Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Chill Out Planet Earth

This week's lullaby is described by its creator as a "synthesized music-animation" and an "audiosynthesis" made using Flash software. That's pretty impressive. I like it for the mellow, rich sound and, yes, the pretty colored lights.

The Night Sky's Wanderers - Mercury

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Carnegie Institution

Let's turn our attention once again to the night sky by considering its wandering points of light, the planets. We begin this tour of the solar system with Mercury, the planet closest to the sun.

Named for the messenger to the Roman gods, Mercury moves quickly in its orbit around the sun, but spins very slowly on its axis. As a result, a Mercurian year is equal to 88 Earth days, while a Mercurian day is 58 Earth days. With days that last so long, Mercury has extreme temperatures, with high temperatures up to 752 degrees F (400 C) and lows down to -292 F (-180 C).

Because of its proximity to the sun, Mercury has always been difficult to observe. The Hubble space telescope is unable to take images of Mercury due to safety precautions that prevent it from pointing too close to the sun. Humans got their first close-up look of Mercury in 1974, when the spacecraft Mariner 10 sent back images surveying about half of the planet's surface. The image below is a composite of data from its fly-bys:

Credit: Mariner 10/US Geological Survey

When I first saw this image, I thought, wow, Mercury is one beat-up little planet, all pock-marked with craters. But scientists are looking to Mercury for help in understanding how the solar system formed and changed over time. The surface of Mercury is less changeable than Earth's, and so might be able to reveal information on early planetary formation.

To further explore Mercury's secrets, the space probe Messenger was launched in August 2004. Its first fly-by produced this image, of the "hidden" side of Mercury that Mariner 10 missed:

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Carnegie Institution

This image was sent back to Earth just last week, along with the image at the top of this post. It doesn't get more current than that.

Swift in its orbit, both fiery and frigid, Mercury keeps close company with the sun while potentially holding the key to understanding the young solar system. Messenger is scheduled to enter its orbit in 2011, while the European Space Agency and Japan plan to jointly launch of pair of probes to Mercury in 2013.

If you want to take a look at Mercury yourself, it's best viewed at dusk or dawn. Check out this link for the best viewing dates for Mercury (and all the planets) in 2008.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Hokusai

In my relentless search for lullabies for grown-ups, I sometimes come across videos that feature artwork set to music. Such is the lullaby tonight, which showcases paintings of the 18th-century Japanese artist Hokusai. The music is a traditional Japanese lullaby. I hope the beauty of these images and music finds it way into your dreams!

Diversions for Insomniacs #3b

In case the Tiredness Game wasn't enough diversion for you, try this game, flOw. The music and sound design of this game are a little eerie, putting the player into another realm altogether - a perfect late-night diversion.

Diversions for Insomniacs #3a

© Photographer:U96 | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Feeling tired? How tired? Now there's a way to quantify your fatigue! Take the Tiredness Test to find out just how sleepy you are. It's part of an exhibition on sleeping and dreaming currently at the Wellcome Collection in London. The nice thing about this test is that it actually seemed to make me more alert. Not caffeine-alert, but it helped. Have fun!

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - Kings of Convenience

This week's lullaby is a beautiful song, Cayman Islands, from the Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience. Their quiet, soothing music has earned them a worldwide following. I hope you enjoy it!

The Night Shift

© Photographer:Piero Pausin | Agency: Dreamstime.com

About 10 years ago I took a technical job at a company that was establishing a new analytical lab. Until it was ready, I had to work in the old lab that was shared by employees from another division. Because there was only so much equipment to go around, I ended up working second shift for about six months.
My hours were from 4:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. I had never worked the night shift before. In some ways, it was all right - not very many other people around, so it was easy to get work done. I kind of liked being on a different schedule than everyone else.

But as the months wore on, the sleep deprivation began to take its toll. I was always tired, walking around in a fog. Sometimes at work I would close my eyes as I walked down the hall. It felt good (and fortunately, the halls were wide), but was no substitute for real sleep. The sterile atmosphere of the lab was magnified by the sense that the building was all but deserted, leaving me alone with my samples and my bleary thoughts.

If I had to work "late," it meant staying until the early hours of the next day. Once, I worked on a priority job that I wanted to complete overnight, but to finish the report, I wound up staying until 7:30 a.m., just in time to greet the day staff. After a 15-hour shift, my body reacted by putting me in a deep freeze.


When I got home, I ate breakfast and was shivering the whole time. I couldn't get warm. I thought about taking a hot bath, but I was so tired, I crawled into bed. With the sun shining into the bedroom, I was able to warm up and, despite the light, fall asleep.
Only later did I learn that I was experiencing my body's circadian rhythm, an internal body rhythm guided by core body temperature. As the graph shows, core temperature drops off most steeply between midnight and 6 a.m. Because of this, shift workers and med students often experience feeling cold. One med student reported putting on extra layers of scrubs so she wouldn't shiver.

Shift workers also report another strange occurrence: shift paralysis, where a worker is fully alert, but cannot move one or more limbs. This inability to move can last up to five minutes. It seems to be a case of the brain briefly shutting down because it can no longer function due to fatigue. After a short break, it can once again coordinate nerves and muscles to get the body moving.

Humans are diurnal by nature. It takes the night shift to reveal some of the mysteries of our internal clocks and rhythms. While some people can work the night shift for years with few problems, I admit I was glad to be working days again in a brand new lab that actually had some people around.

Lullaby for Grown-Ups - isan

I've been looking for a video for a while in the ambient/electronica genre, and recently found this one, of the song Gunnera by isan. We're pushing the definition of the term lullaby here, but I find it beautiful and almost hypnotic, yet at the same time fresh and vibrant. It's the perfect thing to clear out any residual cobwebs from 2007 as we move forward into the new year.

Acquainted with the Night

Here is the quintessential account of night walking from American literature - Frost's Acquainted with the Night. This gorgeous video combines a wonderful reading with the perfect music and images. Makes me feel like a poser, with my early morning walks. I hope to redeem myself when we get around to dreams and their interpretations. But that's a post for another night...

Night Walking

© Photographer: Edd Boyer

The idea of walking at night for hours, whether in the city or country, is often romanticized. Charles Dickens, who suffered from chronic insomnia, took to walking the streets of London, where he learned about the plight of the homeless and took it up as a cause in his writings.

As a general rule, I love sleep too much to go wandering around my neighborhood at night. But a few years ago, I decided to go walking early in the morning to get some exercise. It was fall, so it was still dark when I went out. But it wasn't really that dark, because of the street lights. And I wasn't completely alone, because some people were out walking their dogs. I guess that's night walking in the suburbs - well-lit and sociable (or as sociable as anyone can be at 5:45 am).

If you've decided to run or walk to get more exercise in the new year and plan to do so before or after work, please be safe about it. Here are some safety tips on how to see and be seen in the dark. Maybe your new exercise program will last longer than mine did (I think it was about 3 weeks...)