There's a parable out there that goes something like this: If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will jump out. However, a frog in a pot that is gradually heated will be peacefully unaware of its surroundings and will be cooked alive. This metaphor often finds use in describing a reaction to change. Abrupt changes are met with an immediate response, while gradual changes, playing on our innate ability to forget and acclimatize, often go unnoticed. Not being one to accept things at face value, I decided to put this to the test; not metaphorically, but literally.
My local pet store was more than willing to oblige; PetSmart was running a special on Northern Leopard frogs at $14.99, buy one get one free! Perfect. Two frogs in the bag and I was on my way, but not before the clerk tried to sell me on a small terrarium for my two little buddies. She seemed overly concerned that these two find a good home. Not wanting to blow my cover, I reassured her that I had just the place for them.
I rushed home with Hippity and Hop, as I had named them, riding shotgun. As I drove, I began to formulate the method for my experiment. I would begin by testing the second part of the anecdote; Hippity was going in first. He was quite at home in four inches of room temperature water and a pasta-pot, but homeboy knew something was up as soon as I cranked on the burner. The gig was up and Hippity was having none of this. No longer sitting on the bottom, he swam around the pot faster and faster as the temperature rose until finally climbing up the side and leaping out. That wasn't supposed to happen!? Like any good experimenter and wanting to ensure that this was no fluke, I repeated the test, this time with Hop. No difference (though Hop proved to be a trooper--that little bugger lasted way longer than I thought he would before bailing)!
Hop had the extreme misfortune of being first up in the boiling pot part of the experiment. I set the burner on high and got a solid rolling boil going. After I was sure that the water was heated uniformly, it was time for Hop to perform his best Greg Louganis impersonation. Plop--in he went! I stood back, half expecting a scalding frog to come jumping back at me. Not so much. Hop gave a few kicks but the temperature proved too much for him. He nearly instantly went stiff as the life fizzled from him. By the time I got him off of the burner and out of the water, he was all puffed up like an amphibian pierogi or something. Weird!
Even weirder was the outcome; the results of my experiment were completely contrary to that of the parable. Who knew? So, the next time that jerk in your office uses this stupid analogy, you can tell him how I dispelled that myth. As for Hippity, I opted to return him to the store. What was I going to do with a frog anyway? They give me the creeps. Someone else can get some enjoyment out of a slightly used $7.50 Northern Leopard frog.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Mind Blow
How about a not so little thought experiment? One that will leave you not only questioning your being, but the existence of everything that there ever was.
Take the smallest things in the known universe; the molecules, atoms, protons, quarks, bosons, muons, and those that are still not known. Now grow them into peptides, proteins, RNA, and DNA capable of replicating themselves in cells which divide and multiply to form life-forms of all kinds, some with seemingly infinite complexity. This is you (though you probably don't think of yourself this way). You (we) are nothing but an assemblage of chemicals that have gained consciousness of themselves and their surroundings; having gained consciousness, we are able to think, ration, and reason. Formed from the Universe's common elements, we have come to dominate the tiny dust spec that we inhabit. Because of our self-consciousness and our pretend dominance of Earth, we deem ourselves kings of our dominion. The one and only intelligent being. Masters of the Universe. Humble yourself. Look skyward.
Those dots you see are other stars. Starting to feel small? If you live in the right area, you may see what appears to be a strip of clouds. That is an arm of the ten billion year old Milky Way, our Galaxy, and there are many like it in our Universe. It is even suggested that there are many universes! Fifteen billion years ago events, as we know them, were set into motion that lead to life as we know it. Though it likely exists, the laws of physics may prevent us from ever knowing if life exists elsewhere (it likely does--although it may not be as we know it).
Why did it happen? Where did the original matter for the Universe come from? What was going on before that? When does it end? Where does it end? What about the other universes? Can we find another suitable place to continue our menial and ultimately doomed existence?
It has taken us about five billion years to get here, and if our species lasts that long, we will have about five billion more to figure it out. It will take our descendants 30,000 years to travel to what is thought to be the next nearest habitable corner of the Universe. The odds that we would come to exist were staggering, but the odds of something like us not existing somewhere else are even more staggering, but can we make it there?
Suddenly our understanding and mastery of our surroundings seems horribly lacking. Pathetic.
Take the smallest things in the known universe; the molecules, atoms, protons, quarks, bosons, muons, and those that are still not known. Now grow them into peptides, proteins, RNA, and DNA capable of replicating themselves in cells which divide and multiply to form life-forms of all kinds, some with seemingly infinite complexity. This is you (though you probably don't think of yourself this way). You (we) are nothing but an assemblage of chemicals that have gained consciousness of themselves and their surroundings; having gained consciousness, we are able to think, ration, and reason. Formed from the Universe's common elements, we have come to dominate the tiny dust spec that we inhabit. Because of our self-consciousness and our pretend dominance of Earth, we deem ourselves kings of our dominion. The one and only intelligent being. Masters of the Universe. Humble yourself. Look skyward.
Those dots you see are other stars. Starting to feel small? If you live in the right area, you may see what appears to be a strip of clouds. That is an arm of the ten billion year old Milky Way, our Galaxy, and there are many like it in our Universe. It is even suggested that there are many universes! Fifteen billion years ago events, as we know them, were set into motion that lead to life as we know it. Though it likely exists, the laws of physics may prevent us from ever knowing if life exists elsewhere (it likely does--although it may not be as we know it).
Why did it happen? Where did the original matter for the Universe come from? What was going on before that? When does it end? Where does it end? What about the other universes? Can we find another suitable place to continue our menial and ultimately doomed existence?
It has taken us about five billion years to get here, and if our species lasts that long, we will have about five billion more to figure it out. It will take our descendants 30,000 years to travel to what is thought to be the next nearest habitable corner of the Universe. The odds that we would come to exist were staggering, but the odds of something like us not existing somewhere else are even more staggering, but can we make it there?
Suddenly our understanding and mastery of our surroundings seems horribly lacking. Pathetic.
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