by Ian Punnett Traveling anywhere is always problematic and there are a variety of hassles associated with heading through airports. This story really makes you wonder whether it's all worth it: At about 8:00pm Sunday night, as he was waiting to depart at JFK, a Delta Airlines pilot spotted something strange floating through the early afternoon sky, seemingly coming down to land on runway 22R. He radioed the control tower, reporting what "looks like a guy on a paraglider" approaching the airport. The controller then warned nearby pilots to look out for a "kite." Shortly after, the Delta pilot radioed back in to say that the paraglider had touched down, dropped something off, and quickly took off into the night sky. "Looks like he hit the ground, dropped something off. Now he's airborne again," the pilot reported, adding, "I guess it ah, looks like some guy on a parachute." The unidentified object/person then took off in the direction of oncoming traffic. OK, tell me again why it was so important the security of our airlines for travelers to be restricted to three ounces of shampoo? Why did I have to take off my loafers at JFK if a guy can land a paraglider in front of a jet full of people and then take off without getting caught? I know I am not alone when I say, “Good God, what does any of that mean?” At least I’m not alone when it comes to the “God” part . . . The United States is a highly religious nation. Almost all Americans believe in God (83%) or a higher power (12%). But scientists are not your typical American. While only 4% of the public say they do not believe in a deity or higher power, a plurality of scientists do not (41%). Scientists are also far more likely to identify religiously as unaffiliated than is the general public (48% vs. 17%) or as atheist (17% vs. 2%). However, unlike the general population, younger scientists are more likely than older scientists to have a belief in God or a higher power. In addition, more chemists than those in other specialties say they believe in God. (Pew Research) It’s encouraging to me to think that younger scientists have found the “fides et ratio” debate less of a zero sum game; curious that chemists are more likely as a group to profess a faith. I wonder if that’s because, by comparison, more women go into chemistry professionally. Or at least that was the legend when I was in college among my nerdiest, “Big Bang Theory” science friends, that all the “hot chicks were in chem.” Hey, you can’t blame guys for dreaming. In fact, we all do it and nobody knows why still. Dreaming itself may be like the human appendix, a necessary leftover from some evolutionary stage. Or maybe not. Perhaps the appendix makes lousy leftovers after all. ScienceDaily (Aug. 21, 2009) — The lowly appendix, long-regarded as a useless evolutionary artifact, won newfound respect two years ago when researchers at Duke University Medical Center proposed that it actually serves a critical function. The appendix, they said, is a safe haven where good bacteria could hang out until they were needed to repopulate the gut after a nasty case of diarrhea, for example. Not only does it appear in nature much more frequently than previously acknowledged, but it has been around much longer than anyone had suspected. "Maybe it's time to correct the textbooks," says William Parker, Ph.D., assistant professor of surgical sciences at Duke and the senior author of the study. "Many biology texts today still refer to the appendix as a 'vestigial organ.'" If you’re trying to understand the concept of “vestigial organ”--that is, a functionary that originally served a purpose whose presence became a mystery--think “Alan Colmes” of FoxNews. Or, in light of this new evidence about the appendix, perhaps FoxNews should rethink cutting Alan Colmes from “Hannity and Colmes.” Maybe he served an important, as of yet helpful function after all--like storing good bacteria after a nasty case of the on-air tummy queezies. Anyway, that brings us back to the importance of dreaming, whatever that is, or even to sleeping in general: (PhysOrg.com) -- Bats, birds, box turtles, humans and many other animals share at least one thing in common: They sleep. Humans, in fact, spend roughly one-third of their lives asleep, but sleep researchers still don't know why. According to the journal Science, the function of sleep is one of the 125 greatest unsolved mysteries in science. Theories range from brain "maintenance" — including memory consolidation and pruning — to reversing damage from oxidative stress suffered while awake, to promoting longevity. None of these theories are well established, and many are mutually exclusive. Now, a new analysis has concluded that sleep's primary function is to increase animals' efficiency and minimize their risk by regulating the duration and timing of their behavior. The research appears in the current online edition of the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience. "Sleep has normally been viewed as something negative for survival because sleeping animals may be vulnerable to predation and they can't perform the behaviors that ensure survival," Siegel said. These behaviors include eating, procreating, monitoring the environment for danger and scouting for prey. Well, wait, doesn’t that answer why we sleep? We eat, then we get sleepy. We procreate, we get sleepy. We fall asleep while we’re on guard duty, scouting for prey . . . well, at least I’ve known a few guys in the upper midwest that always enjoy a good nap in their deer stands.