Tag Archives: geology

Mars rover Spirit: Trapped but contributing to water story

News: Exogenous Life    October 29, 2010
Disturbed soil surrounding the Mars rover Spirit…….Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell A heading for this story could be: Dead Spirit reports from a moist grave. Almost technically correct but too much wordplay. The reality is more prosaic and potentially more important. The issue is water on Mars. Evidence is overwhelming that Mars had, as in two billion years [...]
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How to spot a geologist

Funnybone: September 23, 2010
Observation is a core skill of science. When you are out in the field (e.g. bar, food store, restaurant, movie theater) and you see or meet another scientist, how can you identify a geologist? Here are some tips: - Look for a belt buckle, pendant, or bola tie clip with inlaid stones (not gems). - [...]
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Update 2: More Moon water

News: Space Exploration    June 23, 2010
Following headlines such as “Moon Has More Water than the Great Lakes” (astrobio.net) you’d think a new study by the Carnegie Institution Geophysical Laboratory (Washington D.C., USA) has the Moon – once considered one of the driest places in the solar system – to be a veritable swimming pool. Granted, more water in various forms [...]
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Science panel: Chicxulub did it

Impact: Impact Event    March 5, 2010
Sometimes ‘the facts’ discovered by science answer questions by themselves, but much of the time facts are used for competing hypotheses. Sometimes more facts settle the issue of which hypothesis better fits the facts, but like as not, the ‘better fit’ is a matter of interpretation. If the issue at hand is important enough, scientists [...]
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Wise cracks

Funnybone: November 6, 2009
There’s recent news about a new crack in the Earth, the one starting in Ethiopia that looks like it could turn into an ocean, which reminds me of the old canard about geologists…Geologists are most unpopular when they are fault-finders.
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