Water on the Moon

I know my posting for this is kind of late, but I noticed a journalistic phenomenon in my research of the story (one that I’ve shamefully perpetuated in the past). By now, everyone should know there’s water on the moon, but there are (at least) three distinct takes on the matter.

First, I offer Science Daily’s article, which you will find reports only what’s going on. There’s water on the moon, some people were surprised, it’s pretty cool.

Water Present Across The Moon’s Surface, New Research Shows

ScienceDaily (Sep. 24, 2009) — In a discovery that promises to reinvigorate studies of the moon and potentially upend thinking of how it originated, scientists at several research institutions have found evidence of water molecules on the surface of the moon.

In another take, I present a slightly sensationalist view from the Science News site. Reading this opening you’d think there was on ocean on the moon or something.

A damp moon: Water found inside and out
Spacecraft reveal higher than expected abundances of the liquid on the lunar surface and in volcanic rocks

Scientists’ understanding of the moon could be all wet. Its surface is surprisingly dewy and its interior contains more water than previous analyses of moon rocks have indicated, according to new studies.

It tries to right itself with a caution in the middle of the article so I guess it isn’t so bad.

Then we have Science Magazine’s article where they downplay the discovery by quantifying how much water there is, making sure the reader knows the moon is still as dry as a witch’s tit.

A Whiff of Water Found on the Moon

Yes, the moon is a “wetter” place than the Apollo astronauts ever could have imagined, but don’t break out the beach gear just yet. Although three independent groups today announced the detection of water on the lunar surface, their find is at most a part per 1000 water in the outermost millimeter or two of still very dry lunar rock.

It sounds pretty dismal, but they also do what Science News does, and they offer a glimmer of “potential” pretty quickly.

Thank you, Science Daily, for just reporting what is going on without the unnecessary adjectives.

Moar Pikchurs

I was browsing the usual Science websites when I came across a new space photo, this time an updated view of the Andromeda galaxy. Science Daily released the report today. A NASA satellite focused on the galaxy for 24 hours and blended 330 seperate images to create this giant image. It still seems a little incomplete, but awesome nonetheless. I don’t know if it’s better than the original aesthetically, but it’s certainly larger and more informative.

The old photo of Andromeda:

(Thanks, NASA)

and the new one:

(Thanks again, NASA)

Kepler

I just came across the Kepler Mission and I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of it before. I’m always on the lookout for experiments concerning the search for other sentient life. Anyway, it’s an enormous undertaking and I’m glad we’re doing something other than futilely sending out radio signals in the hopes someone will answer us.

I will let xkcd demonstrate what I mean by its futility:

Desert Forests

It was a slow week in Science until yesterday, and then it all just blew up. This is the first of a few quick updates.

I’m not a huge proponent of the global warming (fuck you Frank Luntz) debate but I think this is a pretty neat idea. Not because it may “cool the world” but because it just sounds really damn great. We literally have the power and technology to shape the Earth like a ball of clay. Even though it might, you know, destroy an entire ecosystem, or two. Fuck them though, we don’t need them. We’ll build more animals and shit. Pushing us toward a more severe ice age is way more important.

Jesus Christ.

Edit: I apologize for the broken link, ScienceNOW underwent some changes after I posted this and they’re greedy now. The story, in its entirety, can be found here. Unfortunately.

I probably wouldn’t put it this way

The ScienceDaily guys thought it’d be a good idea to compare the brains neurons to the U.S. Electoral College. Well, the comparison on the basis of a dual layer hierarchy might be valid, but considering the uselessness of the Electoral College it doesn’t put a lot of confidence in me and my interpretation of this information. It is kind of interesting to think our thought processes and physical actions are governed by a two phase system, especially considering the short amount of time it takes to perform any of these thoughts or actions. Since they are all electrical impulses though I suppose they all travel at the speed of awesome.

Reality is freaky

Some Australian scientists discovered an astronomical peculiarity in between their surfing and barbecue sessions. Apparently it’s quite common for galaxies to have both a supermassive black hole core and a dense star cluster core. This is pretty awesome news, which the article explains quite plainly. Apparently Einstein’s Theory of Relativity predicted that when this happens it causes ripples in spacetime through gravitational radiation. I didn’t know this, but the more I continue learning about the Theory of Relativity the more I realize that it predicts damn near everything. Gravitational time dilation, light deflection, the formation of black holes, the entire history of a universe and even when the Yankees will win their next World Series. Fuck Nostradamus, if you have a question you go to Einstein.

Dolphins: The Next Rulers

We have some research concerning the cognitive ability of animals and, not surprisingly, dolphins came out on top with the most potential for higher cognitive processing. I know that pigs are pretty smart animals so I wondered why they weren’t part of the experiments. Maybe it’s because they are too delicious.

In any case, this opens a new window. Or, almost does. Either we will start communicating with the sentient dolphins, or they will decide we are not fit to rule anymore and we’ll have World War Dolphin on our hands. Better start checking if your tuna is dolphin-safe, guys.

I love you, Hubble!

The repair made to the Hubble is kind of old news, but there have been some new images released recently. I almost forgot the Hubble had been fixed up, and I’m really excited for the new pictures. Here’s a little comparison:

This is one of the old photos of the Butterfly Nebula:

(Thank you, SpaceToday.org)

and this is the new one on ScienceNews:

The difference is absolutely incredible. I can’t wait for the powerful new James Webb Space Telescope to launch in 2014. I wonder what it will pick up. The center of the universe? Untold secrets of the birth of matter and antimatter? New anomalies? Alien orgies on faraway planets? We can only hope!

PLASMOBOTS

The name was so awesome it had to be in all caps. The idea is pretty sweet too, scientists are using single-celled organisms to build nano-tech. There is a line in there about “building liquid logic gates for a synthetic brain,” that worries me a little (see my post “I’m pretty sure I know where this is going”), but other than that I see mainly positive applications for this kind of thing. Especially if they can be reprogrammed to build an immune system. Suddenly we’d have a cure for all disease because of its flexibility. I think it’d be a little like the bacta tanks from Star Wars. Might just be an injection if the technology advances far enough.

To think I’m going to miss all of this. The Future can’t get here quickly enough.

One line

Someone mentioned Cleverbot and I was intrigued. I went to check it out, typed one line, and then closed my window.

I think I will let the reply speak for itself.