News Alert: Water Found on the Moon!

Image Credit: NASA/LCROSS

It’s official.  The NASA LCROSS mission has concluded that there is indeed water on the moon!  The team of researchers who worked on the mission released their findings today, November 14, 2009:

The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water.

Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists and space enthusiasts alike.

NASA today opened a new chapter in our understanding of the moon. Preliminary data from the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates that the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus cater near the moon’s south pole.

This exciting news will forever change our understanding of the moon and the planets elsewhere in our solar system.

Kirk Cameron and Charles Darwin

Image Credit: maniacworld.com

Seeing the names side-by-side is at first shocking, and then one realizes a controversy is sure to follow.  A recent article in The Huffington Post tells of how Cameron wishes to spread awareness about the “undeniable connection” between Adolf Hitler’s holocaust and Charles Darwin’s work on Evolution.  He and others supporting his radical cause plan to distribute 50,000 copies or more of an altered version of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species to students in universities all across the United States on November 21, which is Darwin Day – the 150th anniversary of the first publication of his work.

What type of alteration will be made?  A wonderfully written introduction to the book, which Cameron describes as a passage that will “…highlight Darwin’s racism and his disdain for women.”  The introduction will also make a gigantic leap in scientific theory by exposing that all along Darwin’s work has been an elaborate hoax  and it’s actually Creationism that holds the key to knowledge!  Exciting, is it not?

Cameron also makes it clear that he will be presenting this wonderful information as a “balanced view of Creationism.”  I certainly can’t wait to get my hands on this, as Cameron describes, “very special” edition of On the Origin of Species.

Cheating Death

Image Credit: Barnes and Noble

Popular M.D. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has recently released a book called Cheating Death.  In it, he explains how recent advances in medical technology can increase our survival rate in accidents and health issues tenfold.  The path this technology is on will eventually lead to the human race being able to effectively “cheat death” and die on their own terms–or not at all.

Of course this will create some philosophical issues, but for now, I’m simply examining the book itself.

CompSci: Virtual Reality and the Medical Field

Image Credit: engin.umich.edu

I was inspired to write this article after reading one of the closing chapters in Unweaving the Rainbow:  Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins that I mentioned in a previous post.  Dawkins discusses the implications virtual reality has on areas of science, medicine, and everyday life.  The ideas he posed about this in Unweaving the Rainbow were mere hypothetical and “in theory” situations 13 years ago, but now, I curiously wonder why his ideas aren’t given more attention.

I say “his” ideas, but what I mean to say is the ideas of those in the virtual reality field, which is all too often overlooked as a branch of science intended for computer nerds intent on making the next great video game console.  It’s a sad reality that such a groundbreaking science isn’t respected enough.  Thankfully, those doing the research for virtual reality don’t seem too affected by the stereotype.

CompSci: Tetris and Gray Matter

Image Credit: Electronic Arts (EA)

Think twice before you call that notorious Tetris player a “Block Head” again.  Studies have shown that playing the geometry based game has a clear connection to boosting the gray matter in the brain.  BMC Research Notes released the results of an experiment that shows playing the game for just three months can significantly increase the brain’s gray matter.

“This is a fascinating result,” comments Pascale Michelon of Washington University in St. Louis. “It confirms how plastic the brain is.”

New Richard Dawkins Book

Image Credit: RichardDawkins.net

Another well written book by Richard Dawkins is hitting stores this month.  The Greatest Show on Earth:  The Evidence for Evolution is the latest in the ever growing series of books by Professor Dawkins on evolutionary Biology and the public.  You can read the entire first chapter of this book now, before its release, courtesy of RichardDawkins.net.  I know I’ll be adding this book to my library when it becomes available.  You can preorder the book from sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and RichardDawkins.net.

Expect a review after I read the book.

Coincidentally, I am in the process of finishing one of the most beautifully written books on science, also by Richard Dawkins.  Unweaving the Rainbow:  Science, Delusion, and the Appetite for Wonder is a take from the view of a scientist on the poetic nature of science and the implications such beauty and poetry has on life, and poses this as an alternative to the delusional ideas of religion, astrology, psychic ability, etc.

While Dawkins (surprisingly modestly) claims he has little or no poetic

Image Credit: web.mit.edu

ability, the book is beautifully crafted and opens one’s eyes to the true magnificence of science.  Filled with beautiful imagery and loads of information, I recommend this book to anyone interested in science or curious how beautiful science makes our world.

Anyone who appreciates the beauty of science should add this book to their library.  It’s an exciting read.

Medical Care Threatened by Isotope Crisis

Image Credit: University of Missouri

In only two weeks time, the vast majority of radioactive medical treatment/scans could be severely delayed or rescheduled or replaced by less desirable and efficient procedures.  The reason: temporary shutdowns of Canadian and Dutch reactors that together normally provide some 70 percent of the world’s supplies of the isotope molybdenum-99 and at least 80 percent of North American supplies.

LHC to Resume Operation in November

Image Credit: ATLAS Gallery

Yes, after a year of waiting, the Large Hadron Collider is back for round two.  As of now, the LHC is scheduled to begin operating again in November of this year.  However, researchers are only cranking it up to half power, and will not reach full power until after 2010.  Press officer James Gillies said this idea came about as a compromise as to not cause any more damage to the LHC and still retain enough energy to get good experimental results.

Tom LeCompte, physics coordinator for CERN’s ATLAS experiment, which will study collisions of protons, said “We’re still doing the same physics plan we had envisioned all along, but it’s happening at a slower pace.”

Mars Mysteries

Image Credit: ESA Mars Express Project

Discovering the existence of methane on Mars in 2004 meant only one of two things: Either there is life on Mars, or there is volcanic activity under the Martian surface.  Today, we may be getting closer to that answer.  Back in December 2003, ESA’s Mars Express arrived smoothly in orbit around the red planet.  As the Express began taking data, Vittorio Formisano, Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario CNR, Rome, and the rest of the instrument team saw a puzzling signal.

In addition to the atmospheric gases they were expecting to encounter (carbon dioxide and water vapor), they also detected a substantial amount of methane.  “Methane was a surprise, we were not expecting that,” says Agustin Chicarro, ESA Mars Lead Scientist.  The reason they were so surprised?  On Earth, almost all the methane released into our atmosphere comes from some form of evolved life, like cattle when they digest food.  In other words, all of our farting contributes to an awful lot of methane.

This discovery changed the way scientists looked at and studied Mars.  Now, we may be making a breakthrough as to what it all means for the red planet.

Francis Collins Nominated To Head NIH

On Wednesday, July 8th, 2009, President Barack Obama announced that he would nominate geneticist Francis Collins as head of the National Institutes of Health.

“Dr. Collins is one of the top scientists in the world,” said Mr. Obama.  “His groundbreaking work has changed the very ways we consider our health and examine disease. I look forward to working with him in the months and years ahead.”

From Collins’ well known credentials, to his equally well known spiritual side, it is clear President Obama has made a wise decision in allowing Collins this opportunity.