NASA Creates Artificial 'Space Clouds'

Source - Space Weather News for June 29, 2017: http://spaceweather.com

NASA CREATES ARTIFICIAL 'SPACE CLOUDS': A rocket launched before sunrise on June 29th from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility produced an amazing display of colorful 'space clouds' over the east coast of the USA.  Onlookers described their "erupting colors" as "vivid", "spellbinding", and "brilliantly apparent" as the vaporous forms spread across the early morning sky. To learn more about the clouds, and why NASA made them, visit today's edition of Spaceweather.com

THE SOLAR ECLIPSE BALLOON NETWORK: The Great American Solar Eclipse is less than two months away. Where will you be on Aug. 21, 2017, when the Moon completely covers the sun? Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus plan to observe the eclipse from the stratosphere, photographing the Moon's shadow and collecting unique cosmic ray data high above any obscuring clouds.  We'll do it using space weather balloons launched from multiple sites along the path of totality. Learn more about how you can support or even join the Solar Eclipse Balloon Network.

Skeptic Check: How Low Can You Go?

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: How Low Can You Go?

ENCORE: Baby, it’s cold outside… but you still might want to be there.  Some people claim that chilly temperatures are good for your health, and proponents of cryotherapy suggest you have a blast – of sub-zero air – to stave off wrinkles and perhaps halt aging altogether.

Meanwhile the field of cryonics offers the ultimate benefit by suggesting that you put future plans – and your body – on ice when you die.  That way you might be revived when the technology to do so is developed.

So, will a chill wind blow you some good?  Possibly, as scientists are discovering that the body can endure colder temperatures than previously thought.  We examine the science of extreme cold and claims of its salubrious benefits.

It’s our monthly look at critical thinking, Skeptic Check … but don’t take our word for it!

Guests:

• Seth Abramovitch - Senior writer at the Hollywood Reporter
• Gordon Giesbrecht - Professor of thermal physiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
• Grant Shoffstall - Sociologist, Williams College

This encore podcast was first released on 03/28/2017

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-how-low-can-you-go

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Atmospheric Radiation Update: Cosmic Rays Increasing from Coast to Coast in the USA

Source - Space Weather News for June 25, 2017: http://spaceweather.com

ATMOSPHERIC RADIATION UPDATE: For years, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been using space weather balloons to monitor cosmic rays in the atmosphere above California. We previously reported that dose rates have been increasing over the Golden State, more than 13% since March 2015. Now we know the same thing is happening over New England--only more so. Balloons recently launched from the Atlantic Coast of the USA have detected even stronger and more rapidly intensifying levels of cosmic radiation. What's causing this continent-wide increase?

Visit today's edition of Spaceweather.com for the full story.






SIERRA SNOWPACK SEEN FROM THE STRATOSPHERE: A space weather balloon launched on June 23rd has captured remarkable spherical images of California's historic snowpack from the stratosphere. They show Sierra Nevada mountains laden with widespread snow despite an early summer heat wave that has sent temperatures shooting above 110 F at the base of the range.

Click on the image below to explore the scene as an interactive 360-degree image--or visit the Earth to Sky Calculus Facebook page.

Jellyfish-shaped 'Space Lightning' Sighted over Europe

Source - Space Weather News for June 22, 2017: http://spaceweather.com

JELLYFISH SPRITES OVER EUROPE: We all know what comes out of the bottom of a thunderstorm: lightning. But do you know what comes out of the top? On June 20th, an amateur astronomer photographed incredible jellyfish-shaped 'sprites' flickering above a storm system in Austria. Such upper atmospheric lightning is a form of space weather that is being seen and photographed by increasing numbers of sky watchers.

Visit today's edition of Spaceweather.com for observing tips and more information about this phenomenon.

Big Picture Science for June 19, 2017 - Perpetual Emotion Machine

Big Picture Science - Perpetual Emotion Machine

Get ready for compassionate computers that feel your pain, share your joy, and generally get where you’re coming from.  Computers that can tell by your voice whether you’re pumped up or feeling down, or sense changes in heart rate, skin, or muscle tension to determine your mood.  Empathetic electronics that you can relate to.

But wait a minute – we don’t always relate to other humans.  Our behavior can be impulsive and even self-sabotaging – our emotions are often conflicted and irrational.   We cry when we’re happy.  Frown when we’re pensive.  A suite of factors, much of them out of our control, govern how we behave, from genes to hormones to childhood experience.

One study says that all it takes for a defendant to receive a harsher sentence is a reduction in the presiding judge’s blood sugar.

So grab a cookie, and find out how the heck we can build computers that understand us anyway.

Guests:

• Rosalind Picard – Professor at the MIT Media Lab and co-founder of the companies Affectiva and Empatica.
• Robert Sapolsky – Professor of neuroscience at Stanford University, and author of Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst.

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/perpetual-emotion-machine

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Upper Atmospheric 'Heat Wave' Wipes out Noctilucent Clouds

Source - Space Weather News for June 15, 2017: http://spaceweather.com

MYSTERY OF THE MISSING NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: Every year in June, far-northern sky watchers see electric-blue tendrils creeping over the western horizon at sunset. These are noctilucent clouds (NLCs) formed by summertime wisps of water vapor crystallizing around bits of meteor smoke at the edge of space.  Every year in June ... except this year.  NLCs have been mysteriously absent in June 2017, and researchers have just figured out why. A 'heat wave' in the upper atmosphere has temporarily wiped them out.

Visit today's edition of Spaceweather.com for the full story and the prognosis for future NLCs.

Article URL - http://news.spaceweather.com/mystery-of-the-missing-noctilucent-clouds/

A Hole in the Sun's Atmosphere Turns Toward Earth

Source - Space Weather News for June 14, 2017: http://spaceweather.com

A HOLE IN THE SUN'S ATMOSPHERE: Spewing a stream of solar wind as fast as 700 km/s (1.6 million mph), a hole in the sun's atmosphere is turning toward Earth. Forecasters expect the stream to reach our planet on June 15th or 16th with a 40% chance of minor G1-class geomagnetic storms when it arrives.  High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras in the nights ahead, especially in the southern hemisphere where deepening autumn darkness favors visibility.

Visit Spaceweather.com for more information and updates.

Big Picture Science for June 12, 2017 - Science Fiction

Big Picture Science - Science Fiction

ENCORE: No one knows what the future will bring, but science fiction authors are willing to take a stab at imagining it.  We take our own stab at imagining them imagining it.  Find out why the genre of science fiction is more than a trippy ride through a bizarre, hi-tech world, but a way to assess and vote on our possible shared future.

Also, an astronomer learns how many rejection slips it takes before becoming a published science fiction author …. what author Bruce Sterling wants to get off his chest … and what the joke about the neutron walking into a bar to ask the price of beer has in common with H.G. Wells, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Ridley Scott.

Oh, and the price of beer?  Bartender: “For you, no charge.”

Guests:

• Ed Finn - Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University
• Andrew Fraknoi – Chair of the astronomy department at Foothill College.  His story, "The Cave in Arsia Mons", is in "Building Red", here.  His list of astronomically correct science fiction is here.
• Bruce Sterling - Science fiction author, journalist, and editor
• Brian Malow - Science comedian, science communication officer, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh

This encore podcast was first released on May 16, 2016

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/science-fiction

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

Big Picture Science for June 05, 2017 - Gene-y in a Bottle

Big Picture Science - Gene-y in a Bottle

ENCORE:  You can’t pick your parents.  But soon you may be able to change the DNA they gave you.  CRISPR technology is poised to take DNA editing to new levels of precision and speed.  Imagine deleting genes from your body that you don’t like and inserting the ones you want.  The swap might not even require a fancy lab.  Biohackers are already tinkering with genes in their homes.

Find out how CRISPR technology might change everything when the genetic lottery is no longer destiny.

Plus, a cardiologist identifies the troublesome genes that once gave us evolutionary advantages but today are fueling obesity, depression and other modern illness.

Guests:

• Lee Goldman – Cardiologist, dean of Columbia University Medical Center, author of “Too Much of a Good Thing; How Four Key Survival Traits Are Now Killing Us”
• Jacob Corn – Scientific director, Innovative Genomics Initiative, University of California, Berkeley
• Katelynn Kazane – Research assistant, Innovative Genomics Initiative,  University of California, Berkeley
• Josiah Zayner - Biohacker, former NASA synthetic biologist.  His biohacking store.

This encore podcast was first released on March 21, 2016

Download podcast  at - http://bigpicturescience.org/Gene-y_in_a_Bottle

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.

New Sunspot Emerges and Explodes

Source - Space Weather News for June 1, 2017: http://spaceweather.com

ACTIVE SUNSPOT: On June 1st, a small but surprisingly active sunspot rotated over the sun's eastern limb. In less than 24 hours, it has unleashed nearly a dozen C-class solar flares and hurled a pair of CMEs into space--an impressive display of fireworks. So far, none of the explosions have targeted Earth, but this could change in the days ahead as the active region rotates toward our planet.

Visit Spaceweather.com for more information and updates.

Noctilucent Clouds Sighted over Europe

Source - Space Weather News for May 31, 2017: http://spaceweather.com

NOCTILUCENT CLOUDS: Noctilucent cloud season has begun. Sky watchers in northern Europe are reporting tendrils of electric-blue creeping over the horizon at sunset. These are noctilucent clouds (NLCs), seeded by meteoroids at the edge of space. Typically, they appear in late May and blossom in June and July. In recent years they have been sighted in the USA as far south as Colorado and Utah.

Visit today's edition of Spaceweather.com to learn more about NLCs and how to see them.