The Waters of Mars and Philosophy

 
By now, everyone (I hope) has heard that NASA has confirmed the discovery of flowing, liquid water on Mars. These are exciting times, people! Why? We are one step closer to potentially discovering LIFE on another planet! As Bill Nye the Science Guy put it on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, "Wherever we find water on Earth, we find living things," so it stands to reason that finding water on Mars could very well lead to finding life on the Red Planet. Unfortunately, that same panel discussed how few people seem to really care about this ground-breaking discovery despite all of its amazing implications. Ricky Valez perhaps summed up the thoughts of those who are less than impressed with the discovery of water on Mars:

"Why would I be excited about Mars? I'm barely excited about Earth! [...] Trump is first in polls right now! Are you kidding me? Let's defeat ISIS! How about that?"

This struck a cord with me on several levels. Nye did his best to explain how important an interest in space is by pointing out how we would not be as technologically advanced as we are without the space program to no avail. (Use the interwebs via a computer, or a cell phone, or velcro? Thank the space program for ALL of that.) As a nerd, and a space enthusiast, it hurts my soul to hear people say that they don't care about space exploration. Especially when their reasons are so terrestrial. Here's the thing, stay with me here cause I'm about to get philosophical, one of the main reasons for conflict in our world today (outside of a fight for resources) is the very basic idea of "you're different from me, and I don't like that." At its very base, that's the underlying feeling behind nearly every major conflict we have. From religious differences, to racial differences, to simple language barriers, the issue is our resistance to accept our differences. Which is so trivial and petty considering that we're actually all the same down to molecular level. Nearly all of our differences are a matter of geography. The language you speak is determined by where you were born. The color of your skin is determined by the geographic location of your ancestors (did they live in the sunny Sahara, or the perpetually overcast UK, or a mix of both?). Even the religion you practice is (most often, but of course not always) determined by where you were born and/or where your family hails from.

So, what does this have to do with an interest in space? I'm getting there, I promise.

I live in New Orleans, a city known for the tendency of its inhabitants to spend their entire lives in the neighborhood in which they grew up. It's a beautiful thing to have such a deep love for your city, but it's also easy to fall into the trappings of living in a bubble. When you live in a bubble, it's much too easy to think of your world in terms of the confines of that bubble; to not care about things outside of said bubble. We defend our bubble fiercely, because in many ways it's all we know. We make huge decisions based on the parameters of our bubble, often with little to no regard for the impact those decisions may have on the world outside our bubble. That is why it is so very important for us to work on expanding our bubble. If you think about what's best only for your neighborhood, then the ones around it may start to suffer. That suffering leads to resentment and anger from the surrounding neighborhoods, which in turn leads to resentment and anger from your neighborhood towards those railing against it. Now, even if your bubble expands to cover your city, or state, or even the Country as a whole, there are still billions of people living outside your bubble who also matter and are making decisions that WILL effect you. Whether those decisions are on a human level such as the atrocious conditions in Syria leading to thousands of refugees fleeing into other Countries, or on an environmental level like the amount of carbon in our atmosphere destroying the polar ice caps and raising the sea levels globally, we are all (at some point) going to be affected by the actions of those outside our bubbles. It's not until our bubble encompasses the entire planet that we will be able to truly see how connected we all are, and will be able as a species to make decisions that will benefit us all. Having an interest in space exploration breeds that kind of global thinking. When we look to the stars, we begin to realize how tiny our world is in the grand scheme of things, and how connected we all are as its inhabitants. We all live on this one, tiny, watery rock together. The arbitrary lines we've drawn around our Countries and cities are as meaningless as they are imaginary when we look at the Earth as a whole.

Space exploration is important to our technological advancement, yes. More than that, though, space exploration is exceedingly important to our species' advancement.

Get Your Nerd Groove On

I adore music. All kinds of music, from Tchaikovsky to Bad Religion and from Kate Miller-Heidke to Tech N9ne. What I also love is when people get super clever, and super nerdy, with their music (be it an original or a parody). So, here are just a few of my favorite nerdy songs from my music library:

She Blinded Me with Science: Special Print-Only Edition

This is a print-only, special edition of She Blinded Me with Science (usually these posts are supplemental to my science segment on local radio show, The Week in Geek). Enjoy!

An amazing thing happened yesterday. Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) landed a probe on a comet for the first time ever in the history of humans.

First image from Philae of the surface of Comet 67P/C-G

After hitching a 10 year ride to reach Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on the Rosetta satellite, and a 7 hour descent to the surface, Philae bounced twice (due to the comet's weak gravitational pull), but was able to use it's thrusters to force itself back down to the surface. Despite some issues firing the harpoons intended to anchor the probe to the surface of the comet as it spins through space, Philae is currently nestled near a cliff on the comet's surface, about a kilometer from its target landing spot. Though it is currently stable on the surface, Philae is still not properly anchored. Due to its final landing location, there are some concerns about the ability for Philae's solar panels to gather enough sunlight to properly power the probe.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

It wasn't a perfect landing, but it was a success nonetheless. Very rarely do complicated maneuvers like these go perfectly their first go-round, and this mission was nearly impossible to properly train for. Comet 67P/C-G is oddly shaped, a fact no one knew until July 2014, which gave project scientists an incredibly short window to calculate an appropriate landing site in a Goldilocks scenario (not too cold, not too hot, close to a scientifically active area to gather good data, but not so close as to risk damage, good timing to ensure enough surface sunlight will be available throughout the mission, etc.). Additionally, despite an imperfect landing and potential stability and power issues, the mission has been providing scientists with valuable data throughout Rosetta's 10 year flight to reach Comet 67P/C-G, and Philae has been successfully transmitting valuable and historic data images since its landing. This is an amazing thing that has occurred during our lifetime, and I feel privileged to bear witness to scientific feats such as this.

Monika Jones and Dr. Matt Taylor. Photograph: European Space Agency/PA

It is unfortunate, however, that in 2014, during a time of great scientific achievement, we are still struggling with issues of social privilege and misogyny. British scientist Dr. Matt Taylor is the ESA Project Scientist on the Rosetta Mission, and has been a recognizable and much talked about personality for the project. Much like Curiosity Rover engineer, Bobak Ferdowsi, Taylor has been lauded by the media for not being the stereotypical stuffed-shirt, lab coat wearing, old man scientist spokesperson. Unlike Ferdowsi, Taylor was not thrust into the limelight by the media. He has been at the forefront of the mission for awhile; giving news briefs and speaking publicly about the mission was an established aspect of his role in the project prior to the landing. Nevertheless, he chose to don a shirt covered in half-naked women on the day that he knew the world would be watching. Achievements like the Philae Landing are a big deal, not just for the advancement of scientific achievement, but for inspiring a younger generation to pursue study and a career in the sciences. How many young minds were opened to the fantastic world of space exploration when Neil Armstrong's foot famously touched the surface of the moon? That was in 1969, when entire families gathered together around the one, tiny television set they had between them to witness history. In 2014, when many own several TVs, computers with instant internet access, and have the ability to watch live television on their smart phones, it is mind-boggling to imaging the number of young, impressionable eyes that were fixed on bright screens to witness history, and consequently this shirt:

Now, I don't know why Dr. Taylor chose to wear that shirt. Perhaps that is simply the shirt that he wears on Wednesdays, and no thought went into his wardrobe selection whatsoever. I cannot presume to know what his motivation was when he buttoned up that brightly colored shirt covered in half naked women wearing latex and lingerie. I cannot even presume that he had a specific motivation other than to simply put on a shirt. What I can say, is that as the Project Scientist and an established spokesperson for the Rosetta Mission, that neither he nor any of the many people around him thought that perhaps wearing a shirt that sexually objectifies women on the day that Philae landed and the whole world would be watching might not be the best choice is indicative of the much larger, systemic issue of sexism in the STEM community. Now I am not, by any means, claiming that Taylor himself is sexist. I don't know him. What I am saying is that by wearing that shirt while acting as a representative of the scientific community and of the ESA, a message (intentional or not) was sent that the sexual objectification of women in the workplace is acceptable.

To be clear: I do not believe that there was any malicious intent involved here, but I do feel that it is important to draw attention to these instances when they occur. We, as a society, have collectively determined that sexual harassment is unacceptable, especially in the workplace, and this was no less an example of sexual harassment than slapping the rear end of a coworker. (Before anyone brings up that I'm projecting my American expectations onto a European society, I assure you, it's not acceptable there either.) In my opinion, ignoring this situation as a harmless, albeit unfortunate, fashion faux pas is just as dangerous as claiming "boys will be boys" when an office worker slaps the rear end of a coworker as she walks by.

She Blinded Me with Science 10/25/14

She Geek Eris drops a knowledge egg on dat ass via her segment on local radio show The Week in Geek. Here are this week's topics:

ZOMG Ebola Is Going to KILL US ALL!!!1!!11!! 
 

Mickey Mouse is coming for your SOUL!

Listening to the news, it sounds like the end of days is upon us. We will all soon be dying a horrible, bloody, miserable death from that seemingly inescapable terror named Ebola. Thousands are dead in West Africa. Thousands more infected; many of whom are expected to die. It's already crossed the border into our great United States where we're teetering on the precipice of a full on, Hollywood style, end-of-the-world outbreak. We are all doomed. Except that we're not. Not even a little. 

Don't get me wrong, Ebola is a deadly virus that has taken the lives of over 2,000 people in West Africa in the last 6 months. The current outbreak is a serious issue, and not something to be taken lightly. Those infected require quick, professional, medical attention to ensure the victim's survival and the containment of the virus. Unfortunately, that level of care is precisely what many victims in West Africa have not be able to receive, which is why this outbreak has become the worst in recorded history. That is, however, the exact level of care an infected individual would receive in the United States. So, let's take a look at some facts about the Ebola Virus so that we can perhaps remain calm and redirect our concern back onto the less fortunate parts of the world that are actually suffering from this outbreak:

She Blinded Me with Science 10/4/14

*Note: I was stuck on a plane at a cruising altitude of about 30,000 ft during this week's broadcast, so this segment never reached the airwaves. It's still relavent though, so I'm posting it anyway.*

She Geek Eris drops a knowledge egg on dat ass via her segment on local radio show The Week in Geek. Here are this week's topics:

We're at CONtraflow SciFi this Weekend, and My Goal is to Avoid that Week of Ick that Follows Most Cons:

Conventions are great, but anyone who's been to a convention has at least heard of that seemingly unavoidable plague known throughout the Nation as Con Crud. Con Crud is essentially a cold or flu-like ick that con goers experience shortly after a convention ends. It is usually described as a fuzzy head, congestion, fatigue, and a general feeling of death warmed over that lasts anywhere from a few days to a week. Though it may not feel like it at the time, it is generally considered to be a mild viral infection. The prevalence of Con Crud increases with the number of people attending the convention, because larger conventions mean there are more people squeezed into tighter spaces without additional ventilation. With so many random people interacting with each other (many of whom have traveled from other geographic regions), the spread of germs is inevitable. No, you're not likely to contract ebola at your local sci-fi convention, but you'll probably come in contact with at least one carrier of the cold virus. 

That alone, however, is probably not enough to cause the prevalence of Con Crud. We don't, after all, hear nearly as many horror stories of people falling ill after the yearly librarian convention or Teacher's Association Meeting, so what is so different about conventions like CONtraflow or DragonCon or SDCC?
Well, in addition to being surrounded by strangers, con goers tend to physically interact with a large number of people by posing for photos, and shaking hands with or hugging all manner of guests, dealers, artists, etc (all of whom have shaken hands with countless random geeks already). Additionally, these conventions have a reputation of being a giant, continuous party with lots of drinking and socializing, and very little sleeping. Take all that into consideration, and it's no wonder our immune systems seem to clock out the moment we hit the host hotel.

So, can Con Crud be avoided or are we destined to suffer for our combined love of fandom? Short of wearing a full hazmat suit, there is no way to guarantee that you won't be exposed to a mild virus, however, there are steps you can take to reduce your chances of actually getting sick. Washing your hands regularly is always a good idea, and using hand sanitizer when washing your hands isn't an immediate option can help as well. Equally as important (and much easier to neglect), however, is getting enough sleep and eating well balanced meals throughout the weekend. Sorry, a bag of crisps and a reheated hot dog washed down with a rum and Coke doesn't count. Neither does a power nap in the hallway between panels. Drink a lot of water, opt for an apple or a handful of almonds instead of a Snickers bar for a snack, try to eat at least two well balanced meals a day, limit your alcohol intake, and get several hours of sleep each night. It's not easy (and I'm the first to admit that I often neglect to take care of myself a cons), but if you really need/want to combat Con Crud without donning a Fallout radiation suit all weekend, try to follow as many of these rules as you can.

She Blinded Me with Science 9/27/14

She Geek Eris drops a knowledge egg on dat ass via her segment on local radio show The Week in Geek. Here are this week's topics:

In Honor of Banned Books Week: The Science Behind Our Love of Books

There are few scents as distinct and beloved as that of an old book. If you're like me, that musty, earthy smell seems to trigger something in your brain that makes you feel at home and comfortable. Nothing else smells quite like the pages of your favorite book, and you can thank chemistry for that.

She Blinded Me with Science 9/6/14

She Geek Eris drops a knowledge egg on dat ass via her segment on local radio show The Week in Geek. Here are this week's topics:

'Movies in Your Brain: The Science of Cinematic Perception'

Believe it or not, the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences does more than just hand out arbitrary gold statues once a year. This summer, the Academy produced an event based on explaining the scientific effect movies have on the human brain. The event took place in July, and has spawned several corresponding articles in Wired so that us little people could read up on it after the fact. At the 'Movies in Your Brain' event, the Academy put filmmakers like Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Chef) and Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Pi, Requiem for a Dream) together with some leading neuroscientists to discuss how movies catch and keep our attention, and how what we see on the screen affects our brains. 

She Blinded Me with Science! 8/23/14

She Geek Eris drops a knowledge egg on dat ass via her segment on local radio show The Week in Geek. Here are this week's topics:

Could You Camouflage like a Cephalopod One Day?

Forget maxing out your level in Obfuscate; when it comes to blending in, vampires ain't got nothin' on octopi! 

Mad hide and seek skillz.

Cephalopods (mollusks with arms attached to their heads like octopus, squid, and cuttlefish) are masters of camouflage because it is their main form of protection. Their bodies are covered in a layer of thousands of chromatophores, color-changing cells just below the skin. Each cell contains pigment and can be expanded or contracted to accentuate or subdue the visibility of their pigment depending on the desired effect. For instance, if the octopus needs to blend into a piece of red coral, the chromatophores containing red pigment would be expanded while the others contracted, essentially turning the octopus red. Some cephalopods also have a layer of reflective plates in their skin in addition to chromatophores which allow them to either appear iridescent or simply reflect the colors around them in order to blend in even more completely. Most importantly to this research, cephalopod skin also contains a layer of photosensitive cells. These cells are able to sense light and patterns without the use of the cephalopod's eyes or even its brain, which allow it to utilize its camouflage technique almost instantaneously.

She Blinded Me with Science! 7/26/14

She Geek Eris drops a knowledge egg on dat ass via her segment on local radio show The Week in Geek. Here are this week's topics:

Comic Con and NASA and Sea Labs, Oh My!

So, everyone has been talking about ComicCon since it opened this weekend. The cosplay, the nuggets of movie and comic information, the experiences…there’s SO much to talk about and look forward to. Except Star Wars Episode VII. Sadly, yet again, we fans get nothin’. So I decided that since my love of all things space related began with watching Star Wars and Star Trek as a kid, I would fill that void with real life space info courtesy of NASA. Now, I briefly mentioned last week that NASA is about to start testing part of their Space Launch System rocket at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi (which, by the way, if you haven’t been, go; it’s awesome). But as cool as those rockets are, they are only one part of space exploration, and the part my little 5 year old self dreamed about was being an astronaut visiting a galaxy far, far away. While most of us can only imagine what it would be like to live in a 'Zero G' environment, actual astronauts need to know what it’s like. So the geniuses at NASA created NEEMO, the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project. 

It’s essentially a training program designed to allow astronauts to conduct field tests in the types of extreme environments they would encounter in space by sending them to live in a research lab under the sea (did you just start humming the theme from SeaLab 2021 too, or was that just me?). Aquarius is the only lab of its kind, is located 62 feet below the surface in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and is currently the home of four ‘aquanauts’, as NASA calls them. This past Monday, the NEEMO 18 crew dove down to their watery home for the next 9 days where they will test their spacewalk techniques, and practice performing tasks in a harsh environment not unlike that of space. 

(Aquanauts using a Core Drill to practice drilling into another planetary surface)

As a bonus, NASA technicians can simulate varying levels of gravitational pull by simply weighing down the aquanauts as they go about their tasks, because the goal of these training exercises is to prepare astronauts for exploratory missions to asteroids, the Moon, Mars, and one day that galaxy far, far away. So, while we’re pouring over all the sci-fi announcements coming out of ComicCon this weekend (myself included) let us not forget that there are real life astronauts training right now to bring us one small step and one giant leap closer to making that fiction a reality.

For up to date info about the NEEMO project and what the crew is up to, check out their Facebook page, here!

Here is an interview with NASA Astronaut / NEEMO Aquanaut Mark Vande Hei, currently living in Aquarius:

She Blinded Me with Science! 7/19/14

She Geek Eris drops a knowledge egg on dat ass via her segment on local radio show The Week in Geek. Here are this week's topics:

The Tesla Tower: It (maybe) LIVES!!

Last week was the anniversary of Nikola Tesla's birthday (the brilliant scientist I like to refer to as The Man Who Invented Thomas Edison), and Dave asked for more info about this project. I am happy to oblige.

There is an IndieGoGo campaign (closing on August 1^st) from a pair of Russian physicists, Sergey and Leonid Plekhanov, who believe they can meet the world’s energy needs by rebuilding Nikola Tesla’sWardenclyffe Tower with modern day materials and advances in technology. The original tower, built in 1901, was Tesla’s vision for providing renewable electricity to the world, wirelessly and with little to no environmental impact by using the Earth itself as a universal transmitter. A humanitarian at heart, it was Tesla’s belief that everyone should have access to clean energy to help filter water, light their homes, etc. In addition, he believed strongly that the use of fossil fuels as a source for energy would ultimately lead to irrevocable damage to the environment. Instead, Tesla believed that he could design a method of using the energy released by the sun. Unlike the solar energy we are familiar with today, Tesla’s vision involved the use of an antenna to tap into (what is now known as) the Earth’s ionosphere, the ionized portion of our atmosphere. Unfortunately, his funding was cut, the tower was never finished, and the structure was ultimately demolished for scrap in 1917.

The Plekhanov brothers have spent several years pouring over Nikola Tesla’s patents, notes, and diaries, and believe that they can successfully build his dream tower. They plan on adapting his original plans to incorporate solar panels and lighter building materials to make the tower efficiently operational as well as more cost-effective. In addition to the tower itself, their plan involves the erection of roughly 38,000 sq miles of solar panels in a desert near the equator (to collect the solar energy they would then use the tower to transmit across the globe). One of the main issues the brothers’ detractors bring up, however, is the potential cost for this field of solar panels. Some claim such an installation could carry a 20 trillion dollar price tag, which is significantly more than the $800,000 the brothers are seeking to build the tower itself. It is worth noting that there is merit to the brothers’ use of such a solar panel field. Based on global energy usage for the year 2009 (20,279,640 GWh), scientists have calculated that the sun produces an equivalent amount of energy in just one hour. The main issue with solar energy, however, is the problem of collecting, storing, and distributing the energy. It is possible then that the Plekhanov brothers’ proposed Tesla Tower could solve that problem, if it works. It seems the brothers are running into the same financial roadblock Nikola Tesla himself ran into in the early 1900s, as their IndieGoGo campaign has thus far raised a mere 5% of their goal with less than two weeks until it closes.

Squishy Robots!!

A pair of MIT engineers has made an incredible breakthrough in robotics, thanks in part to some octopus inspiration. Professor of mechanical engineering, Anette Hosoi, and her former graduate student, Nadia Cheng, have developed an inexpensive method of fabrication that could be used to create squishy or (as they’re calling them) “deformable” robots that can move through a space with fluidity (like this octopus squeezing through a 1 inch hole), but retain their rigidity when needed to perform feats of strength or manipulate an object. They started with a structure made of open cell foam because of its ability to twist, turn, and squish but consistently bounce back into its original shape. From there, they laced the struts with thread-like wiring and coated and soaked the whole thing in wax. They can then heat the wax by running a current through the wires causing it to soften and the structure to become temporarily flexible. When the wax is cooled, the structure again becomes rigid. Since they are able to target specific areas of the structure with heat, they were even able to create joints and make the structure move by pulling on a cable that had been run through the middle of it. As an added bonus, should the structure become damaged, it can repair itself using the same method of heating and cooling the wax (much like the T-1000 from ‘Terminator 2’ as Helen Knight pointed out in her article for MIT). This technology could be invaluable in the medical field, if deformable robots could be made small enough to be used in surgical procedures. Their fluidity could allow such robots to move around internal organs without the risk of causing additional damage. Additionally, first responders could use deformable robots to quickly squeeze in-between pieces of rubble during search and rescue missions. Certainly, there could be some military uses for this technology as well, but I think that overall (so long as your name isn’t John Connor), these probably aren’t the robot overlords we need to fear.