SocraticGadfly: Science briefs – new sun probe, mass extinctions, designer physics

May 11, 2008

Science briefs – new sun probe, mass extinctions, designer physics

New sun probe for less than $1 bil?
Johns Hopkins says it can create a new solar exploration satellite, one to go nine times closer to the sun than Mercury for less than $750 million. Such solar probes have been discussed before, but price has always been a major roadblock.
Our galactic journey causes mass extinctions
Evidence is mounting that our rotation about the Milky Way can trigger large comets descending into the inner Solar System, causing mass extinctions like that of the dinosaurs 65 years ago. But, some scientists that hold to a modified “panspermia” says these comets could also have brought beneficial microorganisms to Earth.
I’ll have a 2009 Calcium-43
Designer isotopes of various elements is supposed to be thehot new field in nuclear physics. How hot? Possibly as hot as nanotech.
Learned helplessness in open societies
It exists, it may be exacerbated in some way by occurring in an open society, and will be a challenge for the future.

No comments: