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31 August 2008
Obama Answers Top 14 Science Questions
Sciencedebate2008.com has come up with a list of 14 science policy questions for the candidates to answer, and Obama just provided his answers. Here are my notes, highlighting key points in case you don’t have time to read the whole thing: More NSF fellowships Double basic research budgets in next 10 years reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 expand federally funded …
25 August 2008
Hot Lava: Types of Lava
We’ve talked about how lava becomes molten, now let’s discuss how it behaves once it erupts. As liquid rock erupts from a volcanic vent it is glowing hot and can be very fluid. But, it cools rapidly, and as it does so it behaves more like rock and less like a liquid. Depending on the rate of eruption (among other things) there are two main types of lava flow: a’a …
18 August 2008
Volcano Pictures!
The folks at the Boston Globe clearly knew ahead of time that I would be making a series of posts about volcanoes, and therefore chose to feature some spectacular eruption photos in their “big picture” section. Check it out! Update: Also, I just noticed that there is an incredible amount of stupid going on in the comments to those photos, with people pointing at the CO2 release from volcanoes and …
4 August 2008
Guest Blog: Lakes on Titan
So, Saturn is in the news again, and I’d be remiss in my bloggerly duties if I didn’t mention it. Or, rather Titan is in the news again. See, it has liquid on its surface. But wait, you say, didn’t we already know that? Well, kind of. What had happened is that the radar aboard Cassini showed that there were these dark spots near the poles. Now, interpreting radar is …
3 August 2008
Guest Blog: On Biases
Hello, my name is Rebecca Harbison, and I’m a grad student in astronomy at Cornell University, and guest-blogger. Some information about me. I work on Saturn’s rings using VIMS, the Visible-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer. Right now, I’m trying to measure how small the smallest particles are in Saturn’s Main Rings, by looking at how they diffract sunlight. (Think of me as sitting in a theater, staring at the light from the …
28 July 2008
Adding a little Cassini flavor
As Ryan will be out doing field work in Hawaii for the next few weeks, and I’ll be in the Windy City at a little concert called Lollapalooza (woohoo!), we’ve invited a guest author onto the blog. So look for posts from Rebecca Harbison, a fellow Cornell grad student who studies the rings of Saturn with data from Cassini. Welcome to the Martian Chronicles, Rebecca!
25 July 2008
Hawaii Field Work
I have a pretty cool job. I look at data coming down from spacecraft orbiting around and driving on another planet, and try to figure out what it used to be like there. To be able to interpret images of Mars, it helps to first be able to interpret images of our own planet. And that’s why I’m going to Hawaii in a couple of days! On Saturday, I head …
23 July 2008
Cadavers, Rockets and GPS
Here’s a riddle: What do dead bodies, awesome rockets, and GPS have in common? They are all being used in NASA’s return to the moon. Universe today has three interesting posts with all the details. First, I’ll get to the question that I know you’re asking: What the heck does NASA want with dead bodies? Well, they are in the process of testing the Crew Exploration Vehicle, and deciding how …
21 July 2008
Well-Traveled Granite
Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy has a nice post about the recent discovery of a piece of granite in Antarctica. You may be thinking: “Oh boy, a rock in Antarctica. What’s the big deal?” The big deal is that this specific piece of granite matches up with granite found in North America, and it means that the two continents were once attached, billions of years ago! Hooray for plate …
One small step
39 years ago today, the first human set foot on another world. Here’s hoping that we follow in those footsteps sooner rather than later. I don’t have time to say more, but Phil Plait has already said it better than I could, so go see what the Bad Astronomer has to say.
