Haha!

One of our commenters @Vilvos posted on my previous post where I stated
"There are no Royal bloodlines in Atoms or in galaxies, there is just matter."
with a reply that was just so funny it needed front page.

but there ARE noble gasses.

Check out @Vilvos at http://vg73790.blogspot.com

With all of the sadness lately.

With all the sadness lately..
I just needed to visit my old friend Carl Sagan.
Even the intro song makes me cry that this great man is dead..
Im actually crying right now whilst writing this..

I know that may seem sad..
But I love you Carl Sagan.
You are my god.

So in yet another tribute to this amazing man,
Here is the first scene in the epic journey of the cosmos.
I hope you will get this series, even if you just watch it all on youtube.



and to follow up with some more videos.
here is the latest symphony of science, entitled ode to the brain.



Go check out the symphony website, and watch all their music videos.

http://www.symphonyofscience.com/

Planetary bodies

A new theory released recently suggests that planets may form similarly to how stars form.. In great dust clouds.

This theory is the first step in explaining why neptunian style planets can be found as close to their star half the earths distance from the sun.

The new theory suggests that planets are formed elsewhere and then pulled in by a stars gravity, at which point the star strips off the excess gas and reveals the planets..

I personally do not think this that plausible as I believe like many that stars and their planets are formed together.. However we shall wait and see.

A scientist never loves anything more than they love being wrong, because being wrong and knowing it means you are one step closer too the truth.

If you wish too read the full article it can be found here
www.Sciencenews.org

Shuttle Life program by Bill Nye

Shuttle Life

See the link above.. Click it..

Why click it you may ask??

Because it is a link to planetary.org which you should visit every day regardless..
But that link is special because it goes to the page for the shuttle life program.

What is the shuttle life program?

Well basically they want too put a whole bunch of funky microbes onto a space shuttle and launch it into space..
See how the organisms survive, too see if life really could have come from outer space on a rock from a distant planet..

But doing things like this is expensive, so they want moneys.. Well deserved moneys..
The planetary society was founded by the legendary CARL SAGAN, and is now founded by the amazing Bill Nye the science guy!

Donations can be anything but as incentive they have incentives for certain amounts, including a signed image of bill nye!!

Radiation chart.

The guys over at XKCD have designed this clever radiation chart to give people a realistic idea of how radiation really affects you. Click the picture for the large version, or click the link too see the article.

XKCD Radiation chart

FUN SCIENCE!

So its Saturday, lets do some fun science today..

My favorite age old question, Belly button lint!

So first off, why do we get belly button lint?

Well you see Belly button lint is fibers collected from your tshirt boxers even pants, all depending on how hairy you are, now most people understand that Hairy chest = Belly button lint, however this is because pubic hair (no pubic hair is not just crotch hair, it is all hair that you grow after you hit puberty hence pubic hair) has a rougher texture which rubs off fibers from your clothes, the static electricity makes them stick together. WOAH HOLD ON I hear you cry, where did the static electricity come from?? Well it comes from rubbing fabric against hair, simple!

Now the reason it builds up in the navel is that it is the only crevice on your body that can physically hold lint, unless you are extremely hairy in which case the static electricity can cause lint to build up nearly anywhere.

Now why is it blue?
This is the easy part, what type of shirt are you wearing? Black, blue, navy??
Well thats an easy explanation, but what if you are wearing a red shirt or a green shirt?? Well it still usually comes out blue and thats because, most dyes are based heavily on blue or black to get the right color.
Sometimes however the dye is not based on blue, and in that case you get different color lint!

Thanks for tuning in too fun science day!

Robonaut

ROBONAUT HAS LANDED
The robonaut has finally been unpacked aboard the ISS.
Unfortunately he will not be activated until May.
Robonaut as I see it is the next step too an evil robot army.

For those of you who are curious what the robonaut is well he (it?) is one of four current robonaut models, they are basically robot astronauts designed to help astronauts in their daily tasks, and eventually on too things astronauts can't do, like go outside... which is something astronauts often have difficulty with what with the ISS being in space and all.

Astronauts are still able to go outside with suits, but robots could be ready much faster, and lets face it we dont mind risking robots as much as we mind risking humans.

Reference:
http://robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp

MESSENGER

Only a few hours ago the MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging or the MESSENGER space craft for short, entered orbit around Mercury, and is unique in being the only spacecraft ever to do so!

Now I know some of you out there are thinking, how did we make a spacecraft that can survive the extreme temperature that is found that close to the sun? Well it all starts with the orbit, the MESSENGER flies in as close as 200 kilometers to the surface of mercury and then flies away more than 15,000 km from the surface, it does all of this every 12 hours. The flying away is what keeps it cool enough to continue working its sensors.

The MESSENGER will look for chemical signs of volcanic activity on mercury.
VOLCANIC ACTIVITY ON MERCURY?? I hear you cry, well indeed, scientists believe that there is volcanic activity on the surface and the MESSENGER is at the end of its 6 and a half year journey to discover if this is true.

References:
www.Sciencenews.org

www.CTV.ca

Feel the love for the eco dome?

Mars,

We spent billions of dollars getting up the ISS, why not the same funding to get to mars.

TerraForm or Eco Dome?
_____________________
A common debate and question..I say, why not both?
We start with the eco dome to get colonists on the planet and then we terraform from there.
Think about any colonization what do you do?
you build a base of operations..
The eco dome could serve as that base and provide a place for scientists to study martian conditions and work out possible means of terraforming.

Power
______
The planet like earth can support geothermal energy and solar energy..
for building an eco-dome that would be enough energy and then if teraforming is going to happen then nuclear is a cost effective and simple solution.


electric rovers can charge of stations that connect to these power supplies.

Oxygen
_______
We can then set up a processing plant which can take the natural Oxygen/Carbon mix that is in the atmosphere of the planet, and convert them into breathable air. This processing plant filters air into the eco-dome which we fill with high oxygen producing plants. Alternatively to taking oxygen and combining it with carbon, we could take water from the ice caps and via electrolysis take out the oxygen, the remaining hydrogen can then be used as fuel.

Modulation
_________
I firmly believe that the eco-dome will need to be modular to allow for expansion if it is non-modular then the eco-dome will remain the same size and colonization cannot happen, it will fall into a purely research based facility, although this is all well and good, the eventual goal should be colonization and eventually a strong human presence on mars.

Pressurization
____________
Any colony on mars pre teraforming needs to have a high pressure, but this allready happens with most structures that go beyond surface earth, IE Submarines and Space shuttles.

Transport to mars
________________

The current journey to mars takes between 6-9 months, which is relatively long time to wait to get anything done, if we want to be there in ten years almost 1 year of that is transporting there, so we only have 9 years planning and construction time..
However at the same time, America to the moon took from 62-69 not even ten years..

I strongly believe we can make this happen, im no engineer I cant give you schematics or details, but I see no reason we cant be there before 2020, accept money..

Its still a long way off.. But if everyone had these ideas then we very well could be there..