cafecuriosity

Sometimes Knowledge Takes Awhile

Today, we often think of knowledge as emerging in real time - we rarely associate patience with knowledge creation. Yet in many fields, discoveries can take years to develop. Paleontology is one of my favourite fields of discovery. Recently, paleontologists unveiled six new bat species, representing 33 specimens dating back 35 million year - the results of 25 years of painstaking fieldwork. Few bat fossils have been found in Africa so these specimens will change the accepted interpretations of bat evolution. Conventional wisdom (US centric) had bats evolving in the Northern hemisphere. This latest research indicates modern bats only diversified after first migrating out of Africa. New World bats apparently have ancient roots deep in the heart of the Old World!

For fifty years paleontologists have been 'robustly' debating, whether Pachycephalosaurs a sheep-sized dinosaur dating back 80 to 65 million years ago and found extensively in Canada, the U.S. and China could have butted heads during mating. Pachycephalosaurs are famous for their thick dome shaped heads. The rutting theory emerged are one explaination of Pachycephalosaur's peculiar heads. Now a researcher from University of Alberta has applied finite element analysis (see last week's Komodo dragon post) to simulate collisions amongst three Pachycephalosaur species. A combination of the Pachycephalosaur's thick domes (up to 20 cms) combined with sliding joints in their vertebrae enables nearly-adult Pachycephalosaurs to battle each other with minimal damage - at least in theory.

In the Andes, paleontologists endured thin air, limited water and freezing nights in Chucal, Chile to excavate a new species of armoured mammal. Three feet long and weighing 200 lbs, Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis (try saying that late at night!) is small for glyptodont - an extinct relative of armadillos which could grow to the size of a small car and went extinct around the time humans arrived in the New World. Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis is interesting because its many primitive features. At over 14,000 feet above sea level, Chucal itself is an unusual site. Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis brings the number of new species discovered there up to 18, including armadillos, opossums, rodents, frogs and hoofed animals. 

http://www.vertpaleo.org/news/permalinks/2008/03/08/PRESS-RELEASE---Giant-Fossil-Bats-Out-of-Africa/   http://www.vertpaleo.org/news/permalinks/2008/01/22/PRESS-RELEASE---New-fossil-armored-mammal-from-the-high-peaks-of-Chile/   Image: 1. Reconstruction of Witwati schlosseri, Bonnie Miljour, 2. Pachycephalosaur fossil, www.paleodirect.com 3. Computer simulation of Pachycephalosaur, Chris Kriegner & Tetsuto Miyashita, 4. Reconstruction of Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis , Velizar Simeonovski

When Monsters Lie Beneath

One of the constants emerging from the various Government responses to the War on Terror is their increased demands for access to hitherto private information and their assurances that they can be trusted. Here's a blast from the past that gives cause to pause. During the years 1946 through to 1972, Government and their militaries around the world dumped 300,000 tonnes of active chemical weapons into the oceans. Unfortunately, over the years, various militaries appear to have lost touch with much of these weapons dumps. Shambolic record keeping, dodge locations, inaccurate navigation dog the development of precise maps showing the locations of the major dumping sites. In theory, if the weapons leak, the chemical will dissolve in the seawater until they become so diluted they pose no threat - in theory! Result - a series of Easter egg hunts for the submerged menaces. Latest in to join the undersea hunt are researchers from the University of Hawaii who are looking for munitions dumped "about five miles south of Pear Harbour," a search involving 60 square miles of ocean. Anyone for some tropical sea air and a spot of adventure diving?

http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg19726482.800-dumped-chemical-weapons-missing-at-sea.html   Image: 1. Inspectling World War II vintage chemical weapons, 2. Post World War II chemical weapon stockpile, www.aliciapatterson.org

Operational Rhythm and Knowledge Flows

Operational rhythms are fascinating phenomenon. In high growth economies like Dubai's, the development cycle is ferocious yet the customer service culture is riddled with inconsistency and a lack of commitment. Knowledge in these environments is as much about flow velocity as anything else. Why flow velocity? Rapid access to knowledge and information is fundamental to capturing the growth available in the market. Speed is also essential to identifying potential service problems and for assembling the knowledge and experience needed to frame rectification efforts ('cause you know they'll be needed!). Knowledge plays a pivotal role in providing insights into the business cycle. In mature economies, the underlying business cycle usually turns over every 15 years. Dubai's business cycle - who knows? In high growth environments, the business cycle is continually disrupted by the shock of the next big initiative.

Cycles are reflected in the natural world around us - even less obvious long term cycles. Monday kicked off the aurora season in the northern hemisphere. January saw the first magnetic eruption on the Sun marking the beginning of a new sun spot cycle. Sun spot cycles last 11 years. Each new cycle is marked by massive Sun spot activity, ejecting huge quantities of solar radiation which play havoc with telecommunications satellites and power grids. The latest cycle is expected to peak around 2011 or 2012 - ironically around the time economic activity in Dubai is expected to subside.   http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080104_sunspot.html  Image: First official sunspot of the new Solar Cycle 24, top ;left hand corner of the Sun, NOAA, NSO/AURA/NSF

Footprints From the Past

I've just spent a lovely few months working with a client in Athen developing the specification for their knowledge management system. This is an organization which has experienced tremendous growth, adding something like 90,000 workers to its roster across the Middle East. Yet, for all its dynamic approach, I've been fascinated to see that some elements remain firmly anchored in its roots. The culture and values of the organization remain close to their roots in a family business. No bad thing. Other aspects of the organization's culture conflict continuously with attempts by its leadership to adapt. As usual, this conflict occurs around the edges of the organization, where those faint echoes of the past resonate loudest.

I was reminded just how persistent the past can be when I read about the discovery of a footprint of a Roman legionnaire's sandal. Preserved in the mortar of the city wall of Hippos a Hellenistic-Roman city (leveled in an earthquake around 749), the imprint details every hobnail of the caliga - the standard sandal of the time. This is the same area where Christ worked his miracles and Rome asserted its military might. The simple footprint, unlike the empire endures. The dig, now in its 8th year also turned up a colonnaded street and marble paneled bathhouse. Typically, a remnant of a Greek statue turned up on the last day of the dig - the other bits will have to wait until the next season.   http://media.haifa.ac.il/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2595&Itemid=60

PS. Roman history buffs had more cause for celebration when a Roman fort including furnaces was discovered in South East Cornwall near an ancient silver mine. So much for bringing civilization to the barbarians and glory to Rome - it was all about the money after all! 

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/newsromanfort.shtml

Image: 1. Roman sandal print, University of Haifa, 2. Remains of Roman fort in South East Cornwall, Sarah Hoyle, University of Exeter

Reflections on Personal Knowledge Management

There's nothing quite like relocating overseas to bring the issue of personal knowledge management into sharp perspective. It's easy to allow the intuitive knowledge base we accumulate as go along in life to roll on unexamined and unappreciated. Easy that is, until we find ourselves confronted with the sharp shock of the new. After months of shuttling between Dubai and Athens on assignment I'm finally resident full time in Dubai. New apartment, new view, new car (love that car already), new furniture, new bank, new job, new American spelling (sigh), new shops, restaurants, new friends, new life!

No home internet connection, no blogging, no familiar streets, no well-worn favourite chair or even old sneakers. On the surface, Dubai is all about the new and it even applies to me! It's interesting undergoing this process of renewal. The experience sharpens our focus on what we do know (work, work and work) and for me personally, brought into stark relief the need to build a fresh supply of knowledge relevant to my new context and environment. As knowledge workers, we find ourselves suddenly added to our own work in progress list. It's just a little bit weird!

A Fish Called Rabbit

You would think there is no upside to one of the worst Australian droughts on record. However, it you happen to be one of our native fish species, there is one consolation. Known as 'water rabbits', the European carp has been devastating native fish populations. The drought has severely cut carp numbers. Researchers found the carp breed in a just few shallow swampy locations. They then rely on annual floods to disperse their larvae across the wetland network. Paradoxically, not only has the drought slowed the spread of carp larvae, but it has made it easier to locate those breeding grounds. The first community 'Outback Carp Muster' was held in November in Brewarrina and Bourke. It has to be one of the few occasions when the fishing was better during a drought!  http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/news/recent-news/fishing-and-aquaculture/drought-helps-control-carp   Image: European carp caught in Australian waterway, www.flyfishingandmore.com

Burgling Nature's Vault

My ears pricked up when I heard Dave Snowden declare at Monday's KM Australia 2007 that knowledge management's role was to improve decision making and help create an environment for innovation. Sometimes the simple understanding that a material has been created once gives us a direction to focus our quest for innovation. Increasingly, our knowledge about the natural world is shaping our definition of innovation. Take the biologists from the University of California - Riverside who have sequenced the genes for two proteins in the "dragline silk" of the black widow spider. Now "dragline silk" is the bee's knees of spidy silk, combining extraordinary strength and amazing toughness. The military, industry and medical fraternity all lust after its properties. Question is, does synthesising nature represent true innovation or just simple mimickery? Is the knowledge of how a black widow spider exudes a gooey protein stream which interacts as they are forced through its spinneret before aligning precisely to form stands of high tensile silk more innovative than knowing how to how transform spider silk into body armour, clothing, microsutures and rope? Over at the University of Sheffield, chemists have created "plastic" blood. The artificial blood is made from plastic molecules. Like our haemoglobin it has an iron atom at its core that binds with oxygen to transport it around the body. Unlike "real" blood, being plastic it is light and easy to store. It can be concentrated into a paste then dissolved in water - making it easier to transport. It also doesn't need refrigeration and has a longer life at room temperature - donated blood generally has only a 35 day shelf life. It's an elegant solution built on our accumulated knowledge about how blood chemistry functions. Maybe Dave is right about knowledge being a precursor to innovation.  http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=1612   http://www.shef.ac.uk/mediacentre/2007/808.html   Image: Female black widow spider (Latrodectus hesperus) walking on silk web, Female black widow spider with her dragline silk, Mark Chappell, University of California - Riverside, Artificial blood, University of Sheffield

Watching the Volcano

At last a scientific prediction that proved correct! A lahar is a type of mudflow created when sediment and water flows down a volcano usually along a river valley. The idea of a million cubic meters of water, mud and boulders whipping down a valley at 40 kph tends to focus the attention. Vulcanologists on New Zealand's Mount Ruapehu predicted a lahar breakout of its Crater Lake in 2009 and blanketed the area in instrumentation. The lahar duly took place in March (ok so they were out by a year). While the Mount Ruapehu lahar was content with scaring the sheep and startling deer, lahars pose different problems in densely populated areas in the U.S. and Indonesia. One outcome of the Mount Ruapehu lahar was the development of a computer model to simulate similar events and assist in identifying lahar triggers. Of course, it depends on how reliable you view observations of past events as being in predicting future occurrences! We do like to extrapolate from experience, even if that experience in no way equips us to cope with a future event!  http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=109702&org=NSF&from=news   Image: Top image shows the lahar channel after the collapse of New Zealand's Crater Lake's walls, Below, lahar channel prior to the collapse, University of Hawaii

Orange: Vegetable World's New Black

Any gardener will tell you that red, orange or purple in a vegetable usually indicates the presence of beta-carotene a rich source of vitamin A. Polynesians have long enjoyed nutritious red and purple bananas, while geneticists created golden rice by inserting genes that increase beta-carotene synthesis. Orange cauliflowers were first found growing naturally amongst white cauliflowers in a Canadian farmer's field about 30 years ago. Cornell plant geneticists found a genetic mutation allows the orange cauliflower to store the beta-carotene compound. The discovery presents consumers with a dilemma. Boosting the amount of beta-carotene in staple crops will help alleviate vitamin A deficiency - a major cause of childhood blindness and compromised immune systems. However it does so through human intervention in developing transgenic food crops. Knowledge rarely comes without strings attached! Interestingly the original and naturally occurring orange cauliflower is now available in Canadian supermarkets. Perhaps it's no coincidence that heritage varieties of vegetables are booming amongst home gardeners who appreciate their rich flavours and nutritional value.   http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/June07/orangeCauliflower.kr.html   Image: 1. Orange Cauliflower, Cornell University, 2. Golden rice, www.alderflats.com 3. Purple banana, www.apa.org 4.The Diggers Club best vegetable garden ideas

Tale of Three Cities

We hear a lot today about knowledge "capture" and knowledge "transfer". Many organisations are throwing resources at this concept. History suggests the odds are against them succeeding. The rise and fall of civilisations show how ephemeral knowledge and experience can be. Flourishing towns, vibrant trading exchanges, stable farming communities all seemingly vanish from human memory time and time again. Take the Shoa kingdom. The Shoa dominated the Ethiopian highlands from the 10th Century to the 16th Century. Six hundred years wasn't a bad run - long enough to enter written and oral histories and popular consciousness. Descriptions of Shoa trade routes connecting Christian Ethiopia to Muslim ports along the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden appear in numerous Muslim texts during that period. Then, the Shoa disappeared. They literally fell off the map ... until archaeologists discovered the ruins of the medieval towns of Asbari, Masol and Nora. So what happened? How could a bustling civilisation pass from our consciousness? As usual, it came down to issues of search, scale, media selection and the ability to read the chosen media over time and resources. The western world lacked access to many of the great Muslim libraries of the period. Their search focused on translations of ancient Greek texts, philosophy and on scientific enquiry. The vast scale of the Muslim libraries defeated them efforts to translate the broad brush of Muslim thought, particularly when economics shifts reduced the resources available to archivists. Access too proved problematic - particularly to the lost libraries buried outside Timbuktu! So the next time someone starts banging on about capturing knowledge and storing it on an Internet, reflect on the Shoa and ask some very ard questions about access, search, scale and resourcing.  http://www2.cnrs.fr/en/831.htm   Image: 1. Masal cemetary, 2. Abari mosque, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique