Daily Archives: June 13, 2008

NASA Announces New Mission … Seeking Volunteers

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“We are going to visit a living, breathing star for the first time,” says program scientist Lika Guhathakurta of NASA Headquarters. “This is an unexplored region of the solar system and the possibilities for discovery are off the charts.”
The best job you’ll ever love! Travel! Excitement! Join NASA on an amazing new venture. A trip of a life time.To where you ask?Why, THE SUN, of course!The mission will be called Solar Probe+. Launch may happen as early as 2015. Continue reading NASA Announces New Mission … Seeking Volunteers →

Engineer, Heal Thyself

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The University of Minnesota Mascot, Goldie Gopher.
Biological engineers at the University of Minnesota tend to be creationists. The main professor who teaches this subject is a creationist and he teaches a creationism seminar on a regular basis. He helps run and organize a Christian student group that has a pledge of faith for members. The bio-engineers student group uses a gopher (our school symbol) standing in the Leonardo position ala the Discovery Institute. Continue reading Engineer, Heal Thyself →

Tim Russert is Dead

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i-5ef1d264ff6382cadac911f7beaabc99-russert.jpgTim Russert, most recently the host of Meet the Press and the Washington Bureau Chief for NBC died earlier today.

Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said. No details were immediately available.Russert, the recipient of 48 honorary doctorates, took over the helm of “Meet the Press” in December 1991. Now in its 60th year, “Meet the Press” is the longest-running program in the history of television.In 2008, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.Timothy John Russert Jr. was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 7, 1950. He was a graduate of Canisius High School, John Carroll University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He was a member of the bar in New York and the District of Columbia.source

The Origin of Life on Earth: New Research

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A very Darwin-like god ponders what the nature of life will be like. From Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.
The origin of life presents a number of fundamental difficulties to science. One of these is the seemingly irreducible complexity of life itself. For instance, DNA codes for the molecules that are essential to life. Some of these molecules, however, are the very enzymes that help DNA code for molecules. It is difficult to imagine DNA works without these enzymes, but the enzymes exist in a cell because, in part, of the activities of DNA. Even the basic process of moving molecules into cells to use in the construction of DNA or other molecules requires molecules that are thusly constructed.What’s an evolutionary biologist to do???? Continue reading The Origin of Life on Earth: New Research →

Mars Robot to cut a few lines…

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Phoenix used its Robotic Arm to test a “sprinkle” method for delivering small samples of soil to instruments on the lander deck. Bigger picture here.
The Phoenix Lander is preparing to sprinkle Martian soil onto a flat place for a microscope to look at.”On Monday, Phoenix tested delivering Martian soil by sprinkling it rather than dumping it. The positive result prompted researchers not only to proceed with plans for delivery to the microscope, but also to plan on sprinkling a sample in the near future into one of the eight ovens of an instrument that bakes and sniffs samples, the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA.” Continue reading Mars Robot to cut a few lines… →