Curiosity has beamed back some really remarkable images from Mars in the past couple of days. Â The site for its landing was chosen because it appeared from satellite images that there was layered rock and some diversity of chemical signatures at different elevations but the pictures taken from ground level reveal a more spectacular and... Continue Reading →
The Salty Sea and the Age of the Earth, Part I – Confirmation Bias
According to young earth creationists, there isn't enough salt in the oceans if the earth is old. Recent references to this argument have spurred me to look a little closer at how it is being used today. What I find is that it appears to have only a purely rhetorical use as the actual data about the ocean'salinity suggests that the amount of salt in the sea is a useless tool for indicating the earth is old or young.
The Mars Curiosity Rover: A Geological History Detective
How could anyone not be curious about Mars Curiosity rover? Â NASA gambled by playing up the "7 minutes of terror" landing, using social media very adeptly to get a huge audience right in the middle of the Olympics. Â Failure of the rover to safely land surely would have been a crushing blow to the... Continue Reading →
NH Notes: Exploding Termites – Sacrifice for the Good of the Whole Organism
One of the stranger behaviors of termites was reported this past week and a summary can be found in a note in Nature. This report contains a description of exploding termites! How, and probably more intriguing, why would a termite explode and commit suicide?