Topic 188: On Being Small

Carol:

Nano, Nano

Today’s paper had a photograph of a baby born last Friday, a whopper at 16 pounds. Ouch.  Pretty well anything that is bigger, higher, taller, longer gets notice: the world record giant pumpkin at 1810.5 pounds, the tallest cornstalk at over 31 feet (higher than an elephant’s eye), the longest bull horns (4 feet 7”) (Guinness Book of World Records).  We tend to think of the other end of the measurement spectrum as wanting in some way, too small is stunted, too short a range is a dud. But, modern science has created a whole new world of miniaturization and a vocabulary to describe that world.
 

Micro: Greek prefix meaning “small.” In the metric system, used by every industrialized country except for the United States, “micro” means 1 millionth of something. But, in common language it identifies any number of smallish devices (microphone, microbe, microscope, micrometer). The microchip is the miniature “wafer” of semiconducting material that carries the electronic devices or transistors that run cell phones, computers, cameras, I-pods, etc.

When microchips were first invented, only a few transistors could ride on a wafer, but current technology has increased that capacity to millions or even billions of transistors on a single chip (source; “Integrated Circuit”).  Microchips about the size of a large grain of rice are routinely implanted into not only domestic pets for identification but wild animals and livestock for tracking and research.

Cat X-Ray with microchip

Nano: another Greek prefix for a measurement that is a billionth of something, most often used in science and electronics.  So, a nanosecond is one billionth of a second or 1 thousandth of a microsecond.  How people ever created the equipment to be able to measure something in nanoseconds I don’t know.  But, that’s what I get for studying literature and not computer science, and what I get for using Wikipedia rather than a physics or computer science academic journal.
 

Hopper: is not a Greek prefix.  Hopper, as in “Grace Hopper” is a link at the bottom of the Wikipedia entry on “nano.” She was an American scientist who was a pioneer in computer science. Her concepts led to the development of modern programming language such as COBOL, FORTRAN, etc. Hopper spent the last part of her life working as a consultant for Digital Equipment Corporation, travelling a lecture circuit to its different facilities. Hopper received standing ovations for her presentations and was particularly well known for her ability to illustrate the concept of the “nanosecond.”
 
Hopper graduated from Vassar in1928 with degrees in mathematics and physics, earned graduate degrees at Yale. In 1943, she volunteered for the US Navy Reserve, graduated first in her class at Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School, and ended up working on the Mark I computer project. The next 30 years of her life measure the evolution of computer science. Thank her for introducing the term “debugging” into our computer vocabulary.
 

Grace Murray Hopper maintained her loyalty to military service throughout her career. After being recalled to reserve duty several times, she retired for good in 1986,   the oldest commissioned officer in the US Navy and a few months shy of her 80th birthday.  One of the few US military vessels named for a woman, the USS Hopper was launched to honor her in 1996 and nicknamed  Amazing Grace. (source: “Grace Hopper”)
 

Amazing Grace, Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, had to get an exemption to enlist in the Navy back in 1943  because at 105 pounds, she was 15 pounds under the weight limit. Talk about miniaturization. 

 

Sources:
“Grace Hopper.”  Wikipedia.
Image of cat with identifying microchip above the spine. Wikipedia. Attribution: Joelmills 

“Integrated Circuit.” Wikipedia.

Megan:

On Being (Sort of) Small

I don’t think of myself as a small person. At 5 foot 3 inches, I am the shortest full-grown member of an extended family that tends to be taller than average. If I sit back in a chair, my feet barely touch the ground. I have the smallest hands of anyone I’ve met except for my one friend who is also shorter than me. I make fun of her shortness, but she is not small either. Our voices and opinions and laughter make us seem bigger than we are, even if we are whispering. Even though I am used to looking up at the world around me, I rarely ever feel short or small.

There are a few exceptions. I eat soup with a teaspoon, because a soupspoon is too big for my mouth. Trying on pants is a hassle. Regular pants come up my chest, long ones up to my chin. Do you know how hard it is to find a pair of pants that are both petite and plus-sized ? When I joined my softball team, I requested an XL uniform shirt to be sure it would fit. It is comfortably wide enough, but the ¾ length sleeves extend past my fingertips.

My shorter friend has the disadvantage of having tiny feet. Her legs might as well end at the ankles, is what I mean. She has to wear children’s shoes or else order online.  So, she has little patience when I complain about the inconvenience of being short. Reaching high shelves is a problem for both of us. At home, I use a step stool or my father. I was over at my friend’s house the other day and I opened a kitchen cabinet looking for a cup. The first two shelves were perfectly organized, but the highest shelf was a disheveled mess of Tupperware. Unable to reach that shelf, she tosses items up and then shuts the door quickly to stop them from bouncing out. She also has a step stool (and a husband) but this system works for her, I guess. 

Recently, my mother and I visited family in California. My aunt and uncle are less mobile than they used to be, and have difficulty bending over to pick things up off the floor. So, they have this grabber thing that does it for them. Mom thought it was a nifty invention and kept mentioning that she would like one, so I picked on up from the hardware store. It’s useful as long as we can remember where it is, but since I have no problems bending over, it was mainly a novelty toy as far as I was concerned.

The other day, we discovered another use for it. I was getting ready to re-upholster that chair, and needed a sewing kit. I have one my mother gave me when I was little, but it was in the back of my closet and I couldn’t reach it. Mom offered to get it down for me, which I thought was strange because she’s started shrinking the past few years and is now only barely taller than me.  But she walked into my room with the grabber thing, and used it to pull down the sewing box. The grabber thing is not mean to support any real weight though, so the box fell out of its grip and landed on her head. Still, it did the trick.