The final frontier(s)...

If I had my way, I would be a professional student. Regular careers do not much interest me, but finding out things I did not know before absolutely fascinates me. I'm talking "newborn first figuring out she has a hand" or "seven year-old at her first magic show" kind of hooked.

For most of history, people have had the same type of fascination with outer space. To this day, the idea there might be real little green men out there or that we could colonize the moon still holds people in thrall. But for astronaut Randolph Bresnik it was what was on earth that held his attention. On his first-ever space mission, Bresnik floated 220 miles above the earth as his daughter, Abigail Mae, made her first appearance on it. It is just the second time in NASA history an astronaut in space has welcomed a child to his family while in orbit, according to the Boston Globe.

After humans "conquered" space, we have turned our attention to the oceans. Now being called the "real" final frontier, divers/researchers/treasure-hunters/James Cameron have only just begun to plumb the depths of the sea. Just last night I was watching the tail end of a show on the History Channel about ancient cities found on the bottom of the ocean floor, complete with building remnants and cobblestones. MSNBC reported on the over 5500 new species found in the ocean recently. Long thought to be barren, the deep sea (depths of 3,280 feet) now appears to be teeming with creatures straight out of a Salvador Dali painting.

The United Nations women who have reached new frontiers through their own hard work. India has deployed an all-female police unit to serve with the UN security force in Liberia. There they teach the local women self-defense and computer skills. India is the first country to send such a unit to a UN peacekeeping mission.

Irony on the intergalactic scale...

I had intended today's post to be entirely about advances in science, but as my radio station host this morning put it best - "It's a bit ironic the day that the President of the United States wins the Nobel Peace prize, we attack the moon."

When I first heard about the award, I immediately thought it must be for former President Carter, forgetting he won in 2002. I am still a bit floored that Pres. Obama won for showing promise (and essentially not being George W. Bush), but I like to think this is a harbinger of all the change he will be able to make in the years to come. Yahoo! News has a surprisingly expansive article on the reasons for Obama's win as well as the world's reaction, which has been (thankfully) mostly positive.

Now, onto attacking the moon, which has also gotten surprisingly positive reaction around the (scientific) world. NASA crashed a spacecraft and it's trusty sidekick into the moon at 7:31 EST this morning in hopes of finding evidence of water ice. Personally I could send them to a pretty good Rita's in Philly and save them the $79 million they wasted going splat in a lunar crater... But this exploration of the lunar south pole - where the sun never shines so we have no idea what's down there - could prove vital if the collisions do kick up some frozen water along with lots and lots of moon dirt.

MSNBC.com has a similar story to the one from Yahoo! News linked above, which is far less technical and has videos and subtitles like "Smackdown!"

On a very prescient this-past-Wednesday, Pres. Obama combined medals, science and astronomy. He handed out the National Medals of Science and of Technology in a ceremony at the White House. Obama honored scientists who mapped the human genome, made GPS systems possible and invented batteries for implanted defibrillators among others. Later that night he hosted over 150 school children in what may be the White House's first skywatching party, held in honor of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observations of Jupiter and its moons. The first American woman in space, Sally Ride, answered questions from the children and from Internet users. Astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Hubble repairman John Grunsfeld were in attendance.

(Image courtesy of Disney/Pixar)

Science=Magic...

To me, nearly all science is magical. Not in the sense that I am endlessly fascinated by it, but more in that way most people regard watching someone get sawed in half. It's a "how did they DO that?" feeling. In school up until college, I took all the requisite classes - biology, chemistry, earth science, etc. My college transcript is less than stellar in that category, boasting a single class called "Natural Disasters." So I still regard scientific achievement with a certain degree of mystification. In this way I supposed I'm not that different than people from the Middle Ages or those of a very superstitious culture/religion.

Yesterday was the longest solar eclipse since 1991. It cut a swath across Asia and the Pacific, lasting for up to six minutes and 39 seconds in places. Indian astrologers were making predictions of widespread violence and evil according to their beliefs that what happened during a solar eclipse was that a dragon swallowed the sun. Fortunately for us (and the sun) neither mass panic and crime nor the sun being swallowed actually happened. Instead people had something really cool to look at, while some very confused cows in Japan decided it was dinner time and went to their troughs. 

The Seattle Times had a story a few days ago on something that may be neither science nor magic. This one struck my attention because of my interest in animal behavior. Mary Phillips, a hospice nurse in the state of Washington, credits her co-worker's Maltese Poodle, Jacque Pierre, with saving her life. She arrived at work one day and was struck by a crippling headache. While lying on the floor resting, Jacque Pierre came in and, despite the fact Phillips and Jacque Pierre weren't buddies, licked the size of her head exactly where the pain was the most excruciating. That unlikely gesture convinced Phillips to go to the ER where they found a walnut-sized aneurysm in her head. Phillips had recalled times when hospice patients' pets refused to leave their dying owners' sides at the exact moment of death, and she stated those experiences were what made her finally seek help.

What might quite possibly be magic in the sue-happy American society of today is University of Michigan Health System doctors have found that admitting mistakes and offering compensation up front has actually saved them from malpractice suits. According to Google News, after implementing this "common decency" approach malpractice claims dropped by half from 2001-07, the time to process claims dropped from 20 to eight months and costs per claim were halved. Patients who have been on the receiving end of medical mistakes in the system but who received an immediate apology and compensation have stated their satisfaction with not feeling abandoned. I guess nice guys don't always finish last. 

A day late and dollar short...

Once again, I missed the boat. I did not realize that yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon walk. To be fair to myself, my parents hadn't even met at the time of the moon walk, so there was no chance of me sitting around reminiscing on where I was when it happened. And, as several articles have pointed out, Americans' interest in the space program has plummeted since the 1960s, to the degree I really don't pay attention anymore. 

But, regardless, that was a very important day and exponentially cool when you think about it, so I'm going to do a post today. Besides, now I have the benefit of being able to sift through all the stories about yesterday without missing any unique ones. : ) 

The photo to the left, from CNN.com, is part of a fun story about how a 10 year-old boy played an extremely important role in the landing of Apollo 11. Greg Force, the child of the Guam NASA Tracking Station director, was sitting at home when he was retrieved by a member of his father's staff to perform a task only a child could. The antenna that was supposed to receive the last transmission from the astronauts before they landed had broken, but Greg's father thought it could be fixed with a little grease. However, grown ups' arms were too big to reach into the hole to apply the grease. Enter Greg. 

USAToday.com has a story on Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, and Michael Collins' trip to the White House to meet with President Obama on the anniversary of the walk. Reading this article I realized there was a third astronaut up there. I don't know why it didn't occur to me that someone would have to "stay with the ship" as it were, but I just never thought about it. Can you imagine being the one guy who doesn't get famous from the moon walk? Well, yesterday he got his day in the sun as Obama praised the men for being "real American heroes." (Take that, GI Joe...)

Finally, computerworld.com had a fun little slideshow on the technologies we use today that were inspired by 1960's era NASA projects. If it weren't for the space program 40 years ago, we may never have had the Dustbuster...