life is short & the world is wide

ikenbot: Boldly Go? Can Humanity Afford ‘Star Trek’-Like Space...

Tue, 21 May 2013 19:04:49 -0700

Boldly Go? Can Humanity Afford ‘Star Trek’-Like Space Exploration?

The public has no shortage of enthusiasm for fictional spacefarers, as this weekend’s box-office win by the newest “Star Trek” film proves. Yet the real-life U.S. space agency finds itself strapped for cash these days. With federal budgets tightening and NASA feeling the pinch, some space advocates are asking, “Can humans afford to reach the stars?”

Believe it or not, experts are looking into the finances of not just relatively short-term missions to Mars and the moon, but also long-term prospects of ‘Trek’-ian proportions. It may be possible to find the money, they say, but it would likely take some policy changes — and those changes could start today.

Captain, we don’t have the funding!

“Star Trek: Into Darkness” brought in about $84 million in its opening weekend — just a month after NASA cut $200 million from its planetary-sciences budget. (In an odd move, NASA’s newest budget explicitly states that it will notfund any missions to Europa, the ice-moon of Jupiter that stands as one of the solar system’s best candidates for supporting life, noted Casey Dreier, an advocacy and outreach strategist at The Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to planetary exploration.)

Those cuts come as NASA and the rest of the federal government negotiate sequestration cuts, which could trim $7 billion from NASA’s ledgers next year if the reductions are maintained.

But even without the sequester, NASA hasn’t commanded the kind of money needed for real, ambitious space travel in decades, said Marc Millis, a former NASA propulsion physicist and founder of the Tau Zero Foundation, which is dedicated to interstellar travel.

After hitting an apex with the Apollo moon program, NASA’s purse shrunk considerably and has stayed stagnant since, Millis said. NASA’s funds reached about 4.5 percent of the total federal budget during the Apollo era, Millis calculated. By 2009, NASA’s share had fallen to about 0.5 percent. “The amount that’s devoted to NASA now is enough to keep it going,” he said. “But to do really cool space travel is not possible now.”

Essentially, the agency has floated along on autopilot, clutching at relatively low-hanging fruit, like the space-shuttle missions, said Paul Gilster, who researches and writes about interstellar technologies for Tau Zero. “We should have something else than just going ‘round and ‘round the Earth,” he said.

jtotheizzoe: The Sea’s Strangest Square Mile Sit back and let...

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:58:11 -0700

jtotheizzoe:

The Sea’s Strangest Square Mile

Sit back and let your eyes soak up this goggle-fogging journey to the Lembeh Strait near Indonesia by Shark Bay Films. It’s known as one of the richest homes of odd coral reef creatures on Earth.

Lightning-quick eels! Coral-colored, pregnant frogfish stuffing their bellies with wriggling prey! Baby cuttlefish!! BABY CUTTLEFISH!!!

(via kottke)

scificity: http://scificity.tumblr.com I’m having surgery...

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:38:44 -0700

scificity:

http://scificity.tumblr.com
I’m having surgery tomorrow. My friend sends me this to lift my spirits. It worked!!

scinerds: Moqui Marbles and Martian Blueberries The photo...

Mon, 20 May 2013 19:35:57 -0700

scinerds:

Moqui Marbles and Martian Blueberries

The photo above shows Moqui Marbles in their native habitat of southern Utah. These curious rocks are actually concretions having iron (hematite) rinds.

Very similar rocks, called blueberries, have been observed repeatedly on Mars by the rovers. Click here to see an image taken by the Opportunity rover of the blueberries. Some scientific papers implicate the possibility of life on Mars playing a role in their formation while others do not.

Discussions about the pros and cons of their formation have been quite lively at times. However, the consensus seems to be that both the marbles and the blueberries were created beneath the surface as naturally occurring substances, most likely minerals, precipitated from flowing groundwater. Pictured with the marbles is a Devil’s-Claw cactus (Sclerocactus parviflorus). — Bret Webster

I’ve seen these and they are awesome

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 23:10:51 -0700

astronomy-to-zoology: Happy Birthday to David Attenborough!! 87...

Sun, 19 May 2013 22:53:38 -0700

astronomy-to-zoology:

Happy Birthday to David Attenborough!!

87 years and still going strong!

matthewinaditch: Dan Stevens’ inner monologue whilst clutching...

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:21:42 -0700

matthewinaditch:

Dan Stevens’ inner monologue whilst clutching the bedpost.

Photo

Sun, 19 May 2013 11:19:21 -0700

kallielefdrawward: This man.

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:14:23 -0700

kallielefdrawward:

This man.

cybreshot: Yosemite National Park, Olmstead Point, snow on...

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:07:09 -0700

cybreshot:

Yosemite National Park, Olmstead Point, snow on Memorial Day 2012

christianbaled: So, Jaws kinda made a cameo in Jurassic Park.

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:24:32 -0700

christianbaled:

So, Jaws kinda made a cameo in Jurassic Park.

Photo

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:29:44 -0700

paleoillustration: Titanis walleri, The American terrorbird...

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:23:43 -0700

paleoillustration:

Titanis walleri, The American terrorbird by Tuomas Koivurinne

chocolatecoveredsnaps: hogwarts-express: luseymoth: marauders4...

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:14:46 -0700

chocolatecoveredsnaps:

hogwarts-express:

luseymoth:

marauders4evr:

Can we talk about Sarabi for a moment? Because it seems as though many people underestimate/forget about her. Which is a pity.

Because this is one BAMF lion.

Her husband is dead. Her son is supposedly dead. Her husband’s brother brought hyenas into the Pride Lands and they ultimately destroyed the land.

And yet she does not look down. She does not dip her head. She stands her ground as she walks down a long line of ravaging hyenas who bite and leer at her. She keeps her head high. Even as she faces Scar, she ultimately keeps her head high and even tells Scar off.

Sarabi.

All hail the goddamn Queen of Pride Rock

-Bows to the queen-
she’s side eyeing the fuckkk out of those hyenas.

.Like “Bitch I DARE you to touch me!”

WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME HOW GRAD SCHOOL IS GOING

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:13:26 -0700

whatshouldwecallgradschool:

credit: Rachel

cleophatrajones: yannickbrouwer: This little company from...

Sat, 18 May 2013 21:10:18 -0700

cleophatrajones:

yannickbrouwer:

This little company from Kenya makes toys from slippers that wash up on the beach. Pictures by Ben Curtis

How glorious is this?! Upcycling at its finest…

Photo

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:45:42 -0700

scificity: http://scificity.tumblr.com Mounted Rancor

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:22:12 -0700

scificity:

http://scificity.tumblr.com
Mounted Rancor

jtotheizzoe: Typography/Topography An Earth-inspired typeface...

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:07:59 -0700

jtotheizzoe:

Typography/Topography

An Earth-inspired typeface designed by Siyu Cao that creates shapes and letters from classic typographic map features. The two-dimensional forms are great, but the 3-D carvings really drive it to the mountaintop.

I’ve seen a lot of Earth as Art projects, but never a typeface. Excellent work.

Bonus: Check out some of my other favorite science-inspired typography here.

rhamphotheca: Blood Falls, a Natural Time Capsule Containing a...

Thu, 16 May 2013 23:05:18 -0700

rhamphotheca:

Blood Falls, a Natural Time Capsule Containing a Unique Ecosystem

By Atlas Obscura

This five-story, blood-red “waterfall” pours ever so slowly out of the Taylor Glacier in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valley. Geologists first discovered the frozen waterfall in 1911, and believed the red color came from algae. Its true nature turned out to be more spectacular.

Roughly two million years ago, a small body of water containing an ancient community of microbes was sealed beneath the surface of the Taylor Glacier. Trapped below a thick layer of ice, the microbes have remained isolated inside a natural time capsule, in a place with no light, oxygen, or heat.

The trapped lake has very high salinity and is rich in iron, which gives the seepage its red color. A fissure in the glacier allows the microbial subglacial lake to flow out, forming the falls without contaminating the ecosystem within.

More photos of Blood Falls can be seen on Atlas Obscura.

(via: Slate.com - Atlas Obscura)