The dinosaurs dominated the landscape for 160 million years, living over a thousand times longer than modern humans (Homo sapiens first evolved about 150 thousand years ago). During this vast stretch of time some dinosaur species became extinct, but overall the impression is one of an immensely tough class of animals that could endure whatever hardships the planet managed to throw at it. When the end finally came, it came from beyond Earth.
A meteorite impact 65 million years ago is the simple explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs. The exact details are much more complex, and researchers are still trying to nail down exactly what happened. The Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinction event is like an ancient tapestry that has become matted and soiled due to time and neglect. There are hundreds of threads of evidence that need to be untangled, smoothed out, and put in their proper place before a clear picture can emerge.
Science & Technology
In 1993, J. Richard Gott III computed with scientific certainty that humanity would survive at least 5,100 more years. At the time, I took that as reason to relax, but Dr. Gott has now convinced me I was wrong. He has issued a wake-up call: To ensure our long-term survival, we need to get a colony up and running on Mars within 46 years.
If you're not awakened yet, I understand. It's only prudent to be skeptical of people who make scientific forecasts about the end of humanity. Dr. Gott, a professor of astrophysics at Princeton, got plenty of grief after he made his original prediction in 1993. But in the ensuing 14 years, his prophetic credentials have strengthened, and not merely because humanity is still around.
If you're not awakened yet, I understand. It's only prudent to be skeptical of people who make scientific forecasts about the end of humanity. Dr. Gott, a professor of astrophysics at Princeton, got plenty of grief after he made his original prediction in 1993. But in the ensuing 14 years, his prophetic credentials have strengthened, and not merely because humanity is still around.
IN HIS ARTICLE "A Gaian Politics" (WER #53, p.4), historian William Irwin Thompson asks: "What would be the slightest and subtlest of moves that could transform our present political environment from one of terror to a life-centered polity of compassion?" He goes on to say that the martial arts teach us to appraise the situation as given and look for ways to redirect the energies manifested toward positive goals. As an example, Thompson suggests that the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) could be transformed into a transnational program for the exploration of space.
But would the mysteries of Mars provide sufficient cement to bind opposing parties long enough for their mutual paranoia to wane? Thompson laments that, even if desired, transformation is difficult for a nation with an economy built around preparation for war. The military component must be reduced slowly as employment is shifted to other areas--a task next to impossible without government subsidies. The problem, he states, "is that citizens and politicians will only vote for subsidies under threat, and so there always has to be a threat from the enemy or the environment to mobilize a society."
But would the mysteries of Mars provide sufficient cement to bind opposing parties long enough for their mutual paranoia to wane? Thompson laments that, even if desired, transformation is difficult for a nation with an economy built around preparation for war. The military component must be reduced slowly as employment is shifted to other areas--a task next to impossible without government subsidies. The problem, he states, "is that citizens and politicians will only vote for subsidies under threat, and so there always has to be a threat from the enemy or the environment to mobilize a society."
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| ©NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University |
'Let's Blow It Up!' Not the Answer, Says Astronaut Preparing for Spacewalk
Astronaut Stanley Love will be walking in space today to help attach yet another new section of the International Space Station, but he has even bigger plans in mind. He'd like to save the world.
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| ©Stan Honda/ AFP/ Getty Images |
| Space shuttle Atlantis mission specialist Stanley Love on Feb. 4, 2008 at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Love is preparing to make a spacewalk to attach the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory to the International Space Station. |
Astronaut Stanley Love will be walking in space today to help attach yet another new section of the International Space Station, but he has even bigger plans in mind. He'd like to save the world.
Washington - As pterodactyls go it was small, toothless and had unexpectedly curved toes - yet scientists are welcoming their new find as another piece in the puzzle of ancient life.
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| ©AP/National Academy of Sciences, Michael Skrepnickaption |
| This undated handout artist rendering provided by the PNAS/shows a life reconstruction of Nemicolopterus crypticus, a small derived flying reptile that lived in the gingko forests that existed some 120 million years ago in present China. |
At the end of the year [1664] we saw shortly after each other two tail-stars or comets arising in the sky. The first one, in the southeast, was to be seen for almost two months. After that another one appeared in the southeast. The appearance of these celestial bodies, caused a big panic in the country. The war-fleet was standing by, the guards of the ports were reinforced, all fortresses were provided with extra provisions and extra munitions, while cavalry and infantry were exercising daily. Also was it not allowed to light any lamps, especially not in the cities along the coast. This fear was caused by the fact that when the Tartarians invaded the country, there were also similar signs in the firmament, as well as at the beginning of the war with the Japanese.
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| ©Unknown |
On this day in 1664, as described in the book "Cape Cod Historical Almanac" by Donald G. Trayser, "the people of Cape Cod and other parts of New England saw the last of a great comet which excited fear and awe. It appeared November 8th last, and continued to this date, the third comet witnessed by early settlers in the space of 12 years.
Forty years ago, mathematician Mark Kac asked the theoretical question, "Can one hear the shape of a drum?"
If drums of different shapes always produce their own unique sound spectrum, then it should be possible to identify the shape of a specific drum merely by studying its spectrum, thus "hearing" the drum's shape (a procedure analogous to spectroscopy, the way scientists detect the composition of a faraway star by studying its light spectrum).
If drums of different shapes always produce their own unique sound spectrum, then it should be possible to identify the shape of a specific drum merely by studying its spectrum, thus "hearing" the drum's shape (a procedure analogous to spectroscopy, the way scientists detect the composition of a faraway star by studying its light spectrum).
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| ©Hari Manoharan |
| Building a "quantum drum," an atom at a time, with a scanning tunneling microscope. |
An apparent crater as big as Ohio has been found in Antarctica. Scientists think it was carved by a space rock that caused the greatest mass extinction on Earth, 250 million years ago.
The crater, buried beneath a half-mile of ice and discovered by some serious airborne and satellite sleuthing, is more than twice as big as the one involved in the demise of the dinosaurs.
The crater, buried beneath a half-mile of ice and discovered by some serious airborne and satellite sleuthing, is more than twice as big as the one involved in the demise of the dinosaurs.
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| ©Ohio State University |
| Gravity fluctuations beneath East Antarctica measured by GRACE satellite. Denser regions appear more red; the location of the Wilkes Land crater is circled (above center). |
