TUCSON – LET’S GET A LITTLE NERDY!

December, 2018 – January, 2019

Local Tucson Nerdy Facts

1. The name “Tucson” comes from the name originally given to Sentinel Peak (now “A” Mountain) by the Native American Tohono O’odham Tribe, Ts-iuk-shan, which meant that the peak had a base darker than its top.
2. The population of metropolitan Tucson is just under 1,000,000, and the metro area is 9,187 square miles.
3. Outside Magazine Online called Tucson the Best City for Road Biking in 2010, citing “800 miles of roll-around bike paths” and “300 miles of well-maintained loops.”
4. Tucson has over 300 days of sunshine per year, and it claims to be the sunniest city in the United States.
5. Aside from the Amazon Rainforest, it is home to more bird species (1,000) than any other region on earth.
6. The main campus of the University of Arizona is located in downtown Tucson.
7. The region has more observatories than anywhere else in the world.
8. Nearby Oracle is home to Biosphere 2 – a skinner box experiment gone wrong.
9. The geography is a confusion of desert, pine and deciduous forests; the metro area is surrounded by mountains extending to 9000 feet and covered with snow in the wintertime.
10. The region averages 12 inches of rainfall per year most of which falls during horrific thunderstorms in late spring and into early summer.
11. It is home to Davis-Monhan Airforce Base, and it is 68 miles from the Mexican border.
12. The city itself bisects the Saguaro National Park; the region is home to the largest concentration of saguaro cactus in the world.
13. According to the American Lung Association, Tucson has the third cleanest air of all cities nationwide.
14. There has been a Jewish population in Tucson since the 1860s, and there are estimated to be 30,000 Jews living in the metro area today.  The Jewish Community Center is one of the finest we’ve ever seen.
15. The average high temperature in January is a moderate 64 degrees, and it soars to over 100 June-August and stays in the 90s during May, September and into early October.
16. There are 128 parks in Tucson and when the weather is reasonable it’s hard to not be outdoors!

Not enough nerdiness (or a social studies lesson as Elyssa puts it?)?  Read on!!

Biosphere 2 is an American earth system science research facility located in Oracle, Arizona whose mission is to serve as a center for research, outreach, teaching, and lifelong learning about Earth, its living systems, and its place in the universe.  It is a 3.14-acre structure (pi?) originally built to be an artificial, materially closed ecological system, or vivarium, and it remains the largest closed system ever created.  The key here is a “closed system;” i.e., 8 research scientists (“biospherians”), flora and fauna representing Earth’s 7 biomes, as well as all needed supplies were sealed into biosphere for 2 years.

Biosphere 2 was created to explore the complexities of interactions within life systems in a structure with different areas based on various biological biomes.  In addition to the several biomes and living quarters for people, there was an agricultural area and work space to study the interactions between humans, farming, technology and the rest of nature as a new kind of laboratory for the study of the global ecology.  As an experimental ecological facility it allowed the study and manipulation of a mini biospheric system without harming Earth’s biosphere. Its seven biome areas were a 20,000 sq ft rainforest, a 9,100 sq ft ocean with a coral reef, 4,800 sq ft mangrove wetlands, 14,000 sq ft savannah grassland, a 15,000 sq ft fog desert, and two anthropogenic biomes: a 27,000 sq ft agricultural system and a human habitat with living spaces, laboratories and workshops.

Below ground is an extensive part of the technical infrastructure.  Heated and cooled water circulated through independent piping systems, and passive solar input through the glass space frame panels covered most of the facility; electrical power was supplied into Biosphere 2 from an onsite natural gas energy center.  Fresh air was supplied through an ingenious warehouse-sized bladder whose movement forced circulation across air handlers and throughout the physical plant itself.

Biosphere 2 was only used twice for its original intended purposes as a closed-system experiment: once from 1991 to 1993, and the second time from March to September 1994. Both attempts, though heavily publicized, ran into problems including low amounts of food and oxygen, die-offs of many animals and plants included in the experiment, group dynamic tensions among the resident crew, outside politics and a power struggle over management and direction of the project. Nevertheless, the closure experiments set world records in closed ecological systems, agricultural production, health improvements with the high nutrient and low caloric diet the crew followed, and insights into the self-organization of complex biomic systems and atmospheric dynamics.  The second closure experiment achieved total food sufficiency and did not require an injection of oxygen.

The most fascinating Biosphere 2 display demonstrated the viability of closed ecological systems and the use of closed biospheres in space colonization; i.e., to support and maintain human life in outer space.

The University of Arizona assumed ownership in 2003.  By the way Biosphere 1 is earth.  Biosphere 2 reminded Brian of a grand Skinner Box experiment!

Let’s not forget the 1996 Pauly Shore comedy film Biodome.  The movie is described as “moronic best friends get themselves locked inside the Bio-Dome along with a group of environmental scientists for one year.  Hilarity results.”  We think the phrase moronic best friends describes the movie perfectly, but take a look and see if you agree.

Tombstone and Bisbee are 2 towns south/southeast of Tucson and on the way to the Mexican border.  Yeah – the Tombstone of the legend of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Bat Masterson, and the shootout at the OK Corral.  We heard that attending the shootout and/or visiting  Boot Hill was not worth the time or expense; it’s expensive, the shootout is far too brief, it’s pretty cheesy.  We took a pass.

We first heard about Brisbee when we were in Austin with our nephew Jon and his loving family: Lucy, Lily and Bennet. One of Jon’s friends highly recommended Bisbee, an old copper mining town.  The Queen Mine was open for 98 years before it ceased operation in 1975. The drive to Bisbee was rather dull (or have we just become jaded by all the beauty that is uniquely Tucson?).  However, once you drive through the short tunnel that is the gateway to the city, the landscape changes and is reminiscent of any number of small Colorado mountain towns like Green Mountain Falls, just west of Manitou Springs; or Idaho Springs, just west of Denver. But Bisbee most clearly resembles the gold mining town of Cripple Creek, west of Colorado Springs. Unlike Cripple Creek, Bisbee was a copper mining town.

Bisbee is worth the trip.  It is a free-spirited place with a thriving arts/music/hospitality scene, amid a remarkably well-preserved historical architectural setting.  It has transformed itself into a chic little walkable enclave of boutique shops and restaurants, and as a result, the City has enjoyed an economic boom.  We enjoyed strolling around the streets of this old town: clothing stores, art galleries, restaurants, a coffee shop and a delightful place where we bought gelato – fox berry with almond. Delicious!  Take a long walk around downtown and you can feel the positive energy.

Oh yeah – one more fun Bisbee fact. In 1912, Bisbee sanitation was crude and infectious diseases were common. The mining camp suffered frequent epidemics of typhoid and other diseases spread from outhouses, stables and cesspools by the common housefly.
That year, the Commercial Club of Bisbee decided on a civic improvement campaign to eradicate flies, sponsoring a contest and offering cash prizes to the person who killed the most flies. It was a project made to order for Bisbee’s kids. The Bisbee Daily Review described the campaign: “…the local fly swatting is at the germ bearing insect that carries dread typhoid and other nasty disease from filthy refuse into one’s food. [It] is the death messenger, the common house fly.” The contest rules were simple: kill, capture or poison flies, put them in a container and turn them in to a local drug store. Officials there counted and tallied the flies for each contestant.

But what put Bisbee on the map is the rich supply of copper ore found in the hills surrounding the town.  It didn’t hurt that gold, silver, lead, and zinc ores were also part of the area’s underground treasures, and some mines are still in operation today.

We had made reservations to tour the Queen Mine.  We arrived early and were glad we did because there is no street parking on either of the main streets of Bisbee. We drove around some interesting one-way and narrow streets until we found an opening in one of the lots. Once inside the old mining building, we got our tickets for our tour, and we entertained ourselves looking at the wide array of old mining equipment, a short film about mining in Bisbee, and the geologic specimens from the area and from other parts of the world – a remarkable and beautiful collection.

The Queen Mine closed in 1975, and the mine tour became a primary attraction in Bisbee.

We had to sign a waiver acknowledging the potential for danger going into an old mine before our guides prepared us for our tour by outfitting us with a hard hat, fluorescent vest, and a miner’s headlamp.

We rode into the mine accompanied by 2 of the miners, Dave and Bill who grew up and lived their whole life in Bisbee; they had worked the Queen Mine when it was in operation. We straddled a narrow bench on a former mine coal train, listened for Dave to ring the bell, and we began our jerky descent underground. We had to keep our knees and hands close as the opening into the mine was very narrow. Once we were fully inside, Dave stopped the train and asked if anyone was having second thoughts about continuing the tour, perhaps feeling a bit claustrophobic, and wanting to exit the tour. Surprisingly no one left the tour so we proceeded on.  Dave spoke lovingly about Bisbee and the history of mining in this small community. He was born, raised and has spent his whole life here, and  hewent to work in the mines as a young man. He was very knowledgeable about the history of the mine, the evolution of the equipment used to mine the ore, the use of dynamite, and the friendships between the miners. He shared some personal stories with us along the way and answered lots of questions. On two occasions, Barbara thought she smelled lavender in the mine. We had heard that there was a nearby “lavender pit” and thought perhaps that was what she was smelling. However the lavender pit is a former open pit copper mine near Bisbee and has nothing do with the fragrance of the lavender that she smelled.  Dave said many aromas are experienced in the mine because of the way the air shafts are set up and the way the air wafts throughout the caves. On occasion Dave said he can smell the odor of coffee from the local coffee company whenever they roast coffee beans. He speculated that Barbara was smelling something from one of the local soap or fragrance shops.

Following our tour we took a picnic lunch to the town park and enjoyed being back in the sunshine. We talked about what it must have been like to be underground 8-12 hours-a-day extracting a daily quota of up to 10 tons of rock for an entire working career.  Grueling!

The second largest academic department at the University of Arizona is astrophysics, which includes undergraduate and graduate majors in astronomy.  The Flandrau Planetarium, Spencer’s Observatory, Kitt Peak National Observatory (24 optical telescopes and a solar telescope), the Mount Lemmon Infrared SkyCenter Observatory, Steward Observatory, Catalina Observatory, Fort Whipple Observatory, and the Mount Graham National Observatory are in Tucson or a short drive from the city.  Visitors can enjoy exploring the heavens due to the many, many nights of clear skies, as well as the programs conducted by the Kitt Peak and Mt Lemmon observatories.  More formally, scientists and university students from around the world are able to conduct experiments addressing their questions of the Milky Way and other galaxies.  The region is truly remarkable for amateur and professional astrophotography.

Brian didn’t understand the inner workings of a telescope, but the lightbulb went off with our visit to Kitt Peak and the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists and engineers working together at the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona produce the giant, lightweight mirrors needed for the latest generation of optical and infrared telescopes.  The largest mirrors being made are 27.5 feet in diameter; 7 of these monsters will be used to construct the giant Magellan telescope.  The process of creating a mirror takes approximately 2 full years in order to achieve the level of perfection needed.  While older processes produces a solid-glass mirror, the mirror lab team uses a honeycomb structure on the inside; made out of Ohara E6-type borosilicate glass that is melted, molded and spun-cast into the shape of a paraboloid in a custom-designed rotating oven.

The mirror lab team has also developed a revolutionary new method to polish the honeycomb mirrors with a deeply curved, parabolic surface that results in much shorter focal lengths than conventional mirrors.  Such fast mirrors improve telescope performance a thousand-fold.

Kitt Peak National Observatory supports the most diverse collection of astronomical observatories on Earth for nighttime optical and infrared astronomy and daytime study of the sun.

The scientists operate three major nighttime telescopes and host the facilities of consortia (universities throughout America) which operate 22 optical telescopes and two radio telescopes.

The McMath–Pierce reflecting solar telescope is the largest solar telescope and the largest unobstructed aperture telescope in the world.

Fortunately we were able to attend an evening “star” gazing program.  The ride up to the top of Kitt Peak was spectacular in and of itself; a long steep climb with plenty of switchbacks, with the tall rockface of the mountain and shear drops from the shoulder of the roadway accompanying us during the ride.

Beginning just before sunset we had the chance to hear about the history of Kitt Peak and the planned activities for the evening.  We were told that our vehicle would be equipped with special light blocking screens, and that we would be led 1 mile down the mountain at the end of the program.  No photography was permitted after dark, and we were given “red light” flashlights to use if needed.  Why?  Turns out that any ambient white light will more than likely void any and all current research projects.

We began with a short walk to watch the sunset.  Here’s a trick question from our guide: In what direction does the sun set?  Most of us went with the obvious answer: west.  The smarter of us said the correct answer of southwest; the compass direction of sunset is dependent on the season.  Next questions: when does sunset actually occur? what are the blue and red bands in the sky just before sunset?  And then: why is the moon so bright?

After a brief introduction on how to use a night sky mapping tool to identify the stars and constellations that could be seen by the naked eye tonight, our guide tried to convince Brian he could complete proper gestalts…wrong!  He was lucky to be able to differentiate a plane flying by from a star.  We then had the chance to use high-powered binoculars and guess what?  The veil began to rise – we saw part of the Milky Way, lots and lots of individual stars and star clusters, got a close-up of the moon, and, guess what?  Mars is really red!

The last part of the program was without a doubt something special.  We got to look through a telescope at a star, a group of stars forming the pattern of a Christmas tree, a nebula, a star being formed, and the moon.

The program got better and better as the time wore on and it became totally fascinating.  Brian could have looked through the large telescope for hours!   We highly recommend the program, and we kept talking about what we saw for days.

Barbara and Brian