North, South Carolina and other stuff

Today my wife and I headed south to find North.  North, South Carolina, that is!  Since the co-ordinates are 33°37' North and 81°6' West, I chose 3337 today.

Gene 3337 of the human genome encodes the "heat shock protein" which regulates cellular processes by aiding in folding, transport and assembly of cell structures.  Apparently there is a tremendous amount of work going on at a molecular level and this gene works as a thermostat.


The other significant 3337 goes from microscopic to hands on science, introducing us to the *FIRST Robotic Competition, team 3337 from Woodlawn High School in Baton Rouge Louisiana.  Here is a paragraph from the "Panthrobotics" website:

 Panthrobotics, FRC Team #3337,  is a multicultural team of students who are bringing a passion for math, science, engineering and computing to our school and community by participating in yearly FIRST® Robotics competitions. Each year we work with a talented group of mentors, generous sponsors, and excited students to build a robot from scratch within a defined six-week time period, compete with that robot, and then take it with us to demonstrations and other events throughout our  community.

[* FIRST is a registered acronym for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."]

Back to North, SC.  We came in from the northwest, basically east by southeast, having started at about 35 degrees North, in Greenville, SC.  North is therefore Southeast of us.  We came took a picture of the sign on the west side of town, turned up Main Street (North-South axis) and headed home on a mostly Northern route.

As a point of reference for Americans, 33°37' North is parallel to just south of Myrtle Beach, SC; just south of Atlanta, GA; just north of Birmingham, AL; West Point, MS; Warren, AR; Paris, TX; just north of Roswell, NM; Surprise, AZ; and Newport Beach, CA.  North is the only town at 33°37' North that will experience the total solar eclipse August 21, 2017. It will have 2 minutes, 22.3 seconds of totality.

Nouth is about 50 miles due north of Hampton, SC. It is also due north of Savanah, GA; Ormand Beach, Daytona Beach and Marathon, Florida.  However, North is due south of Woodford, Swansea, Gaston, Pine Ridge, Springdale, St. Andrews, Winnsboro and Newport in South Carolina alone!  Also north of North are at least three towns in North Carolina, one in West Virginia an two in Ohio.  Mr. North confused a lot of map makers when he agreed to have the town named after him.