I promised we'd take the occasional break from evolutionary biology and simulated quandaries to check in on other science headlines, and that time has come. I'm going to try a slightly different format, more of a news roundup than a ramble on a single story. The biggest story of course is the landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars. Below, you can check out video from the landing and the first audio from Mars (these come directly from NASA; there were fake Mars videos going around social media last week). … [Read more...] about Science Corner: The Real Aliens Were the Friends We Made Along the Way
life on Mars
Science Corner: Something in the Air
To paraphrase the philosophers Yakko, Wakko and Dot (and with apologies to Dylan): The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind--except on Venus, where what's blowing in the wind smells funny. Specifically, what's blowing in the wind appears to be phosphine, and to say it smells funny is to put it mildly. It has the kind of odor that inspires colorful metaphors combining the worst physical sensory experiences with what is expected of the darkest corners of the spiritual realm. (Although actually pure phosphine is … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Something in the Air
Science Corner: Employees, Wash Your Hands Before Returning to the Moon
As I wrangle more conversations into a shareable format for our sci-fi film festival (thanks for your patience), let's return to a sci-fi topic encroaching on our reality: extraterrestrial life. Many of us have space travel on the mind, especially this week as we celebrate the first all-female space walk. (I suppose once upon a time that might have seemed purely sci-fi itself.) We have plans to return humans to the Moon, and a vision to set foot on Mars as well. Yet we need to be wary of stowaways, particularly bacteria … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Employees, Wash Your Hands Before Returning to the Moon
Science Corner: It’s Life Jim, But Not As We Know It
In a week when some pretty high profile stories got some less notable corrections (no, cell phones are not giving young people skull horns and no, we have not convincingly transmitted autism to mice via microbiome transplants), I thought it might be a good idea to try to get ahead of the curve on a new story. This one involves a topic likely to be of greater interest to the science & faith community: life on Mars. Last week, the Curiosity rover detected a plume of methane on Mars in a higher concentration than … [Read more...] about Science Corner: It’s Life Jim, But Not As We Know It