catdynamics | September 29, 2006Traveling friday, and we ask a timely question:
Oh Mighty Omniscient One - who will the Academy give the nod to next week for that most noble of all science prized?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: The Modern Things - Björk
The Crossing: Waiting in Vain - Bob Marley and the Wailers
The Crown: Gods' Comic - Elvis Costello
The Root: California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
The Past: Colpito qui m'avete - Pavarotti
The Future: J'ai Plus Fin - Henry Dés
The Questioner: Shadow Play - Joy Division
The House: Chinese Dance - Tchaikovsky
The Inside: Clubland - Elvis Costello
The…
catdynamics | September 28, 2006Drove to DC today.
Took six hours, rather longer than planned.
Car transporter jack-knifed on the PA turnpike, took out two 18 wheelers. If there were any passenger cars involved, they'd been cleared up by the time I got through.
Heavy rain.
As I approached the beltway, it had become an impressive thunderstorm, lightning and booming thunder
Then I got into the hotel, logged on, and understood.
Neighbour Daniel, the Union, she has a barnacled bottom, lost her rudder, and the captain is chasing a great white whale. The bilges are awash and the smelly water is rising.
I hope the crew wakes soon.
catdynamics | September 27, 2006Via NASAwatch - NASA administrator Griffin replies to the American Astronomical Societies' Six Questions On NASA Priorities and Processes
Read it.
Interesting, tempered, with interesting conceptual holes.
1) the "mission balance" is not just different size missions, it is also different sub-fields.
If there is any desire for a long term broad space science program, then there needs to be a balance between sub-fields, not just mission classes.
2) there is serious disconnect on the "workforce crisis".
There is a very frustrating "MBA mentality" which seems to think that science expertise is…
catdynamics | September 27, 2006The 2006 Nobel Laureates will be announced on Monday, October 2. Any early guesses as to who this year's honorees will be?...
No.
To be precise, on monday the boring old medicine prize will be announced. Things don't really get exciting until tuesday... and the process doesn't finish until oct 13.
The Academy learned a long time ago what NASA knows well, you need to spread things around the news cycle. Except the Norwegians, who clearly don't understand yet that you never make a big announcement on fridays - don't they realise journalists have lives!
Serious guesses?
No idea about Medicine…
catdynamics | September 26, 2006This spring I took a look at the Iranian nuclear options.
The summary version is that I think the focus on uranium enrichment is a red herring (unless there is intelligence that says there is a policy decision in Iran to go that route - presumably following Pakistan - except the public evidence is consistent with Iran following all options for nuclear development, HEU, Pu-239 breeding from power reactors, and from natural uranium heavy water reactors).
The way for Iran to get a few nukes quickly, is to reprocess the fuel of the Bushehr-1 reactor, after a "short burn" (to avoid Pu-240…
catdynamics | September 25, 2006Lots of news and speculation on possible steps to mobilization by US forces to position for a strike on Iran.
They couldn't be that stupid, could they?
Old Speculation Updated.
So... in my humble and uninformed opinion, if the US were to launch a air strike on Iran, supported by Navy aircraft and possibly a Marine expeditionary force, some things would have to move into place first.
First you need a MEF in the gulf. Well, one group has been loitering in the Arabian Sea.
Then you need, I estimate, three aircraft carrier groups in place.
this japanese web site tracks the US Navy carriers (…
catdynamics | September 25, 2006One of the topics at the Pale Blue Dot workshop last week was detection of technological biosignatures.
Serious discussion on everything from "I Love Lucy", early warning radars, and Dyson Sphere's to isotopic signatures of fission waste disposal in main sequence stars. The latter is stranger than you think - consider Przybylski's Star.
My particular favourite is the prospect of finding a pulsar, or several pulsars - preferably millisecond pulsars; with a period derivative exactly equal to zero...
So, I got to thinking. What can we actually see on Earth from space?
This.
Artistics…
catdynamics | September 25, 2006I have come to the conclusion that the Pearl Jam cover of Kick out the Jams is actually better than the original...
Maybe I'm just getting old.
catdynamics | September 22, 2006Our masters voice speaks and Asks the ScienceBloggers:
Why do men have a longer period of fertility, relative to their lifespan, than women? (Bonus: is this true of other species as well?)...
I Am Not A Biologist, but... I am a theorist, so here goes:
Because it is metabolically cheap for men to remain fertile, so worth the risk and low odds of reproductive success, particularly with possible rise in social stature at late age (and hence new mating opportunities).
Conversely, fertility is very expensive metabolically for women, and the risk high enough that at some point you're better off,…
catdynamics | September 22, 2006Friday again, already?
Oh man, lets stay topical, and ask the iPod a historical question:
oh Mighty One, was there a single transition to an oxygenated archaen atmosphere, involving sudden onset of photosynthesis-2, with associated rapid mass extinction, say around the late Huronian or thereabouts?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Rat Trap - Boomtown Rats
The Crossing: Cry For Love - Iggy Pop
The Crown: O Little Town of Bethlehem - King's College Choir
The Root: Lilli Hittir Mikka Ref - Thorbjorn Egner
The Past: No Business - Bonnie Raitt
The Future: Pole Pole - Ella…
catdynamics | September 21, 2006The Weather Service has announced a severe storm warning for coastal areas as hurricane Gordon is expected to hit land friday morning.
Not, not the Gulf, or the Virginia shore: England, and Wales and Ireland.
Strong winds, gusting to 80 mph, heave rain and coastal flooding are predicted; with some damage and severe morning commuter disruption expected.
Yes, there have been hurricanes, yes they've "recurved" back out to sea.
Not they don't just stop. They hit somewhere in Europe, although the passage over cool water typically reduces their strength so sustained hurricane force winds are rare…
catdynamics | September 20, 2006ESA Envisat press release shows north pole ice pack cracked from Svalbarð to the pole.
Finally large container ships will be able to take the short cut from Hong Kong to Rotterdam. Eh?
The NASA EOS Aqua satellite provided the complimentary data on this but have not seen an associated NASA press release.
"Mark Drinkwater of ESA's Oceans/Ice Unit said: "This situation is unlike anything observed in previous record low ice seasons. It is highly imaginable that a ship could have passed from Spitzbergen or Northern Siberia through what is normally pack ice to reach the North Pole without…
catdynamics | September 20, 2006Cassini reminds us of home. It is a very pretty picture...
Spot Earth in there?
Pale Blue Dot.
PS - this is from within the solar syste,.
To do the same for a terrestrial planet around another star is million times harder and 10 billion times fainter.
On the other hand the Cassini camera is small and the Earth is resolved in the image.
catdynamics | September 19, 2006 A panel of scientists strongly endorsed NASA's plans to return to the moon, saying in a report Tuesday that lunar exploration will open the way toward broader studies of the Earth and solar system.
Did they now. And who was on this comittee...?
Ah
catdynamics | September 19, 2006A couple of years ago, some research groups reported preliminary indications of Methane of Mars.
At very low concentration - about 10 parts per million - but in the highly oxidised Martian atmosphere, methane has a short lifetime, and any amount implies either an unusual recent event, or ongoing production. There aren't that many ways to make methane...
Allen from JPL discussed this issue.
I think the suggestion that it was suit ventilation from the secret alien base was meant jokingly; but methanogenic subsurface bacteria would do to produce the flow of methane necessary to sustain that…
catdynamics | September 19, 2006Pale Blue Dot trucks on, some very interesting discussion on biomarkers and remote sensing, and ongoing plenary sessions on science and media relations and the current state and evolution of science journalism. UScentric, but very, very interesting.
Good turnout by science journalists, btw, both old pros and students.
Raymond Pierrehumbert is now giving a very interesting talk on long term habitability and the long term evolution of the atmosphere, prospects for continued habitability and implications for exoplanet detection.
The issues are the usual. The atmosphere evolves, and there needs…
catdynamics | September 18, 2006It is true that for life to prosper, it is best to prepare fertile soil.
That is best done by spreading a lot of bullshit.
catdynamics | September 18, 2006Interesting poster at the meeting by Richard Carrigan on data mining infrared surveys to constrain, or detect, the presence of Dyson Spheres around nearby stars; or other Kardashev class I++ civilizations.
Short version - he looked through IRAS data.
Nothing jumped out, but the fainter sources are hard to discriminate, and there are anomalous infrared sources...
Long versions, we need to think about this more, and it is worth occasional data mining of mid-infrared sky surveys, which are going to be done anyway for real scientific purposes.
People do this occasionally, because they can…