The Letters of Lark and Dr. Ellington

The Players:

Lark: Mariah hopes...
Dr. John Ellington: k0s


All the letters from Lark are written by Mariah hopes... ; all the letters by Dr. Ellington are written by k0s . They just live in my (Mariah's) portfolio.


Dr. Ellington to Lark, 1

Dear Lark,

Thank you for your inquiry to the National Academy of Sciences. We rarely receive such high-quality or unusual material from those who seem to have (and forgive me if I err!) no published material on record or employment of a university. We welcome, of course, inquiry into all matters scientific, for through such discourse does our understanding of the universe expand. But to get such an obviously avid and well (if completely unorthodoxly, if you don't mind me saying so) researched correspondance.

As for the experiment itself, from your notes we could not reproduce the reaction you have documented. This may be, however, due to an incomplete or incorrect understanding of your documents. For instance, what exactly is the experimental apparatus mounted to? And what is the role of the palladium crystals in the reaction? In addition, your mathematical notation, while seemingly advanced, is of a convention neither me nor my colleagues have encountered before. May I ask the origin of this system? In general, any light you can shed that might aid in our understanding of your experiment would be welcomed.

Also, and please forgive me if I intrude, may I ask your age? I do not mean to be rude, but this was the first time I received a composite phase index graph done neatly in crayon and magic marker.

Obviously, the material as submitted is unpublishable. I will say that if your methodology proves tractable and your experiment can be reproduced, then your research is of considerable importance to the scientific community. I, for one, will stand impressed and would be glad of the opportunity to help getting your material in a publishable state.

I hope this letter finds you well. Thank you for your correspondence.

John Ellington
Curator
National Academy of Science

Lark to Dr. Ellington, 1

Dear Professor Ellington,

I thank you for your kind attention to my experiments.

In response to your questions, the explosion that occured was a bit of an accident. You see, Mother and Father had given me some palladium crystals for Christmas, and I was curious about palladium's ability to absorb hydrogen. I therefore set up a scale for myself (as described below) and had just poured a thimbleful of the crystals onto each plate, making sure they were balanced nicely. I was just preparing the next phase of my experiment when my mother came in with my lunch. She brought with her orange juice, and I instantly forgot what my original experiment was to be and, instead, mixed a bit of the orange juice with a few of the snack foods and chemicals I had hidden under my bed, and then I poured this solution onto the palladium crystals on one of the plates.

Then there was a bit of an explosion, as described in my notes, accompanied by a strange half-hearted popping sound. After I opened the bedroom window and the smoke cleared a bit, I was happy to discover that this explosion was not nearly so messy as the last one--although my sandwich didn't survive. My mother was not so happy, until I promised to clean up the peanut-butter-and-jelly and make myself a new sandwich.As I was leaving the room to do so, however, I jotted down a few quick notes (the ones I sent to you last time), including the discovery that the plate that had survived the mini-explosion intact (the one with the orange juice solution, you remember) was now two tines heavier (I describe below what that means) than the other plate, despite the fact that the orange juice solution appeared to be completely gone, and the crystals appeared the same as before, besides having a slight orange-colored tint to them.

My calculations may appear to you to be a bit odd, but I found that, due to the irregularities in the measuring devises available to me (i.e. two combs, jump rope, two plastic plates, some yarn, a pencil, and a folding chair fashioned into a scale), the standard base-10 system simply did not logically follow. As each comb had 12 tines, as evenly spaced as are the marks on the ruler that my mother does not allow me to use, I set one comb as being equal to 1 and each tine marking a 1/11 unit. This serendipitously allowed me to use the base-11 number system that I have been developing. (Click here   for an explanation of the number system, as well as the symbols I used instead of our accustomed digits.) In my last letter to you, I did my best to convert my solutions into base-10, but that is always messy work at best, and I am afraid that my limited resources (I do not have an allowance, you see) were not sufficient for me to be able to properly check myself.

As for my age, I apologize, but my mother is quite strict about these things: I must not give out that sort of personal information to strangers. However, if you would care to introduce yourself properly to me, in my next correspondence I would gladly give you the information you have requested.

Lark

Dr. Ellington to Lark, 2

Dear Lark,

I am duly sorry for not having introduced myself properly, and beg your forgiveness on the matter. As not an excuse, but as reason for my impolite behaviour, I have become too used to the brevity that the manner of scientific correspondence has been reduced to in recent years. Both I and the Academy stand to serve the proud tradition of centuries of scientific inquiry and intellectual discourse, and I apologize if I was too brisk in my previous letter.

My name is John Ellington (unrelated to the jazz musician, I'm afraid, though I am an admirer of his), and I am a Professor and one of the Curators at the National Academy of Science. We receive a large amount of mail every day, but when there is a scientific inquiry beyond the understanding of our outreach reviewers, as was yours, it is given to a Curator to handle based on their area of expertise. So that is how your letter came to me.

Additionally, I am a Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I mostly teach these days, inorganic and organic chemistry. I have one grad student doing research and far too much other thankless tasks for me, Mike Han, whom I am very proud of. He is a biochemistry major, actually. I am 63 years old and live with my wife and a spunky labrador retriever here in Cambridge, Massachusetts. My two daughters are both grown and living in Europe, though we try to fly out to visit os often as we can. I am a bit of a history buff, and try to be politically aware as much as I can. Occassionally, I try to pull my head out of my studies to enjoy a nice English tea and a walk out doors.

I hope that is sufficient introduction. Feel free to ask me anything you might be curious about. But by no means feel compelled to tell me more of yourself and your activities than you wish or that your mother approves of.

I've attached my Curriculum Vitae. While I don't I expect you to find much of it of interest to you, you might be interested in my research mostly from 1978-1982 concerning the bonding of complex organic composites with transition metals. While it has been shown that simple organic compounds cannot fuse with transition metals and keep the property of both constituents (Werner and Smith, 1972), I was of those who hypothesized that complex organic compounds, such as the orange juice and snack foods in your experiment, could be fused in this manner with the aid of a catalyst. This is what particularly drew me to your experiment, as the phenomenon is of great interest to me.

Scientists at the University of Moscow predicted that forming such a chemical bonding event would produced a highly exothermic reaction, just as you suffered. I am glad that you were not badly harmed and hope in the future you will be more careful to protect yourself from harm!

But while our hypothesis was never disproven, neither could we confirm it in the lab. The equations offered too many variables to deduce a stable configuration. While many experiments were tried based on guessing constituents from a least squares approach to solving for the eigenvalues, a stable configuration was never found in the laboratory. So, in frustration, research on the subject was abandoned.

How did you come to select the chemicals from under your bed? In your notes you referenced at various points iodine, bromine, isoprobyl alcohol, and sodium nitrate, though I was unsure of the quantities of these, or if these were the only chemicals you used. I would like to try to reproduce your experiment and measure the resulting reactants and free energy release to see if it collaborates with research on the subject. Do you have any hypothesis which of the chemicals served as catalysts? Do you have any other theories as to the nature of the reaction?

Were you ever able to reproduce your experiment? If you think it would be possible, I would encourage you to try (with your mother's permission, of course).

Your experiment may offer direct proof into a long-standing question in chemistry. If it can be reproduced and documented, your research into this reaction will be a profound scientific achievement and worthy of publication in chemistry journals.

As for your explanation as to why the plate is heavier, I am not sure I understand your mathematics. Are you implying a "cold" energy to mass conversion as a mechanism of partial energy abosorption from the reactive bonding? Or do I misunderstand your explanation completely?

I find your base-11 system fascinating, both from a mathematical point of view and from the developmental point of view expressed in the documents you linked me to. I must applaud you for your ingenuity of achieving good precision with a most unorthodox measuring device. You simply must get a ruler when you can! I would gladly provide you with all of the practical implements you would need to best perform such an experiment, but sadly my position in the National Academy of Sciences simply prohibits me from providing any sort of material assistance to any whose letters I receive. While in this case, I admit, it is a silly rule, still it is necessary for me to abide by it.

Again, I congratulate you on your ingenuity in performing this experiment and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors in chemistry. I welcome any and all correspond on such matters, and if you need any advice regarding matters of chemistry or available funding and opportunities, I put myself at your disposal.

John Ellington
Curator
National Academy of Science

Lark to Dr. Ellington, 2

Dear Dr. Ellington,

Now that you are no longer a stranger, having introduced yourself beautifully, I can give you the information you requested. I am ten years old. And now for a proper introduction from me.

I like to find out things for myself. What happens when I mix things together. How far I can jump, and how much that is affected by the size of rock I jump off of. The grooming habits of ducks. Mother says I have an imagination that carries me past my common sense, and she's probably right.

I have two younger brothers, and soon I'll have a baby sister. I'm very excited--the boys have been ahead for long enough! Besides, when she's big, maybe we can climb trees and wrestle with all four of us, which has got to be better than with just three.

I don't like school very much. They care more about if you know how to write a "correct" sentence (yes, I can, thank you very much!) than about things that would be useful, or at least interesting, like geology or publishing fiction. I admit that sometimes I pretend not to know as much as I do, because then the teachers don't get so upset when I already know how to do what they're trying to teach.

Where in Europe do your daughters live? I wish that I could fly to Europe, someday, but Mother and Father say that that sort of plane ride will be nicer when we don't have babies with us.

I regret to inform you that, after causing the toaster to explode when I accidently left the Mineral Bread in it for too long, my mother and father decided to take away all my chemicals (and notes) until I've taken chemistry in school. I am only allowed to use food, plants, and other items I find around the house.

They also took away my recipe for Mineral Bread, so I can't tell you what it was that didn't agree with the toaster. (Don't worry; I wasn't going to eat it! I just wanted to see what would happen.)

Also, Mother is teaching me how to cook. That's about the most exciting chemistry I'm allowed to do right now. Until I perfect my plans for the wooden robot my father said he will help me with, Mother suggests that I focus on some of my non-scientific interests. Oh well.

To answer questions about my experiment, I can only tell you what I remember, because, as I said, my notes have been confiscated. I admit that I did not think about my choice of chemicals from under my bed very carefully. I just tried some things that I knew wouldn't be too dangerous if they were put together, and I kept adding things until it looked good. Kind of like making a stew or a fruit salad.

I don't remember what I thought about the plate being heavier; that was a long time ago. (You must remember that I'm only 10. Ten-year-olds do not have the same mental capacity as adults, as our brains are not fully mature.)

I look forward to your next letter,

Lark

Dr. Ellington to Lark, 3

Dear Lark,

I must say that I am somewhat taken aback that you are so young. Following your first letter, I was somewhat joking when I asked how old you are.

You have a real gift for science and math. I hope you will pursue them, for I know you would do well in the field, or that the field would do by you. But follow your dreams! Do you have any plans on applying for early admission or are there any academic summer programs you wish to attend? I know of several in chemistry, some much closer to you than Boston, if you are interested. While your notes are somewhat unorthodox, they show an aptitude far beyond your years.

Forgive me if I sound like an old man giving you advice. I am just excited for your future. I lived my life, and am glad to say I can look back and have no regrets. It sounds like you have a wonderful family and so many aspects of your life that mean much to you, so I hope it doesn't sound like I'm trying to tell you to grow up too quickly. I only want you to know that opportunities abound for you on whatever path you choose to take.

I didn't like school much when I was your age, either. I found it dull and rather boring. I didn't even like chemistry until college. All I can promise you is that it does get better. While no school is perfect, college is a lot less about going over a lesson plan and a lot more about learning how the world works, whether that be publishing, geology, chemistry, or whatever dream you choose to follow.

My older daughter, Sylvia, and her husband, Rob, live in Oxford. They both serve in the English department there. We visited them this Christmas. They are very unique people and are good for each other. Rob is from England and then met at the university when Sylvia went to study there.

My younger daughter, Shelley, lives in Geneva. She's a scientist working for CERN at the Large Hadron Collider. She teases me about being old-fashioned with my chemistry, but it is all in good fun. She's very excited to be where she's working.

I guess there are a lot of academics in my family! Its something I take for granted most of the time until someone asks me about them. I am sure you'll get a chance to see Europe some day, and many of the other varied places in the world too. Is there anywhere in particular you'd like to go?

I am sorry that your chemistry experiments have been suspended. And if I pressed you on the subject, I apologize for that too. It is just that I'm very intrigued by what you may have found. I have tried to reproduce your experiment, but haven't succeeded so far. There are just too many chemicals and too many organic constituents to try. What my wife thought I was doing with her tea biscuit I can't possibly guess. I may persist, but have recently been caught up with teaching duties and my grad student's work. He is in the process of publishing, which is quite an ordeal at times. I may try again, when I can.

Forgive my long-winded script, if so you find it. I try not to be over-dense, but have gotten too used to verbosity. If your mother gives you your notes back, and if you do wish to share, I'd appreciate any more insight you can give me on the matter.

I hope you are enjoying your cooking lessons, and perhaps you've begun building your robot by now. I'd love to hear more about these or any other of your adventures if you have time to write between your play and studies. As always, my best wishes.

John Ellington
Curator
National Academy of Science

P.S. Just for fun, I am enclosing one of my earlier papers on the phenomenon I believe you've managed to produce in your experiment. Feel no obligation to read it. Its a trade paper, so it is overly technical and dry; not exactly fun reading for anyone, much less a ten year old! (Though perhaps the graphs interest you?) I have highlighted a few passages which you might find interesting though, though if not, you need make no apology.

Lark to Dr. Ellington, 3

Dear Dr. Ellington,

Sorry for the delay in my response. I've been busy with school--and with all of my projects.

I was reading today about asteroids. The book says that they can get knocked out of their orbits really easily because they're comparatively small (gravity, collisions, etc.), and sometimes they end up leaving the asteroid belt and developing an elliptical orbit, closer to the sun, and crossing the paths of some of the planets. That's why they can occassionally (not often) collide with planets. It made me wonder what would happen if their new orbit brought them close to the asteroid belt again. Or if they ran into the asteroid belt. Would they be more likely to go through the belt, or to rejoin it? Do you know?

I'd like to go to Alaska. I have a friend from Alaska. She lives on one of the islands, and she's a fisherwoman. She has her own boat! She's shown me pictures of the island, and it's gorgeous.

My robot isn't anything close to being done yet; I don't have everything I need. Father says he's going to bring me to the hardware store soon, and we'll pick up some batteries and a lot of the other parts I'm still missing.

-Lark

p.s. I liked the graphs on your paper. The text was boring, but the graphs were cool--and they actually made sense. Mostly. :)

(2010)