Question: In the physical performance realm (biomechanics, etc.), what do we humans do better than any other of the million+ known species? Gloaters welcome here!
Question: In sheer aerobic endurance, the human (trained) is hard to beat, says Indiana University kinesiologist John S. Raglin. Animals may easily outpace us, but if the "race" is stretched out for hours or days, most researchers agree that humans would win the gold. Upright humans are also extremely good at dissipating heat while animals trap it with all their hair, explains biologist and anthropologist James Carrier. "We are the best sweaters on the planet." Hence we become endurance walkers, bikers, marathoners.
Our easy bipedal locomotion serves another end, freeing our hands to do daily tasks even as we're on the go. Our fine motor control and coordination permit us to thread a needle and perform a whole array of extraordinary artistic and building tasks, adds Purdue kinesiologist Michael G. Flynn. We humans are without equals in tracking and catching objects, says Georgia State University sports scientist L. Jerome Brandon. "How many animals could hit a baseball coming at 100 mph and send it 300 feet in the air? How many could strike a golf ball 270 yards down a fairway?"
Behind this jack-of-all-tasks paramountcy sits our singular mind, driving us toward envisioned goals as we anticipate sweet success.
Question:From a reader in South Africa: "What happens if you let a helium balloon float up into the sky? Will it (a) reach outer space; (b) burst as the air thins; or (c) descend back to Earth after reaching a certain altitude?"
Answer: A kid's birthday balloon might go up a mile or so before it starts to descend as the helium leaks out. Some research balloons have a strong outer shell that allows them to rise to a certain level and stay there, says University of Hawaii meteorologist Steven Businger. Others that are made of stretchy material like polyurethane will expand as they rise and eventually burst. Weather balloons — a k a radiosondes — and their payload of instruments descend by parachute after the balloons burst. Some larger ones stay in the stratosphere for long periods to collect data, with commercial applications like communications. "No balloon will escape the Earth's atmosphere because they can't reach escape velocity of approximately 25,000 mph!"
Question:What are the absolute best and absolute worst "buys" out there in the global marketplace these days?
Answer: By far the best buys — in terms of bang per buck — are personal contributions to organizations that aid the poor in the poorest countries, such as Project Hope, Save the Children, CARE, etc., says Stanford University economist Roger Noll.
These have been best buys for a long while because doing a great deal of good for the poorest of the poor is very, very inexpensive.
Sadly, the worst buys probably are in the area of cancer research; society spends so much on cancer research that diminishing returns have set in. Thirty-five years into the War on Cancer, the age-adjusted cancer death rate is down only slightly. Funding isn't the issue now but figuring out how to spend the money.
In the area of consumer goods, best is just about anything involving microprocessors and digital memory devices; prices are going down or staying stable as performance rises dramatically. As for investments, concludes Noll, whereas some opportunities will turn out a few years from now to rival an investment in IBM in 1950 or Xerox in 1970 or Microsoft in 1990, no one knows which these are. Bang per buck, yes, but only with a whole lot of luck.
Send STRANGE questions to brothers Bill and Rich at strangetrue@compuserve.com, coauthors of "Can a Guy Get Pregnant? Scientific Answers to Everyday (and Not-So- Everyday) Questions," from Pi Press.