Shackleton’s Antarctica in colour, 1915
Shackleton’s Antarctica, in color in 1915.
Shackleton’s Antarctica, in color in 1915.
Tag: science
Shackleton’s Antarctica in colour, 1915
More questions about today’s alien fossil story
More questions about today’s alien fossil story.
The questions this article raises jive well with my own doubts. However I find the level of hatred expressed in the comments to be quite disgusting and vile.
More questions about today’s alien fossil story.
The questions this article raises jive well with my own doubts. However I find the level of hatred expressed in the comments to be quite disgusting and vile.
Drillers will stop injections for fear of earthquakes in Arkansas
Two drill companies will temporarily cease work in Arkansas to see if this action will cause the recent swarms of earthquakes there to ease.
Two drill companies will temporarily cease work in Arkansas to see if this action will cause the recent swarms of earthquakes there to ease.
Has a NASA scientist discovered alien fossils in several meteorites?
Very very intriguing: A NASA scientist has claimed in a peer reviewed paper the discovery of alien fossils in several meteorites recovered on Earth. From the paper’s last paragraph:
The absence of nitrogen in the cyanobacterial filaments detected in the CI1 carbonaceous meteorites indicates that the filaments represent the remains of extraterrestrial life forms that grew on the parent bodies of the meteorites when liquid water was present, long before the meteorites entered the Earth’s atmosphere.
The news article describing this discovery is a bit more breathless in style than I would like, and makes me suspicious about these results. Moreover, that NASA held no press release or press conference for a result of this significance gives me pause. (Though NASA might have felt burned from the reactions they got from the arsenic-based-biology press conference and decided therefore to take a low profile here.)
» Read more
The future of NASA’s planetary program does not look good
Due to the budget situation, it appears that planetary scientists have scaled back their plans for future NASA missions to other planets.
We will know more on Monday, when the planetary community releases its much awaited decadal survey, outlining their recommendations for the next decade.
Due to the budget situation, it appears that planetary scientists have scaled back their plans for future NASA missions to other planets.
We will know more on Monday, when the planetary community releases its much awaited decadal survey, outlining their recommendations for the next decade.
Former MIT Researcher Convicted of Fraud
More science cheating: A former MIT researcher has been convicted of fraud.
More science cheating: A former MIT researcher has been convicted of fraud.
Fraud in drug studies investigated
A research anesthesiologist has been stripped of his professorship, fired from a German hospital, and is under criminal investigation for forging the medical research for more than 90 papers. Key paragraph:
German medical authorities are examining 92 of Boldt’s published papers amid allegations he forged documents, tested drugs on patients without their consent and fraudulently claimed payments for operations he never performed. Twenty-nine of the 92 papers have been identified as “highly suspected” of containing forged or distorted data, authorities said.
One third or more of his peer-reviewed papers are now suspect? Isn’t it the claim of peer-review science journals that this kind of fraud is impossible because the work will be carefully reviewed by the best people, most qualified to spot any fraud in their field? Yet, in this case this system failed at least one third of the time, if not more so, and did so frequently.
To me, this is further evidence that the best method for finding fraud is not review, but independent competition. Let others challenge the result or try to duplicate it. That way, we find out very quickly whether it is real or not.
A research anesthesiologist has been stripped of his professorship, fired from a German hospital, and is under criminal investigation for forging the medical research for more than 90 papers. Key paragraph:
German medical authorities are examining 92 of Boldt’s published papers amid allegations he forged documents, tested drugs on patients without their consent and fraudulently claimed payments for operations he never performed. Twenty-nine of the 92 papers have been identified as “highly suspected” of containing forged or distorted data, authorities said.
One third or more of his peer-reviewed papers are now suspect? Isn’t it the claim of peer-review science journals that this kind of fraud is impossible because the work will be carefully reviewed by the best people, most qualified to spot any fraud in their field? Yet, in this case this system failed at least one third of the time, if not more so, and did so frequently.
To me, this is further evidence that the best method for finding fraud is not review, but independent competition. Let others challenge the result or try to duplicate it. That way, we find out very quickly whether it is real or not.
Glory satellite falls to Earth after launch failure
The Glory climate satellite has crashed in the Pacific when its rocket failed during launch today.
The Glory climate satellite has crashed in the Pacific when its rocket failed during launch today.
The elongated craters of Mars
Water and ice at the bottom of the Antarctic Ice Sheet
The uncertainty of science: Unexpectedly large amounts of flowing water and refrozen ice found at the bottom of the Antarctic icecap. Key quote:
It’s too early to know whether this new finding means that global warming will melt ice sheets slower or faster than scientists have predicted. But the work does suggest that current models of ice sheet dynamics are missing a huge factor, said glaciologist Donald Blankenship of the University of Texas, Austin. “The take-home message of this work is that [the bottom of ice sheets] can no longer be ignored” in the models, he says.
The uncertainty of science: Unexpectedly large amounts of flowing water and refrozen ice found at the bottom of the Antarctic icecap. Key quote:
It’s too early to know whether this new finding means that global warming will melt ice sheets slower or faster than scientists have predicted. But the work does suggest that current models of ice sheet dynamics are missing a huge factor, said glaciologist Donald Blankenship of the University of Texas, Austin. “The take-home message of this work is that [the bottom of ice sheets] can no longer be ignored” in the models, he says.
More press release journalism,
this time about sunspots
Did you hear the news? Scientists have solved the mystery of the missing sunspots!
You didn’t? Well, here’s some headlines and stories that surely prove it:
- From Space.com: Mysterious Case of Missing Sunspots Solved.
- From Reuters: Scientists solve mystery of disappearing sunspots.
- From the Deccan Herald: NASA, India sponsored research explains missing sunspots.
- From Wired: Study Blames Plasma Flow for Spotless Sun.
- From NASA: Researchers Crack the Mystery of the Missing Sunspots.
- From Montana State University: MSU team solves mystery of missing sunspots, helps predict space weather.
- From Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: Solar Mystery Solved.
The trouble is that every one of these headlines is 100 percent wrong. The research, based on computer models, only found that when the plasma flow from the equator to the poles beneath the Sun’s surface slows down, the number of sunspots declines.
» Read more
Images of an exoplanet
Some unusual commercial caves
A look at some truly different commercial caves.
A look at some truly different commercial caves.
Traffic and more roads
Puncturing the myth that more roads mean more congestion Key quote:
Read enough of these studies and you get a sense that much of the induced-demand hubbub is really a sub rosa extension of the war on the suburbs: Stop highway expansion and you can make life miserable enough for the minivan-driving masses that they’ll move out of their gauche “urban-fringe developments” and back to high-density metropolitan cores, where they belong.
In reading the full essay, I was struck by how much the scientific campaign against road construction reminded me of climategate.
Puncturing the myth that more roads mean more congestion Key quote:
Read enough of these studies and you get a sense that much of the induced-demand hubbub is really a sub rosa extension of the war on the suburbs: Stop highway expansion and you can make life miserable enough for the minivan-driving masses that they’ll move out of their gauche “urban-fringe developments” and back to high-density metropolitan cores, where they belong.
In reading the full essay, I was struck by how much the scientific campaign against road construction reminded me of climategate.
29 Teams, One Purchased Ride, and One Mystery for The Google Lunar X Prize
29 teams, one purchased ride, and one mystery for the Google Lunar X Prize.
29 teams, one purchased ride, and one mystery for the Google Lunar X Prize.
Scientists buy tickets on Virgin Galactic
The Southwest Research Institute has purchased two tickets from Virgin Galactic for its scientists to fly on SpaceShipTwo.
The Southwest Research Institute has purchased two tickets from Virgin Galactic for its scientists to fly on SpaceShipTwo.
The sponge-like Saturn moon
The sponge-like Saturn moon. Key quote:
Hyperion measures about 250kms across; it rotates chaotically and has a density so low that it might house a vast system of caverns inside.
The sponge-like Saturn moon. Key quote:
Hyperion measures about 250kms across; it rotates chaotically and has a density so low that it might house a vast system of caverns inside.
Leif J. Robinson, Editor in Chief of Sky & Telescope magazine for 20 years, passed away Sunday
R.I.P. Leif J. Robinson, who served as editor of Sky & Telescope for twenty years, passed away Sunday at the age of 71 at his home in Costa Rica.
R.I.P. Leif J. Robinson, who served as editor of Sky & Telescope for twenty years, passed away Sunday at the age of 71 at his home in Costa Rica.
Northern Lights
An evening pause: When the Sun gets active, such as the solar flare of February 15, 2011, the sky in the high latitudes gives us the world’s best light show.
The caves of Copernicus
and the Ocean of Storms
The discovery of new caves on the Moon keep coming. Today I have two new stories. The first is a discovery by professional scientists of a giant lava tube cave in the Oceanus Procellarum or Ocean of Storms. The second is the detection of a plethora of caves and sinks on the floor of the crater Copernicus, found by a NASA engineer who likes to explore the gobs of data being accumulated by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and made available to all on the web.
The image below of the Moon’s near side, taken by India’s Cartosat-2A satellite and taken from the science paper, shows the location of lava tube in Oceanus Procellarum (indicated by the red dot) and the crater Copernicus.
First the professional discovery. Yesterday, the Times of India reported the discovery of lava tube more than a mile long on the Moon. I did not post a link to the article because I didn’t think the news story provided enough information to make it worth passing along. Today however, fellow caver Mark Minton emailed me the link where the actual research paper could be downloaded [pdf]. This I find definitely worth describing.
» Read more
A Half-Gigabyte View of the Moon
Two High-priority Climate Missions Dropped from NASA’s Budget Plans
Two high-priority climate missions dropped from NASA’s budget by the White House. And what’s most amazing: No one’s squealing!
“Removal of these missions was not what we desired and not what the administration desired, but it was a clear recognition and acknowledgement of the budget issues we face as a nation,” [said Steve Volz, associate director for flight programs at NASA’s Earth Science Division]. “It’s cleaner to be allowed to delete the scope that goes along with the dollars than to have to figure out how to do more with less.”
Two high-priority climate missions dropped from NASA’s budget by the White House. And what’s most amazing: No one’s squealing!
“Removal of these missions was not what we desired and not what the administration desired, but it was a clear recognition and acknowledgement of the budget issues we face as a nation,” [said Steve Volz, associate director for flight programs at NASA’s Earth Science Division]. “It’s cleaner to be allowed to delete the scope that goes along with the dollars than to have to figure out how to do more with less.”
Detector Array Deterioration Poses New Problem for JWST
More problems for the James Webb Space Telescope: The detector arrays for several instruments are deteriorating, even as they sit on the shelf. And remember, the 2014 launch date is probably going to be delayed until 2016. Key quote:
“As you get further and further out with [the launch date], it really raises questions about how far down the [integration and test] process you go for the instruments … and how long you have to store all that before you actually launch,” [Webb program director Rick Howard] told the NASA Advisory Council’s astrophysics subcommittee during a Feb. 16 public meeting here. “And that just makes everybody even more nervous about this problem than anything else.”
More problems for the James Webb Space Telescope: The detector arrays for several instruments are deteriorating, even as they sit on the shelf. And remember, the 2014 launch date is probably going to be delayed until 2016. Key quote:
“As you get further and further out with [the launch date], it really raises questions about how far down the [integration and test] process you go for the instruments … and how long you have to store all that before you actually launch,” [Webb program director Rick Howard] told the NASA Advisory Council’s astrophysics subcommittee during a Feb. 16 public meeting here. “And that just makes everybody even more nervous about this problem than anything else.”
Another climategate whitewash
The inspector general of the Department of Commerce has just issued a review of NOAA’s response to the climategate emails and has essentially given the agency a clean bill of health. You can download the full report here [pdf].
It’s. just. another. whitewash. Let me quote just one part of the report’s summary, referring to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to NOAA in June 2007 in which the agency responded by saying they had no such documents:
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Researchers have uncovered the oldest cremated human remains ever discovered in northern North America at a site in central Alaska
Scientists have uncovered the oldest cremated human remains ever discovered in northern North America at a dig site in central Alaska. Key quote:
Archaeologists discovered the remains last spring in a fire pit in an abandoned living area from 13,200 years ago and dated the child’s death to about 11,500 years ago.
Scientists have uncovered the oldest cremated human remains ever discovered in northern North America at a dig site in central Alaska. Key quote:
Archaeologists discovered the remains last spring in a fire pit in an abandoned living area from 13,200 years ago and dated the child’s death to about 11,500 years ago.
The squealing of a former Bush science administrator
The cries and squeals are now coming from all sides: A former undersecretary for Science in the Energy Department during the Bush administration, Raymond L. Orbach, has joined the chorus of scientists whining about the House’s proposed cuts. [His full editorial, available here as a pdf, can only be downloaded if you subscribe to Science.]
Like all the other squealers, he admits that “the budget deficit is serious.” Nonetheless, the idea of cutting his pet science programs remains unacceptable.
It is when I read stuff like this that feel the situation is most hopeless. Is there no one willing to accept the reality that if we don’t start gaining some control over the federal budget the country will go bankrupt and we will not be able to afford anything?
Instead, all I hear are cries of “Cut! Cut! But don’t cut my program!”
Pan-Starrs Telescope discovers 19 near-earth asteroids in one night
A new record! On January 19, the Pan-Starrs telescope in Hawaii discovered 19 near-earth asteroids, the most for a single night of asteroid-hunting by anyone.
A new record! On January 19, the Pan-Starrs telescope in Hawaii discovered 19 near-earth asteroids, the most for a single night of asteroid-hunting by anyone.
Launch of Glory postponed again
More launch news: The launch of the climate satellite Glory was postponed again today. No new launch date is set.
More launch news: The launch of the climate satellite Glory was postponed again today. No new launch date is set.
More on New Zealand quake
More on the New Zealand earthquake: Curfew imposed as death toll climbs to 75.
More on the New Zealand earthquake: Curfew imposed as death toll climbs to 75.
Glory launch postponed until early Friday
Glory launch postponed until early Friday.
Glory launch postponed until early Friday.