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Monthly Archives: November 2011
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Too many good papers came out this week, so I am doing the countdown with letters (not numbers) as they are all winners. Enjoy! 1a. Ancient Animals: Erwin et al. present the origination times of early animals (as old as pre-Cambrian) and estimate that the last common animal ancestor (LCAA?) may have lived ~800 million years ago. Results published in the journal Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6059/1091.short 1b. Ancient Atmospheres: Scientist from the New York Center for Astrobiology simulate the atmospheric conditions of.... |
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4. Where do energetic particles come from? Enrico Fermi proposed a theory on how particles could be accelerated by collisions with magnetic fields in the galaxy. Here are his notes showing the calculations he did for this seminal paper. Notice the date, Dec 4 1948. I did a quick check and found it was a Saturday! He did all these calculations over the weekend! Although we now know that acceleration occurs due to collision with supernovae shocks, but the central.... |
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4. Why won’t Phobos grunt? Despite a flicker of hope a couple of days ago, the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft was frustratingly silent once again last night. 3. Climate science. While anonymous hackers take a second crack at making political mountains out of email mole hills, scientists working in the open advanced our knowledge this past week. First, a paper in Nature presented evidence that the current rate of loss of Arctic sea ice is anomalous compared to the pace of the.... |
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Here are a few things news topics in astrobiology/planetary/climate science that I’m thankful for: 3… The Phobos-Grunt spacecraft has started phoning home! This doesn’t necessarily mean the mission is saved, and it may even be past the point where a fully functional spacecraft could reach Mars, but this is a case where “no news is BAD news.” Things have changed for the better over the last 48 hours or so. 2… Scientists that continue to pursue the.... |
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Farewell to a Brilliant Earth Mother I’m sitting here in a surf café in Cocoa Beach Florida, taking a break from briefings for the impending launch of the Curiosity Mars rover and trying to wrap my head around the news of the sudden death of Lynn Margulis. I wish I had more time to gather these thoughts, but I’m trying to write this before my laptop runs out of juice and goes dark. All around me videos of youthful surfers.... |
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Astrobiology Magazine Top Story |
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