Record-setting Asteroid Flyby in February

Source - NASA Science News for Jan. 28, 2013

On Feb. 15th an asteroid about half the size of a football field will fly past Earth closer than many man-made satellites. Since regular sky surveys began in the 1990s, astronomers have never seen an object so big come so close to our planet.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/28jan_2012da/

A companion video is posted below and can also be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwidzVHvbGI



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Big Picture Science for 01/28/13 - Skeptic Check: Science Blunders

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Science Blunders

We’ve all had an “oops” moment. Scientists are no exception. Sometimes science stumbles in the steady march of progress. Find out why cold fusion is a premier example why you shouldn’t hold a press conference before publishing your results. Also, how to separate fumbles from faux-science from fraud.

Plus, why ignorance is what really drives the scientific method.

And our Hollywood skeptic poses as a psychic for Dr. Phil, while our Dr. Phil (Plait) investigates the authenticity of a life-bearing meteorite.

Guests:

• Phil Plait – Skeptic and author of Slate Magazine’s blog Bad Astronomy
• Michael Gordin – Historian of science at Princeton University, author of The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe
• David Goodstein – Physicist, California Institute of Technology
• Stuart Firestein – Neuroscientist, chair of the biology department, Columbia University, and author of Ignorance: How It Drives Science
• Jim Underdown – Executive Director, Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_Science_Blunders

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

Big Picture Science for 01/21/13 - We Heart Robots

Big Picture Science - We Heart Robots

The machines are coming! Meet the prototypes of your future robot buddies and discover how you may come to love a hunk of hardware. From telerobots that are your mechanical avatars … to automated systems for the disabled … and artifical hands that can diffuse bombs.

Plus, the ethics of advanced robotics: should life-or-death decisions be automated?

And, a biologist uses robo-fish to understand evolution.

Guests:

• Illah Nourbakhsh – Professor of robotics, Carnegie Mellon University, author of Robot Futures. Check out his Robot Future’s blog.
• Marco Mascorro – Vice President of Hardware, 9^th Sense Robotics, Mountain View, California
• Curt Salisbury – Mechanical engineer, senior member, technical staff, Sandia National Laboratories
• Joe Karnicky – Retired engineer, Menlo Park, California
• John Long – Professor of biology and cognitive science at Vassar College and the author of Darwin’s Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/We_Heart_Robots

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

Layers with Carbonate Content Inside McLaughlin Crater on Mars

This view of layered rocks on the floor of McLaughlin Crater shows sedimentary rocks that contain spectroscopic evidence for minerals formed through interaction with water. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter recorded the image.

A combination of clues suggests this 1.4-mile-deep (2.2-kilometer-deep) crater once held a lake fed by groundwater. Part of the evidence is identification of clay and carbonate minerals within layers visible near the center of this image. The mineral identifications come from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), also on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The scene covers an area about one-third of a mile (about 550 meters) across, at 337.6 degrees east longitude, 21.9 degrees north latitude. North is up. Figure 1 indicates the location of layers bearing clay and carbonate minerals and includes a scale bar of 100 meters (328 feet).

Source: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/pia16710.html

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Comet of the Century?

Source - NASA Science News for Jan. 18, 2013:

Astronomers are keeping a close eye on newly-discovered Comet ISON, which could become visible in broad daylight later this year when it skims through the atmosphere of the sun. Some reporters have dubbed ISON the "Comet of the Century," but experts aren't yet sure how bright the sungrazer will become.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/18jan_cometison/

A companion video is posted below and can also be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_1HdOCOJ_Q



License: Standard YouTube License

NASA Finds 2012 Sustained Long-Term Climate Warming Trend

Source - NASA Science News for Jan. 15, 2013

NASA scientists say 2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the nine warmest years in the 132-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/15jan_warming/

Big Picture Science for 01/14/13 - Whither the Weather?

Big Picture Science - Whither the Weather?

ENCORE: We all talk about the weather. And now scientists are doing something about it: providing more accurate warnings before big storms hit. Discover how smart technology – with an eye on the sky – is taking monster weather events by storm.

Plus, why severe weather events caused by a warming planet may trigger social and economic chaos.

Also, meet the storm chaser who runs toward tornadoes as everyone else flees… and why your cell phone goes haywire when the sun kicks up a storm of its own.

Guests:

• Michael Smith – Meteorologist, founder of WeatherData and author of Warnings: The True Story of How Science Tamed the Weather
• George Kourounis – Explorer and storm chaser
• Jeffrey Scargle – Research astrophysicist in the Astrobiology and Space Science Division at NASA Ames Research Center
• Ken Caldeira – Climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Global Ecology
• Christian Parenti – Contributing editor of The Nation, visiting scholar at the City University of New York, and author of Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence

This podcast first released September 12, 2011

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Whither_the_Weather_

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

A Big Sunspot Turns Toward Earth

Source - Space Weather News for Jan. 11, 2013: http://spaceweather.com

ACTIVE SUNSPOT:  One of the biggest sunspots of the current solar cycle is now turning toward Earth. Named AR1654, the active region is crackling with medium-sized (M-class) flares and could be poised to break the recent spell of calm space weather around our planet.  Check http://spaceweather.com for images and updates.

SOLAR FLARE ALERTS: Would you like a call when solar flares are underway? X-flare alerts are available from http://spaceweathertext.com (text) and http://spaceweatherphone.com (voice).

Solar Variability and Terrestrial Climate

Source - NASA Science News for Jan. 8, 2013

A new report issued by the National Research Council, "The Effects of Solar Variability on Earth's Climate," lays out some of the surprisingly complex ways that solar activity can make itself felt on our planet.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/08jan_sunclimate/

ISS Update: Robonaut 2

Source - ReelNASA, Jan 7, 2013 :

ISS Update commentator Pat Ryan sits down with Dr. Ron Diftler, Robonaut project lead, to discuss the first humanoid robot in space.

Questions? Ask us on Twitter @NASA_Johnson and include the hashtag #askStation.



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Big Picture Science for 01/07/13 - Ultimate Hook Up

Big Picture Science - Ultimate Hook Up

ENCORE Imagine moving things with your mind. Not with telekinesis, but with the future tools of brain science. Meet a pioneer in the field of computer-to-brain connection and discover the blurry boundary where the mind ends and the machine begins.

Plus, how new technology is sharpening the “real” in virtual reality. And, whether our devotion to digital devices is changing what it means to be human.

Guests:

• Miguel Nicolelis – Director for the Center for Neuroengineering at Duke University, and author of Beyond Boundaries: The New Neuroscience of Connecting Brains with Machines and How it Will Change our Lives
• Jeremy Bailenson – Director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University and co-author of Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution
• Jim Blascovich – Psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara and co-author of Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution
• Sherry Turkle – Professor of social studies of science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less From Each Other

This podcast first released July 4, 2011

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Ultimate_Hook_Up

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

Big Picture Science for 12/31/12 - Skeptic Check: They're Baack!

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: They're Baack!

ENCORE Could you have had a past life? Is it possible that some part of you is the reincarnation of a person – or maybe an animal – that lived long ago?

We’ll hear the story of a young boy who started having nightmares about a plane crash. His parents thought he was the reincarnation of a downed, World War II fighter pilot. But his story might not fly.

Also … is there any biological basis for reincarnation? Animals that indulge in the big sleep.

Suspended animation is Hollywood’s favorite device for interstellar travel … But could we really put a dimmer switch on human metabolism? Learn how techniques for hitting the hold button for humans might be just around the corner.

Guests:

• Cynthia Meyersburg – Research psychologist at Harvard University
• Tori Hoehler – Astrobiologist at the NASA Ames Research Center
• André Bormanis – Screenwriter, producer and former science consultant for “Star Trek”
• Matt Andrews – Biologist at the University of Minnesota, Duluth
• Phil Plait – Astronomer, and author of the Bad Astronomy blog at Discover Magazine
• Mark Roth – Biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle

This podcast first released June 27, 2011

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Skeptic_Check_They_re_Baack_

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

Christmas Sky Show

Source - NASA Science News for Dec. 21, 2012:

The Moon and Jupiter are converging for a heavenly sky show on Christmas 2012. Got a telescope? Something is happening on Jupiter that makes it an extra-interesting target for backyard optics.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/21dec_christmasnight/

A companion video is posted below and can also be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzSUo-4ctcU




License: Standard YouTube License

Big Picture Science for 12/24/12 - Remembers Only

Big Picture Science - Remembers Only

ENCORE You must remember this… wait, wait… I had it… on the tip of my tongue… (Memory is a tricky thing and most of us would like to improve it)… oh, yes: Discover the secrets of stupefying, knock-your-socks-off recall by a U.S. Memory Champion.

Also, almost everything we know about memory comes from the life of one man born in 1926 and known as H.M., the world’s “most unforgettable amnesiac.”

Plus, the sum total of the global data storage capacity in hard drives, thumb drives, the Internet, you name it… guess how many exabytes it comes to?

Guests:

• Larry Squire – Professor of psychiatry and neurosciences and psychology at the University of California, San Diego and a scientist at the VA Medical Center in San Diego
• Jacopo Annese – Neuroanatomist and Director of the Brain Observatory at the University of California, San Diego
• Joshua Foer – Author of Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
• Martin Hilbert – Economist and social scientist, University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism

This podcast first released May 30, 2011

Permalink: http://radio.seti.org/episodes/Remembers_Only

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

A Transit of Venus on Dec. 21, 2012

Source - NASA Science News for Dec. 20, 2012

This Friday, Dec. 21st, researchers will use NASA's Cassini spacecraft to observe a rare transit of Venus visible from the planet Saturn.

The complete article can be found here: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/20dec_transitofvenus/

Here is a bonus video about DEC 21, 2012: NASA is so sure the world will not come to an end on Dec. 21, 2012, they've already released a video about the day after. View "Why the World Didn't End Yesterday" at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY_Gc1bF8ds

Or you can view the video here:



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