This Week in Science

This has been an exciting week in science! I know what you're thinking, so were a LOT of other weeks... where have you been? I have had things to deal with. If you read Roogoodoo at all, you may know what some of those are.... anyway. On to the science news!

• In space related news, Jeff Bezos (a.k.a. that billionaire guy from Amazon.com), funded the recovery of the Apollo 11 rockets from their longtime home in the bottom of the ocean. For those that somehow don't recall, this was the mission and shuttle that landed the first humans on the moon.
• Stingray behavior is changeable. A study published in PLoS ONE noted the way rays at the infamous Stingray city in the Caymans acted compared to their non-human-fed counterparts.
• You're a cheater! Don't believe me? Well, a study has proven it... sort of. Our brains are cheaters when it comes to remembering social ties and relationships. You can read more about your cheating mind here.
• Lastly, in tech news, Apple wants Siri to take over the world. They may not want it to be as malicious as Pinky and the Brain may have wanted it, but they do want her voice to be your companion. From everyday tasks in your home, to the voice of your entertainment center, Apple plans on taking her places. 

That's it for highlights. Keep stirring up knowledge!

Photo from Absolute Divers.

 

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Freaky Facts Friday

Pluto’s journey around the Sun takes 248 Earth years. This means that, since its discovery in 1930, it still has 177 years to go until it has made a complete orbit around the Sun.

Thanks, random science fact app!!!

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Penguins from Space!!!

It appears that there are way more emperor penguins in Antarctica than originally thought. In an article originally published in PLoSONE, a survey done using a Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite revealed that there may be twice as many penguins as originally thought. 

Because the penguins' black color stands out so visibly against the snow, they were easily spotted via satellite. Viewing from space allowed researchers to analyze 44 coastal colonies in Antarctica. You can read more about viewing penguins from space here.

An Emperor Penguin Population Estimate: The First Global, Synoptic Survey of a Species from Space

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Area 51 Revealed... finally

Ok, so yes I am a geek. I even went to Roswell and all that fun stuff, but Area 51 documents are becoming unclassified and many old vets of the site are coming forward to talk, finally.

Tonight at 10 pm EST, you can watch them talk. On National Geographic Channel, you can watch the new documentary, Area 51 Declassified.  Am I excited? Oh, yes! Will I get to watch it? Probably not. My house has it, but the cable goes in and out (yay island living) and even though it is behaving, chances are I will miss it. Friends houses with satellite instead? They aren't nerds like me. No NatGeo (shame).

I WILL buy the DVD though: make no mistake.

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Science Updates

Wow! There actually has been a lot going on in the world and I've mainly been posting links to articles on the Potspoon! Fan Page just to save on time, but I may as well write up some snippets here. We have quite a bit of a range of science stories to cover but I am only putting up a few with links so you can explore on your own.

• Paleontologist finally believe they have identified the oldest known dinosaur embryos. The embryos belong to genus Massospondylus and are believed to be about 190 million years old. The embryos have over sized heads much in the way that many modern vertebrates do. This would mean that this dinosaur may have needed some parental care early on making it the earliest parental care evidence.

• In a story that has be written up in a few of my favorite online sources for science news, cats' balance even extends to how they drink. Using the inertia of the moving liquid, they actually quite delicately suck the liquid up in a column and close their mouths before gravity kicks in and makes the liquid fall again. This minimizes spills and messes.

• IBM unveiled their plans to make super small processors for the worlds most powerful supercomputers. The processors, according to this article from the BBC, would shrink them to about the size of a sugar cube.

• If you like watching the skies for auroras, tonight and tomorrow may be perfect for you. A closely watched sunspot, 1123 to be exact, recently sent a "blast" of filaments towards earth and we should be receiving a magnetic glancing blow tonight and tomorrow. Should be quite a show.

Well, that's it for now, folks. I hope you have an awesome week!

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Hey Oh, Galileo!

This was too interesting to not post on this blog. In 1737, three fingers and a bottom tooth were removed from the corpse of Galileo. This was 95 years after his death while his body was being moved from storage to a monumental resting place (picture at left). The tooth, with two of the three fingers, were sealed in a jar and were not heard about again after 1905.

Recently, an anonymous person bought an urn at an auction. The auctioneers knew that the urn contained a tooth and some bones, but there was no description. There is, however, a description of the urn and contents written in 1905 with very good detail. This description matches the current findings perfectly. it is unknown yet whether or not they are ACTUALLY Galileo Galilei's body parts. They are determining whether or not there is enough DNA material to test the fingers against the third. The third has been under a museum's care for sometime.

Galileo, if you do not recall, was one of the first people to deny the Catholic Church's insistence that Earth was the center of the universe. Galileo had many reasons to believe that we actually circled around the sun. One of the earliest telescopes is also attributed to Galileo. There is also the matter of gravity and its affect on two objects of differing masses. You can watch a video about it here. Please ignore the ignorant comments. Sometimes YouTube scares me.

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Mars Alive

This is going to be a short post, but something interesting. Today's post is brought to you by the planet Mars. This lonely forth planet is our red rocked neighbor and is named after a certain warmongering god. The dream of "martians" hasn't come true. No little green men live on the planet as everyone once hoped. Instead, we found traces of water, a face, some volcanoes, and really amazing features.

Everyone knows that Mars is a "dead planet." We have looked to Mars for traces of insight into our planet's origins. Well recently, a team of scientists at NASA discovered methane in the atmosphere which only has two explanations: biological activity or geological activity. Either one of these reasons would prove that Mars is not as dead as we thought.

Well, I hope you guys all have a safe Friday! Sorry this one is a short one!

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The Wind-Down of a "Stellar" Year

As the year comes to a close, there are many articles and scientific advances that really made news this year. Something that was not in the news as much as it should have been was NASA. The program itself has the tendency to be a bit controversial, but many do not realize how much benefit there has been from experiments done by NASA. Even more exciting, NASA celebrated it's 50th birthday this year just like my mom! To give our space program some recognition, I am going to give you some of the highlights of this year's events based on news at the NASA website.

• The International Space Station nears completion on its 10th anniversary. Four shuttle missions went up with modules added increasing the size and capabilities of the station. The space station is now the size of a large five bedroom house.

• Phoenix landed on mars in May. It sent back more than 25,000 images back to Earth. This amazing piece of machinery also determined soil alkalinity, weather patterns, tested for water evidence, and more.

• Using satellites, scientists at NASA continued their study of the disappearance of sea ice. The levels hit record lows this year despite people heralding a colder year in temperatures. There is lots of science on how this goes hand in hand, but that is better saved for a paper. :D

• NASA helped design swimsuits worn at the Olympic Games. NASA researchers tested a variety of fabrics in a low-speed wind tunnel.

Well, these were my favorite highlights of the year from NASA. You can find more here. Don't forget to vote for your favorite story while you're there. Just for those of you who were paying attention, what was your favorite "newsworthy" science moment of the year? You can pick anything, even from Potspoon! if you'd like. I would really like to know!

Online Surveys & Market Research

Photo is in the Public Domain and was found here.

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Update on Space Station Tourist

The space capsule bringing back Richard Garriott, the space tourist mentioned in an earlier post, landed safely yesterday in Kazakhstan. He had this to say: "What a great ride that was." (What a great ride that was???? Like it was a carnival ride?) The landing was uneventful which is good. They have had a few problems in the past with capsules returning. You can see some footage of the returning crew on the BBC and read more on the Discovery News site.

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Fly Me to the Moon...

Or at least the Space Station. I really wish this was an option available for the masses.

Recently, Richard Garriott bought himself a ticket to the Space Station for a mere $30 million. He is a video game designer. His father, Owen Garriott is an astronaut who spent 60 days on the Space Station in 1973. Richard, however, is not going as an astronaut, he is going as a space tourist. His father will be giving him support from mission control in Moscow. He will be doing some research for certain companies who helped foot the bill.

He is currently the 6th person in the world to buy his way into space. The flight up was yesterday and they dock tomorrow. He will be on the Space Station for a total of 10 days. What a wicked trip. Makes my vacation seem dull... although being closed up with a bunch of people you don't know on a station above Earth doesn't sound better than seeing a horse in the wild... hehe. I am a dork.

Photo is from NASA and because it is a government website, is public domain.

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What's going on?

First things first, I won a haiku challenge at Lunch Bucket Bento and part of the "prize" is being featured as the next blog to write a haiku about. I was a bit nervous because it's a food blog and, needless to say, this is not. Surprisingly enough, some of the haikus are HILARIOUS! You should go read them. Maybe you could enter too and win a cute prize!

Next up on the list, it's my cousin's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAGEE!

Finally, this Friday is a solar eclipse from Europe through Asia. Sorry to my Western Hemisphere readers! There are many really fun ways to view a solar eclipse without staring at the sun. I know it sounds like fun, but I do not recommend it. The first thing you could do is use a special pair of eclipse glasses. The next thing, what I'm doing, is watch it online. NASA is webcasting it live from China. It will be a full eclipse there. The easiest is to put a pinhole in a piece of paper or poster board and set it about a meter above something. Then you watch the shadow from the light cast through the pinhole onto the ground or whatever you have it above. Pretty easy. I did this in 2nd grade or something and it worked great. Since I am pretty sure most of us are in the Western Hemisphere, however, I suggest you just use the link above and watch it online. That is, unless of course, you have something better to do. Lol.

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