Yesterday I went to the future and here I am!!

Here is a crazy article about baby universes popping out of old static high-entropy universes, like alpha particles popping out of nuclei. This doesn't seem that far-fetched to me. After all, the whole entropy thing is very interesting. We started out in our universe with very low entropy, everything ordered, and entropy can't help but get higher. So this baby universe idea sort of explains how it got low in the first place, but THEN where did the original static timeless universe come from? So, apparently this Sean Carroll guy is pretty cool. This all jives with my current viewing of the Cosmos series, which is AWESOME.

This sort of reminds me of a drunken conversation I had with a physicist in Vienna. He said anything that goes against entropy is considered to be life. We were arguing about whether viruses are alive. As a biochemist, I sort of see how this is a very convenient argument, but I STILL don't think viruses are alive. They wouldn't be working against entropy if they didn't have any cells full of established life machinery to infect and they would eventually succumb to entropy themselves.

Extraterrestrial FISHES?!?!?

Apparently, people are thinking that Europa, the icy moon of Jupiter, could possibly support macroorganisms like fishes! The story is that there is likely liquid water underneath the ice-shell, and because life on earth can live to about -50 C, why couldn't there be life there? The water may also be warmed because it is thought that the gravitational force of Jupiter could cause enough flux to keep the core of Europa molten. The ice patterns on the surface indicate great tidal forces, and besides the cracking, the surface being so smooth and crater-less, scientists also figure that the ice is constantly turning over and able to introduce oxygen into the liquid water underneath. And if the core of Europa is molten, you could imagine there being structures like the midatlantic oceanic ridge, with black smokers and whatnot spewing out all sorts of chemicals from the mantle. And we all know that life eats that shit up (literally! har har).

I would also like to point out, though, that oxygen is toxic to most forms of life, and maybe you could get a macroorganism that would subsist on "breathing" something else. Oxygen just serves as an electron acceptor and microorganisms on our planet can "breathe" other things like Fe(III), and SO4 or CO2, which I guess also involve oxygen, but whatever...

Apparently the folks at NASA were so excited at the idea of liquid water on Europa that they purposefully crashed their Galileo probe into Jupiter, rather than potentially contaminate Europa. Unfortunately, though, the next probe that heads in that direction might be a ways off because of the technological challenges, like needing its own power source.

And now, the Center of the Galaxy!!!

The center of the galaxy is a giant black hole that is hiding inside of "Sagittarius A," which is this glowy spot in infrared and radio waves because of the heat emitted from matter "accreting" into the black hole. Accreting means growing bigger, which I don't really get, I guess things get bigger when they heat up? Maybe matter is accelerating towards the black hole, heating up and expanding before disappearing? No clue there. Well anyway, this picture is pretty awesome, I got it from the Sweet Astronomy Picture of the Day. While we are on the subject, I would also like to point out that the center of the galaxy is in the constellation of my astrological sign, Sagittarius, which we COULD say, if we were being sassy, either explains my massive ego OR that my heart is actually a black hole. Or that astrology is silly.

There is also this cool video that was on the APOD site:


I can't really watch videos very well on my computer anymore because all browsers on the Mac hate me, BUT what I can tell you is that it has this cool part where it shows the orbits of the closest stars around the black hole, including this star which gets 17 light-hours away from it!!! (Recall here that earth is 8 light-minutes from the sun) Well, anyway, I think the whole thing is pretty mind-expanding.

Explosions in Space; The Sky is Falling!!!

Sweetness! A US satellite collided with a defunct Russian satellite in space over Siberia! The charred wreckage of the Russian satellite crashed into Canada!!! They were each traveling at SIX MILES PER SECOND when they collided! AND apparently in 1996, a piece of SPACE JUNK dissected a frickin' antenna off another satellite!!! And NOW, there are even more chunks of shit floating around orbiting Earth. Sweet.

Crazy Silica Crystals

In keeping with my theme of posting National Geographic News, which you could easily read yourself on National Geographic, thus rendering my blog entirely obsolete, here are some cool Silica crystals that are all super curvy and "organic." This is tricksey, because it means that when people find curvy looking fossils on rocks (like from Mars), it could just be mineral crystals after all, and not life. Curtains! In addition, I am in a crystallography lab, and so crystals are kind of cool, yes?

A Word of Warning from Endangered Species

This article from the National Geographic Magazine is definitely worth the read. It is a sad (to me) story about the Endangered Species Act, the challenges it has faced in the past and must overcome in the future.

And definitely make sure to check out the stunning photo gallery that accompanies the article, which includes pictures of the ocelot, the extinct dusky seaside sparrow, and the yellowfin madtom, among others. I don't say 'stunning' lightly, and maybe you might not experience the same feeling, but the diversity on earth is mind-blowing to me (and sad when threatened, which is all the time now).

I would also like to mention that the article says that the building of the Kennedy Space Center overtook critical habitat of the now-extinct dusky seaside sparrow. For shame, Science.

A Quote for the Day

We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong.
- Sir Arthur Eddington

01010100 01110010 01101001 01110101 01101101 01110000 01101000 <3

This is a Mars Phoenix Tribute. The title is the last Twitter that came "from" Phoenix on the day that scientists decided it was shut down for good on Mars. It says 'Triumph' in binary (apparently). I realize this is over a month late, but I've been slow with things lately. Anyway, the people at NASA lost contact with poor Phoenix on Nov 2nd and subsequently released a bunch of videos, etc on Nov 10th that they had prepared to commemorate their most popular mission. I just want to say that I have totally anthropomorphized Phoenix, and when the trumpets come in in this video, it really gets me. Hopefully we can go to Mars someday and bring him back!


Be sure to check out the higher quality versions on the JPL website! I've literally watched this video probably 10 times. The final descent as seen from above, showing Phoenix and his little parachute is the best!

This is the goodbye from Gizmodo. Here is another tribute from WiredScience. And there was also this series of thingies from Stardate radio. AND there was also this highly entertaining series of pictures from people that show what Phoenix discovered that the gov't will hide from us.



And you know, since I'm a chemist or something, I thought I should mention some science. Apparently they found water, calcium carbonate, and perchlorate salts. This doesn't really mean anything to me... The one thing I found interesting is that they said the salts went into solution very quickly, not like salts in earth soil that are trapped and take some time. This leads us (or others) to believe that the salts formed from evaporation from water. That sounds pretty exciting, although I'm sure it is not concrete at all, but us (those) scientists like to make grand postulates like this.

Sigh! I love you, Phoenix!

Sad Phoenix Lander!!!

The poor Phoenix Lander powerded down for the first time on Oct 28 after a cloudy day and a dust storm combined to decrease the sunlight getting to its solar panels.  It was trying to finish up some science at the time, and the temperatures dropped, kicking in the heater for the very first time, which subsequently drained all the power, and poor Phoenix shut off :'(

Phoenix has come back on a couple times since then using the Lazarus mode, which jumpstarts the batteries when the solar panels have collected some power, but it was only on long enough to blep its status to the orbiters and nothing more :(

The blog linked to above tries to keep a positive outlook about the Phoenix, with all its data it collected and so on, but it is still sad.  It probably will suffer insurmountable damage over the winter due to the frigid temperatures and carbon dioxide snow, but MAYBE the Lazarus mode will wake it up in the spring!!!  

Here's hoping someday we can go and find it and give it the thanks it deserves!!!

Don't forget to read the two other parts of Phoenix's guest blogging spot: here and here.

Space, Solar, Super-cute.

The sad Phoenix watching the two moons of Mars go by. They must have timed this so both would go by at once. Awesome. I know I'm anthropomorphizing Phoenix, but it HAS to be sad. It is such a romantic, tragic situation. It is HIGHLY SUGGESTED that you click on the picture if its not moving.

Here is a really cool slideshow of different kinds of solar panels. Pretty fucking awesome!

AND we also have this super cute picture of a chimp who raises big cat cubs!

And if you missed it, The most Adorable post ever about Platypus and Echidna Babies.

Back Off Man, I'm a Scientist

Don't piss scientists off. McCain did when he said he said it was a waste of money to fund a planetarium in Chicago. Granted, I expect that most scientists weren't planning on voting for McCain anyway, but its not really in your best interest to piss them off when the US is trailing behind other nations in science and math education, and there are Universities and opportunities abroad for bright minds. Did I mention I was thinking about picking up and leaving for Montreal if McCain wins? That is, unless martial law is somehow declared and our borders are closed. More about what I've learned about that later... if I really want to seal my place on the no-fly list.

If you click on the picture, it takes you to the website where you can donate to fund the Sky Theater Projector, which actually never received the funds McCain was talking about.

It's Snowing! (On Mars)

For some reason, the idea of it snowing on Mars makes me, and others, very happy. I picture the Phoenix twittering along, on a romantic stroll amide the freshly fallen snow. However, the water-snow hasn't actually reached the ground yet, and carbon dioxide snow will supposedly be the death of the poor rover, whose solar panels weren't built to withstand the weight.

The gif above depicts water-clouds moving across the sky. Below is a picture the rover took of itself! And also, the rover moved that rock there into that trench there! So cute! (I don't know why it is cute, but it is)




You can also check out some pictures of soil on the Phoenix website, which are pretty cool. It has discovered that there maybe be calcium carbonate in the soil, as well as clay. Both of these things suggest that the soil had interacted with water in the past!

According to that latest news release, Phoenix will also try turning on its microphone soon and take a listen to Mars! (It will probably sound lonely)