This Big Bang theory is a hot one, relatively speaking

From June 9, 2006: Let’s see, what’ve got here for today? Why does my dog like to lick lotion off my hands? Nah. Why do lizards do pushups?

I do that one every year. It’s to make themselves look big and intimidating.

This one is kind of interesting.

Is the temperature in space absolute zero if the area measured is blocked from the direct rays of the sun? For example, in the area of space behind the shadow of the moon or perhaps billions of miles away from any star.

Absolute zero? No, but it would be pretty darned cold.

Let’s start at the beginning. Temperature is really just a measure of the ease with which molecules can get around. The colder it is, the less freedom molecules have to bounce around. When you get to absolute zero, the molecules come to a dead halt.

Absolute zero is 0 on the Kelvin scale, minus-273 degrees Celsius and about minus-459 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now, let us say for the sake of argument you could place a Kelvin thermometer in the deepest, darkest corner of outer space. After it cooled off, it would show a temperature of 2.7-degrees Kelvin. That’s about minus-458 Fahrenheit.

Where’s the heat coming from? Cosmic background microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang. There’s no place in the universe without it.

By comparison, the temperature on

the far side of the moon runs about minus-250 Fahrenheit or about 116-degrees Kelvin.

I guess we have room for another one.

What happens to birds when they die? Our home abuts a park, and I’ve seldom seen a dead bird on the ground.

You seldom see a dead bird because Mother Nature keeps a tidy house.

Almost as soon as the carcass hits the ground, all sorts of things get to work on the recycling job: Carrion-eaters, rodents, ants, beetles, maggots, and bacteria all go to work on the carcass, and it doesn’t take long for them to chew it up.