Jawaan!

  It sounds like a Buck Rogers plot, or a rave remix of Pink Floyd, but it’s the very latest news from our very nearest astronomical neighbor.  The Japanese SELENE mission (SELenological and ENgineering Explorer) has probed the far side of the moon in unprecedented detail.  The effects will be felt in lunar research for years, but the first headline you’ll hear about is the negative gravity disturbance rings.

It sounds like a Buck Rogers plot, or a rave remix of Pink Floyd, but it’s the very latest news from our very nearest astronomical neighbor. The Japanese SELENE mission (SELenological and ENgineering Explorer) has probed the far side of the moon in unprecedented detail.  The effects will be felt in lunar research for years, but the first headline you’ll hear about is the negative gravity disturbance rings. Now that definitely sounds like something Electra, Queen of the Lunar Amazon Women, would apply to Buck before being seduced.  It’s important not to get overexcited – here “negative anomaly” simply means that there’s less gravity than average, not that there are anti-gravity sites hidden where we couldn’t see them until now.  These rings surround small zones of positive gravity anomalies, unlike anything we’ve seen on the near side, and offer brand new information on the formation of the moon

International Space Station astronauts tested a technology to defend the planet, but don’t get your hopes up about the ISS transforming into an incredible Voltronian space robot: the alien invaders we’re defending against are us. Astronauts Steve Swanson and Richard Arnold were scanned for unwanted life-forms before and after a spacewalk, using a brand new Lab-On-a-Chip Applications Development (LOCAD) Q-tip.  Your q-tips might only excavate unspeakable emissions from your orifices, but the LOCAD system scans for lifesigns – it’s basically the closest thing we have to an organic-detecting tricorder.  A ten second sample collection, followed by fifteen minutes of processing on the iPod-sized chip, detects chemicals connected with unwanted organisms – either alien or ours.  The chip even changes color to display results, presumably “Green for fine” and “Red for oh bugger aliens.” The device is due to Article 9 of the Outer Space Treaty, which really exists, and basically says “Thou shalt not screw up entire alien worlds by sneezing on them.”  The idea is to avoid contaminating new ecosystems with runaway organisms, and Australia just e-mailed to say “Pity you didn’t think of that about two centuries ago.” The system has already produced results, showing signs that fungi may have stowed away aboard fabric sections outside the ISS – ironically, on the handrail sections designed to make it easier for other life-forms (aka “humans”) to get around.  Such nearspace tests could be vital in avoiding interplanetary plagues unleashed by those claiming to “come in peace.” Posted by Luke McKinney. LOCAD Tests

One of my childhood icons was Eric Hoffer, my father’s favorite philosopher, migrant worker, longshoreman on the docks of The Embarcadero, and author the the bestselling True Beliver . Fast forward to today: in the swirl of Wall Street scandal and economic crisis a new advocate for America’s underclass and the dignity of real work has emerged: “Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe. Rowe reminds us that we are our own best resource

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