Consider the process of baking
cupcakes…you mix together sugar, butter, eggs, and flour. You stir thoroughly
to mix the batter well. The batter then goes into separate cupcake tins and put
in the oven. In many ways, the process of forming our Solar System is similar
to baking cupcakes. However, we do not know the recipe; we can only infer it by
studying the cupcakes – well, actually the crumbs.
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| Imagine if planets were cupcakes...what was the batter like that formed them? http://hubpages.com/food/Fun-Cupcake-Recipe-Make-Solar-System-Cupcakes |
For planetary geologists, the crumbs
are meteorites – fragments of planetary objects (cupcakes) that were made from
planetary “batter.” However, not all meteorites are the same. For example, some
have more flour, while others have more egg. This raises many questions. Was
the batter well mixed? Was the batter divided and further modified? Were some cupcakes made and then additional ingredients, like chocolate, were added to the remaining batter? These differences in meteorites are referred to as nucleosynthetic anomalies.
Planetary
geologists study nucleosynthetic anomalies by measuring the isotopes of different elements
in a wide range of meteorites. Isotopes can provide information about the type
of ingredients used, or if multiple brands of the same ingredient were used.
They can also narrow down the order in which the ingredients were added. Through
additional isotopic studies of meteorites, the recipe for our Solar System will hopefully eventually be constrained.
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| The
steps to form our Solar System. Step A represents the “batter” and steps B and
C represent mixing. In step D, the “cupcakes” have formed. What is in the
“batter” in step A? And how well was it mixed? www.buzzle.com |
You talk about how we use isotopic systems in meteorites to look for nucleosynthetic anomalies, but you don't really explain what that means. From the article it sounds like nucleosynthetic anomalies are just heterogeneities in the Solar System. Can you extend your metaphor to clarify the distinction (e.g. nucleosynthetic anomalies are like getting a couple of dark chocolate chips in your milk chocolate chip bag). Also you should bring cookies next time to help illustrate your point.
ReplyDeleteAye laddie, cookies would be swell.
DeleteCreative metaphor, however, I'd like to bring to attention something you wrote:
ReplyDelete"For example, some have more flour, while others have more egg. This raises many questions. Was the batter well mixed?....etc."
Again this is creative but you need to connect this to making a solar system. What is the equivalent to the batter being mixed? What meteorites have "more flour"? I think by leaving this unresolved it lessens the impact of your metaphor.
What are nucleosynthetic anomalies? Would your grandmother understand? She would understand about cupcakes no doubt...this certainly makes the story accessible! I love the idea of crumbs as meteorites. The process of heating of the nascent sun during the T-Tauri phase probably a thermal differentiation of the planets. This was a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteFirst question that comes to mind is, how good is the solar system at making cupcakes?
ReplyDeleteSecond, good analogy. It makes it very relatable to the general audience.
It is a nice metaphor to compare solar system to cupcakes. Maybe some more details about how you use geochemical methods to detect the composition heterogeneity would be helpful.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the analog to baking cupcakes. Try to tie it back to planets, i.e. Some parts of the batter have more clumps of flour which is why the rocky planets have more Si, etc...
ReplyDeleteI think your analogy was a bit clearer in the blog post than in the talk; I got a little confused when you switched back and forth between cupcakes and meteorites. Perhaps give a complete description of making cupcakes and the ways heterogeneity can pop up before moving onto equivalent processes in meteorites. Just my 2 cents, overall very clear and accessible.
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth are isotopes?
ReplyDeleteCreative analogy (the first image is quite memorable) for explaining your concepts. You do seem to stray a bit too far into more specific aspects of the field at times, but that depends on who you are writing for.
ReplyDeleteI think the analogy is good. Jack touched on this a little bit, but in both the talk and the article, it would be helpful to be explicit about what real world processes are which ingredients/parts of the baking process. For example, what "mixes the batter" in nature. I also think, for the purposes of this assignment, delving into nucleosynthetic anomalies might be a bit much. It might be better to just make it an explanation of early solar system history with the caveat that things are different and we aren't sure why.
ReplyDeleteReally like your metaphor. Just by looking at the pictures you used in the blog makes me interested to read. Maybe making more links with your metaphor to the actual planet will make your presentation even better.
ReplyDelete