"Dare Mighty Things"

     Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. -- Teddy Roosevelt

Last night after a journey of several hundred million miles a small hunk of metal successfully touched down rather softly on the surface of Mars. 150 million miles away (and 14 minutes later) a large group of people started jumping up and down. This is the spirit of human exploration and a desire to dare mighty things.

The scientists at the JPL and NASA may just be smiling for days if not weeks.

A happy John Grunsfeld speaking with reporters after the landing.

Resurrecting Old Species, Life on Mars and The Suns.

Three news stories struck me as interesting:

Scientists Rebuild Wooly Mammoth Blood

Scientists have already "resurrected" an extinct goat through cloning.  Now, it looks like scientists have used ancient DNA of a Woolly Mammoth to rebuild the extinct creature's blood.

Look, I know I should be more skeptical, but I just may live to see the day when Jurassic Park is more of a reality.

NASA cites new evidence for life on Mars.

This is another one of those "I hope to see before I die" things.  I'm sure there is life outside of planet Earth.

It really doesn't make sense that there wouldn't be, unless you are a skeptical extremist.  I say extremist because on one hand the evidence supporting the idea is mounting (the above link is one example) and then there's that whole Copernican Revolution from which good scientists learn that they shouldn't consider this Earth as "the one special place in all the cosmos". (And the cosmos is pretty big might I add.)


Suns to wear 'Los Suns' jerseys for Game 2

This is not a political statement.  No matter where you stand on this law, you have to admit the Suns wearing "Los Suns" for Cinco De Mayo in light of Arizona's new immigration law is pretty funny.

Mars Pheonix Lander Finds... Something

In late June, the Mars Phoenix Lander (artistically depicted to the right) scooped up a sample of Martian dirt, dumped it into its Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA) and made the first unambiguous discovery of water on Mars. On July 7, 2008 the Mars Phoenix Lander put a sample of Martian dirt into its Microscopy, Electrochemistry, and Conductivity Analyzer (MECA) and found... something really exciting, but NASA's not telling what that is. In fact, NASA had a press conference today (Aug. 4) specifically to announce that they weren't announcing anything. However, if the buzz in the planetary science community is any indication, whatever was found is something with implications beyond the Mars science community.

Rumors have been flying that it may be something really exciting - confirmation of past water flow, organic molecules, signs of life, microorganisms playing volleyball, God himself! Ok, maybe not God, but pretty much all of the other possibilities are still on the table. A member of the collaboration that built and operates the TEGA (not the MECA, which is the instrument that found whatever it was) was visiting CU last Friday, got a phone call, yelled into the phone, jumped into the air, and then told everyone that they couldn't talk about it.

While I don't know what will come of this, if NASA hasn't publicly released the information then it means one of two things:

1. NASA is doing responsible science and trying to confirm the discovery before shouting it from the rooftops.
2. NASA is waiting to give someone higher up on the totem pole (i.e. the head of NASA or President Bush) the chance to make the announcement.

I personally think it's probably option #1. To me, this seems a lot like the possible Higg's boson detection last year at the Tevatron in that it's interesting, but far from a sure thing. Still nothing fuels rumors like a press conference specifically to deny there is anything to announce, so I, for one, will be watching this one pretty closely.