Antaeus Orbiting Quarantine Facility (1978)
- By David S. F. Portree |
- July 7, 2012 |
- Comments
Mars Sample Return has been high on NASA’s list of favorite Mars missions since the 1970s. Among many, however, the concept raises an important question: if Mars has life, how can we be sure that Mars microbes in the samples won’t harm life on Earth? In 1978, 16 professors from across the United States met at NASA Ames Research Center to consider this question. Their answer: the Antaeus Orbiting Quarantine Facility.
Beyond Apollo, Science BlogsEruptions Update – Summer Storm Edition (Pt. 2)
- By Erik Klemetti |
- July 6, 2012 |
- Comments (32)
Just thought I would offer a second update – this week’s unexpected vacation/evacuation to Massachusetts has flown by and now we’re heading back to Ohio tomorrow. It appears that much of Granville has its power back, meaning the outage was roughly 6 days, but some houses near our house are still out, so we’re not [...]
Eruptions, Science BlogsHiggs For Mere Mortals
- By Rhett Allain |
- July 6, 2012 |
- Comments (5)
The science video community has been hard at work providing you with the best explanation of the Higgs boson. Watch some of Dot Physics blogger Rhett Allain’s favorite explainer clips.
Dot Physics, Science BlogsA Poison for Assassins
- By Deborah Blum |
- July 5, 2012 |
- Comments (22)
Radioactive elements make for some effective poisons. With a new investigation into the possible-poisoning of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, our chemistry blogger Deborah Blum looks into the history of radiation assassinations.
Elemental, Science BlogsHow Do You Measure the Stratos Space Jump?
- By Rhett Allain |
- July 5, 2012 |
- Comments (4)
This summer daredevil Felix Baumgartner will leap from a balloon into the history books. Dot Physics blogger Rhett Allain considers how the legitimacy of the stunt might be recorded.
Dot Physics, Science BlogsOcean Explorers Delay Expedition, Enter Political Waters Off Turkish Coast
- By Jeffrey Marlow |
- July 5, 2012 |
- Comments
An ocean explorer and his 48-man crew were anchored in Istanbul when the Turkish government asked to borrow their vessel. Astrobiologist, Extremo Files blogger and exploration fan Jeffrey Marlow explains how the crew recovered the bodies of two downed Turkish pilots.
Science Blogs, The Extremo FilesProject FIRE Redux: Interplanetary Reentry Tests (1966)
- By David S. F. Portree |
- July 5, 2012 |
- Comments
The 1964-1965 Project FIRE tests gave engineers confidence that the Apollo Command Module would survive Earth atmosphere reentry when it returned from the moon. In 1966, engineers proposed new tests to show that Apollo-shaped crew capsules could withstand the even greater demands of returns from Mars or Venus.
Beyond Apollo, Science BlogsWhat Can We Do With the Higgs Boson?
- By Rhett Allain |
- July 4, 2012 |
- Comments (110)
Your students and your kids may be curious about the Higgs Boson. What do you tell them?
Dot Physics, Science BlogsNot Your Usual Holiday-Danger Warning: Don’t Eat the Grill Brush
- By Maryn McKenna |
- July 4, 2012 |
- Comments (25)
Everyone knows to shield their eyes from sparklers and bottle rockets on the 4th of July, but another less obvious thing to beware of is the wire brush most of us use to clean our backyard grills.
Science Blogs, SuperbugPterosaurs Done Wrong
- By Brian Switek |
- July 3, 2012 |
- Comments (6)
Take a glance at the photo above. It’s a snapshot of a life-size Pteranodon model on display at the San Diego Natural History Museum. The flying reptile – restored life size – looks like the standard image of Pteranodon I have seen in museums and books since I was a kid. The large pterosaur is [...]
Laelaps, Science BlogsMore on Eden TV’s Meteor Event
- By Rhett Allain |
- July 3, 2012 |
- Comments
The last video from Eden TV showed the result of a large meteor impacting a taxi in London. This meme correctly captures my response. Clearly, they were trying to promote science with their Science Month. My only course of action was to make a quick calculation of the energy for such a large meteorite. Let [...]
Dot Physics, Science BlogsTiny Fireworks
- By Deborah Blum |
- July 3, 2012 |
- Comments
“Is that thunder?” I asked my husband on Saturday night. I hoped it was, actually. It hasn’t rained here for so long that our lawn crunches like burnt toast. But, no. “That’s the big fireworks show,” he answered. “Oh, right.” I always forget that show because our July 4th family tradition is one of tiny [...]
Elemental, Science BlogsSimulating Fireworks
- By Samuel Arbesman |
- July 3, 2012 |
- Comments
The first screensaver I ever used was Pyro! A screensaver that simulated fireworks for the Macintosh in the 1980′s (it predated After Dark‘s Flying Toasters), it was rather simple: Fireworks, whether rendered in a very basic way, or in a much more complicated format, are beautiful. They are essentially anthropic thunderstorms–our little attempts to paint [...]
Science Blogs, Social DimensionWhat Is a Vector?
- By Rhett Allain |
- July 3, 2012 |
- Comments (8)
Alternate title: You Khan’t Divide a Vector by a Vector. Get it? Maybe you don’t, but that is ok. Really, I was going to make this a video critique of Sal Khan’s video critique of my video critique. If I made this a video, I could use this meme. But that would be wrong to [...]
Dot Physics, Science BlogsNews Round-Up: Meat, Superbugs, Denmark And Big Food
- By Maryn McKenna |
- July 2, 2012 |
- Comments
I was off-line for a week with family issues, and while I was gone, news broke out. (It senses your absence, news does. This is the real reason why coups and major foodborne outbreaks happen in August.) So while I dive into the bigger stories that seem to be happening — and get some fun [...]
Science Blogs, SuperbugEruptions Update – Summer Storm Edition
- By Erik Klemetti |
- July 2, 2012 |
- Comments (216)
Well, this summer has gone a bit sideways here on Eruptions. For those of you following the news, central Ohio (where I am based) was hit by a “derecho” – a strong string of thunderstorms. The storms, when they reached Granville, were moving ~60 knots easterly and packing winds that were as high as 128 [...]
Eruptions, Science BlogsWould This Meteor Make a Huge Crater?
- By Rhett Allain |
- July 2, 2012 |
- Comments (12)
A viral promotion for a new TV show shows a large asteroid smacking into London, but the only damage is to a single car. Dot Physics blogger Rhett Allain calculates how energetic the impact actually would have been.
Dot Physics, Science BlogsAlternate Apollo 13 (1970)
- By David S. F. Portree |
- July 2, 2012 |
- Comments (2)
If the Apollo 13 Lunar Module Aquarius had malfunctioned en route to the moon, NASA had a plan: the crew would have dumped the failed moon lander, entered lunar orbit in the Command and Service Module Odyssey, and photographed candidate future landing sites to aid Apollo planners. Beyond Apollo blogger David S. F. Portree looks at this ironic twist on actual Apollo 13 events.
Beyond Apollo, Science Blogs
