Science

Star will explode in gamma ray burst, dooming all life

Filed under: Science

We're doomed! The Mayans were right about that whole "world ending on Dec. 21, 2012" thing!

Okay, probably not. Inevitably, though, this star will explode into a supernova. That's just fine, given that it's too far away for such an event to pose a threat. If it collapses in a particular type of supernova called a gamma ray burst, though ...

The Bad Astronomy blog does a nice job explaining the inevitable fate of WR 104, and what will happen if it emits gamma rays in this violent type of supernova. Short answer: a number of things have to go wrong in order for us to be in any danger, and we really ought not worry. But if gamma rays head toward Earth from this star's demise, as is possible, that's bad news.

He doesn't answer the one pivotal question, though. Wouldn't this just turn Earth into an entire planet of Incredible Hulks? It would do wonders for politeness if you knew your gamma-absorbing neighbor could turn into an unstoppable force at any slight.

[Oh, and that whole "Mayans believed the world would end in 2012" story? It's a myth, too.]

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 5, 2008 9:48 AM | Comments (5)

 

Scientists build a big machine in a deep, dark Minnesota hole

Filed under: Science

"It's dark as a dungeon, way down in the mine" goes the well-worn working class folk ballad. At the long-dormant Soudan mine in the Iron Range--the scene of dramatic strikes and bloody clashes in the early 20th century--physicists from Stanford, MIT and the UofM have been looking for a piece of history that is darker still: the "dark matter" that is said to make up 25% of the universe.

They built the world's most powerful tool to detect dark matter and installed it deep in the mine, where the strange stuff physicists worry about--like interference from cosmic radiation--is not an issue.

The results are in: no stuff-of-the-universe found. Turns out the physicists need a better tool and a deeper hole. So they're packing up their dilution refrigerators and their optical spectrophotometers and moving their Cryogenic Dark Matter Search to Canada. You just can't catch a break on The Range.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at March 3, 2008 5:09 PM | Comments (0)

 

Minnesota's Abby and Brittany Hensel, conjoined twins, make Newsweek

Filed under: Science

I still remember the day I walked in on my wife staring raptly at the TV screen. I followed her gaze and was stunned to see a girl who appeared to have two heads. In fact, it was conjoined twins Abby and Brittany Hensel, two of the most remarkable people in Minnesota.

I was reminded of this today as I flipped through the new issue of Newsweek and saw a picture of the Hensel twins in a swimming pool. They were mentioned at the tail end of an article called Reality's Believe It or Not. Here's the part of the article concerning the Hensel twins:

You hear a lot of mixed emotions from the stars of these shows—none of whom, by the way, is paid to appear. Abby and Brittany Hensel allowed the world to watch them take their driving test, even while the conjoined twins—they have two heads but one set of arms and legs—decided who would control the gas (Abby) or the blinker (Brittany). "Abby and Brittany Turn 16" is handled with great care, the girls are given plenty of time to talk about their anatomy in nonsensational ways. They explain that they made the film "so people wouldn't have to always stare and take pictures. Cause we don't like it when they take pictures … so they just know who we are and stuff." But as the film progresses, you see that any time the twins leave their Minnesota town, people blatantly photograph them, leaving the girls feeling "violated," according to their mother, Patty. She gets teary in the documentary when she explains how she doesn't want her girls to grow up like circus performers, and she hasn't let the girls speak to the media since the movie debuted two years ago. Watch the movie now—it's still in heavy rotation on the Discovery Health network—and you can see why they'd shun the spotlight. It's hard to shake the creepy, voyeuristic feeling you get when you watch the girls make pottery or brush each other's hair. The narrator explains that they are, "in nearly every sense, perfectly normal teenagers." But we know we're watching precisely because they're not.

YouTube embed of "Joined for Life: Abby and Brittany Hensel turn 16" after the jump ...

According to this Wikipedia entry, the Hensel twins first came to the world's attention in 1996. Two years later, the Carver County, Minnesota, twins were featured on the cover of Life under the caption "One Body, Two Souls."

The Hensel twins appeared in a followup documentary on the Learning Channel in December 2006, when they were 16. This was the documentary that my wife and I saw. The most amazing part of the story was when the twins passed their drivers license exam, which is described in the Wikipedia article:

They had to take the tests twice, once for each twin. Both control the steering wheel, Abby controls the pedals, transmission, radio, heat, defogger etc. , and Brittany controls the turn signal and lights.

These two young women have remarkable spirit and their story should serve as an inspiration to anyone tempted to think his or her life is too challenging.

Posted by Kevin Hoffman at February 28, 2008 8:01 AM | Comments (4)

 

Burnsville resident responsible for Celine Dion's "magic baby"

Filed under: Science

Christopher Roller has proof of paranormal activities: the magic tricks of David Copperfield. "David admits he's using godly powers--that's paranormal," Roller writes in a lawsuit filed last month in U.S. District Court. "Paranormal events are occurring on planet Earth by David Copperfield and probably by most illusionists (magicians)."

The Burnsville resident is seeking $1 million from the James Randi Educational Foundation. The Amazing Randi--best known for exposing spoonbender Uri Geller as a fraud on The Tonight Show in 1973--has long offered a $1 million prize for anyone who can provide evidence of any "paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event." No one has ever successfully claimed the money.

Roller has presented his proof of supernatural activities to Randi, but has been frustrated in his attempts to obtain the $1 million prize. "I've tried to contact James Randi with this enlightenment via email, but he keeps ignoring me," Roller notes in the lawsuit. "It figures, considering he's a magician, probably with godly powers himself. He is a con man, blinding us about the paranormal when he knows it exists."

Reached by phone, Roller says he's received no response to the lawsuit. "Evidently he's not putting up a fight," he avers. "I'm going to make a motion for default judgment."

Randi, however, says that a legal rejoinder is forthcoming. "I simply sent the summons off to our lawyer," he notes from his office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "We get this sort of thing 30 or 40 times a year at least. People are people. They're delusional."

Roller is no stranger to the court system. Last year he sued Copperfield himself, claiming that the illusionist had been "using my godly powers to perform his magic." That lawsuit, however, was dismissed. More recently Roller has drafted a complaint against Celine Dion, claiming that the pop diva "has a magic baby--a baby of mine via immaculate conception."

Roller complains that the justice system is prejudiced against him. "I've found little sympathy when it comes to judges," he says. "Lawyers and judges don't seem to like this godly stuff."

Posted by Paul Demko at January 5, 2007 10:16 AM | Comments (1)

 

In the Night Kitchen

Filed under: Science

This binge brought to you by Ambien

Are you cackling at today's stories about the middle-of-the-night adventures being reported by Ambien users? According to the Washington Post, Minnesota researchers have compiled numerous reports of people eating, talking, walking, and wreaking havoc while asleep. Other stories tell of people waking up surrounded by empty Doritos bags and half-eaten loaves of bread. The New York Times story on the study described a woman who gained 100 pounds before she was willing to consider her family's bizarre claims about her nighttime eating.

Morbidly funny though those stories are, they don't hold a candle to my favorite Ambien story of the week, penned for Salon by a woman whose shitheel of a boyfriend turned into Mr. Wonderful at the drop of a pill. The writer is so smitten with the Ambien version of her paramour that she holds out for some time, hoping that the real him turns out to be the alter-ego.

Sure, he was a critical jackass by the light of day, but by the warm glow of a small yellow pill and a single malt scotch, he was a gallant suitor, a crooner of sweet nothings, my accessible, chatty fiancé-to-be. He would call every weeknight around 11 p.m. and it was just like it was in the heady beginning of our romance. He would embarrass me with compliments. Tell me that he knew we would spend our lives together. Beg me to be patient with his daytime behavior.

And by then, his behavior begged forgiving. About six months into the relationship we spent a winter weekend at his uncle's house in Connecticut, where he virtually ignored me until the blessed hour when he could slip himself a Mickey. Then he would sidle into bed, cuddle and -- the ultimate aphrodisiac -- talk. We would talk and talk and talk -- about how much he hated the Degas ballerina series, about our similarly disorienting childhoods, about the infinite, exciting future in front of us. And then we would have the sweetest, nuzzliest sex. (Ambien muted his passion, transforming lovemaking into consummated cuddling. Ultimately, I preferred the rough sexual arrogance of his unmedicated state, but it was worth the sacrifice for these rare tender moments.) We were like pandas in heat.

Until the next day, when he would suggest I wear lower heels and we would have angry, argument-fueled sex.

(An aside: How many of you out there are having argument-fueled sex, and is it superior? I thought that was straight out of Hollywood's big book of clichés.)

While you've got that Salon daypass, check out the awesome essay there by Minneapolis novelist Ann Bauer, writing this time about getting a tattoo with a man she'd only recently met. Sounds too gimmicky for words, I know, but it's a terrific piece of writing about writing and other imponderables and it knocked me on my ass.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at March 14, 2006 3:00 PM | Comments (1)

 

Our mild January: Winners and losers in the wild kingdom

Filed under: Science

February 1 marked the tenth anniversary of the coldest temperature ever recorded in Minnesota. The minus 60 degree reading (measured in the Arrowhead town of Tower) produced a weird sort of provincial glee. If memory serves, one enterprising television reporter demonstrated the extremity of the cold--and presumably, the hardiness of Minnesotans--by spraying water in the air; the droplets froze solid before they hit the ground. Even though you probably watched the spectacle from the comfort of the couch, you couldn't help but feel a little bad ass for living here.

What a difference a decade makes. In the wake of the warmest January on record, there is not much to boast about. And aside from the occasional snowmobile or SUV dropping through thin lake ice (oh, and the prospect of calimitous global climate change), there really wasn't much to gripe about either.

But the freakish winter weather has been a cause of considerable concern among one group of people: the scientists who make their living studying the local flora and fauna. "Things are going to change and we don't know exactly how. That's worriesome," says Pam Perry, a veteran wildlife specialist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Perry notes that some animals are clearly benefiting from the mild winter. She observes that bald eagles--normally scare in central Minnesota this time of year--are hanging around in unusual numbers; that's because there is so much open water on the Mississippi.

Meanwhile, the already over-sized white tailed deer herd is enjoying the high temperatures and low-snow depths. That is bad news for struggling moose populations, who do not favor such conditions or the company of deer. If this weather regime persists, it stands to reason the deer will continue their northward push into moose country. Goodbye, Bullwinkle.

For ruffed grouse (a chicken-like game bird whose populations have been low for several years), this winter may also prove rough. That's because grouse rely on deep snow to hide. What's bad for the prey can be good for the predator. Animals such as owls and foxes who like to eat grouse (along with voles, mice and other snow-burrowing critters) should be feasting.

So what's the overall tenor of conversation among Perry's peers? "Right now, most of us are watching and really thinking about it a lot," she says. "As we go into the spring, I think this [mild winter] is going to be factored into a lot of field studies. As a scientist, I'm curious about this--that's why I became a scientist. But I am also worried."

For biologists, the spread of disease carrying insects is among the most alarming consequences of a more permanent shift in the weather pattern. By and large, warmer weather favor the insect kingdom. Next year, Perry notes, we can expect a bumper crop of wasps. Put another way, when summer comes, more of us will feel the sting of our mild winter.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at February 3, 2006 12:11 PM | Comments (2)

 

The Foxes in Pharma's Henhouses

Filed under: Health Care , Health Care , Health Care

One more way profits trump science in drug trials

The author of the highly literate and widely lauded 2003 book, "Better than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream," Carl Elliot is well positioned to comment on pharma's ceaseless search for new maladies--which can, of course, then be treated profitably. In today's Slate, Elliot, who is a professor at the University of Minnesota's Center for Bioethics, has co-authored a terrific piece on the mechanics and dangers of allowing researchers conducting clinical drug trials to hire their own for-profit overseers.

Drug companies spend $14 billion a year testing new drugs. The products need to be tested for safety on healthy people, and the healthy people most willing to ingest them are usually those with plenty of time and little money. Nearly 10 years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Eli Lilly and Company was recruiting homeless alcoholics to take part in drug trials in Indianapolis. In 2003, a previously healthy college student named Traci Johnson committed suicide in Lilly labs after being paid to take a new version of an antidepressant. Now Bloomberg is reporting that three years ago, Garry Polsgrove, a homeless Vietnam veteran, checked into the Fabre Research Clinic, a for-profit testing center in Houston. Polsgrove was in good health when he entered the study and started taking clozapine, an antipsychotic drug, in order to get some cash and a place to sleep. Twenty-two days later he was dead of myocarditis.

The piece adds one more layer to the growing body of evidence that the pharmaceutical regulatory system in the United States is in desperate need of a wholesale overhaul.

Posted by Beth Hawkins at December 14, 2005 1:22 PM | Comments (0)

 

A new Ice Age--and a Minnesota connection

Filed under: Science

It isn't the dramatic instant ice age scenario imagined in the Hollywood shlockbuster, The Day After Tomorrow, but a team of British researchers has concluded that global warming may result in a colder western Europe.

So how does it work? According to the theory, ice melt in the north Atlantic, triggered by global warming, will slow the northerly flow of waters from the gulf stream, the conveyor belt that keeps the European climate relatively temperate.

Actually, this is now more than strictly hypothetical. According to an article published in today's issue of Nature (and summarized here and here), scientists with Britain's National Oceanography Centre have documented a significant weakening of the occean currents. In past 12 years, they found, the current strength has diminished by about 30 percent.

The counterintuitive idea that global warming might cause localized cooling is nothing new. In 1997, R.G. Johnson, an adjunct professor of geology at the University of Minnesota, published a paper exploring the same issue from a somewhat different angle.

Johnson noted that the flow of fresh water from the Nile has been radically reduced as a result of human activity, especially irrigation and dam building. One result: the Mediterranean--and its ouflow into the Atlantic--has become increasingly saline. The introduction of all the salty water, Johnson theorized, could alter the Atlantic currents and, thereby, trigger the formation of new glacial ice sheets in Canada and cooling in Europe.

Johnson's proposed fix? Build a dam at Gibraltar to limit the flow of saline water into the Atlantic. You can read more here.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at December 1, 2005 4:18 PM | Comments (0)

 

Playing Twister in Minnesota

Filed under: Science

Here at City Pages, we get a lot of junk emails from companies hoping to hype a product. Once in a crescent blue moon, one comes along that strikes our fancy.

According to the SATT (Site Assessment of Tornado Threat) software 3.0 utilized by VorTek LLC out of Huntsville, Alabama, the most tornado-prone spot in Minnesota is less than a half-mile west of State Highway 111 and approximately three-fifths of a mile north of U.S. Highway 14 near Nicollet. From 1950 through 2004, a whopping 54 tornado track segments have touched down or passed within 20 miles of that point, including two F3's and three F4's.

Posted by Britt Robson at November 7, 2005 5:19 PM | Comments (0)

 

The sixth wave of extinction: the Minnesota edition

Filed under: Science

Among biologists, other scientists and anyone else who bothers to pay attention, it's no secret that plants and animals are vanishing from the earth at an appalling pace. The sixth wave of extinction, as the trend is referred to, is occurring far more rapidly than five extinction waves that preceded it. By some estimates, approximately 40 species of plants and animals disappear from the earth every day. There is scant mystery as to the cause: a nasty invasive species, the savvy ape, has crowded the globe, gobbled up most of its resources, and fouled its water and air.

In recent years, alarmed researchers have focused much effort on identifying the creatures most at peril; that's why official designations such as "endangered species" are part of common language. But while we all know that pandas and blue whales are screwed, a lot of less familiar species are also at risk.

Over the past two years, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, in conjunction with a host of other governmental agencies and conservation groups, has expanded the effort at identifying the animals we should worry about. Last week, the DNR released a document called Set of Species in Greatest Conservation Need. The DNR prefers not to refer to the document as a list. This is mainly because the use of the term "list" would cause anti-regulation types to start yapping about spotted owls, property rights and jack-booted government thugs. But it is a list--and a very grim one at that.

In all, there are some 292 types of animals included. This represents nearly a quarter of all the identified species that live in Minnesota. In response, the DNR has devised a ten year plan to protect or improve the particular habitats these creatures require. The problem, as always, is money. "Nobody knows how much this plan will cost," says DNR project coordinator Emmett Mullin. Mullin notes that the federal government, which mandated the study, will kick in $1 million a year. "It's pretty clear that's not going to be enough," he adds. "Not nearly enough."

Posted by Mike Mosedale at October 17, 2005 3:45 PM | Comments (0)

 

Global warming is a hoax! Those moose are just pretending to die

Filed under: Science

For anybody interested in Minnesota's native fauna, one of the most disturbing trends of recent times has been the dramatic collapse of the state's once-robust moose population. The numbers tell the story. In 1985, the moose herd in northwest Minnesota was estimated at approximately 4,000 animals. The most recent surveys place the count at fewer than 300.

For about a decade, researchers have struggled mightily to find an explanation for the spike in mortality rates. To do so, they placed radio collars on some 152 animals, collected road kills, and performed about 160 autopsies. The conclusion? In a nutshell, the moose are dying off because of climate change.

The summary report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Northwest Minnesota Moose Mystery Research, is a short and relatively easy read. But, for all you global warming deniars out there, here's the money quote:

[P]opulation decreases often occurred the year after summers with higher mean summer temperatures. Winter and summer temperatures in the past 41 years have increased by about 12 degrees F and 4 degrees F, respectively and the growing season has lengthened by about 39 days.

In other words, because moose are especially subject to specific temperature thresholds--it is very hard for them to remain cool in hot weather--they have become more vulnerable to the stresses brought on by disease, parasites, and malnutrition. The final passage of the report is striking for its hopeless tone:

The study concluded that climatic changes combined with increases in deer numbers and parastic transmission rates may have rendered Northwest Minnesota inhospitable to moose.

Posted by Mike Mosedale at October 10, 2005 3:07 PM | Comments (3)

 

WSJ on the environmental damage wrought by Katrina

Filed under: Science

There's a superb story by Ken Wells in last Friday's Wall Street Journal titled "Oil, Saltwater Mar Louisiana Coast, Threaten Future." Here are some salient excerpts:

[A]t least 193,000 barrels of oil and other petrochemicals were blown or driven by tides across the fragile marshy ecosystems and dense urban areas of the Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes, southeast of New Orleans.... The spills... approach the scale of the famous 1989 Exxon Valdez tanker spill, which dumped 240,000 barrels of crude oil....

Coastal Louisiana's wetland produces a third of the nation's commercial seafood--about a billion pounds of fish, crab and oysters annually--the most in the lower 48 states.... The mixture of sewage, rotting vegetation and oil... has been devastating to aquatic birds. More than 5 million migratory birds, including a number of rare and endangered species, make use each year of the Louisiana estuary's marshes, swamps, bays and bayous. Coastal Louisiana also harbors the largest nesting population of bald eagles in the lower 48....

Coastal Louisiana holds the earth's seventh largest wetland and is America's largest estuary, containing 30 percent of all U.S. coastal marshes... Yet the state's coastal ecosystem is less well known than places such as Chesapeake Bay, whose fishery production it dwarfs. It receives far less adulation than the Florida Everglades, though it shelters far more species of wildlife, fish, and birds.

Some scientists... are convinced that the conditions of the wetlands of the St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes contributed to the number of oil spills [at least 40, ten of which are major] during Katrina. One example: Pipelines originally buried under the marsh 20 years ago had become more vulnerable to Katrina's surges as the landscape changed... [T]he Plaquemines Parish president says he heard of cases where "the force of the storm surges forced a lot of pipelines to the surface, snapping them like sticks of dried spaghetti."

Posted by Britt Robson at September 26, 2005 1:27 PM | Comments (1)

 

Very bad news, a handy digest

Filed under: Science

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration: Rita crosses Florida keys, heads for Gulf Coast

The Independent (UK): Global warming "past the point of no return."

Reuters: WHO: World has slim chance to stop flu pandemic

Posted by Steve Perry at September 20, 2005 8:21 AM | Comments (0)

 

Who says the papers never print any good news?

Filed under: Science

This report on the nation's youth from today's Washington Post:

Study: Half Teens Had Oral Sex

Slightly more than half of American teenagers, ages 15 to 19, have engaged in oral sex, with females and males reporting similar levels of experience, according to the most comprehensive national survey of sexual behaviors ever released by the federal government.

The report today by the National Center for Health Statistics shows that the figure increases to about 70 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds.

The research suggests that abstinence programs have shifted kids' sexual practices to non-intercourse activities. In fact, a quarter of all "virgin" teens have engaged in fellatio or cunnilngus.

In a detail that only a Marxist or a guidance counselor at Edina High could explain, oral sex is most popular among white teens whose families are in the uppper income brackets.

Posted by Michael Tortorello at September 15, 2005 2:25 PM | Comments (2)

 

New Orleans: what's in the water?

Filed under: Science

Bodies, fuel, heavy metals, industrial chemicals, bacteria, gasoline from cars and up to 6,000 gas storage tanks in the city, garbage, sewage.

--list of contaminants from WWL-TV live webcast

Searchers were armed with proof of what many holdouts had long feared: The floodwaters are thick with sewage-related bacteria that are at least 10 times higher than acceptable safety limits. The muck contains E. coli, certain viruses and a type of cholera-like bacteria....

The danger of infection wasn't limited to the New Orleans area. The bacteria is feared to have migrated to crowded shelters outside the state, where many evacuees are staying. Four deaths - one in Texas, three in Mississippi - have been attributed to wound infections, said Tom Skinner, spokesman for the CDC.

--Associated Press

Toxicologists and public health experts warned yesterday that pumping billions of gallons of contaminated water from the streets of New Orleans back into the Gulf of Mexico - the only viable option if the city is ever to return to even a semblance of its former self -would have a crippling effect on marine and animal life, compromise the wetlands that form the first line of resistance to future hurricanes, and carry deleterious consequences for human health throughout the region....

The waters now swilling around the streets and neighbourhoods of New Orleans will probably end up either in the Mississippi River or in Lake Pontchartrain, just to the north of the city, where they are likely to react with the oxygen in the water and deprive all living creatures, starting with the fish, of the means to life.

"We're looking conceivably at zero-dissolved oxygen, which will lead to the death of fish and other organisms," Dr Zeliger said. "If the migratory birds who pass through the area find any fish to eat, they will be contaminated so the birds will start dying in large quantities ... Reptiles and snakes are going to be driven out of their nests and habitats, which has implications for human safety. We're going to see water moccasins [a highly venomous snake], which are nasty critters, and alligators threatening people."

--The Independent (London)

As engineers began pumping out the Big Easy this week, creating small but visible wakes of water behind street signs and tree trunks, the water they're moving carries a volatile mix of everything imaginable - from household paints, deodorants, and old car batteries to railroad tank cars, sewage treatment plants, and landfills. While state officials stop short of calling it a toxic soup, at least so far, federal environmental officials call it catastrophic....

Meanwhile, a warehouse explosion along the river in New Orleans and an oil spill several days after the hurricane passed through have added to the challenge. "Everywhere we look there's a spill," said Mike McDaniel, secretary of Louisiana's Department of Environmental Quality, in the state's first major assessment of hurricane Katrina's environmental impact. "There's almost a solid sheen over the area right now."

--Christian Science Monitor

Tests of water covering New Orleans showed excessive levels of E. coli bacteria and lead, federal officials said Wednesday, providing the first confirmation that the floodwaters caused by Hurricane Katrina are posing health risks for emergency response workers and residents who have remained in the city.

While neither substance has been blamed for any deaths, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said state and local officials had reported three deaths in Mississippi and one in Texas from exposure to Vibrio vulnificus, a choleralike bacteria found in saltwater that poses special risks for people with chronic liver problems.

--New York Times

Posted by Steve Perry at September 8, 2005 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

 

Dude! All that beer you drank at the fair was 3.2!

Filed under: Science

Of all the terrifying urban myths surrounding the Great Minnesota Get-Together, Blotter can confirm that at least one is true: All the beer served at the state fair is weak.

Turns out every brewery must serve up what's commonly known as 3.2--alcohol content of each frosty 12 ounces by weight--at the fair. The big breweries--such as, in the case of what's served at the fair, Heineken--produce hundreds of thousands of barrels of watered-down lager and ale every year, so the process isn't much of a stretch.

But for smaller brewhouses, like Summit in St. Paul, the process is a little more involved.

Mike Lundell, who's been a brewer at Summit for nine years, explains how he and others prepare the 300 or so barrels of Summit Pale Ale brewed each year for the fair. (Full disclosure: "Summit Mike," as he's quite naturally known in certain circles, is a friend of this writer.)

"It's pretty simple," he says, sounding like a man who is about to explain something very complicated. "Here it is. You've got your yeast, which essentially turns sugar into alcohol. If you give yeast less sugar at the start, you'll have less sugar at the end. It's purely mathematical."

Summit uses 7,000 pounds of malt for every 150 barrels of "regular" "strong" beer it produces. (A barrel holds 31 gallons, twice as much as the average keg.) For the 3.2 Summit, it's 5,000 pounds of malt per 150 barrels.

The malt, or barley, is mixed with water, producing what's known in the biz as "wert"--"essentially sugar water," Summit Mike reveals. Then there's a "matching process," where the right amount of yeast is introduced to the barley water. "Yeast needs sugar to produce alcohol," Lundell continues, "and the enzymes in the malt essentially break malt down into sugar."

This is all on day one, Summit Mike says. Then there's a fermenting period: "It takes us two weeks to make a beer."

Summit produces some 60,000 barrels a year, though this year it looks like it will be 65,000. 1,000 of those are 3.2--going to some bars in south Minneapolis and places like the St. Paul Curling Club--and roughly 30 percent of that goes to the fair.

"The big breweries, like Budweiser, make wert at a higher percentage of sugar and add water later," Lundell says. "We just reduce it on the front end."

The fair board dictates that vendors sell 3.2, Summit Mike surmises, "to keep down rowdiness, which I understand."

What's the difference? 3.2 is measured as alcohol by weight, and though the regular beer is often identified by "5.0 by volume," the equivalent measurement is about 4.0 percent alcohol by weight.

So, by Summit Mike's math, there's 25 percent more alcohol per beer. That means four regular brews is the same as five 3.2 offerings.

Not that it makes much difference. "You can get a good buzz on 3.2," the brewer sagely concludes. "I've done it, and you've done it too."

Posted by G.R. Anderson Jr. at September 2, 2005 9:27 AM | Comments (1)