Tag: Science

Martian Life?

The weekend is here and time for my weekly sciencey stuff……..I get frustrated with the antics of our elected officials and so on the weekends I tried to give my brain a rest from manure…….

So after all the cash spent to go and explore Mars….what do we have for our investment?

(Newser) – So, can flowers grow at -65 Fahrenheit? That was apparently the belief of one website reader after the Curiosity rover sent back a photo of a hard-to-identify, light-colored object on Mars, Space.com reports. Noting its reflection of sunlight, “translucent appearance,” and “irregular confirmation (like pistils),” the reader on Above Top Secret dubbed it a “Martian Flower.” Other readers likened it to a crystal, quartz rock, “part of the rover,” and “the ring I lost years ago. I wondered where it had go to!”

So NBC’s Alan Boyle went to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for answers. He asked whether the “flower” might be a broken part of Curiosity, as was another tiny, bright object the rover spotted in October. “That appears to be part of the rock, not debris from the spacecraft,” said a spokesperson. That’s all for now—but Boyle concludes that if flowers really are growing on Mars, “you’ll know it’s time to cue up the ‘X-Files’ theme. Either way, the truth is out there.”

Could this be the beginning of many more such discoveries on Mars?

Earth 2?

Back on 01 January I did my annual prediction post and I said that Earth 2 would be discovered…….

Scientists this week announced at the 221st meeting of American Astronomical Society that the Kepler telescope has found a “super-Earth” whose radius is 1.5 times that of our own; it exists in the habitable zone, orbits a star similar to our sun, and possibly contains water. Space.com dubs it “the most Earth-like world yet detected” outside of our solar system. “This was very exciting because it’s our first habitable-zone super Earth around a sun-type star,” says a Kepler astronomer. The Earth-like planet orbits a G-type star, one that’s nearly as hot as our sun, once every 242 days. “It’s a big deal,” adds an astrophysicist of the planet named KOI 172.02. “It’s definitely a good candidate for life.” (The news comes just a couple of days after astronomers announced there were probably around 17 billion Earth-size planets around the Milky Way.)

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Nostradamus……looks like my predictions are off to a good start….the Oracle Of Delphi can kiss my butt……SCHOOLED!

Why Have We Evolved?

Sciencey stuff is always a joy to write about……and I look for the topic of climate change to find its way back into the political discourse……and this article was a good find….it may help the debate (something I doubt very seriously)…….what causes climate change?  Will it effect humans in a good way?  Maybe a bad way?

A recent piece of research has found a possible link to why we, as a species, evolved to the point we are at today……

(Newser) – Early humans evolved in fits and starts due to rapid environmental changes—not gradually as scientists used to think, according to a new study. Analyzing lake sediments in northern Tanzania, scientists from Penn State and Rutgers University concluded that climate change altered the landscape back and forth from grassland to woodland five or six times over 200,000 years, the Telegraph reports. That would have changed food availability, diet, and means of acquiring good—which “can trigger evolutionary mechanisms,” says Penn State professor Katherine Freeman.

“The result can be increased brain size and cognition, changes in locomotion and even social changes—how you interact with others in a group.” Several factors may have triggered the climate changes about 2 million years ago, including changes in sea temperature and the Earth’s movement around the sun. Any change in the amount of sunshine, for example, would have altered rain patterns that in turn affected plant patterns. “The research points to the importance of water in an arid landscape like Africa,” says a graduate student on the project. The findings conflict with the “Great Drying,” the view that Africa gradually dried out over 3 million years.

Will we evolve again into abetter species?  Or will we totally destroy our chances of continuing?

“Frankenfish”

I could do a review of a campy scifi movie made a couple of years ago…a movie about a genetically alter fish that becomes uncontrollable…..but why when there are more real things to write about……

Newser) – Americans will likely be digging into the first meal from a genetically modified animal—a salmon—in about a year. The FDA has declared that salmon engineered by AquaBounty Technologies is safe to eat and poses no threat to the environment, reports the AP. The ruling makes it all but certain that the agency will grant final approval for the creature that critics call “Frankenfish,” reports the New York Times.

Those who partake will be eating an Atlantic salmon that has a growth-hormone gene from Pacific Chinook salmon. Scientists also added a gene from a fish called the ocean pout that keeps the growth-hormone gene on constantly. The upshot is that these salmon get big in a fraction of the usual time. They will be raised in farms and all will be bred to be sterile females, though the AP says a small percentage might be able to breed. That has critics worried about what might happen if they escape. The FDA review was actually completed months ago, and the White House has been accused of delaying its release for political gain. Slate has an investigative piece on that angle.

This is where I part ways with scientist……I do not think that genetically altered anything is a good idea…..there is always the chance that it could turn on us and bite us in the ass……

Any thoughts?

Blow The Damn Thing Up!

Sunday and space stuff……..I have seen some really stupid ideas concerning space……but this one takes the cake…….so glad that our cracker jack scientist removed their heads in time……by now I hope that everyone has heard this story and have an idea or two about the idea……

American military chiefs allegedly devised the secret project, named ‘A Study of Lunar Research Flights’ – or ‘Project A119’ – in the hope that the Soviet Union would be intimidated by viewing the nuclear flash from Earth.

It would give the US a much needed morale boost after the Russians successfully launched Sputnik in 1957, according to physicist Leonard Reiffel, who was involved in the project.

According to the report in The Sun, the US would have used an atom bomb, because a hydrogen bomb would have been too heavy. The planning reportedly included calculations by astronomer Carl Sagan, who was then a young graduate.

Military officials however reportedly abandoned the idea, which would have taken place in 1959, because of fears that it would have an adverse effect on Earth should the explosion fail.

The project documents were kept secret for nearly 45 years, and the US government has never formally confirmed its involvement in the study.

Instead of blowing up the moon, the US intensified and eventually won the Space Race against the Soviet Union, with Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to walk on the moon in July 1969.

Looks like we have had morons in the government for a long time.

Any thoughts?

The “Homeless” Planet

It could be the title of a really poor SyFy movie…..or it could be an idea of how to handle the growing homeless population……or ……….

(Newser) – Astronomers have identified a “homeless” planet for the first time and given it a rather un-catchy label: CFBDSIR2149. This young and very cold planet is drifting about 100 light-years away with a group of roughly 30 stars, but isn’t orbiting any of them—which makes its blue light stand out well against the black backdrop of the universe. Astronomers have spotted other homeless-planet candidates but weren’t sure if they were really brown dwarfs, the smallest kind of star, the Smithsonian’s Surprising Science blog reports.

Theorists have speculated that such drifting planets exist and may even be as common as ordinary stars—but seeing them is the problem. “Looking for planets around their stars is akin to studying a firefly sitting one centimeter away from a distant, powerful car headlight,” says the lead author in the study. “This nearby free-floating object offered the opportunity to study the firefly in detail without the dazzling lights of the car messing everything up.”

After I read this I thought of a Star Trek (I believe) episode where the Enterprise encountered a wandering planet and it was actually a very large ship that the inhabitants did not know they lived in a star ship…..other than that a pretty cool discovery……..

Are We Safe?

We have been told time and time again about the hole in the Ozone that could be fatal if we continue to lose it……..and the Maya told us that we would need a new calendar in 2012……and then there are the Nostradamus freaks that find a prediction of everything in some coded writings of a dude about 500 years ago……and then we have all those that deny anything is happening to our climate….whether you would like to call it global warming or climate change or……well here is something else to consider……

Our planet’s protective magnetic bubble may not be as protective as scientists had thought. Small breaks in Earth’s magnetic field almost continuously let in the solar wind — the stream of magnetic, energized plasma launched by the sun toward the planets — new research has found.

“The solar wind can enter the magnetosphere at different locations and under different magnetic field conditions that we hadn’t known about before,” Melvyn Goldstein, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, said in a statement.

Charged particles in the solar wind can interrupt GPS signals and power systems, as well as create dazzling auroras.

The magnetosphere is the planet’s first line of defense against the solar wind.Read More…

No matter what you care to believe….the fact is something is happening and the question should be……can we do anything about it?

For All You Star Wars Geeks

Do you remember Tatooine?  The home of Anakin and Jabba the Hutt…….that desolate planet on the edge of known space that has a inhospitable climate and residents?   Fiction is fun but there may be some credence to the idea of Tatooine.

(Newser) – Luke Skywalker would not consider this a big deal, but some of us earthlings are getting excited. Astronomers have discovered a Tatooine-like planet that orbits two suns and is also orbited by two other stars, Space.com reports. Called PH1, the gas giant is about six times bigger than Earth and resides roughly 5,000 light-years away in a planetary system with four stars—the first ever discovered, the Independent reports.

“It’s fascinating to try and imagine what it would be like to visit a planet with four suns in its sky, but this new world is confusing astronomers,” says one astronomer. “It’s not at all clear how it formed in such a busy environment.” A pair of amateur US skywatchers spotted the alien world in a project called Planet Hunters, launched by Yale University to help professional and armchair astronomers delve into data collected by NASA’s Kepler telescope.

Personally, I would like to think that it is more like Arrakis, the desert planet in Dune……..a more interesting planet that Tatooine…….

Could It Be Earth 2?

Not that sappy TV show from the 90’s, but rather a new planet that could be colonized in the case of an emergency….you know kinda like an asteroid that cannot be diverted…..since the Hubble went into orbit we have been finding new stars and new worlds…..one of the latest discoveries is promising….

From the UK’s Independent

An Earth-like planet has been discovered around the nearest star to our own Sun but astronomers have discounted the possibility of it harbouring life because its molten surface stews at about 1,500C.

The planet is the closest and smallest among about 800 “exoplanets” that scientists have identified beyond the Solar System since 1995 when they detected the first extra-solar planet.

Little is known about the newly discovered planet except that it has a mass similar to Earth and spins around the our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, once every 3.2 days at a distance of 6 million kilometres (3.7m miles).

Alpha Centauri is the brightest star in the southern sky and is just 4.3 light years from Earth – it would still take 40,000 years to travel there with existing rocket technology. It is actually composed of three stars, Alpha Centauri A and B and a third, more distant star known as Proxima Centauri.

The relatively close proximity of the new planet to Alpha Centauri B means that the planet is closer to its own star than the distance between Mercury – the innermost planet in the Solar System – and the Sun. This means the planet is too hot for either liquid water or life, or at least life as we know it.

Astronomers discovered the planet using a technique that monitors subtle changes to the wavelength of light coming from a star. This “Doppler wobble” of the star can indicate whether its movements are affected by the gravitational pull of a nearby planet as it completes each orbit.

It was the same technique – and same team of astronomers – who discovered the first exoplanet in 1995, a giant gas planet similar to Jupiter orbiting the star 51 Peg. However, the “Doppler wobble” technique has since been refined to enable the astronomers to detect Earth-sized planets about 150 times smaller than the giant planet found around 51 Peg.

The Alpha Centauri B planet was found using the HARPS instrument attached to the European Southern Observatory’s telescope at La Silla in Chile, which measures tiny changes in the speed at which the star is moving towards or away from the Earth.

The instrument effectively monitors the gravitational pull on the star caused by the planet and can do so down to a velocity of about 1.8km per hour, which is about the same speed of a crawling baby.

We are finding these types of planets at an alarming rate….the problem, at least for now, is that we have NO way of getting there if the need should arise….maybe this will help the squints come up with some sort of propulsion other than the antiquated form we use now….

Zombie Apocalypse

No this post is not about the 2012 candidates for president……….No, this is not some SciFi movie waiting to happen……my daughter is convinced after reading a few things on line about people turning into zombies that we may be looking at a real life “Walking Dead”.  Of course, I did my best to calm her mind….well that is not quite accurate…..I did some ridicule…….but could her fears be founded in reality?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is ready for a zombie apocalypse. Gun owners got prepared for a zombie apocalypse. Now, the military and law enforcement are getting ready.

And next month, they’ll begin training.

Security firm HALO Corp. announced yesterday that about 1,000 military personnel, police officials, medical experts and federal workers will learn the ins and outs of a zombie apocalypse, as part of an annual counter-terrorism summit , according to the Military Times.

Sure, the lesson is tongue-in-cheek — and only a small part of the summit’s more serious course load — but a zombie-like virus outbreak is a good training scenario. Visitors will learn to deal with a worldwide pandemic, where people become crazy, violent and fearful. Zombies will roam the summit grounds in San Diego, Calif. harassing troops and first-aid teams that will be participating.

Further details are unclear, but the Military Times made sure to note that zombies are not real.

The training comes at a time when the term “zombie apocalypse” is so viral that several branches of government have released statements on the matter. Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security reported that “the zombies are coming” as part of a hilarious bid to get citizens to prepare for a real disaster.

The CDC has released similar statements using zombies as a playful guise to get the public prepared for actual disasters. To assure that no one’s confused by these announcements, CDC told The Huffington Post that zombies are not real.

Read More…

Okay, should I start buying crossbows and swords?  Thoughts?