Tag Archives: Life

Does Studying the Universe Change Your Perspective of the Environment Around You?

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An 8th grader doing a research project on astronomy recently emailed the Warren Astronomical Society asking “Does studying the universe change your perspective of the environment around you?” In this post, I expand upon the response I wrote back to that student.   Absolutely it does! Astronomy and cosmology are enormously wide fields of study, encompassing everything from quantum mechanics down at the sub-atomic level, to the interactions of (as of yet) unseen dark matter on the large-scale structure of the universe. Climate studies Studying how gases in Earth’s atmosphere and liquid in the oceans reflect and adsorb light, and radiate heat is but a small part of understanding how Earth’s climate functions and can change over time. The same principles used to study the Earth’s atmosphere can be applied to the atmospheres of other worlds; Venus is an example of a “runaway greenhouse effect,” and should be viewed as a cautionary tale for Earth’s ever increasing CO2 level (410.31 parts per … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: What is life?

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This entry is part 158 of 190 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in January 2015 Every year, the University of Arizona’s College of Sciences puts on a public lecture series; the 2015 theme was “Life in the Universe”. Given my ability to deliver good entertainment (my ancestors were in Vaudeville) I’ve been asked to present the opening lecture: “What is life?” My background is extraterrestrial geology, not biology. When biologists define life as the chemistry of complex long-chain hydrocarbons, I think of my favorite complex framework silicate mineral crystals, like plagioclase. If life were nothing more than complicated chemistry, then why not offer a seven part lecture series on Plagioclase in the Universe? Of course, no one would show up. Yes, life is complex chemistry. But to limit one’s view to mere chemistry misses the truth behind why lectures on life would draw a better crowd than lectures on minerals. It also neglects the underlying truth of why we scientists are fascinated by the subject  … Continue reading →

Musings From a 7th Grade Biology Class

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This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Guest Column

When people ask me what I do for a living I generally respond:  For the past 16 years I have been teaching science to the hormonally impaired. Here in the United States that means teaching sixth through eighth grade, i.e., my students range from 10 to 14 years old.  These students are either entering the fun age of puberty, or are in the complete throws of hormonal impairment , which means they have other things on their mind besides studying. About this time of year I usually enter into the biology phase of science with my 7th graders; and inevitably, the introduction of cells leads to a discussion of evolution and God. I teach in a small town in southeast Michigan called New Haven. The religious base of this town is either Baptist or Lutheran, along with some Catholics and various other religions. When I bring up that prokaryotic cells eventually evolved into eukaryotic cells (single-celled organisms into complex multi-celled … Continue reading →

Enceladus, Ocean World

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NASA’s Cassini mission scientists have determined that the slight wobble observed in Saturn’s moon Enceladus, as it orbits the ringed giant planet, is too large for the moon to be entirely frozen to its core. This wobble, referred to as a libration, reveals that the icy crust of Enceladus is disconnected from its rocky interior. In other words: Enceladus’ icy crust is sliding around on top of a global ocean of liquid water, and where there’s water, life may follow. This graphic (above) is an update to Enceladus: Possible Hydrothermal Activity (left), which showed only a regional sea beneath the south polar region of Enceladus. As Enceladus orbits Saturn, it is subject to tidal forces due to gravitation. These forces stretch the moon, causing friction, which heat up the moon’s interior. This is a process is called tidal heating. Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system, as a result of tidal heating. It was … Continue reading →

Large Impacts can Create Hydrothermal Systems

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Impact cratering is a fundamental geological process throughout our Solar System. Impact craters can be seen on a majority of rocky and icy planets, asteroids, and many moons in our Solar System[1]. Craters are created by the massive release of energy from a hypervelocity impact of a meteoroid with a larger body – such as the Moon or Earth. The typical relative velocity for an inner Solar System meteoroid encountering the Earth is between 4-30 km/s[2]; a comet falling inward from the the outer reaches of the Solar System can encounter the Earth at relative speeds of 12-72 km/s[3]. The destructive potential of meteoroid impacts was demonstrated when the shards of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 hit the atmosphere of Jupiter in July of 1994. The effects of large impacts on Earth’s environment and biosphere are known largely due to the discovery of the Chicxulub impact structure in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. That impact has been linked to the mass extinction event marking … Continue reading →

An Epiphany Visit From the Star in the East

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(An article from The Tablet, first published in January, 2004) Amid the snow and frigid winds whirling across Lake Superior and around the tiny city of Marquette, Michigan, I spent Christmas morning with my brother Ed. Between Midnight Mass and Christmas dinner, I kept an eye all day on my computer, checking the BBC web site every few hours, hoping to hear news of the British Mars lander, the Beagle II. Alas, though the Beagle had landed, we never heard it bark. I felt badly for my friends on the science team, Colin and Ian and the others, watching with ever fainter hope as the dream they’d pursued through the years of planning and fund-raising, constructing and testing, launching into space and guiding to the surface of the planet, finally at the last minute failed. Landing a probe successfully on Mars is a very difficult proposition. The failures have outnumbered the successes, two to one. And even a successful landing … Continue reading →