Episode #382
News Items
Who's That Noisy
- Answer to Last Week: Crow T Robot
Science or Fiction
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Item #1
Fiction
Curiosity’s atmospheric analyzer has confirmed the presence of methane in the Martian atmosphere, keeping hope of Martian life alive. http://www.southernencounter.co.nz/seanews_whatsnew.htm
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Item #2
Science
A new computer model supports the grandmother hypothesis – that grandmothers provide a fertility advantage to their daughters, thereby driving the evolution of longevity. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v491/n7423/full/491162b.html
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Item #3
Science
Physicists have created a device with a refractive index of zero, meaning that the phase velocity of light within the device is effectively infinite. http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/11/infintely-fast-light.html?ref=hp
Skeptical Quote of the Week.
‘[Space exploration] is in financial trouble. Yet by many standards, such missions are inexpensive. Mariner Jupiter/Saturn costs about the same as the American aircraft shot down in Vietnam in the week in which I am writing these words (Christmas 1972). The Viking mission itself costs about a fortnight of the Vietnam war. I find these comparisons particularly poignant: life versus death, hope versus fear. Space exploration and the highly mechanized destruction of people use similar technology and manufacturers, and similar human qualities of organization and daring. Can we not make the transition from automated aerospace killing to automated aerospace exploration of the solar system in which we live?’ – Carl Sagan (1972)