Tag Archives: experiment

Interesting NASA Experiments

There’s some pretty interesting human activity going on in outer space during this period. For example, NASA recently launched InSight^, yet another probe heading for Mars (yes, I do believe we’ve spending a bit too much on Mars). Along with that, they also launched two cubesats^, the world’s first interplanetary such (cheaper) satellites^. “MarCO-A and MarCO-B are demonstrating a number of cubesat technologies during their nearly 7-month cruise to Mars, including a folding high-gain antenna and a cold-gas propulsion system.”

Then there’s this highly “visual” mission that saw a NASA rocket spew color clouds in the atmosphere, as part of a study on the magnetic field. “The vapor tracers that are released are made of barium, lithium, and trimethylaluminum, the same ingredients you might find in fireworks”:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/29/15892738/nasa-sounding-rocket-terrier-improved-malemute-vapor-tracers^

And last but not least, here are some findings about how spaceflight has caused changes in the gene expression of an astronaut twin. In order to make the analysis possible, NASA kept one brother on Earth and the another spent one year on the International Space Station:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-twins-study-confirms-preliminary-findings^

Say what you will about the USA, but their space program still kicks some major ass.

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About Those Animals Again

Recent studies show that ducks may be capable of abstract thinking. Scientists have reached this conclusion after hatching about a hundred ducklings and playing shape games with them while they were imprisoned in an enclosure:

www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0714/Ducks-might-be-capable-of-abstract-thought-say-scientists^

The fact that we’re the dominant species on this planet certainly has its perks. I suppose it would also be just fine if a race of curious aliens starts taking our babies away and make them crawl after floating spheres and cubes in order to examine how their curiosity develops.

Oh, did you know we’re able to hatch chicks without eggshells?

http://www.snopes.com/chicks-hatched-without-eggshell/^

Wouldn’t it be great if those aliens would start to populate our planet with babies grown in grocery bags with tubes rather than a mother’s womb? Do you think those children would turn out smarter and perhaps less merciless than we are?

And last but not least, here’s one last bitter pill for the day:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/worlds-saddest-zoo-grandview-aquarium_us_578c8b3be4b03fc3ee514af2^

Congratulations brothers and sisters, both for causing this and for fighting against it. Sarcasm doesn’t go well with optimism, does it?

Sharkasm
Sharkasm

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