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Wednesday, August 6, 2008 -- Evening The scientists at NASA finally had a press conference to stop the rumors and misinformation. The rumors went from the President being briefed about organic materials on Mars to the supposed discover of organically inhospitable soil. Well, scientists spoke up to say that they really don't have anything to announce at this point, and that they are still investigating the results (which appears to be varying depending on the testing oven on Phoenix. It seems that the scientists admit that they did find perchlorate in the soil samples. However, they haven't determined yet if perchlorate makes the soil inhospitable because scientists have found perchlorate on Earth, especially in Chile's Atacama Desert which has been used as a stand-in for the Martian surface for Earth bound scientists. Sunday, August 3, 2008 -- Evening I have been reading some science blogs that claim that the folks from NASA have been briefing the President about the Phoenis Mars Polar Lander findings. On Thursday, tests confirmed the presence of water on the Martian surface. Because of this, Phoenix's mission has been extended. However, it doesn't end there. The story is that the President has been briefed because of something else that has been found. (Shades of Dan Brown's Deception Point.) Supposedly it isn't a lifeform, but organic fingerprints. This might mean that life existed at one time on the planet. The only problem with the blog stories is that the briefings with the President have been "secret." Yep, that means that there haven't been any official record or announcement about them. So that makes me wonder about the validity of the stories. With that said, it does make for an interesting discussion. Was there life on Mars at one point? Could it possibly still exist? What would this mean for those whose religious beliefs tell them that life only exists on this planet? Of course, we will see if there are any further annoucements, or if this is one of those Area 51 type rumors. Thursday, July 17, 2008 -- Morning Scientists have been analyzing data from the various Mars orbiters (from the US and Europe) and have decided that Mars once used to have "widespread" water. They believe that they see evidence for lakes, rivers, and deltas all over the planet, which means not only that water was all over the planet, but that it was probably there for a lengthy time period. It might also mean that there is a change that some early life forms may have developed on the planet. The question to ask is what happened to Mars? What made things take such a horrible turn that all the water either evaporated or moved into the polar caps? I know that some say that all the water is now in the polar caps, and that if they can be thawed, Mars would once again have water. So why did all the water gather at the poles? Some scientists think something must have happened at one point when Mars was hit by an asteroid or comet. It will be interesting to learn what new theories the scientists come up with as they gather more data from the Mars Polar Lander. Friday, June 27, 2008 -- Evening It seems that the Mars Polar Lander has given scientists something to think about. It seems that tests have shown that the Martian soil may be more alkaline than scientists expected. So far, it seems that the nutrients in the soil are conducive to supporting and sustaining life. This has interesting implications for terriforming the planet. Of course, the question to ask is if we should terriform the planet. Wednesday, June 25, 2008 -- Evening Scientists think that they have an explanation for the differences between the north and south hemispheres on Mars. They believe that an asteroid the size of the Earth's moon may have hit into the northern regions of Mars. From an analysis of the surface and crust of Mars, scientists say that Mars has the largest impact scar in the Solar System. In fact, the scientists theorize that the northern hemisphere may have had a huge ocean. It just goes to show how nature can be distructive. We worry so much about what humans can do, but a huge asteroid can just come down and wipe you out. Look at the dinosaurs and now Mars. Sunday, June 1, 2008 -- Late Afternoon The Phoenix Mars Lander may have already found ice. It seems that scientists noticed that the Lander actually appears to be have landed on patches of ice. When the scientists took photos of the ground under the Lander, they noticed the patches. Right now, scientists have been testing the Lander's robotic arm for a few days. They discovered a short circuit in the device that will analyze the scooped up samples. So far, scientists are saying that they don't believe that the intermittent problem will affect the mission. Monday, May 26, 2008 -- Late Morning NASA had another success yesterday when the Phoenix Mars Lander made a successful touchdown on Mars. Phoenix landed in the northern polar region of Mars and will be looking for evidence of frozen water. NASA TV had the live telecast of Phoenix entering the Martian atmosphere and the countdown to the landing. Everything seems to be fine with Phoenix, and the pictures of its feet and solar panels all seem to show that things are 100%. Phoenix has been sending back pictures from Mars, and the scientists will be analyzing them for digging locations. Phoenix is a stationary device, and it will be reaching out with a scoop to pick up and analyze ground. The landing location was selected because it was thought to be a good location for Phoenix to find some underground water or ice. Thursday, August 23, 2007 -- Evening Google has a new offering. This time it is Google Sky. Anyone who downloads and installs Google Earth, can now scan the heavens. Google Sky can take you on tours of distant galaxies and stellar objects. Of course, the thing to keep in mind while viewing the images is that some of them are representations of what astronomers believe are out there. Still, it's fascinating to know that I can visit Alpha Centuri, even if it is just an animated journey. Monday, August 20, 2007 -- Afternoon Astronomers have found a rare isolated neutron star between 250 to 1,000 light years from Earth. A neutron star is one that was much larger than our Sun which used up all its nuclear fuel and blew itself apart in a supernova. The interesting thing about the new neutron start, Calvera, is that it doesn't have a supernova remnant, isn't part of a binary pair, and doesn't give off any radio pulses. There are only seven other neutron stars that fit this scenario, and they are known as the Magnificent Seven. The name Calvera, is a villain in the Magnificent Seven movie, so the name is appropriate. Saturday, August 4, 2007 -- Early Afternoon The Phoenix Mars Lander launched from Cape Canaveral this morning, starting a nine month voyage to Mars. NASA is to land the Phoenix in Mars' Artic Circle area. This area has always been of high interest to scientists because it continues the search for organic compounds in the Martian surface. The landing is scheduled for May 25, 2008, and is not without risk. So only one landing was attemped at one of the Martian poles (the South one in 1999). That attempt was a failure. The Phoenix carries some written works in its database. The works of Carl Sagan, Voltaire, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Percival Lowell will be onboard. Now we just have nine months of nail-biting as we wonder if the landing will be successful. Wednesday, June 13, 2007 -- Evening Sad news for Mr. Wizard fans. Don Herbert, Mr. Wizard himself, died today at the age of 89 from bone cancer. The Science Channel has had Mr. Wizard marathons in recent years, and watching the shows has made me a fan of Mr. Wizard. My sympanthies go out to his family. Tuesday, May 8, 2007 -- Afternoon Astronomers found one of the largest supernovas. It was first observed by a student at the end of last year. The star, SN 2006gy, was 150 times more massive than the Sun. What I loved about the story is that, of course, the media had to have a close to Earth destruction scenario. Eta Carinae is a star of similar portions, and it's only 7,500 light years from Earth. Supposedly, when the star has a supernova explosion, it will be possible to read from the light of it at night time. It will be viewable from the southern hemisphere. My favorite quote is from Mario Livio, of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. He says, "We don't know for sure if Eta Carinae will explode soon, but we had better keep a close eye on it just in case." Now according to the scientists, it can happen now or 50,000 years from now. I love the time frames! Of course, in the Universe's lifespan, there's not alot of difference between now and 50,000 years. Wednesday, April 25, 2007 -- Evening Big news in astronomy today was the discovery of an Earth-like planet in orbit around a red drawf star, Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light years from Earth. So what does Earth-like mean? It basically means a planet that is not a gaseous giant. The planet is a smaller planet that could in theory be rocky. How do the two planets measure up? The planet that orbits Gliese 581 is five times more massive than Earth with a diamater of 12,000 miles. Earth's diameter is 8,000 miles. The planet is also very close to Gliese 581 and has an orbit of 13 Earth days. What has excited the astronomers the most is that the temperature is assumed to be between 0 and 40 degrees Celcius. That means that there is a possibility of liquid water on the planet. Behind biased towards the type of environment that we have here, the astronomers think that makes for conditions conducive to life. Whether liviing beings are on the planet is just a matter of complete conjecture. Friday, March 16, 2007 -- Afternoon Scientists have found that the polar caps on Mars actually do appear to contain water. For the first time since the polar caps were discovered in the 1970s, scientists were able to a radar technique to probe 2.5 miles beneath the surface of the caps, and they confirmed that it is mostly pure water with a dust coating. There is supposedly enough water in the caps to cover the planet with water if the caps totally melted. This was always a topic of discussion for terraforming of the planet. The thought is that we could do something to make the ice caps melt (after all, aren't we supposed to be good at global warming? :-) ) With water on the plant, we could try to make it more habitable. It's an interesting concept although I think that it would be hard to put in action. Thursday, March 15, 2007 -- Evening I have just finished reading a very interesting book. It is Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax" by Philip Plait. The book covers various topics that people think they understand but usually get wrong. In the book we find out why the sky is blue, why we have seasons, what the role of the moon is, the Moon landing hoax (there are people who think that the Moon landing was faked and filmed in the US deserts), and examples of "bad astronomy" in movies. The last are things that are misrepresented in movies. Our society really doesn't appreciate or understand science, and think that it is hard just because they haven't taken the time to actually do some reading. The book is quite interesting and a quick and easy read. This book would be very good for someone who believes he or she is scientifically illiterate. Wednesday, February 14, 2007 -- Morning CMU is a local university with big aspirations. The researchers in the Robotics Institute have written a program for the Mars Rover which allows the Rovers to autonomously determine how to get around obstacles. The engineers simulated a test situation by putting an "obstacle" in Opportunity's path. Opportunity was able to successfully get around the obstacle. The software test was performed last week on Feb. 7. The goal of the software is to enable the Rovers to get around obstacles and to get out of dead-end situations. The Rovers are really something to admire. We didn't think that the Rovers would last so long, and yet, there they are--still performing and providing valuable data. Thursday, December 7, 2006 -- Afternoon The latest news on Mars is that water may indeed be flowing on the Red Planet. It seems that scientists have looked at pictures that were taken by the Mars Global Surveyor show signs of recent water activity in gullies. The scientists believe that the gullies were formed by flowing water and see signs of deposits in them that could be mud, salt, or frost. Some scientists don't think that what they are seeing was formed by water, but by liquid carbon dioxide. It appears that liquid carbon dioxide has a lower freezing point than water and could still be in liquid form at the -107 degree C that exists on the Martian surface. This is sounding eeriely like Percy Lowell's canals. Saturday, November 25, 2006 -- Morning I received an early Hannuka gift yesterday. My boyfriend gave me the Nintendo DS and a Brain Age. He knows that I am into keeping my brain young and active and following natural ways of doing things. He bought the game yesterday afternoon. I wasn't displeased with my initial testing results, and have begun the daily training program. The thing that I have found is that I have forgotten alot of common math. It's difficult to churn it out in a fast pace too. The daily training that I know have is reading aloud, calculations x 20, calculations x 100, low to high, and syllable count. Supposedly reading aloud passages of books is good for the prefrontal cortex, so that makes up the "reading aloud". Syllable count is also just what is says it is. The calculations are the simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems that are timed. It's amazing how you get things wrong when you know you have a clock ticking away the seconds. The two exercises I get are of 20 and 100 problems. The low to high is difficult although I have been doing well. Numbers are flashed on the screen in boxes, and you have to memorize them and then touch the empty boxes on the screen to mark the boxes that had the lowest number to the highest. The game also has suduko puzzles. I have to admit that I'm not a game person, but I do like puzzles. Brain Age is really alot of fun, and whether it actually improves my brain age in real terms, I am enjoying playing along. Tuesday, October 31, 2006 -- Late Afternoon The Hubble Telescope is going to get some much needed upgrades and repairs during the Discover space shuttle mission. The batteries and gyroscopes will be replaced and two new instruments will be installed--the Wide Field Camera (WFC3) and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). The work should be in 2008. That seems like a long time to wait, but it's better than no repair at all. Originally the discussion was that Hubble would just be left as it and that its usefulness would come to an end. One of my former professors told me a couple of weeks ago that she thought nothing would be done for Hubble and that we would all have to watch the skies and wait for it to come crashing to Earth. That sounds like a great plot for a sci-fi story. Monday, October 16, 2006 -- Evening I have a new favorite web site. My boyfriend told me about the Center for Consumer Freedom It's an organization that tries to get some of the truth out there about how smoking laws and claims that eating cheesecake will kill you are ways to control consumer freedoms. If I want to kill myself by eating cheesecake then that's my perogative. I really dislike the claims that being abit fat is going to kill you. Guess what? Life is going to kill you! None of us is going to get out of this world alive, and even if we have the best eating habits, don't smoke, and exercise all the time, we can still be run over by a bus. Will having a slice of cheesecake every now and again hurt you. NO! Will having nothing but a diet of cheeseecake hurt you? Probably. I just hate those folks who think that they know better than I what is good for me. Take care of your own life and get out of mine. So I definitely love the Center for Consumer Freedom. I signed up for their newsletter and have found the information very enlightening. Along the same line, scientists are saying that overweight people have a lower IQ. This is a European study and the claim is that people with a BMI (Body Mass Index) over 30 could only recall 44% of the words from a vocabulary list while those under 20% could recall 56%. After five years, the 30 BMI group's recall dropped to 37.5% while the 20% group stayed the same. So my question is if the 30 BMI group lost weight, did their memory get better? And if the 20% group ate a good meal every now and again, would they recall less? My BMI is 23%. In the past, I was under 20%. I don't think that I have become more stupid just because I lost the anorexic look. It really makes me wonder if they just picked stupid fat people in the first place and brainy skinny people. You can never tell how these studies get biased either intentionally or unintentionally. Friday, October 6, 2006 -- Evening The Mars Rovers are going to get a smart upgrade which will enable them to better study the clouds and dust storms on Mars. The upgrade will allow the rovers to search through their databanks for pictures that match the feature of these phenomena and then just send the most important items back to Earth. NASA has really gotten bang for its buck with the rovers. Spirit and Opportunity are like the Energizer Bunny who keeps going and going. In fact, I think they outdo the Energizer Bunny! Thursday, September 14, 2006 -- Evening UB313 finally has a name. The astronomers in the International Astronomical Union (IAU) have decided to call the object Eris. Eris comes from Greek mythology, and caused a quarrel among the goddesses that caused the Trojan War. That's a fitting name for an object that caused the debate about what is a planet that lead to poor Pluto being demoted. Friday, August 25, 2006 -- Evening The controversy over Pluto still hasn't abated. It appears that there are quite a few who are up in arms because the vote was held on the last day of the International Astronomical Unit's General Assembly, and only 424 astronomers participated in the vote. Of course, this doesn't overturn the decision, and if the atronomers were so concerned about the situation, they should have stuck around. They knew that the vote for planetary status was going to be on the schedule. The only thing that I take issue with is the criteria that a planet "clear its orbit" of other objects. Pluto didn't because it crosses the orbit of Neptune. I would say that also take Neptune out of the running but hey! Whatta I know! Pluto's orbit is also not on the same plane as the other planets which was an additional reason to remove its planet status. This is all so arbitrary though. A planet is a word that we use to define something and has nothing to do with actual reality. Thursday, August 24, 2006 -- Late Morning Poor Pluto! It has been demoted from a planet to an object that orbits the Sun. Astronomers met today at the International Astronomical Unit's General Assembly. Most of the astronomers applauded the decision, while others were saddened at the loss. Starting today, there will only be eight planets in our solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Pluto and other objects like it will be referred to as "dwarf" planets. Wednesday, August 16, 2006 -- Afternoon Astronomers have come up with a proposal for planet classification in our solar system. The proposal by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) will allow Pluto to keep its planetary status as a "pluton". The plutons are bodies which are round, but too small to be considered a classical planetary type. With the new definition, the number of planets will move up from nine to 12. New planets will include: Ceres, the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Pluto's moon, Charon, and the newly discovered UB313. The new definition proposes two criteria for an object to be considered a planet.
Saturday, August 12, 2006 -- Late Afternoon I won't be able to see this because of lack of mobility with my broken foot, but if you have the chance, make sure to go outside and look for the Perseid meteor shower. The Perseids can usually be seen at this time of year. It usually starts in mid July and peaks around now. Tonight should be the night when you will see the highest amount of showers. The meteors that make up the event come from the tail of the Comet Swift-Tuttle. Saturday, August 5, 2006 -- Evening Astronomers have found two planets that orbit each other rather than a star. Astronomers are not sure how the dynamics works and are confused by the existence of the planets. Duh! That's not news to me because I think that astronomers and scientists really understand very little of how the Universe works. I think that most of it is guess work and only some of it is right. The objects are called planemos are have 1% of the mass of the Sun, are more than six times more distant from each other than the Sun and Pluto, and were formed around 2 million years ago. More confusion to follow, I'm sure. Sunday, July 30, 2006 -- Early Afternoon Astronomers have found the largest object in the Universe. It is a huge blob of galaxies and gas bubbles called Lyman alpha blobs. Three of these objects are tied to each other with filaments and are theorized to have come into existence two billion years after the Big Bang. I think that there are alot more things out there than the scientists can even imagine--and I think that the matter will add up to show that we have a closed universe which will collapse in a continual Big Bang/Big Crunch scenario. Saturday, July 22, 2006 -- Evening Astronomers have observed a star in this galaxy that is in its death throes. It seems that the star should be exploding in a type 1a supernova. This type of explosion is extremely bright, and should be five billion times bright than the Sun. The last time a type 1a supernova was observed was in 1572 by Tycho Brahe who was the person who provided Johannes Kepler by providing data on his astronomical observations. Astronomers don't know when the supernova will happen, but they believe that the star is reaching critical mass. As they say, it could happen tomorrow, or it could happen a 1,000 years from now. Tuesday, July 4, 2006 -- Evening The space shuttle Discovery was launched this morning, and it successfully got into orbit. The launch was delayed from last week because of bad weather, and there was concern that it might need to be delayed further by a crack that was found in the insulation on the fuel tanks. However, NASA deemed it safe. This is the first time that NASA launched a space shuttle on the Fourth of July. Again there was more debris that fell from the fuel tanks, but NASA is saying that it was too high to do any damage to the shuttle. The shuttle should return to Earth on July 16 after testing new safety equipment and procedures. Also on the schedule is a delivery of 13 tons of equipment and supplies to the International Space Station. Wednesday, June 28, 2006 -- Evening An asteroid is going to make a close pass by the Earth on July 3. The asteroid is around 1/2 mile wide, and should pass by just a bit farther than the moon's average distance from Earth. Some were worried that the asteroid would hit the Earth later on, but now it's not believed that will happen. Sunday, June 4, 2006 -- Evening Scientists have found a crater that may have caused the worst mass extinction ever. The crater is 300 miles wide and is hidden under a half mile of ice in Antartica. It seems that scientists believe that this crater is the result of an asteroid hitting the Earth and wiped out the majority of living things. The mass extinction resulted in conditions that allowed the dinosaurs to become the dominant life form on the planet. Sunday, May 28, 2006 -- Afternoon The Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are going to get a software upgrade that will allow them to make intelligent decisions about the data they collect. So when the robots collect images, for example, they can look for panaromas and send them back. The goal of all of this is to make the robots (and future missions) more autonomous. If the robots on the missions can make some decisions on their own, then they can don't have to wait to send something back to NASA and then get instruction from NASA on what to do. In a way, this reminds me of the premise behind the Terminator movies. I can just see the plot for the movie now--the robots on Mars mutate from their intelligence upgrade and declare war on Earth. Friday, May 5, 2006 -- Late Afternoon Finally someone has come up with a theory that I have had for years! Some scientists are theorizing that the current Universe that we are in may be the child of an earlier one. Think about it for a second. The Big Bang happened. Why? What came before the Big Bang? The thing that makes the most sense to me is that the Big Bang was the end of a previous Universe's collapse of Big Death. This is not something that will be easy to prove, if indeed it can be proved at all. Right now, we can only imagine what happened at the Big Bang because all that we see around us is evidence of the Bang, or after-effects, if you will. It may just be that we are in a system that fluctuates between collapse and expanse, and right now we are just in expansion state. To me, this theory makes perfect sense. Isn't it more difficult to believe that out of nowhere and for no reason that we can discern, the Big Bang happened? Expansion and collapse is the way to go. The new theory was just released in Science. Friday, April 21, 2006 -- Evening A recent study of Mars suggests that the planet had three distinct geological periods in its history. Each stage saw less water than the previous stage which has scientists theorizing that the earliest stage was the window of opportunity for life. Thursday, April 13, 2006 -- Evening Venus Express has sent back the first pictures that it has taken of the hellish planet. The most interesting thing that scientists have seen is a vortex that shows up quite clearly in the southern pole. At this point, there hasn't been much analysis, but the vortex is similar to one that has been observed at Venus' north pole. Tuesday, April 11, 2006 -- Late Afternoon Venus Express has successfully gotten into orbit around Venus. This should be an interesting mission, and I will be keeping my eyes open for an new developments. Monday, April 10, 2006 -- Afternoon Venus Express has almost reached its target. Tomorrow morning, the spacecraft will begin a 50 minute burn tomorrow morning to slow its speed so it can safely enter Venus' orbit. The Venus Express will then orbit the planet for 500 Earth days. The goal is to gather more information about a planet that is thought to have been more Earth-like before undergoing some sort of cataclysmic event that sent the greenhouse effect out of control. Venus Express is a European Space Agency mission. Friday, March 31, 2006 -- Evening Physicists have determined that the neutrino has mass. This is big news in the world of physics because little is known of neutrinos, and yet they are everywhere. Originally neutrinos were not thought to have mass, and the model of how particles interact in the Universe will need to be revised based on this new information. The reason neutrinos are so difficult to study is because they can pass through space and the Earth without interacting with matter. Scientists are wondering how reliable current climate models are because they have failed to simulate the current conditions in Antartica that have the temperature raising 2 degrees Centigrade over the past 30 years. Is the warming due to supposed "global warming" or is it the result of natural climatary changes in the Antartic region. I think that it is quite obvious that we really don't understand how the climate works. We don't know what is causing the things that are happening, and we are unable to even begin to suggest how to "fix" them. When I hear folks talking about how global warming is an accepted concept and that x, y, or z will fix it, I know that they are talking out of their butts. Read Michael Crichton's State of Fear. Of course it does add fictional suspense, but Crichton brings up some good, skeptical scientific questions. Tuesday, March 28, 2006 -- Afternoon There's going to be a total eclipse of the Sun tomorrow. Southern Asia and Africa will be prime locations for the viewing. Sunday, March 19, 2006 -- Afternoon Poor Spirit! It's right front wheel isn't working anymore. There were problems with it earlier. Then it was determined that the problem was a lubrication issue. This time it seems that the motor that runs the wheel has konked out. Right now, Spirit is dragging its wheel, as it makes it way to a good location for the Martian winter. Thursday, March 16, 2006 -- Early Evening Astrophysicists believe that they have found proof of the theory of inflation. The driving force behind inflation was that astrophysicists had to come up with a theory to explain how the Universe is the same regardless of where you look at it. This is the horizon problem because in whichever direction you look, things are the same. How have areas that are so distant so similar? The other question is with the age and size of the Universe, why are we now in a "flat" universe? That means that as far as we can tell, we aren't really sure if we are going to have eternal explansion or collapse. Well, now astrophysicists are claiming that clumps of radiation that are found in the cosmic background is proof of inflation. Basically the space around us is filled with radiation. This is the remnant of the heat that was around after the Big Bang. The most interesting aspect of the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background) is that for all intents and proposes it is uniform and evenly spread. It is only with the most sensitive instruments that any fluctuations can be found. Now this group of Scientists is claiming that it is finding fluctuations and that the fluctuations are the result of inflation. I think that the actual fact of the matter is that we really don't understand the Big Bang. Because the Big Bang happened around 14 billion years ago, and we don't have any real evidence of what happened, scientists can come up with any sort of theory and find evidence to support it. The things that we think now will be scoffed at in 100 years time. Who made me the expert? I'm not, but after getting a bachelors in physics and astronomy, I know that alot of it is guesswork. Some of the guess work can be proved but some of it is just accepted until it can be proved or disproved. Wednesday, March 15, 2006 -- Afternoon The big find in the Valley of the Kings last month turned out not to be a tomb. It appears that it was a room that was used to prepare the Pharoahs for mummification. That diminishes the find in some eyes, but I think that it's still a very valuable resource for learning about the ancient Egyptians. Tuesday, March 14, 2006 -- Early Evening Google has launched a site that maps Mars. My boyfriend was the first to alert me to the site, and it is nicely done. Maps are given in both visible and infrared light. Also, sites of interest are highlighted on the map. Friday, March 10, 2006 -- Late Afternoon Evidence has come back from Cassini that one of Saturn's moon's, Enceladus, could have liquid water beneath its crust. This has scientists excited because where there is water, there could be life. Enceladus also has the attention of scientists because it is geologically active. That means that jets of what is believed to be water have been observed spouting from locations on the moon. Saturday, March 4, 2006 -- Evening Jupiter has developed a new red spot called Red Jr. The new red spot was formed back in 2000 and was the result of a couple of storms colliding. Basically, the theory is that the Great Red Spot and Red Jr. are storms that are so powerful that they are dragging materials from deeper in the surface of Jupiter to the surface. These materials are turned red because of the Sun's ultraviolet rays. Scientists are going to be keeping a close eye on Red Jr. (officially Oval BA) to see how things develop. Thursday, March 2, 2006 -- Evening Astronomers have a beautiful portrait of a spiral galaxy courtesy of the Hubble Telescope. The picture is a face on view of the Pinwheel Galaxy, and it is the most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy from Hubble. It took 51 exposures to create the image. Tuesday, February 28, 2006 -- Morning If you missed the opportunity to see Mars this past fall, here's an animation of the planet that was taken by an amateur astronomer. It's a nice job. Friday, February 24, 2006 -- Late Afternoon You probably didn't realize that you were getting a physics lesson as you watched the Olympics, or maybe you did. Originally folks thought that the reason people glide on ice is because the friction of the blade causes the ice to melt and put a layer of water on top of the ice making the glide possible. However, that really isn't the case. Regardless of friction, there is 20 layers of water on the surface because that's just how it is. Another thing you might not know that the ice is different for figure skating and ice hockey. Figure skating ice is softer so the skater can dig into the ice and do the jumps and spins. Meanwhile the hockey ice is harder so the skaters can be quicker. Scientists have noticed a strange explosion near our galaxy that might be the precursor of a supernova explosion. Astronomers are training their telescopes on the spot and are waiting for a surge in brightness over the next week. Sunday, February 19, 2006 -- Early Afternoon An astronomer has come up with a list of stars that are most likely to have life. Margaret Turnbull from the Carnegie Institution in Washington DC picked the five possibilities based on the age and iron content of the star. Good candidates would have at least 50% of the iron content of the Sun. The five stars are: Beta CVn, HD 10307, HD 211 415, 18 Sco, and 51 Pegasus. Wednesday, January 25, 2006 -- Late Afternoon Scientists have found the smallest Earth like planet outside of our solar system. The planet has five times the Earth's mass and is orbiting a red dwarf about 25,000 light years away. The scientists found the planet by using microlensing. The way it works is that when a planet passes between us and the star in question, the light from the star is bent by the gravity of the planet. This causes the light to appear brighter. The brightness lasts for the amount of time that it takes the planet to orbit so scientists have to keep a close eye on the star to notice the effect. Thursday, January 19, 2006 -- Early Evening New Horizons launched this afternoon. That means that the spacecraft will be able to use Jupiter's gravity to hasten the trip to Pluto. Wednesday, January 18, 2006 -- Afternoon New Horizons has been delayed until Thursday after a storm in Maryland caused a power outage at the spacecraft's operations center which is located in the area. Tuesday, January 17, 2006 -- Late Afternoon New Horizons launch was cancelled for today due to gusty winds. The launch is scheduled again for tomorrow afternoon between 1:16 and 3:15. More data on exercise and Alzheimer's. It seems that researchers at the University of Washington have found that regular exercise reduced the risk of Alzheimer's by 40%. As they said even gentle exercise was helpful for the participants. In fact, the more frail a person was, the more the person benefitted from regular exercise. I think that the key words here are regular exercise. Sometimes people think that if they don't run five miles a day, it isn't exercise. Because they don't have time or can't run that far, they just give up on the idea of exercise altogether. That thinking is wrong. Just get out there and do something. Park your car farther away from the door in the parking lot. Walk up two of the seventeen flight of stairs to the office before getting on the elevator. All the bits and bobs over the day add up to better health in the long run. Tuesday, January 17, 2006 -- Afternoon The Pluto mission, New Horizons, is scheduled for liftoff today at 2:30 pm. That's less then 20 minutes away as I write this. The mission is to send a spacecraft to Pluto that will pass by the planet and its moon, Charon, at a fairly close distance. It should be pass within 6000 miles of the planet at its closest pass, and that is closer to the planet than our moon is to us (the moon is 238,857 miles away). We are hoping to gather data about Pluto and the evolution of our Solar System with this mission. After the craft passes Pluto, it will continue on to the Kuiper Belt. If all goes as planned and the spacecraft gets off before February 3, it can pass by Jupiter and use its gravitational force to push the craft on to Pluto. We would then reach Pluto by July of 2015. Otherwise the craft won't get there until 2018. So the couple of weeks difference in time at launch will result in three years difference in arrival. The amount of time that it should take the signal to reach Earth from the craft as it nears Pluto should be around 4.5 hours. I have always been interested in puzzles and mysteries and it seems that be the ticket for keeping my brain functions continuing at present level for as many years as possible. Research has been saying that one of the ways to keep the aging brain healthy and to possibly ward off Alzheimer's Disease is through brain calisthenics. There were several interesting articles about brain function in last week's issue of Time. The geist of the articles is that if you want to maintain mental functions well into your golden years, the things to do are to eat well, get plenty of exercise, and challenge your brain with a variety of activities like reading, word and math puzzles, and Sudoku. Monday, January 16, 2006 -- Afternoon The Stardust probe has landed safely on Earth after its seven year mission to collect space dust and comet particles. Now scientists will have the opportunity to study these particles to learn more about our Solar System and its evolution. Saturday, January 7, 2006 -- Afternoon One of my interests is Egyptology. It is something that has fascinated me since I was a child, and I would love to be able to go on an expedition to do some digging in Egypt. Unfortunately, I don't have the qualifications for such a task, but I can participate virtually with Johns Hopkins University expedition to the Temple Precinct of Mut at Karnak. The expedition started on January 3, but we all can follow along with the progress with daily calendar of pictures and text. There was some talk that Pluto's moon, Charon, might be a twin planet, and that the two planets were twins that were orbiting each other while orbiting the sun. However, in July of this past year, scientists were able to do some observations of the atmosphere of Charon. This was done by watching Charon eclipse a distant star. While the moon appeared to pass in front of the star from our perspective, we could judge the atmosphere because if the star appeared to suddenly disappear from view, that would mean there was no atmosphere. A more gradual disappearance would have been the result of an atmosphere. Well, the star disappeared suddenly which means that Charon does not have an atmosphere. Any atmosphere that the moon would have would be thinner than the Earth's moon. That means that even though Charon is half the size of Pluto, it is not a planetary object. Friday, December 23, 2005 -- Afternoon Scientists have observed an explosion on the Moon that occurred on November 7 of this year. The explosion was caused by a 12 centimeter-wide meteorite traveling at 27 km/s that crashed into the Moon. It seems that the meteorite might have been part of the Taurid meteor shower that occurs in late October/early November. The explosion from the impact was equal to 70 kg of TNT. Thursday, December 22, 2005 -- Afternoon Two reports are challenging the assumption that there may have once been water on Mars. According to the two reports, the layered sandstone like terrain might be the result of volcanic activity or collisions from space. Obviously, much more data and research will be needed before a definitive answer can be given. If you are interested in what might happen if an object collided with a planet in our Solar System, check out the Solar Systems Collisions page. If you go to the page, try out Target--Earth, Projectile Composition--Iron, Projectile Diameter 50 km, Projectile Velocity 80.0 km/sec. Tuesday, December 20, 2005 -- Morning Scientists think that they have found the location where Beagle 2 crashed late in 2003. The scientists have looked at the crater where Beagle 2 was supposed to land, and have found disturbances in the area that are indicitive of an impact. No sign of debris at this point. Monday, December 19, 2005 -- Afternoon I have been listening to the The Very Best of the Feynman Lectures today. It is a quiet time at work, and alot of people aren't around, so there is no one to disturb by listening to physics lectures. The cds cover The Theory of Gravitation, Curved Space, Electromagnetism, Probablity, The Relation of Wave and Particle Viewpoints and The Schrodinger equation. The lectures are interesting, and would be even more fun if you could see the slides that he shows. Feynman was an interesting character and was acknowledged as one of the best physics lecturers around. His New York accent is very noticeable, and the lectures are entertaining in that he find a common way to explain things and he uses humor. If you are interested in physics, you should check out the cd set. Wednesday, December 14, 2005 -- Evening Hubble Telescope has been used to find the mass of a near-by white dwarf. The white dwarf is a companion star to Sirius and is called Sirius B. It has been incredibly difficult to get size estimates because of the brightness of Sirius. However, they were able to use Hubble's imaging spectrograph to gather the data. Sirius B is around the size of Earth, 7,500 miles in diameter, but it's mass is around 98% that of the Sun. White dwarfs are very dense stars that are the product of a sun run that has run out of fuel to keep on burning via nuclear fusion. The star winds up collapsing in on its self. Saturday, December 10, 2005 -- Morning There have been some problems with the robotic arm on the Mars Rover, Opportunity. It seems that one of the coils in the motor that works the arm might have snapped, and the arm has been locked in the stowed position since November 25. The scientists were able to get the arm to move a little bit yesterday, but the question is how do they want to proceed. If the arm should lock in an extended position, it could cause problems. The other rover, Spirit, is so far doing fine. Tuesday, November 29, 2005 -- Morning Leave it to scientists. They have found that there is a part of the brain that can cause someone to perceive themselves as fat even when they aren't. The area is the posterior parietal cortex and sits right above the ear. The way the scientists were able to identify this spot as the culprit was by strapping a vibrating wrist band to some volunteers. When the volunteers touched their waists, they felt that their waists were smaller. The scientists were looking at brain scans of the volunteers and found that there was activity in this particular part of the brain. Those who thought that their waists shrunk the most had the most activity in this part of the brain. Friday, November 25, 2005 -- Evening Britain's Royal Society doesn't want scientific papers released on the Internet. Why? Because they claim that have scientific information on the Internet will harm scientific debate. What a bunch of hooey! Having the information readily available to the general public should increase the scientific knowledge and lead to a better informed debate. Then the real story comes out. It's not scientific debate that the Royal Society is concerned about. It's the almighty dollar, or pound. If the information is released on the Internet for free, why would you subscribe to a journal to get the same information? They believe that it would cause non-profit organizations to go under. The only concern that I would have is if non peer reviewed research was published. As a reader of such information, I would hope that the science follows certain standards, and that I am just not being sold a line on the moon being made out of green cheese. I've never understood the elitist attitude that some in science have that science should not be made accessible to people. I think that those who spout that line just want to validate themselves as being superior. Monday, November 7, 2005 -- Morning This week the European Space Agency will be launching the Venus Express that will be going to Venus to gather information on how a planet that seems so much like our own could be so different. I think that some scientists are looking for a way to blame it all on greenhouse gases and make the implication that something similar could happen here on our planet. The first thing that I would like to see if such a hypothesis is made are the remnants of cars on the planet and other industrial evidence. Thursday, November 3, 2005 -- Afternoon Two rather interesting stories stories are appearing in this week's Nature. First up is that scientists think that they have identified some of the first light that would have appeared from the earliest stars in the Cosmos. If they are correct, scientists could gather more information on what caused the universe to exist. Now, whether they have actually found the first stars is the question because basically what they did is observations of the skies and tried to subtract the light from known stars, galaxies, etc. I think that it is like fishing for a needle in a haystack, but they believe that they have found it. The second story is about the measurement of the black hole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Two scientists from China say that their measurements of the black hole put it at half the size of earlier estimates. According to them, the black hole will fit in the space between the Sun and the Earth. Tuesday, November 1, 2005 -- Morning Two new moons have been found orbiting around Pluto. Scientists are hoping that this new find can give us some more information about how the Kuiper Belt was formed. Monday, October 31, 2005 -- Morning Leave it to CMU to be on the cutting edge of technology and research. Scientists at CMU have developed a language translation device that is connected to someone's head. By detecting the movements of the jaw and face muscles, the device is able to make translations from one language into another. A demonstration was given at CMU by a native Mandarin Chinese speaker whose words were translated into English for the audience. Of course, at this point, the speaker has to have the device wired to his face, so it's not as sci-fi as it sounds. The possibilities are intriquing. Friday, October 28, 2005 -- Evening Mars is going to make its closest approach to Earth this coming Sunday morning. The next time the planet will be as close will be 13 years from now. If you are into star gazing, this weekend will be the best time to do some gazing Mars' way. Wednesday, October 19, 2005 -- Evening Scientists have found that Mars used to be alot more like Earth than originally thought. It seems that they have found that the plates of the planet were once moving. That's what has happened with the Earth and is the explanation of the movement of the continents and earthquakes. The evidence is found in the striping that is found in the magnetic field of the planet. That means that the direction of the magnetic field changed at some point in the past, and this is usually a sign of shifting plates. Saturday, October 8, 2005 -- Late evening It seems that Stanford's Stanley won the Grand Challenge. It is abit confusing because the times on the Grand Challenge web page show the CMU robots before Stanford. It must be some sort of glitch in the system. It does seem that DARPA is looking at the results and that CMU's Sandstorm might be in the competition. At this point though, the money ($2 million) is going to Stanford. This is a big improvement over last year when none of the vehicles could complete the course, and in fact just went a few miles. Saturday, October 8, 2005 -- Later Afternoon Newer update for the Grand Challenge. It seems that Red team one from CMU, Sandstorm, might be in the lead. The two CMU and Stanford robotic vehicles did complete the race, but for some reason, the times that are appearing on the DARPA status board keep changing. As of this minute (5:25 pm), Sandstorm is ahead. I should know for sure when I come back from the hockey game. Saturday, October 8, 2005 -- Afternoon The Grand Challenge started today. So far I have been able to find out that the two CMU vehicles are still in the race and have completed 2/3rds of the course. At the beginning of the race, the entrants were given the GPS coordinates for the entire race on a CD. There has been a definite improvement in the quality of the vehicles over the past year with all of the entrants but one covering more of the course than was completed last year. The start times for the vehicles were staggered with the point being that the vehicle that finishes in the fastest time wins. So far, the Stanford team is doing well. They have covered 127 miles in 7 hours and 12 minutes. CMU's H1ghlander is second, covering 124 miles in 7 hours and 19 minutes. Sandstorm, the second CMU entrant, is third at 123 miles in 7 hours and 12 minutes. Unless something happens to Stanford, they will win the race. Stanley, the Stanford entry, started the race in second position. The race should be over shortly because the total distance is 132 miles. In fact at 4:53 pm, I think Stanford finished at 7 hours and 30 minutes. Their time is less than both of the CMU entrants and the CMU entrants are still racing, so it looks like Stanford might have won. Thursday, October 6, 2005 -- Afternoon The CMU robotic team has managed to get two of the top three starting slots in the Grand Challenge which will start this coming Saturday. Fingers are crossed for one of the two teams to win the $2 million prize. Saturday, October 1, 2005 -- Late Evening Scientist have found a moon that is orbiting the tenth planet that was found not too long ago. It seemed that the scientists noticed something following the planet and think that it is a moon. It's useful to find a moon because that means that they might be able to determine the size of the planet based on the moon's distance and orbit around the planet. If a moon travels quickly around a planet it means that the planet is likely to be massive. Saturday, October 1, 2005 -- Afternoon Google and NASA teaming up to come up with new technology that will help the space program. It appears that Google will be building a facility on NASA's research facility in California. It seems that Google will be helping with a variety of computing and data issues. I would imagine that Microsoft must be green with envy over this move. Thursday, September 29, 2005 -- Late Evening Mars Rover, Opportunity, is being sent to investigate its largest crater yet. The crater is Erebus, and scientists are hoping to get a plethora of data from the crater. Wednesday, September 28, 2005 -- Afternoon This was on last night, and I recorded it. However, keep your eyes open for repeats! Cosmos the series that Carl Sagan did in 1980 has returned to TV. It's on the Science Channel, and will be shown on Tuesday evenings. It seems that some of the graphics and animatations have been recently enhanced. I haven't had a chance to see the shows yet, but I am looking forward to it. I loved the shows and I think I saw them several times when they were repeated on PBS. I became a life long fan of Sagan's, and I would have to credit him with my fascination with astronomy (I did get a degree in physics and astronomy). The show is wonderful. Watch if you can. If not, look for Sagan's books. Tuesday, September 27, 2005 -- Afternoon I originally mentioned this around May 25, but it appears that more scientists are getting on board with the idea that Voyager 1 is on in the heliosheath. This is the area of solar system that marks the location where the solar winds slow. Voyager already experienced the terminal shock that occurs when something hits the heliosheath area in December of 2004. The Sun is surrounded by a bubble that marks the extent of our solar system. This bubble is called the heliosphere and extends well beyond where the farthest planet is. It is expected that Voyager will reach the heliopause which marks the outer boundary of the heliosphere in eight to ten years. Voyager will then no longer be affected by solar winds of any kind. At least from our Sun. Monday, September 26, 2005 -- Evening More news on the Grand Challenge. Red Whittaker of the CMU Robotics Institute says that he thinks his team has a good chance to win the challenge this year. It seems that both Red Team vehicles, H1ghlander and Sandstorm, have both completed 175 mile courses in preparing for the event. As Red says, what it comes down to is the durability and smartness of the vehicles and the luck of the contestants. H1ghlander was the vehicle that was damaged when it turned over last week, and it was back with limited functionality within 48 hours. Monday, September 26, 2005 -- Afternoon Teams will be competing for a spot in the Grand Challenge robot race on Oct. 8. Qualifications will begin this Wednesday with 40 teams competing in a 2 mile semi-final race that will determine the 20 entrants for the great race. This is the robotic vehicle race that takes place in the Nevada desert and could be as long as 175 miles. The robotic vehicles are supposed to navigate the course without human interaction. They are supposed to respond to whatever comes into their path based on algorithms that have been preprogrammed into their systems. The winner of the race will get $2 million dollars. CMU has two challengers on the Red Team, but one of them flipped last week while preparing for the Challenge. The vehicle is being repaired and should be ready for the qualifying round. Wednesday, September 21, 2005 -- Afternoon Scientists are find that Mars is alot more active than originally thought. It seems that the Mars Global Surveyor has found evidence of gullies and craters. The gullies showed up in photos from April of 2005. They checked back on previous photos of the area, and the gullies were not in evidence in July of 2002. To have such changes in just a few years time means that more is going on with Mars than we thought. Scientists have found out that the ingredient in green tea that might fight cancer, might also play a role in protecting the brain from Alzheimer's Disease. Actually what the scientists found out is that when the injected lab mice with the antioxident in green tea that the beta-amyloid protein was not produced as much. It is suspected that these proteins are the cause of the plaques in the brain that clog the arteries and wind up causing Alzheimer's. Of course that doesn't mean that it will work in humans or that the prevention of Alzheimer's is as simple as drinking a glass of green tea every day. For one thing, there are other things in the green tea that appear to block the protein from doing its job. The other thing is that scientists tend to give lab mice so much of the ingredient that they are testing that it isn't feasible for a human to get that much into their bodies without supplements. So the thing now is to find out if and how to make the supplement, determine the amount that would be needed to prevent Alzheimer's, and wonder if it will cause any side effects in humans that werern't noted in mice. Monday, September 19, 2005 -- Afternoon NASA has released detailed plans for its upcoming moon flights. They hope to get four men on the moon in 2018 for a week. The spacecraft that should carry the astronauts to their destination should be ready for 2012. That should give them enough time to test the technology and hopefully get the astronauts there and back safely. The cost for this endeavor should cost around $100 billion. Yep, you heard that right. Some folks think that this is a waste of tax payer money, but there are so many benefits to be gained by returning men to space, not just orbit of the Earth. Saturday, September 17, 2005 -- Early Afternoon NASA is planning to have men back on the Moon by 2018. The plan at this point is to make the vehicle a combination of space shuttle and Apollo rocket parts. It seems that the engineers for the new vehicle will be relying on older, more tried and true technology as opposed to something newer, flasher, and more impressive. That makes sense because basically they want to get the folks there and back safely, and sometimes an old war horse is more reliable than a frisky filly. From the Moon, it will be a hop, skip, and a jump to Mars. At least that is my hope. I have to admit that I am not the brave, adventurous type who will want to make the mission, but I think that it would be great for our future. Friday, September 16, 2005 -- Morning Leave it to the global warming fanatics to blame hurricane Katrina on global warming. It seems that some scientists are saying that the warming of the planet has lead to warmer ocean waters that are spawning more powerful hurricanes. Yes, there are some facts here that can't be refuted. Warmer waters make for stronger hurricanes. The only thing that I question in this science is ascribing the problem to global warming that is caused by human endeavors. The researchers studied hurricanes over the past 35 years and found that the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes increased with 169 in the period from 1975-1989 and 269 from 1990 to 2004. I don't know what that would actually mean, because you can choose any period of time and find a fluctuation. I would like to know what the strengths of hurricanes were throughout the recorded history which I would imagine would be longer than 35 years. I would think that the reason we are seeing these particular years is because the goal of the scientists is to present data that supports their opinion and theory. I'm sure that if you look at the full record of hurricanes you might find a different story. That's the problem that I have with the media reporting science stories. Everything you get is spoonfed to you with an agenda in mind. Unfortunately the majority of viewers lap it up like it is manna from heaven. Question what you read and hear. You might learn that things are exactly as you are being told. Wednesday, September 14, 2005 -- Late morning The Japanese launched a spacecraft abit over two years ago that has finally reached its target. The spacecraft is the Hayabusa and is investigating an asteroid named Itokawa. The spacecraft is now observing the asteroid and will at some point land on the asteroid, grab a sample and then return the sample to Earth. The sample should return to Earth in the summer of 2007. We are hoping to get a better understanding of the formation of the solar system by doing more research on asteroids. Monday, September 12, 2005 -- Late Morning We turned Hubble on our own solar system, and have a new color map of Pluto. The interesting parts are the areas that are assumed to be methane frost and frozen carbon monoxide. The information was gathered over 12 orbits, and it took two years of computer processing to get the final map. Meanwhile another team worked on getting precise measurements of Pluto's moon, Charon, during lunar eclipses. Scientists are now using the information gathered from Hubble with information data from the 1980s. The question on astronomers minds is whether Pluto deserves the classification of planet. Friday, September 9, 2005 -- Evening Scientists see alot of similarities between the Earth and Titan, Saturn's moon, and the reason for that may be that the objects are in locations that could be considered sweet spots. That means that the Earth and Titan have managed to be the right size/mass and distance from the Sun. This means that there is a posssibility that there might be some life forms on Titan. At least, that is what scientists have been hoping for the longest time. Scientists have also found an object in the Kuiper Belt that has the fastest rotation rate of any object in the solar system. This object rotates every 3.9 hours. The object looks like a squashed rugby ball probably because of its rotation rate. Thursday, September 8, 2005 -- Morning Information that is coming back from the Deep Impact mission is that the comet Tempel 1 was more flimsy than originally thought. Carbonates and clay were found in the ejected materials from the impact, and scientists say that these are signs of the presence of liquid water. It may be that liquid water is more prevalent than previously thought. Some things that were found were expected, but the bond of the materials was more fragile than originally thought. It seems that some of the material is held together, but loose like snow lying on the ground. Of course, Tempel 1 may be an anomaly. It seems that the Mars Express has found that an ice belt once used to encircle the Martian equator. This is based on evident that the orbital has found that suggests that ice was one in the region. Now, the ice is centered on the polar caps. Also, it has been observed that the Mars' planetary tilt can vary from as much as 15 to 40 degrees. The reason for the tilt variation is because Mars lacks a moon big enough to stablize the planet. Apple released its iPod type phone yesterday. The phone doesn't look very snazzy, and it's made by Motorola. Some folks don't think that the phone will do well in the market because it has a high cost, and there are already phones out there that can do similar things for a lower cost. Also, I think that I would rather just get an iPod instead of getting a phone that does the job. I know that the mantra is that you don't want all of these devices in your pocket, that you want one device that does it all. Why? If one component goes bad, then you have to replace all the devices or get the same phone/device again. I think that it's like the video/DVD players. If the video tape portion breaks, you either have to get the whole device again, or buy a separate video player. Wednesday, September 7, 2005 -- Morning Scientists now believe that the volcanos at the north pole of Mars may still be active. The reason that they think this is because there aren't any signs of impact craters on the volcanos. The implication is that the volcanos recently must have erupted and that this wiped out the signs of craters. The scientists gathered the information from Europe's Mars Express. Tuesday, September 6, 2005 -- Morning Scientists from the Royal Veterinary College and Cambridge University are trying to get a DNA sample from the bones of Eclipse, who is considered the greatest racehorse ever. There has been a project to get DNA from a variety of the biggest names in the history of horseracing with the goal being a better understanding of equine physiology. It seems that with Eclipse, it is going to be difficult to get the DNA from his bone sample because the DNA will have degraded over time. Eclipse's whole skeleton was saved when he died because of his standing as a race horse. He was unbeated in his racing career which spanned the years 1769 to 1770. The horseracing awards in this country are known as the Eclipse awards in his honor. Another horse that the team would like to get a DNA sample from is the Godolphin Arabian. This horse is one of the founding fathers of the Thoroughbred breed. The scientists are trying to get the okay to exhume the horse from his resting place in near Cambridge. Monday, September 5, 2005 -- Evening Scientists have decided that the ice balls that form the rings of Saturn aren't hard. The particles move more slowly than originally thought. How did they come to this decision? It's from data that has been gleaned from the Cassini mission. What the scientists would like to do is actually somehow capture some of the material and analyze it, but that won't be possible unless another mission is sent to the planet. Sunday, September 4, 2005 -- Afternoon The Mars Global Surveyor has shut off its science instruments due to a glitch. The folks at NASA are rushing to figure out what the problem is because they want to take some pictures from the area where the Mars Polar Lander crashed. They want to figure out what went wrong to cause the crash so they can avoid the issue next time around. Saturday, September 3, 2005 -- Morning Spirit, the Mars Rover, has made it to the top of the hill and has sent back some spectacular pictures. The scientists are studying the pictures that are being sent back to determine where they will go next. Friday, September 2, 2005 -- Afternoon Researchers at Cornell and Tel Aviv University have come up with a computer algorithm that will allow a computer to form grammatically correct sentences in any language. The way it works is that a piece of text is scanned into the computer in a language such as English or Chinese. The text is analyzed with the algorithm, and the program can then construct new sentences that are grammatically correct. This new algorithm is called Automatic Distillation of Structure (ADIOS) and it basically does its job by realigning the sentences over and over while it looks for overlapping parts. Using a statistical method, the algorithm looks for patterns and structural setup. Tuesday, August 30, 2005 -- Late Morning Leave it to the Japanese! Sometime in mid September, a personal robot is going to go on sale in Japan. The robot will alert you if someone breaks into your house and can act like a personal secretary by taking down notes and appointments and reminding you of your appointments. Not bad. However, I would rather that the robot alerted the police to a burglar OR pulled some sort of Home Alone move and took on the burglar. Scientists have gotten pictures of two galaxies colliding. Basically what happens when galaxies collide the shape of the galaxies is distorted, and new stars can be formed from the effects of the collision. The scientists said that it would give them a good picture of what will happen to the Milky Way galaxy in 5 billions years when we merge with the Andromeda galaxy. I wonder which will come first--the death of our Sun which supposedly has another 5 billion years left or this event. The one scientist said that he is just glad that he won't be around for the big event. I think that is the one thing that annoys me. I wish that I could be around for it. Not that I would want to die that way, but geeze, wouldn't it be interesting to see what happens and to know what the fate of the universe will be? I am one of those who would like to believe that we live in a closed universe. I think that might make the most sense if you really give it thought. A closed is one where the universe expands only so far and then collapses in again. The collapse would lead to a Big Bang. In my mind, we believe that our universe started from a Big Bang. To me, that means that there was something before--a closed universe that came back together in a bang. Why not continue that pattern? Of course, we could believe that there might have been multiple Big Bangs before, and this time things (matter and other unknown conditions) were just right to change the universe to a flat or open universe. Both would mean a universe that continued to expand. I don't think we know enough about the whole matter to make any determination (although you know that doesn't stop scientists!) Physics tells us that absent of any external force things like to continue doing what they are doing. So the reason a ball stops rolling is the friction of the ground acting on the ball and slowing it down till it stops. So if things like to change state, then why not a continuing volley of Big Bangs? Monday, August 29, 2005 -- Morning The global warming folks are blaring their horns again. This time the story is that global warming is the cause behind the mass extinction that happened 250 million years ago. Of course, it wasn't a huge meteor from space that caused a cloud of dirt to rise up into the atmosphere that lead to this extinction. It was global warming. How do they know this now? Well, they "Claim" to have developed software models that are better able to duplicate "lethal super-greenhouse climates". I always take this stuff with a grain of salt, but unfortunately most don't. They always assume that scientists are telling the truth. It's not that they are lying, but they will let bias distort their vision and allow it to unconsciously influence the results of their tests. The other thing that they don't let the general non-scientific population know is that this is an interpretation by one group of individuals and there are others who may dispute the findings or the way the research was done. We as readers of scientific material that is released to the public should realize that we should still question the findings and educate ourselves by reading more about it. Also, the media will sometimes give you only a portion of the whole report because the media sometimes has a bias. Always be aware of the fact that there is bias in the way that information is presented and released. Friday, August 26, 2005 -- Late Morning A study to be released in Science today states that the core of the Earth is spinning faster than the crust. This was first proposed in 1996 by two of the authors of the study out today. After analyzing earthquake data, the scientists have decided that the core spins one quarter to one half degree faster than the crust. The analysis was done by taking readings from stations in Alaska for earthquakes that happened in the south Atlantic and comparing the time and wave shape. Doing the analysis from those locations would mean that the wave had to pass through the Earth's core. The theory is that the core spinning at a different speed is what produces the Earth's magnetic field. The scientists involved in the study think that the speed of the core could fluctuate and at times be slower than the crust. The results that they currently have are only indicitive of current conditions. Thursday, August 25, 2005 -- Morning The European Space Agency is planning another Mars mission. The ESA are the folks responsible for the Beagle mission. This time, they have been formulating a plan to send up a single rover and a stationary unit that would burrow deeper into the ground. It's possible that we may need to get deeper into the soil to find some evidence of life either present or past. Right now, only discussions are taking place because some in the program feel that the ESA should send up a twin rover mission as opposed to the single and stationary. Hopefully the ESA will have more luck than they did with Beagle which was lost on landing almost two years ago. Monday, August 22, 2005 -- Early afternoon The Mars Rover Spirit is approaching the peak of Husband Hill and should reach it sometime this week. The total distance yet to be covered is 70 meters. Spirit has been climbing the hill since late last year and we should get a wonderful view of the surrounding area when Spirit reaches the top. Once it is there, a determination will be made on where Spirit should go next. The crew will be looking for layered rocks because that might be the best location to look for prior existence of water. The reason is because the layering can be the result of water. It is amazing what the rovers have accomplished in the year and a half that they have been on Mars. That's what I would call bang for our buck. Sunday, August 21, 2005 -- Afternoon The original manuscript of Albert Einstein's 1925 paper on Quantum Theory of the monatomic ideal gas was found in the archives at the Leiden University's Lorentz Institute for Theoretical Physics by a graduate student who was working on his thesis. According to the school, the graduate student is sure to get top marks on his thesis because he also found some other documents that the school did not realize were in the archives, such as a letter from Niels Bohr. I wonder if the thesis is on how the school is not very good at cataloging its archive! The Einstein paper was about how particles in a gas an near absolute zero will clump together into one huge "mono-atom". Saturday, August 20, 2005 -- Afternoon Discovery is being shuttled back to Florida today. Part of the trip was made yesterday, and the final destination should be reached today. Discovery gets back across the country on the back of a Boeing 747 jet. It's amazing to see how small the shuttle is in comparison. It looks like a baby chimp hanging on to its mum. Friday, August 19, 2005 -- Morning The space shuttle flight are on hold until March of next year. The biggest issue right now, which may be time consuming, is that that engineers will have to find a solution for the foam issue. I'm imaging that they won't go back to tried and true method that they used to use because of the freon issue. It does make you wonder though if they should. It might be that environmentally safe/politically correct and safe space flights might not go hand in hand. Thursday, August 18, 2005 -- Afternoon It seems that NASA is having problems learning from their mistakes. It seems that the members of the oversight panel that have been working on the space shuttle are disappointed in NASA's ability or inability to make matters right after the Columbia disaster. The panel is quoted in the report saying "We expected that Nasa leadership would set high standards for post-Columbia work...we were, overall, disappointed" and "It is difficult to be objective based on hindsight, but it appears to us that lessons that should have been learned have not been." Not only hasn't NASA done what it should to make the shuttle safe, but what it did cost more, took longer and was more complex than it needed to be, at least according to the panelists. We shall have to see how NASA addresses the issues given a second change. Right now, the administration at NASA should be thanking its stars that they do have a second chance, and that this past mission with Discovery didn't go horribly wrong. Friday, August 12, 2005 -- Early morning The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter just launched at 7:45 am EDT. It looks like everything has gone well, and it is on its way to Mars. Safe trip Orbiter! The earliest that the space shuttle will launch will be November. Before they fly again, NASA has to resolve the issue with the foam on the launching rockets. That might be an expensive and timely proposition. Thursday, August 11, 2005 -- Morning The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been delayed yet again. This time problems where found when hydrogen fuel was being loaded for the mission. It appears that the issue was due to a computer glitch that showed up as the rockets were being fueled. It was a problem similar to the one that was noted with the space shuttle prior to its launch were the sensors weren't accurately measuring the fuel that was being loaded into the rocket. At this time, there is no time mentioned as an alternative launch time or date. Set your alarm clock to get up before sunrise tomorrow to see the best display of the 2005 Perseid Meteor Shower. The meteor shower occurs every year from the end of July through the beginning of August, and there is always one day that is the best. This year, the best time to check things out will be tomorrow. Get out anytime between 2 am and sunrise. Try to get away from the city lights, hope for no cloud cover, and look to the east for the show. You will also be able to see Mars at the same time because it will be in the same location. Wednesday, August 10, 2005 --Afternoon It seems to be official. The Pens have a goaltender. Today the goalie in question is Jocelyn Thibault. It seems that the Pens traded a fourth round draft pick to get Thiabault from the Chicago Blackhawks. Now we still have to sign Thibault because he is a restricted free agent. Wednesday, August 10, 2005 -- Morning The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter launch has been delayed until tomorrow for safety reasons. It seems that there are problems with the rocket that is going to be used to launch the orbiter. The rocket is the Atlas V. It seems that there was a failure with the Redundant Rate Gyro Unit (RRGU) when the rocket was tested at the manufacturer. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is also going to see if Beagle 2 can be located. Beagle 2 was the British Mars Rover that was lost on Mars in December 2003. Tuesday, August 9, 2005 -- Afternoon Tomorrow NASA will be launching another Mars probe. This one is the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which will orbit Mars looking for good landing locations for future robotic or manned missions. The probe will also be looking for signs of water on the planet. The probe has a launch window starting around 7:54 am EDT. Tuesday, August 9, 2005 -- Morning The space shuttle Discovery landed safely this morning at 8:12 am ET. The shuttle had to land at Edwards Air Force Base due to unstable weather in Florida. Because of the change in landing venue, the cost to transport the shuttle back to Florida will be around $1 million. Everything with the landing went just as it should have. Over at Montour School District, filming has begun for ESPN's reality series, Bound for Glory, that will show Dick Butkus coaching a local high school football team. The goal is supposed to be a championship, but considering the fact that Butkus has never coached before, it's probably not likely. Yesterday was the first day of training camp for the Montour Spartans, and things seemed to go well without Butkus really stepping on the toes of coach Lou Cerro. So far, Butkus only "knows" about 12 of the student players, but considering that he doesn't know how to pronounce their names, he must not know them that well. It just goes to show to what depths a school district will go to get some money. I don't think this was a move to get to a championship. Hiring Cerro was the thing that would get them to the championship. Having Butkus come in deters from the work that Cerro could do. I will be watching the series though since it is Pittsburgh based. Monday, August 8, 2005 -- Morning It's a good thing that I didn't get up in the middle of the night to watch the landing of the space shuttle. The landing has been postponed for 24 hours due to cloud cover in Florida. The shuttle should definitely be landing tomorrow because they are looking at other locations besides the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They can also attempt a landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It seems that the weather is still unstable in Florida, so it was a good idea to scrub the landing. I'm not sure why the alternate landing site could not be used today. Okay, so it takes 24 hours to get ready for a landing (I'm just guessing here). The issue that I have is that you would think and hope that the areas are ready and prepared for a landing whenever the shuttle is in space. After all, you never know when an emergency might happen. Also, even if you have to change trajectory, you would not think that would take 24 hours. I suppose that that biggest issue is that the shuttle has to get back to Florida in the end, so they would rather it land there, than to land elsewhere and have to be ferried back. Thursday, August 4, 2005 -- Afternoon The folks at NASA have decided against another spacewalk. They have decided that the thermal blanket does not need to be fixed and all should be good for reentry on Monday. It seems that there aren't any lakes or rivers on Saturn's moon, Titan. It seems that the Huygens sent back imagines from Titan that on closer examination don't reveal any signs of liquid on the surface. The study was mostly on the southern hemisphere of the moon, so there is still a possibility that there is something in the northern hemisphere. Thursday, August 4, 2005 -- Morning There are more problems with Discovery. It seems that thermal blanket that lies under the cockpit window has been damaged. This damage alone isn't a problem. The concern is that the blanket will come loose during re-entry and will cause damage elsewhere on the shuttle that could be catastrophic. A decision will be made later on to determine if a spacewalk is needed to repair the damage, and what the repair will be. The thing is that some of this damage might have happened in previous flights without problems, but now with the scrutiny of NASA on every square inch of the shuttle, more things are coming to light. Wednesday, August 3, 2005 -- Morning I am watching Steve Robinson removing the gap filler material from the underbelly of the space shuttle. They are showing it live on FOX News. He was able to easily remove the filler by pulling it out. Now he is moving on to the second area of concern. The second piece which was around ten feet from the first was removed even more easily than the first. So the mission was a success. Tuesday, August 2, 2005 -- Morning The shuttle crew are going to remove the hanging material from the underbelly of the shuttle tomorrow. The astronaut who is going to be doing, Stephen Robinson, said that he feels comfortable with the task. This will be the first time that any of the shuttle crew has gone to do a a repair on the underside of the shuttle while it is in orbit. The plan at this point is to remove the dangling piece. First Robinson will attempt to pull the piece out, and if that doesn't work, he will cut it off. The pulling bit always makes me nervous. You wouldn't want it to be like the proverbial string that hangs from the sweater and a yank winds up unravelling the sweater. Sunday, July 31, 2005 -- Evening For more serious news, there is an issue with Discovery. There is some material that is dangling from the underbelly of the craft. This material will burn during reentry, and right now the scientists are trying to determine if the risk to the safety of the flight is minimal or not. If it is not, then the crew will have to make a spacewalk to either remove the material or shove it back into place and hope it holds. The flight itself is being extended a day so the International Space Station can be restocked and to help out in general. Saturday, July 30, 2005 -- Afternoon Some astronomers are considering the discovery of the object orbitting beyond Pluto as the tenth planet. Right now, it is only being referred to as 2003 UB313, but a name has submitted for the planet is now in the approval process. Speculation, because at this point we really don't know for sure how large the object is, is that the planet is larger than Pluto. This does raise some questions though. The question then becomes what constitutes a planet. Do we set a size limitation? Some people think that Pluto should have its planetary status removed because it really isn't large enough to be considered a planet, and might even be a moon of Neptune that escaped Neptune's gravitational field. Of course, as I will say over and over again with alot of the things that are mentioned in astronomy, it's speculation. We need to have more robotic missions to these areas to gather alot more information before we can claim to be sure. Friday, July 29, 2005 -- Morning It seems that some foam may have hit Discovery. At this point, it appears that the shuttle can stil make a safe re-entry to Earth. It seems that there are 11 "indications" of what could have been impacts from foam. There are four areas on the wing that might have been damaged. Astronomers have found an ice lake in the northern pole region of Mars. The lake lies inside of an impact crater in the area. It appears that the ice is highly visible, so it's not just a matter of speculation, but appears to be a valid observation. Meanwhile there have been further discoveries in our Solar System. A fairly large object has been found orbiting the Sun out past Pluto. Of course because of its distance, astronomers are sure if the object is a large, dim object or a small, bright one. Speculation is that the object is composed of rock and ice. There's not alot of information on the discovery because of how far it is from us. Thursday, July 28, 2005 -- Afternoon Discovery docked with the International Space Station today. Before docking, the shuttle did a back flip so the astronauts in the station could take pictures of the underbelly for any damage. The shuttle astronauts then went over to the station where they were given bread and salt which is supposed to bring you luck in the Russian culture. Meanwhile NASA has announced that future shuttle flights are grounded due to the debris issue that NASA has with the fuel tanks. The question my boyfriend had this morning is why all of a sudden has debris become a problem. We just didn't know that it has been a problem of late. It seems that there were problems with the Columbia flight in 1997. The scientists found that there was more damage to that Columbia flight than there has been in the past--with damage in areas that should not have been damaged and of a greater intensity than in the past. What they suspected was the reason is that they changed the way they were making the foam. Originally it was made with freon, but in the interests of being environmentally safe they changed the chemical makeup. Now the problem could be due to the adhesive that attaches the foam to the tanks or the actual makeup of the current foam. I say go back to the original formula even if it isn't environmentally correct. Wednesday, July 27, 2005 -- Morning Discovery is being checked out for damagae that may have occurred during the flight. It appears that a chunk of insulation came off of the fuel rocket again, but this time did not appear to hit the shuttle. Also, there is a tile that is missing near one of the wheel wells. In the past, tiles have gone missing during the launch. It was only a problem with the last flight, and I believe that may have been because the lose of the tiles was in a sensitive area. Supposedly, this time around, the astronauts will be able to carry out some repairs on tiles while orbitting. In fact, it was on the schedule to do some fixes just to make certain that it can be accomplished. I don't know if I would want to go up in the shuttle. As I was saying yesterday, the 1 in 100 odds (which in real life is actually 1 in 57) just don't strike me as very promising. After looking up the odds of dying it appears that you are as likely to die in the space shuttle as in a motor vehicle accident. At least with the 1 in 100 odds. Tuesday, July 26, 2005 -- Late morning Discovery had liftoff at 10:39 am today. It was quite a dramatic moment. I think that folks have lost sight at times about how impressive and dangerous it is to send man into space. After all, there's not only the lift off, but the reentry. There was clean separation of the rockets. I don't know that I would want to go up to space in the space shuttle. NASA estimates the risk of a catastrope happening with one of the shuttles is 1 in 100. Those odds aren't very good in my opinion. The actual rate of catastrophic failure has been 2 in 113 flights which is 1 in 57. So far, Discovery is doing well. The mission is scheduled to be 13 days long with a return early in the morning on Sunday, August 7. Tuesday, July 26, 2005 -- Morning Discovery is on target for launching in an hour's time. The hatch was closed on the astronauts a few minutes ago. So far, everything is going fine, and there hasn't been a repeat of the fuel gage glitch that caused the last flight to be delayed. Instead of watching the event on television, I am watching it via NASA TV. Friday, July 22, 2005 -- Morning Scientists have completed a chemical study of Mars, and they believe that Mars has been cold. These scientists believe that any periods of warmth on the planet may have been short lived, and that the notion that the planet was ever warm for an extended period of time are not true. Now there is some contradictory evidence from some meteorites that scientists believe came from Mars. It seems that these meteorites shows that there is evidence of microbial activity on Mars. Which is it? Well, perhaps the microbes were ones that developed and thrived in cold temperatures. Our prejudice is that we believe there is only one way for life to be initiated and prosper. As we do more investigation, we may find that there are alternatives. Thursday, July 21, 2005 -- Morning NASA has said Discovery is scheduled for launch this coming Tuesday, July 26. The engineers believe that the problem is due to an electrical grounding issue somewhere inside of Discovery. The problem isn't fixed, but what they will do is to fuel Discovery, begin the countdown, and see where they get. So the shuttle may launch without the problem really being fixed or identified. I think that at this point, NASA really just wants to get the launch done just to get back into space. The only thing that would concern me if I were them is the safety of the flight. If something goes wrong with this flight, you know that the likely hood of the shuttle flights continuing will be nill. It was 36 years ago yesterday that the first man landed on the moon. In honor of the occasion, Google has put together a site that allows anyone to explore the site of the lunar landings. There really isn't alot of information available, but it is what NASA has made public. The funny part of it is that when you zoom in all the way, the image changes to one of yellow swiss cheese! After all, isn't the Moon made out of cheese? You can check out the Earth in much more detail. Tuesday, July 19, 2005 -- Morning It now seems that Discovery won't be lifting off before July 26. Engineers still can't figure out what caused the sensor failure. It doesn't look good for liftoff this month, but I suppose that NASA doesn't want to hold off until the next flight window in September. Saturday, July 16, 2005 -- Morning It may be awhile before Discovery launches. NASA announced last night that the shuttle won't be flying until this coming week at the earliest. Friday, July 15, 2005 -- Morning It seems that the earliest that the space shuttle will launch will be this coming Monday. The scientists and engineers at NASA are still trying to figure out what caused the fuel tank sensor to say that the tank was full when it was really empty. My question is--shouldn't they have known whether they put fuel in the tank or not? But I suppose that's not high on their list. It seems that this is the first time that the fuel sensor malfuntioned. It also happened in April which was the reason behind the delay in its May launch date. If the shuttle doesn't launch by July 31, they will have to wait until September 9 for the next launch window to open. Thursday, July 14, 2005 -- Afternoon There was a huge solar flare/explosion from sunspot 786 this morning. The sunspot is in such a position that the explosion wasn't aimed at Earth, but we should still experience some repercussions here on Earth in the way of auroras and geomagnetic storms. Spaceweather.com has some really nice pictures and video of the event. This one is particularly nice. Thursday, July 14, 2005 -- Morning It's not certain how long the launch of the shuttle, Discovery, will be delayed. The reason for the uncertainty is that no one seems to know yet if the repair to the fuel tank sensor can be replaced on the launch pad, or if the shuttle will have to be moved to the hangar. Obviously a move to the hangar will mean a longer delay. Scientists are discovering planets in other solar systems with increasing frequency. This time there is evidence that there is a planet in a system that has three stars. The main star is one that is like our Sun. The other two stars are a pair that are as distant from the main star as Saturn is from the Sun. Scientists aren't understanding how the planet could have formed because it would have been thought that the gravitational forces wouldn't have allowed the planet to form. It just goes to show how much we have to learn about such things. The planet is the size of Jupiter and is so close to the main star that its orbit is 3.5 days. Wednesday, July 13, 2005 -- Afternoon I was just watching the news on television, and I hear that Discovery's flight has been cancelled for today. It seems that four engine sensors were not functioning properly, so the flight was scrubbed. They don't know what the cause was or what is really going on. They will be studying the problem for the past hour, and hope to reschedule the flight for tomorrow. Liftoff was supposed to be around 4 pm EDT, so tomorrow, it will be around 3 pm EDT. Tuesday, July 12, 2005 -- Morning Meanwhile Discovery is still on target for launch tomorrow. The clock is already ticking on the flight, and the external tank will be filled with liquid hydrogen and oxygen tomorrow at 6 am EDT. There is a countdown clock on NASA's website for the Return to Flight mission. At 11 am EDT, the countdown is 1 day 4 hours and 50 minutes. So liftoff should be tomorrow afternoon if all goes well. Monday, July 4, 2005 -- Morning Early in the morning, shortly before 2 am, Deep Impact did indeed do its job. The probe collided into the comet, Temple 1. The impact was larger than expected, but the scientists at NASA assure us that the impact did not affect the path of the comet. What they are hoping to do now is to position the flyby spacecraft so that it can observe changes in the activity of the comet. Observations where also taken by the flyby craft of the impact itself. Materials that were ejected by the impact should have been observed by the flyby craft to give us some idea of the makeup of the comet. Sunday, July 3, 2005 -- Evening Deep Impact has released the probe that is supposed to impact with the comet, Temple 1. The impact should be happening after midnight, and is supposed to still be on time. The expected time of impact in EDT is 1:52 am. Unfortunately, our cable company does not carry NASA TV, so my only option will be to watch the Internet feed. I'm going to keep my eye on the news channels to see if they are going to carry any coverage. Sunday, July 3, 2005 -- Morning A Japanese man, Akira Haraguchi, yesterday set the world record for reciting the digits that make up pi. Pi is defined as π=C/d, or pi is equal to a circle's circumference divided by its diameter. The man was able to recite the first 83,431 digits. It took him several hours to do it because he had to restart after 3 hours of reciting when he lost his place. Amazing! Saturday, July 2, 2005 -- Evening Venus Williams won her third Wimbledon title. Lindsay Davenport started out strong and won the first set 6-4, but then she started to have some problems with her back, and had to leave in the third set for medical treatment (ie, cortisone shot). The whole match was a hard fought one, and Venus won with a final tally of 4-6, 7-6 (7-4) 9-7. It was an exciting match to watch. Friday, July 1, 2005 -- Evening So you think that all the questions we have about science have been answered? Well, you wold be wrong. Science Magazine has a feature in the current issue that highlights the 125 questions to which we don't have answers. Some of the questions that are in the top 25 are "what is the universe made of", "how much can human life be extended", "how does the Earth's interior work", "is there life outside of our planet", "how did life on Earth arise", "how are memories stored and restored", and "can we find a cheaper oil or a replacement for it". One of the ways to subscribe to Science is to join the American Association for the Advancement of Science. I'm going to have to go to the library at the Pitt to check out the current issue. Friday, July 1, 2005 -- Afternoon The news today is that Saturn's rings appear to have an atmosphere of their own that is separate from the planet. This latest information comes from the Cassini-Huygens mission. It seems that since the rings are made up of watery icy and rocks water can sometimes come off of the rocks. When this happens molecular oxygen (O2) is released which is what makes up the atmosphere. It also seems that the planetary rotation has slowed down. Measurements that were taken in the 70s and the 80s had the rotation seven minutes faster than Cassini is measuring today. It may be that Cassini is measuring surface rotation instead of core rotation and that the planet really isn't starting an internal slow down. If that isn't the case, scientists don't seem to know what could account for the difference in observation. Remember that Saturn is a gaseous planet, and that explains the comment about surface rotation differing from core rotation. Wednesday, June 29, 2005 -- Morning New research and analysis is suggesting that a dark spot that is seen on Saturn's moon, Titan, might actually be a lake. The scientists are basing this assumption on the smooth outline of the feature which some refer to as a shoreline. According to the scientists, they say that the smoothness of the "shore" is reminiscent of a shoreline on Earth that has been eroded over time. Sometimes scientists will see what they want to see, and make analysis based on what is common to them. I think this is where science can go wrong. Sometimes you have to realize that you aren't looking at a picture of Earth but of a planet/moon that is much distant and might be different. I saw this sign on a door in my doctor's office this morning. I think it belonged to one of my doctor's co-workers. It's a quote from Einstein: "If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" How true! Tuesday, June 28, 2005 -- Afternoon |