Since some parts of heart waves are oscillating faster than other parts, Punske's result wasn't a single number. It's like the heart's beating has lost all its organization. If fibrillation isn't corrected, then toxic chemicals build up, and the heart soon sustains damage. The sensor allows the researchers to translate the heart's electrical waves into mathematical quantities that can be compared. The scientists hope to use their comparisons to find patterns, such as changes in direction or speed, that occur when the heart is about to fibrillate.
T hat's just the kind of information that geologists use when predicting earthquakes.
No one thinks about that in North Carolina. But people started worrying when they felt a rumbling one day in September 1997. Rob Killough, a master's student in geology , has been studying this shaking event that occurred near Carolina's campus. He and other geologists still aren't sure what caused it. Some people described the event as sounding and feeling like a big truck had hit their building.