Dr. Octave Levenspiel's presentation titled "A Chemical Engineer Visits Dinosaurland," revolved around the idea of whether or not the dinosaur birds were able to fly.  Dr. Levenspiel came to this problem when his grandchildren wondered why grandpa didn't do any work concerning dinosaurs.  So, being the grandfather that he is, Dr. Levenspiel decided to take on the problem of whether or not the dinosaur birds could fly.

        By considering a number of comparisons to known flying objects we have today, Dr. Levenspiel began trying to solve the problem.  When taking into account the size of a flyer, and the energy need for it to fly, Dr. Levenspiel found out that the dinosaur flyers were off by an order of magnitude of three.  Every known flyer today composed of a line except for the dinosaur flyers.  Knowing this, he took into consideration a variety of environmental conditions that would be necessary for them to fly.  He began to consider a change in the atmospheric pressure needed for the birds to fly.  Carbon dioxide found in the limestone off the cliffs of England and many other reasons discussed accounted for a decline of the world's atmospheric pressure.  During the time of the dinosaurs, the atmospheric pressure would be greater; therefore, the huge birds of that era would be able to fly.  Dr. Levenspiel believes that the atmosphere during that time would have to be around four atmospheres in order for their flight to take place.

     What I found to be most interesting part of the presentation was toward the end when Dr. Levenspiel gave the reasons why his paper was not initially published.  He gave his paper to a friend that was a publisher who gave it to a reviewing board.  An example of their reasoning is that physics has delayed the human race's development for at least 150 years and cannot be used to explain the dinosaur birds.  In addition, how paleo-biologists do not believe in the aerodynamic theory was another reason given.  Furthermore, the paper was considered a waste of paper.  Thankfully, after submitting his paper to another publisher who deemed it to have merit, it was published.

     Overall, the presentation was very enjoyable.  Before I knew it, the presentation was over.  Scientific information combined with humor and wit made the presentation a hit.  When I looked around the lecture room, I knew that this presentation was a success.
 

Submitted by:
Warren Dang (Class of 2005)