Anecdote: Science

One day a botanist found a beautiful plant by the wayside.  He sat down to analyze it.  He pulled it apart and examined each segment under a microscope.

When he had finished he could tell the color of the flower, its classification, and the number of stamens and pistils and petals and bracts, but the life and the beauty and the alluring fragrance were gone.

#1117

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover Back In Action

Nice to see NASA's Mars Rover Curiosity back on the job after Mars slipped behind the sun for a month.  It has been operating on the surface of Mars since November 26th, 2011.  As Mars solar conjunctions happen every 26 months these 'blackouts' are planned and expected.  From what I can tell this is the most advanced Martian rover to date.  As it is the size of a small car the engineering feat landing it is something to marvel at.  You can follow Curiosity's exploits here and keep up to date on any new discoveries and possibilites future exploration.  The images being sent back are really jaw dropping.  I hope this rover lasts as long as the Mars rover Opportunity which has been operating since January 25th, 2004.  That's over nine years now.  It's twin Spirit stopped working in 2009.

Nature's Raw Power

My reading on lightning tells me its a thinly charged column of air rapidly heated to three times the surface of the sun. This 'Astronomy Photo of the Day' from July 20th in the skies of Athens, Greece is one of the best this year. I'm sure this was a spectacle that would have made even the mighty Zeus flinch from his throne atop Mt. Olympus. I never cease to be astounded by nature and its power. To get a glimpse of that power like the above photo should give pause to anyone not humbled by that power.

Chinese Media Wants To Believe

Recently a well publicized (well, on the Internet anyway) UFO sighting in China's Zhejiang provincial capital Hangzhou caused quite an international media stir (except here that is). The photographic and subsequent video record of the actual sighting aren't very convincing. I've seen to many video clips of old post cold war ICBM & lost derelict spy satellite boosters succumbing to Newtonian law and finally finding its way back to the insane world that launched them in secrecy no longer able to cling to their anonymity. The Hangzhou airport sighting actually looks pretty mundane in light of past clips of old spacecraft hardware giving up the ghost and de-orbiting to a fiery end.

I was just somewhat amused this event caused this much excitement with the weighty logical explanations on hand for what they obviously observed. Though I'm sure there's a little Fox Mulder in all of us when it comes to the possibilities of extraterrestial life. I reside quite comfortably in my skeptic's easy chair when it comes extraterrestrial visitations due to the distances involved and the resources needed to make the trip. As to the possibility of the existence of life as we define it outside the confines of our solar system I am definitely in that camp. This puts me in the S.E.T.I. school of thinking as opposed to the Roswell mindset and the expectations associated with that community.