Day 61: Meteorites, a volcano, Colbert, Creationism in Texas and my deepest sympathies …
Alaska's Volcano Redoubt on March 23, courtesy of the Alaska Volcano Observatory and USGS.
Redoubt in 1990, credit R. Clucas
Lest you think I’m as bad at math as I really am, let me just say I know I skipped Day 60.
Day 60 is dead to me.
On Day 60, I landed at the doctor’s office again, because an infection didn’t respond to the first antibiotic — so now I’m on two. Yesterday, I felt awful. Today, a little less so!
The “sympathies” is a dramatic (and good-heartedly insincere) apology for anybody who might have showed up to see yesterday’s post and was disappointed!
Someday soon, I’ll develop a post about the situation with antibiotic-resistant pathogens. My case is not necessarily an example, but my experience definitely got me thinking about the fact that without antibiotics, people would die from seemingly trivial infections. And so, when I’m feeling better, I’ll research the latest findings on whether we’re really at grave risk from finding ourselves in that boat. Meanwhile, given my still-tenuous state and the fact that I feel miserably behind on my science coverage, I give you a little collection of science shorties — some important, others just fun — that have emerged this week. Enjoy!
Researchers and students who found the first meteorites ever that have been linked to a specific asteroid. Courtesy Peter Jenniskens and NASA.
Meteorites! For the first time EVER, astronomers spotted an incoming asteroid, MADE A NEAR-PERFECT PREDICTION about where it would hit, and then took a bunch of student to GATHER CHUNKS of rock that fell from it as meteorites, in Northern Sudan. My story at National Geographic News (go here; you know you want to!) reports on a lot of the eyewitness accounts of the fireball that lit up the sky at the Arabic pre-dawn hour of prayer. I wonder if people thought they were having spiritual experiences! Nancy Atkinson at Universe Today did a bang-up job (hah!) on the story too, and hers is here. The findings were released today in the journal Nature.
Pictured at top, the Volcano Redoubt has been huffing and puffing in Alaska. I don’t know much about this at all! But it surely is big news; a plume of ash was reported to reach 60,000 feet above the crater. Lee Atkinson at the Arizona Geology Blog recommends The Volcanism Blog for detailed updates. And the Alaska Volcano Observatory is hosting a Redoubt Web cam.
Colbert is the man on the right.
As for Colbert, he won a recent NASA naming contest to be the namesake for a new section of the International Space Station. The name was supposed to reflect the theme of cooperation and exploration. But Colbert, a popular comedian and satirist, invited fans of his TV Show, Colbert Nation, to vote for his name. There’s a great little CNN video story here that points out if he prevails (NASA is balking), the four wings of the ISS would be named Unity, Harmony, Destiny … and Colbert. Space.com wrote a funny take on the matter — a little base, to be sure!
Ha! I made Texas look small ... (actually, the image came from the NCSE Web site)
A public hearing started today in Texas, with a vote expected Friday, about whether teachers should raise doubts about evolution in biology and other science classes. The impacts could be felt far and wide — school textbook publishers write to Texas’ standards, so any change in Texas could ripple across the country. There’s a full story in the Wall Street Journal, and I’ve been getting highly concerned emails from the National Center for Science Education. Many science-based groups have been rallying behind the teaching of evolution, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which has written the board a letter encouraging members to reject the change in standards.
