Closing the door on 2014 and Diving into 2015

Curiosity, the Mars Probe, Confirms Organics on Mars
We briefly went over the biobits that were necessary for life to begin on Earth.  Similar biobits, the building blocks of life, were found by the Mars rover Curiosity.  Combine this fact with the finding that Martian soil is 2% water, methane gas has been found in the atmosphere, a huge ancient lake was found, and these organics did not come from Earth - we have more scientists scrambling to find out what is or was on Mars!  Check it out!

                                  A photo, courtesy of CBC, of Curiosity - the Rover


ET is (probably) out there - Get Ready
If you're into videos - here's a TED talk from a SETI researcher who bets that we will find life out there in the next 24 years by discussing the new tech and laws of probability.

Don't Discount Planets with Horizontal Spinning Axis
In the search for extra terrestrial life, astronomers have always been looking at planets with similar characteristics as Earth.  No tilt to small tilt was one aspect that seemed to always be a characteristic until scientists at MIT have explained that planets that is spinning on a horizontal axis similar to Uranus could support life as long as the planet was completely covered in deep ocean.   Check it out here, at phys.org!

Since we Keep Talking about Life...
You guys enjoyed the last circular evolution animated GIF - look at how embroyos develop into babies.  Feast your eyes on this one.

New Photos from Rosetta Comet Landing
At the American Geophysical Union they spent the time to discuss the newest pictures released from Philae, the probe that's currently sitting on the comet.  They will wait until the comet approaches the sun at a different angle - sometime in March or April - Philae will then be able to use the sun's energy to power up and gather/send more data.  See here for more photos.

NASA to be Overfunded in 2015
Looks like excitement is building up in the space field.  So much so that NASA got MORE money than they asked for - $364 million more for a total of $18 billion.

Working for NASA would be pretty cool. Maybe Interstellar got me.  Or maybe these NASA employees doing this lip dub got me excited...

Working towards the Xmas Deadline

I understand that many of you are working on some scholarships, other courses (yikes - multiple tests for all courses this week), and layer B; but I assure you, scientists, researchers, and rovers are all trying to hit deadlines and non-stop working.

A New Theory on the Origin of Life
We spent a few days dissecting the origin of life; how did Earth go from rocks, to life?

Jeremy England, an assistant professor at MIT, has a new theory published.  Here's an excerpt from Quanta Magazine:

"... indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy...you start with a random clump of atoms, and if you shine light on it for long enough, it should not be so surprising that you get plant..."

For further info, listen to one of his multiple talks or you can look at his published paper "Statistical Physics of Self Replication".


Rosetta Findings Add to Debate of How Water Arrived on Earth
The more comprehensive findings of the comet that Philae has landed on is yet to be released; it takes about a year for the best quality pieces to be observed, analyzed, tested and written about.  However, an interesting one has already come out and it's caused enough of a stir that it's been reported by the weathernetwork.com. One of the more popular hypothesis of the origin of our water is that it came from comets and asteroids - but this more scientific description from NASA has been written here and they've concluded that water from comets such as the one they're studying now couldn't have been the source of our water.  The water at this comet has 3 times the amount of deuterium than our Earth water.

The Importance of Writing in Science
As we are closing to the end of the course, Mr. McCumber and I will be asking for some of your feedback on the organization of the course.  I understand that it may have been writing heavy for some of you, but even post-secondary education is slowly putting some emphasis on the writing as can be seen in this article from the Atlantic.

"Scientists need to know how to write to get their work published and get grants—it's an important skill that people assume they already have [once they reach a certain level], so no one ever teaches them how to write well in these specific formats...research is king, and it's important," she said, but over the past decade universities have started to pay more attention to the "soft skills" that scientists also need."

The Difference between Skeptics and Deniers
It's important to respect everyone's opinion.  Everyone is entitled to an opinion and so here is a bit of mine:  while some of those pro creationist essays I read over the past week had well-formed arguments and fall into the 'skeptics' of Darwin's evolution, others' essays fall into the "denier" category as further defined by a blog post over at Quarks and Quasars.

"Skeptics want evidence; they seek it; they find it; then they accept it. Deniers do not want real evidence and they won’t accept any if it is brought before them.  A person who rejects an idea that is backed by scientific evidence is a denier, and they are anti-science."

Alright, so that wraps up this week's post.  Let me know what you guys think.  Let's finish the last week strong!

Trying to Improve my Curating Skills

Last post regarding evolution was the first one that really attracted much of your attention.  I have to work on what content makes it up here.  I hope this week doesn't let you down!

First up is regarding a spectacular find on unearthing neanderthals.  In class, we're currently learning about fossilization and how it has helped paint the picture of evolution and how the world used to be. Although they found this cave of 12 neanderthals last year, they're still reporting and finding new things as they continue their analysis of the quartz and chert tools.  All three types of absolute age dating has placed these neanderthals at an age of 40,000+ years.  Incredible.

Up next is a fantastic imaginary video of what human exploration will be like in the near future.  All footage is based on real photos of the planets.  This could be a reality in your lifetime!  

Wanderers - a short film by Erik Wernquist from Erik Wernquist on Vimeo.