Unscrewing the Inscrutable has been updating progress of the Huygensprobe as it screeches towards the surface of Titan. So far (8:20 am) it still seems to be going well. The first real data will come later this morning. Of course, the really exciting stuff for us bio-freaks will come in a few months.
Continue reading “Like the Elections, Except in Outer Space”
Scrape off those stickers! AP reports that a judge has ruled that those goofy “Evolution is just a theory” stickers must be taken off of textbooks in Georgia. Now, how about those “Continental drift is just a theory” stickers on the geology textbooks?
More to read: The Tangled Bank–The Tangled Bank is a semi-regular banquet of posts from various blogs on biology. Thanks to the powers that be for including one of mine in the latest issue. Go read it for the rest, which are fascinating.
Dinosaur-eating Mammals (You heard me right): Jeff Hecht at New Scientisthas a good write-up of the discovery of a dog-sized 130-million year old mammal with dinosaur bones in its gut. Most mammals may have been humble little critters during the Age of the Dinosaurs, but at least a few seemed to have turned the tables.
Continue reading “Dinosaur-Eating Mammals (You Heard Me Right)”
The New York Times, January 11, 2005
Dr. Steven A. Benner is bracing for what could be a spectacular year. When the Huygens mission parachutes into the hazy skies of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, he will be among the researchers anxiously awaiting a report.
After several days, Dr. Benner and his colleagues will receive the Huygens measurements of Titan’s chemical composition. They will comb through the data to see whether the moon harbors life.
But Dr. Benner, a professor of chemistry at the University of Florida, will not limit his search to familiar life forms of the sort that exist on Earth. He is casting a wider net, in hopes of discovering creatures that defy conventional biology — what Dr. Benner calls “weird life.”
Continue reading “In the Search for Life on Titan, the Challenge Will Be Recognizing It”