December 2008 - Posts
From left: Fame Pictures, Oxford U. Press, Texas A&M |
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The weirdest science stories of the year included, from left, the four-eared cat who
sparked an Internet sensation; the world's oldest marijuana stash; and the
rediscovery of the Furby-like pygmy tarsier, which was thought to be extinct.
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How do you follow an act like glow-in-the-dark kitties? The competition for our second annual Weird Science Awards includes an ample helping of animal weirdness, ranging from see-through fish to a four-eared feline. But 2008 saw plenty of all-too-human oddities as well, including the world's oldest marijuana stash and the "lost" Amazon tribe that wasn't.
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Here's wishing you a joyous Hanukkah, a merry Christmas, a super solstice season, a fantastic Festivus and a Happy New Year. I'll be on break for the holidays, but who knows? Maybe I'll pop online every once in a while to pass along some wisdom or some Web links.
In the meantime, here are some "field trips" to see you through until regular postings resume on Jan. 5:
And in case you missed them the first time around, here are my previous year-end reviews:
From left: U. of Ariz., NASA/ESA/STScI, SpaceX |
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The top space stories of 2008 include, from left: the Phoenix Mars Lander
mission; the direct sighting of planets in the dusty disks around Fomalhaut and other stars; and SpaceX's successful orbital launch of the Falcon 1 rocket.
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What is to be done about the space shuttle fleet and the shuttle’s troubled successor? Who will the next NASA administrator be? Will a new generation of spaceships actually take flight in 2009? Will shifts in the economic climate dim the prospects for space entrepreneurs, just as they did eight years ago? Or will pioneering ventures actually prove that space sightseeing isn't just for millionaires anymore?
The questions about our future in space far outnumber the answers as 2008 morphs into 2009. But the developments of the past year suggest the likely directions for the year ahead.
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NASA |
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Are you celebrating Christmas? Observing Hanukkah? Marking Sunday's winter solstice? Commemorating Carl Sagan's legacy?
Across the spiritual spectrum, this is the season of hope on our pale blue dot - even if you don't believe in God (or gods).
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From left: UW-Madison / CERN / Steven W. Marcus |
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The year's top breakthroughs include reprogramming cells for disease studies,
starting up the Large Hadron Collider, and reconstructing a woolly mammoth's DNA.
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Why would anyone want to create diseased cells in the lab? Because that's the best way to learn how to cure those diseases. The ability to transform a patient's ordinary skin cells into virtually any kind of tissue - including the cells that caused the illness in the first place - ranks as this year's biggest breakthrough in the journal Science's annual roundup.
The other stars of this year's scientific show include the gene-decoders who are figuring out the instructions for making a woolly mammoth, or even a Neanderthal. Then there are the astronomers who, for the first time, spotted what appear to be planets circling alien stars. And let's not forget the biggest science experiment on the planet, the Large Hadron Collider, which started up this year (and almost immediately broke down).
One of the year's biggest science stories is breaking too late for Science's annual list - but came to light today on the journal's ScienceInsider blog: Harvard physicist John Holdren, who is the director of the Woods Hole Research Center as well as an adviser to President-elect Barack Obama on science and environmental issues, is in line to be named the next White House science adviser, Science's Eli Kintisch quotes sources as saying.
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Gary Parker / Complete Genomics |
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A production staff member works in Complete Genomics' sequencing instrument
development lab. Improved tools are bringing down the cost of genetic analysis.
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How much does it cost to decode your genome? Last year, the going rate was $1 million. Now prices are plunging - and as a result, the prospects for personalized medicine and other genetic innovations are rising.
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EMC2 Fusion |
A test plasma in the WB-7
experimental reactor.
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Working on a shoestring budget, researchers have found no reason why a low-cost approach to nuclear fusion won't work.
President-elect Barack Obama's pick for energy secretary has said he's aware of the approach, known as inertial electrostatic confinement fusion or Polywell fusion - and although it's probably not on his radar screen right now, it just might show up in the future.
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WWF / Rene Ries |
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Gumprecht's green pitviper was discovered in 2002. Specimens can be found in
Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, China and Myanmar. Click on the image to see a
slideshow featuring the Greater Mekong region's hidden treasures.
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A new report crowns Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region as one of the world's hottest spots for biodiversity, with more than 1,000 previously undocumented species discovered over the past decade. But it’s also a hot spot for economic development, which sets up a race to protect what is clearly a biological bonanza.
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Field Museum |
A figurine head from Mexico, dating back roughly 1,200 years, bears traces of the mysterious Maya Blue pigment.
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Archaeology magazine's top 10 finds of 2008 include Maya paint and ancient poop. And there are bonus finds as well, including a monumental discovery that the discoverers have been trying to keep under wraps.
Most of these revelations haven't gotten the kind of hype that we saw this year for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."
"But as much as crystal skulls were the year's most prominent 'artifacts,' we're more likely to remember 2008 as the Year of the Earliest North American Coprolites (ancient human feces), or perhaps the Year of the Imperial Roman Marble Heads," Archaeology's editors wrote.
Read on for a rundown of the real-life discoveries that would make Indiana Jones jump on the next plane - plus the bonus discoveries and a sampling of other best-of-2008 lists in science and technology.
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20th Century Fox |
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A crowd gathers around the "Central Park Sphere" in a scene from "The Day the
Earth Stood Still," a remake of the classic 1951 movie about alien visitation.
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Although the modern-day reincarnation of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" may not rise to the classic status of the 57-year-old original, it fortifies the science fiction with some fresh science facts.
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W.L. Gore & Associates |
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This picture approximates a deer's-eye view of a bow hunter wearing Optifade camouflage. Click on the image to see how the scene would look to human eyes.
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To hide yourself from the deer you're hunting, do you want to dress like a tree - or become invisible? Researchers are trying to take the second approach, with camouflage clothing that takes advantage of the fact that animals don't see the world the way humans do.
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Getty Images file |
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Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles took the spotlight at July's Plug-In Conference and
Exposition in San Jose, Calif. How much will plug-ins change the energy game?
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If the plans being laid for the economy and the environment work out the way President-elect Barack Obama's advisers hope they do, the future of energy can be summed up in one word: electricity.
That one word covers a lot of policy twists, however: What will the economic downturn mean for initiatives to cut down on greenhouse-gas emissions? What will the recent drop in gasoline prices mean for efforts to boost alternatives to fossil fuels? Can the electrical grid handle increased demand? How do you smooth out the highs and lows of power generation? Where will all that power come from?
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xkcd |
An MIT student models xkcd's
"Stand Back, I'm Going to Try
Science" T-shirt in a geeky setting.
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You had to know that this year's top gift for science geeks would relate to what is arguably the top Web comic for science geeks: xkcd.
We asked you to send in your suggestions for holiday gifts that would bring a smile to science and technology fans, and then we offered up a list of 16 suggestions for your consideration. Hundreds of Cosmic Log readers cast their ballot in an ironically unscientific Live Vote - and the top vote-getter was (drumroll, please) ... a sweatshirt (or T-shirt) inspired by the xkcd strip.
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Win McNamee / Getty Images |
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A cat and a dog come face to face during a Blessing of the Animals
ceremony at Washington National Cathedral in October 2006.
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When it comes to pursuing prey, dogs do it much more efficiently than cats. So do humans, for that matter. The fact that cats are generally considered better hunters shows that evolution doesn't always favor efficiency. It all depends on what kind of niche a species can carve out for itself.
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NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage |
This Hubble image focuses in on
the globular cluster M13. Click on
the picture for a zoomable view.
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Astronomers are offering a double dose of cosmic ornaments for the holidays, in the form of stunning images of globular clusters.
From the Hubble Space Telescope, there's a zoomable image of the northern "snow globe" known more scientifically as M13.
From the European Southern Observatory, there's Omega Centauri, the "glittering giant of southern skies."
But wait ... there's more! These clusters aren't just for looking at on your computer screen. On a good night, both of them can be seen with the naked eye.
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Dream Cheeky |
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3G? GPS? USB? DVD? It seems as if any truly high-tech gift has to have a cool acronym to go with it. Consider the USB Webcam rocket launcher, for instance, or the GPS homing device.
But it takes more than an acronym to earn the title of 2008's top geek gift. In fact, that honor is decided solely by your unscientific vote. So check out the 15 16 finalists in our geek-gift contest and register your top pick.
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XCOR Aerospace |
Click for video: The Lynx Mark I rocket plane, shown in this artist's
conception, would fly to an altitude of 38 miles (61 kilometers) and
serve as a test bed for a higher-flying Lynx Mark II. Click on the image
to watch a video from XCOR's March announcement about the Lynx.
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A brand-new travel agency is selling front-row seats on an XCOR Aerospace rocket plane that will soar more than halfway to outer space, for $95,000 apiece. Arizona-based RocketShip Tours and XCOR threw open the ticket window today, even though the Lynx Mark I rocketship hasn't had its first test flight yet.
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Hubblesite |
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The gravitationally interacting pair of galaxies known as Arp 147 gets
the greeting-card treatment from the Hubble Space Telescope's team
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Are you looking for out-of-this-world greeting cards for the holidays? The folks behind NASA's Great Observatories have just the thing for budget-conscious do-it-yourselfers.
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