turkey — 2014 — The 21st Century Matriarch

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article. (Note: There are a lot of planetary science/astronomy related new items this week….a perfect storm with conferences and events).

Mars spacecraft, including MAVEN, reveal comet flyby effects on Martian atmosphere - We were in Florida to see the launch (see picture at right) of MAVEN last fall and I’ve been noticing any articles of it since then.

Baby photos of a scaled-up solar system - My daughter is one of the co-authors! I’m celebrating that her work is getting the publicity.

All 'quantum weirdness' may be caused by interacting parallel worlds, physicist theorizes - This article seemed to fit right in with the last cosmology segment of the Philosophy and the Sciences Coursera course!

Touchdown! Rosetta’s Philae probe lands on comet - Hurray! It is amazing that it actually landed…more news sure to come.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is likely a sunburn, not a blush - Altitude may play a role in the color we observe on Jupiter. The red spot reaches much higher altitudes than clouds elsewhere on Jupiter.

Sense of meaning and purpose in life linked to longer lifespan - The questionnaire used something called ‘eudemonic wellbeing’ which relates to your sense of control, feeling that what you do is worthwhile and your sense of purpose in life…..and then looked at what happened to people with different levels of ‘wellbeing’ for the next 8.5 years.

Chiricahua National Monument Does Away With Entrance Fees - I am paying attention to every near Tucson since I’m sure we’ll be visiting sometime before next summer.

Scientists Discover a Virus That Makes Humans Less Intelligent - Specifically - “The group that harbored the virus performed worse overall on a set of tasks to measure the speed and accuracy of visual processing.” The impact is slight but measurable. I wonder what other subtle infections exist.

Kilauea, 1790 and today - The eruption in 1790 was explosive but the eruptions of the last 3 decades we are seeing now is effusive. The geologic record shows that the mountain erupts in both ways ---- but not at the same time.

New state level data demonstrate geographical variation in 10-year cardiovascular risk - Where does you r state rank? There is quite a variation.

Unique Roman relief discovered: Depiction of unknown god in Turkey; Relics from 2,000 years of cult history excavated - An international excavation that has been ongoing for over 10 years is still finding new things.

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Dynamic Paintings of Birds Capture the Essence of Flight - Appealing work. I usually like photographs of birds in flight better than paintings….but these are an exception.

The Coming Antibiotic Crisis, Revealed in Maps - Will we eventually revert to infections that kill like in pre-antibiotic days?

Inside Turkey’s Top Archaeological Sites - From the Dialogue of Civilizations: Gobekli Tepe (oldest human-constructed ceremonial site in the world) and Zeugma (mosaics). Links are included to photos, galleries and virtual tours of the sites. There is also a link at the bottom of the article to other posts about the Dialogue of Civilizations.

10 Spring Cleaning to Dos for Your Digital Abode: Part II - I posted the Part I of this list a few weeks ago I my cleanings list.

Basic science finds corporate refuge - With funding from the US government declining, corporations are picking up some of the funding shortfall.

A History of Garbage in Space - In just over half a century, we’ve created 17000 objects in earth orbit. The majority of them are ‘fragmentation debris.’

What's Your Major? 4 Decades of College Degrees, In 1 Graph - This is a graphic to looks at - move the cursor over it to get numbers that correspond to the colors. Click on the one and a graph with just that major will appear. Physics is almost non-existent in the graph (higher in 1970 than now).

Watch Stunning First Simulation of Universe’s 13-Billion-Year Evolution - In a little over 4 minutes, a simulation of the universe from the beginning to now.

Ocean acidity is dissolving shells of tiny snails off U.S. West Coast - Scientists has previously thought it would be decades before this result of ocean acidification would be observed. It appears that this is one consequence of climate change that is happening faster than anticipated.

Neuroaesthetics - A relatively new field that studies the way humans process beauty and art.