Cosmic Log

Weekend field trips on the Web

2008-05-09T16:22:00Z

Science @ NASA: Space station tricorder analyzes microbes Pangea Day: Join a global film event on Saturday Slashdot: Play a protein-folding game online 'Nova' on PBS: 'A Walk to Beautiful' ...(read more)

What's waiting on Mars?

2008-05-08T23:05:00Z

Univ. of Mich.

Click for video: An
artist's conception shows
a dust devil on Mars. Click
on the image to watch
time-lapse imagery of
a dust devil from 2007.

Images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are providing an advance peek at what the Phoenix Mars Lander will be running up against when it lands near the planet's north pole later this month: The spacecraft will be coming down in the middle of a spring thaw, and based on the pictures released this week, there just might be some Martian mini-tornadoes swirling through the scene.

Two of the twisters, known as dust devils, show up on an April 20 image of Phoenix's projected landing area, taken by MRO's Context Camera. The Martian whirlwinds are similar to the desert mini-twisters often seen on Earth - and have previously been caught on camera by the Mars Pathfinder lander as well as NASA's Spirit rover. You can watch a dust devil spin through Spirit's line of sight in this year-old video clip.

...(read more)

Big plans (and big problems) on the Web

2008-05-08T23:04:00Z

Tech Review: Building the zero-emission city The Guardian: NASA plans landing on asteroid The New Yorker: Who says big ideas are rare? IEEE Spectrum: Documents shed light on scary Soyuz descent ...(read more)

Clinton's stock falls to new low

2008-05-07T20:52:00Z

NBC News' Tim Russert isn't the only one selling Hillary Clinton short today: In the wake of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, her shares on the Iowa Electronic Markets have fallen to the lowest point ever. The market lets online investors put real money down on the candidates’ prospects, as a science experiment on the "wisdom of crowds." The shares are worth $1 each if the investor's candidate wins the nomination, but they're worthless if the candidate loses.

Today, Clinton’s shares for the Democratic nomination were trading at less than 10 cents on the IEM - and the situation was pretty much the same at the InTrade prediction market.

...(read more)

Wonder and whimsy on the Web

2008-05-07T20:50:00Z

SpaceWeather.com: Glow-in-the-dark clouds sighted Discovery.com: Dino-killing meteor may have struck oil Register: Could moon mirrors signal E.T.? (via Daily Grail) The Onion: This international space station is a pig sty ...(read more)

The science of cyclones

2008-05-06T23:51:00Z

The catastrophic cyclone that hit Myanmar hints at the shape of things to come in a warming world — but probably not for the reason you think. Chris Mooney, the author of "Storm World," argues that the tragedy says more about the sad state of infrastructure in the developing world than it does about the raw impact of climate change. However, shifts in climate will likely accentuate that global rich-vs.-poor split.

...(read more)

Scientific smorgasbord on the Web

2008-05-06T16:30:00Z

N.Y. Times: Smarter isn't always better Science News: Down with the transistor (via GeekPress) New Scientist: Canada to launch asteroid-hunting mission Space.com: Physics experiment recovered from Columbia crash ...(read more)

Ready to rumble in Reno?

2008-05-05T23:30:00Z

Courtesy of Cal Orey

Cal Orey says her Brittany spaniels, Simon
and Seth, help her predict seismic events.

Tiny earthquakes have been swarming near Reno for weeks, and seismic experts are trying to gauge whether things are settling down or heading toward a bigger rumble. All this is making some of the region's residents jittery - including Cal Orey, who lives near Lake Tahoe and issues earthquake predictions based on such things as headaches, pet behavior and moon phases.

Orey made headlines when she called the current wave of shakers in advance - and now she thinks a stronger quake could hit by the end of this month. To be specific, she's predicting a 70 percent chance of a magnitude-5 to magnitude-6 quake in the Reno/Tahoe/Sierra region by the end of May.

"I'm not saying 100 percent," she told me today. "But it's likely."

Seismologists don't tend to put stock in such predictions, as I explained in a report about quake forecasting a couple of years ago. However, the practical effect of what the experts are saying is pretty much the same: Be prepared for a Bigger One.

...(read more)

Your daily dose of science on the Web

2008-05-05T18:20:00Z

SETI Institute: Send your name into space on Kepler probe Univ. of Chicago: Supercomputer to simulate supernovae Scientific American: How gene switches make life Nature: One sense at a time ...(read more)

The far-off fusion race

2008-05-02T23:00:00Z

UW-Madison

Ions glow inside an electrostatic fusion reactor at the University of Wisconsin.

One of the nation's top fusion researchers is worried that America is already falling behind in an energy race that won't start for 30 or 40 years.

"We're losing our lead to other countries in the world," Gerald Kulcinski, director of the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told me in his office last week.

How can that be, when most of the world's top technological powers are working together on a $13 billion nuclear fusion research project that hasn't even started construction yet? Kulcinski's answer demonstrates why an "Apollo-scale" effort to solve America's energy woes just might require more thought and time than the original Apollo moon effort.

...(read more)