy
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yellow diamonds to nitrogen impurities in the diamond structure, and
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for fancy blues they credit boron rather than an additional element.
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The crimson of a diamond like the Winston red, is
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believed to be caused by plastic deformation, that is, a
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permanent change in a material after undergoing applied stress. In
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the case of the Windston, that stress was the high
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temperature and heavy pressure it experienced deep underground. In Galeou's view,
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our enduring fascination with diamonds begins with their berths inside
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the Earth's mantle. Because a diamond is formed in places
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humans can't go, miles and miles and miles beneath the surface,
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she says, it's the only true messenger of the deep Earth. Next,
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how far did Neolithic Britons carry Stonehenges most famous boulder
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in a find that provides insights into the remarkable abilities
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of these ancient humans. New research studying the case chemical
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footprint of the rock identified the source to be more
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than four hundred miles away by Richard Grant, lying on
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the ground near the center of Stonehenge, partially covered by
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two huge slabs that appear to have toppled over as
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a sixteen foot long block of gray green sandstone. In
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sixteen twenty, noted landscape architect Inigo Jones suggested that it
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might have been used as an altar and it has
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been known as the Altar Stone ever since. Weighing six
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and a half tons and transported to the monument around
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five thousand years ago. It was long thought to have
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come from South Wales, but recently a team of researchers,
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by analyzing the chemical fingerprint of the rock, found out
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that the Altar Stone almost certainly came from the Orcadian
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Basin in northeast Scotland. It was an astounding discovery because
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it meant that the megalith must have traveled at least
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four hundred and sixty five miles to Salisbury Plain. How
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did Neolithic Britons undertake such an epic feat of transportation.
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In a paper published this past December and Archaeology International,
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the researchers suggest possible methods and routes. The stone might
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have been dragged overland on a suitably robust wooden sledge
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with vegetation made shock absorbers, sliding on movable wooden rails.
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That hypothetical journey would have faced formidable obstacles, including mountains, rivers,
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and dense forests, and may have taken about eight months.
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The other possibility is that this massive cargo was transported
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by boat along the coast. Neolithic Britons had maritime trade
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routes for cattle and heavy stone grinding tools. Perhaps their
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vessels could even have floated a thirteen thousand pound megalith.
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Why did they move the altar stone such an immense distance.
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To answer the question, researchers focused on a unique aspect
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of the site. Of the nine hundred plus prehistoric stone
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circles in Britain, it is the only one that was
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built entirely from non local stones. The altar stone seems
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to have traveled the greatest distance, but the bluestones were
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quarried one hundred and forty miles away in Wales, and
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even the nearest stones were dragged fourteen miles. The researchers
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therefore hypothesized that Stonehenge was an effort to bring together
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far flung communities on the island by building with the
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most magnificent rocks from each The altar stone might have
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represented an alliance between the Neolithic Britons who built Stonehenge
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and people in northern Skytland. Based on these new insights,
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lead author Mike Parker Pearson, an archaeologist at University College
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London and a renowned expert on Stonehenge, has described the
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site as a monument of unification for the peoples of Britain,
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celebrating their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos. Next,
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this Stellar Smithsonian program will bring the wonders of the
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universe to the classroom. The new initiative will help students
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in rural areas learn more about astronomy. Can it inspire
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the next generation of scientists? By Lonnie G. Bunch, the
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third Smithsonian Secretary, The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory SAO has a
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motto the sky belongs to everyone. That's the inspiration behind
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the Smithsonian Taking Astronomy to Rule Schools Stars program. The initiative,
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which plans to launch by twenty twenty six, aims to
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cultivate a nationwide sense of wonder and exploration. Nowhere is
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the need to inspire and encourage discovery greater than in
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rural areas home to about twenty percent of all students
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in the country, where educational opportunities like field trips are
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hard to access and museums or planetariums are often too
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far away. SAO's rural Public Science Center at the Fred
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Lawrence Whipple Observatory, located on Mount Hopkins in remote southern Arizona,
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is ideally suited to run and distribute the STARS program.
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STARS will provide computerized telescopes, hands on training, and k
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through twelve astronomy lesson plans tailored to state and national standards.
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Showing students the wonder of the night sky early is
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a gateway to stem. The skills learned from STARS will
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show them they can succeed at math and science and engineering,
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said Lisa Kewley, director of SAO and the Center for
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Astrophysics Harvard and Smithsonian. Stars will send staff to elementary,
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middle and high schools to provide in person teacher training
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and in person observing sessions. Its projects will feature opportunities
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to examine the Sun, the planets, nebulae, and star clusters.
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Online videos and tutorials will expand the program's reach to
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students even when they do not have access to a telescope.
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Perhaps most exciting, with the help of our dedicated partners
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and generous supporters, Stars will help Rule learners chart paths
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in life they might think are beyond reach. Consider what
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may be a five year old born in a RULE
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area looks through the lens of a telescope for the
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first time, The excitement of learning becomes real. Their world
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opens up in ways they never dreamed. Maybe their love
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of the stars leads them to become an astronomer. Perhaps
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capturing images of the cosmos ignites a passion for photography,
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or it might inspire art, like Indigenous Canadian artist Margaret
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Nason's Milky Way Starry Night Number two bead work showcased
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in the National Museum of Natural Histories Lights Out exhibition
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about the problem of light pollution. The possibilities are endless,
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but one thing is certain. Stars will be able to
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show learners of all ages that the sky belongs to
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all people and their options are as limitless as the universe. Finally,
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ask Smithsonian, you've got questions, We've got experts From Elizabeth Cohen, Monterey, California.
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How do space programmes get their names? The answer is
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from Jennifer Lavasier, Museum Curator, National Air and Space Museum.
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NASA and others have long sought symbolic names that reflect
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the nature of a given program and serve as inspiration.
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In the late nineteen fifties, Abe Silverstein, NASA's director of
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space flight Development, suggested program names that drew on the
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myths of ancient Greece and Rome. Mercury, the ancient Roman
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messenger of the gods, was the name chosen for the
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first program of human space flight, Gemini. The mythological twins
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lent their name to the first mission with two astronauts
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in the vas vehicle, Apollo, though god of the Sun
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was selected to represent the lunar voyages because of his
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great power in the sky. The name of Artemis was
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chosen for the upcoming lunar missions since she was the
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twin sister of Apollo. New commercial ventures also use inspirational names,
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though the references are often newer. SpaceX calls its rockets
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Falcon as a reference to the Millennium Falcon from Star
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Wars and Blue Origins. Rockets are New Shepherd and New
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Glen in reference to the original Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard
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and John Glenn. This concludes readings from the Smithsonian Magazine
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for to day. Your reader has been Rebecca Shore. Thank
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you for listening, and have a great day.