Lent is halfway through, we've set our clocks ahead, and Peeps are on the store shelves. It must be nearly spring, and so soon young men's fancies will lightly turn to thoughts of life. New life will be everywhere: blooming flowers, baby birds, buzzing cicadas. We know where this life comes from. But where did the first life come from? That remains a mystery, yet one which many young folks of all sorts seek to unravel. One group in Scotland has gone so far as to build their own "Chemputer" to help, and its first results … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Ask Your Parents Where Life Comes From
origin of life
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: 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