Fakta Unik Ilmu Pengetahuan Pasti

"Ilmu Pengetahuan Pasti?" Pastinya setelah mendengar kata-kata itu, kita pasti berpikiran ke arah yang namanya pelajaran fisika dan kimia, pokoknya yang berhubungan dengan rumus-rumus. Wuaaaa...
Tapi ternyata ada banyak hal unik dan menarik dari konsep-konsep fisika dan kimia yang bisa disampaikan. Nah, kali ini saya mencoba memaparkan sejumlah fakta unik tentang konsep-konsep ilmu pengetahuan pasti ini... Check it out!

1. Percaya tidak kalau jaring laba-laba diyakini lebih kuat daripada baja?

Itulah yang terjadi, malah militer Amerika Serikat pernah berencana membuat jaket anti peluru yang dibuat dari pintalan jaring laba-laba. Jadi, dalam adegan Spiderman 2 yang menggambarkan Spiderman berusaha menghentikan laju kereta api dengan cara mengaitkan jaring laba-labanya sesungguhnya bukan sesuatu yang mustahil.


2. Tahukah Anda bahwa massa jenis es lebih ringan 89% dari massa jenis air dingin?

Akibatnya 11% dari bongkahan es berada di atas permukaan air dan sisanya tenggelam di bawah permukaan air. Kenyataan tersebut membuat gunung es yang mengapung di laut sangat membahayakan, khususnya bagi kapal yang sedang berlayar. Hal ini telah terbukti pada kecelakaan bersejarah yang terjadi pada kapal penumpang Titanic pada tahun 1912. Kapal yang "tidak bisa tenggelam" itu tenggelam di laut Atlantik Utara setelah menabrak sebuah gunung es.



3. Menurut sejarahnya, kembang api bermula dari ditemukannya petasan pada abad ke-9 di Cina.


Pada waktu itu ketika seorang juru masak secara tidak sengaja mencapur tiga bahan bubuk hitam (black powder) yang ada di dapurnya, yaitu garam peter atau KNO3 (kalium nitrat), belerang (sulfur), dan arang dari kayu (charcoal). Ternyata, campuran ketiga bahan tersebut merupakan bubuk mesiu yang mudah terbakar. Jika bubuk mesiu itu dimasukkan ke dalam sepotong bambu yang diber sumbu dan kemudian dibakar, maka mesiu itu akan meledak dan mengeluarkan suara ledakan keras. Pada zaman Dinasti Song (960-1279 M), masyarakat Cina mendirikan pabrik petasan. Bahan baku tabung diganti dengan gulungan kertas yang kemudian dibungkus dengan kertas merah di bagian luarnya. Kemudian petasan ini menjadi dasar dari pembuatan kembang api, yang lebih menitikberatkan pada warna-warni dan bentuk pijar-pijar api di udara.
Tahukah Anda, pada masa Renaissance, di Italia dan Jerman ada sekolah yang khusus mengajarkan masalah pembuatan kembang api. Di sekolah Italia menekankan pada kerumitan kembang api, sedangkan di sekolah Jerman menekankan pada kemajuan ilmu pengetahuan. Dan akhirnya muncul istilah pyrotechnics yang menggambarkan seni membuat kembang api. Untuk membuat kembang api dibutuhkan seorang ahli yang mengerti reaksi fisika dan kimia. Setelah bertahun-tahun, para ahli kembang api akhirnya bisa membuat kembang api yang berwarna-warni, seperti merah yang berasal dari Strontium dan litium, warna kuning berasal dari natrium, warna hijau berasal dari barium dan warna biru dari tembaga. Campuran bahan kimia itu dibentuk ke dalam kubus kecil-kecil yang disebut star. Star inilah nantinya yang akan menentukan warna dan bentuk kembang api itu dinyalakan.

4. Tahukah Anda, kapal tanker terbesar di dunia?

Kapal tanker terbesar di dunia adalah Jahre Viking dengan lebar 69 meter dan panjang 458 meter, 77 meter lebih panjang dari Empire State Building New York. Mampu membawa minyak bumi sekitar 14 juta barel yang bisa menghidupi seluruh kendaraan bermesin di muka bumi.




5. Mengapa kaktus bisa bertahan hidup dengan kondisi lingkungan yang minim air?


Kata 'kaktus' berasal dari bahasa Yunani "kaktos" yang berarti tanaman berduri. Sebenarnya, kaktus memiliki daun. Namun, daun tersebut berubah menjadi bentuk duri, sehingga dapat mengurangi penguapan air lewat daun.
Perlu diketahui, semakin lebar pemukaan daun suatu tanaman, maka semakin banyak jumlah air yang menguap setiap saat. Sebagai contoh: kalau kita lagi kepedasan, trus mau minum. Eh, ternyata air minumnya masih sangat panas. Ambil saja mangkuk/piring, lalu tuangkan air minum yang panas tersebut. Tunggu selama beberapa menit, air pun langsung menurun suhunya, karena laju pendinginan jadi lebih cepat karena area pendinginan kebih luas. Udara luar lebih banyak bersentuhan dengan air dalam piring daripada air dalam gelas karena bidang tekan lebih besar. Nah, kaktus juga menggunakan prinsip seperti itu dalam menyesuaikan diri dengan lingkungan. Kemudian, batang kaktus juga dilapisi jaringan lilin yang dapat mengurangi penguapan. Jaringan ini mampu menyimpan air dan tahan terhadap kekeringan sekalipun. Meski begitu, kaktus tetap membutuhkan air untuk bertahan hidup. Makanya, di gurun-gurun, kaktus memiliki akar yang sangat panjang bermeter-meter ke dalam pusat bumi untuk mencari sumber air.

Sumber : Prasetya, Agus . 2009 . Ensiklopedi Fakta Unik dan Ilmu Pengetahuan . Yogyakarta . Tugu Publisher

Read more Natalia's Blog: 2/1/10

Multiple Personality Disorder

“She tries not to shatter kaleidoscope style, personality changes behind her red smile, every new problem brings a stranger inside, heplessly forcing one more new disguise” are the lyrics of the song ‘Christine’ by Siouxsie and the Banshees, a British punk-rock band. It describes Christine, a woman with multiple personality disorder that has 22 personalities. Two of her personalities are the Strawberry Girl and the Banana Split Lady that mentioned in the lyrics of the song. It also tells us that multiple personality disorder is exist in the world. According to Dr. Alan Sanderson, multiple personality is a psychotic disorder in which a person suffering from mental disturbance undergo different experiences and his or her personality becomes dissociated into more than one personality. Do you know what the causes of multiple personality are? And, how to overcome it? According to Nilesh Parekh, multiple personality disorder which is caused by three things can be overcome with medical or non medical treatments.

First, most of people with multiple personality had experienced a childhood abuse mentally or physically. Have you ever known the true story of Sybil? It is the most well-known case of multiple personality disorder. Shirley Ardell Mason known as Sybil Isabel Dorsett is a patient of multiple personality. She experienced sadistic sexual abuse at the hands of her mother. Her mother probed the Shirley's vagina with a knife and a buttonhook. She hung her upside down and, using an enema bag, filled her bladder with ice-cold water, then tied her to the family piano and forbade her to urinate while she, the mother, played Chopin. Consequently, she has 16 personalities. But, how can it be happen? How is the process? If the abuse is repeatedly extreme and the child does not have enough time to recover emotionally, his or her thoughts and feelings may begin to take on lives of their own. Then, each thoughts will have a common emotional feeling such as anger, sadness, or fear. Eventually, the child tries to separate and develop another personalities that are with its own memory and characteristics.

Second, people live in social environment that they do not like or it forces them to do something they do not like can alter their personality. Someone who lives in slump area wants to be a rich person but she or he does not like their environment. She or he will think and try to get much money. Then, he or she try to alter their personality to another personality that can lead his or her self to get money even it is a bad action. However, the social environment can force someone to do something which can alter his or her thoughts about this world. For example, Do you know Beyonce? Beyonce who is a famous singer in the world confess that she has multiple personality. Her alter ego’s name is Sasha Fierce. She told that she must take a job as singer because she has to get out of a bad situation to support her family.

Third, someone can have another personality or undergo multiple personality because of problems in brain. The unity of self can be disrupted when the corpus callosum that is a part of the brain and joins the two hemispheres of the cerebral cortex is severe. It would seem that the neural memory traces that hold the specifics of the trauma such as imagery, sensory input, sound, smell are isolated from one another. They are in essence compartmentalized. In turn, the communication between neurons necessary for this type of integration of information can not occur unless the neural traces are physically connected. The mere nature of trauma seems to lend itself to the physical isolation of neural networks within the brain. As such, it can be seen how the isolation of neural traces could in and of itself lead to the propensity of split brain or Multiple Personality Disorder phenomena.

In fact, multiple personality can be overcome with medical treatments. The example of medical treatment are psychotherapy and hypnosis. Psychotherapy helps in treating the disorder with the help of patient’s condition. A therapist uses various talking techniques to draw out traumatic memories. During these sessions, the therapist must develop a trusting relationship with the main personality and each of the alters. Then, the main and alters are encouraged to communicate with each other in order to come together. Hypnosis is used to understand the root cause of the disorder that the patient is suffering from. The therapist helps the patient to acknowledge and accept the mental or physical abuse he or she endured as a child and to learn new coping skills.

Besides that, some non medical treatments are also available to be the solution of multiple personality disorder. It is such as hydrotherapy, art therapy and yoga. Hydrotherapy is the use of water that is hot, cold, steam, or ice to relieve discomfort and promote physical well-being. Art therapy is often recommended as way that patients can integrate their past into their present life. Art therapy, sometimes called creative arts therapy or expressive arts therapy, encourages people to express and understand emotions through artistic expression and through the creative process. The last is yoga. Yoga is a method joining the individual self with the Divine, Universal Spirit, or Cosmic Consciousness. Physical and mental exercises are designed to help achieve this goal, also called self-transcendence or enlightenment. These treatments may be tried to people with multiple personality.

In brief, a childhood abuse, social environment and problems in brain are the causes of multiple personality disorder, but we can still overcome them by medical and non medical treatment. I have suggestion that if we are a parent having children, we should always love and take care of them. Do not doing such an abuse toward children because it can cause conflicting feelings or thoughts until multiple personality and the most important is because children are the most precious thing in the world.

Read more Natalia's Blog: 2/1/10