John_Jaksich

The following speaks at the core of how many feel (including myself) about the state of education and achievement. I enjoyed reading it (to the point of putting it on my blog as well).  Thank you Professor Olsen!   A Nation At Risk: This Time For Real.

A previous post on the subject of human space travel was cautionary, and I did not leave much hope (?) to those who truly desire to visit Mars, the asteroid Ceres, or even walk in the footsteps of the intrepid Apollo astronauts. The following post is my attempt to survey the efforts of protection so […]

Europa Study While I was at  S.A.G.A.N.et. http://saganet.org/main  (kudos to all who run the site at SAGANet) I ran across news of a proposed “Europa” clipper mission. It is being proposed by a group of  scientists at JPL. The proposed mission is “doable” by current estimates.   NASA RECENTLY TASKED A TEAM OF SCIENTISTS FROM […]

I was recently made aware of the plight of certain STEM and NASA education outreach programs. For anyone who knows of my past blog posts in support of citizen science, I ask that you (please) show your support for the noble effort done at CosmoQuest.  Please visit their site and come to know why they […]

Space flight into low Earth orbit and beyond sounds appealing, but there are obvious caveats. At least, that is the immediate impression that the casual observer gets when thinking of the Challenger or Columbia tragedies. However, perusing the space medicine literature from US/Soviet Sky Lab missions to the experiments at the International Space Station one […]

Life on the planet Venus had all but been ruled out in the 1960s and 1970s with the landings of the Soviet era, Venera probes. However at the current juncture, the debate of whether life exists within the cloud deck of our nearest planetary neighbor has come into discussion. The reasons are many and intriguing, […]

Opportunity Discovers Clays Favorable to Martian Biology and Sets Sail for Motherlode of New Clues.   I literally stumbled across the excellent post at Linkedin–It is an outstanding example of web-based science journalism. It is published at Universe Today–the author is Dr. Ken Kremer. Much of the credit goes to Fraser Cain (for publishing it […]

Exoplanet HR 8799c Constellation Pegasus Right ascension 23h 07m 28.7150s Declination +21degrees 08minutes 03.302seconds Apparent magnitude 5.964 Determination of an exoplanet’s atmosphere is just one way to determine whether an exoplanet may harbor life.  One major stumbling block for life determination is the distance to the exoplanet. (Bearing in mind that a spectral image of […]

  Mere mention of the Tunguska Event may trigger a distant memory from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series that aired on PBS in the 1980s. Through the intrepid story-telling of Carl Sagan, the general public came to understand that our Solar System was their dynamic “backyard” to be explored, treasured, and be wary of, as well. […]

New directions and perspective.   Within the next 7 days, I will re-focus my attention upon the public’s perception of  astrobiology and astronomy. I have, for the most part, been interested in public outreach for the last several years. And, I am attempting to take my cue from the call from certain science communicators to make [...]

    Fig. 1 Dwarf Planet Makemake—a Kuiper Belt Object (Source—NASA) Source URL: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/display.cfm?Category=Planets&IM_ID=10804 Original Credit: Princeton University   The dwarf planet Makemake was discovered in 2005 by astronomers, M.E. Brown, C.A. Trujillo, and D.L. Rabinowitz utilizing the Palomar Observatory. It takes approximately 310 earth years for Makemake to orbit the Sun, and Makemake is [...]

The first organisms on Earth may have closely mimicked the geochemistry of our planet. The reasons as to why may be worded in the following manner, the first organisms needed to be (1) simple, and (2) adapt to the immediate, geochemical energetics. Examining seawater and other saline-type environments allows one to ponder upon the early geochemistry. How [...]

Figure 1. Source URL: http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_galleryimg&task=imageofday&imageId=336&msg=&id=&pageNo=122   From the SOURCE:   <"Nebulae are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble. Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat's Paw Nebula visible in Scorpius. At 5,500 light years distant, Cat's Paw is an emission nebula [...]

I thought that the following news was an interesting item concerning Earth’s magnetotactic bacteria:   http://www.astrobio.net/pressrelease/5453/supernova-left-its-mark-in-ancient-bacteria   The significance of the radioactive marker can be utilized in “dating” and pinning-down other events in the Earth’s early bio-history!

The intriguing chemistry of porphyrins comes, in part, from the seemingly ease of synthesis with simple starting materials. Many University-level chemistry majors perform the lab work in their elementary sophomore/junior classes. The lab work is an adaptation of Paul Rothemund’s synthesis from 1935. A simplified (?) reaction scheme is illustrated in Fig. 1: (The beauty [...]

What is a Porphyrin? The term porphyrin denotes a class of molecules utilized in respiration and sensory processes (i.e. heme, chlorophyll, and similar molecules associated with bacteria). The purpose of the upcoming posts will be to familiarize one with patterns that seemingly meander from primitive life through the complexities associated in the oxygenation of blood [...]

Martian soil is an intriguing subject for various reasons—perhaps a primary reason is whether life resides beneath the Martian soil. Prior missions are indicative of the possibility of life and have teased the public into practically “wanting” to see life, itself. The most recent rover, Curiosity, has found “strong” evidence for past, flowing water (it [...]

Proteins first vs RNA first ?–perhaps the energetics would prove unfavorable for RNA-first?  Stay tuned. . . For a number of years, the paradigm of life’s origins was that RNA came first. Part of the reason for this paradigm was its propensity for self-reactivity. Current findings seem to up-end the paradigm with a major finding by [...]

Try to not gaze into the stillness of night and try to not question what our origins tell us; it will confound our better judgment. In an anthropocentric Universe we attempt to imagine what we don’t know how to—oneness with the noblest human purpose. Self-transcendence beyond the senses, from our minds to our hearts we [...]

Imagine when the Earth awakened from the last Ice Age—but fell back into an icy slumber for another thousand years. That abrupt, climate scenario is known as the Younger Dryas event, and it is currently investigated by teams of researchers. One must note the scenario took place during humanity’s hunter-gathering adolescence. (There is a mainstream [...]

Fear, Rumors, & Sequestration | CosmoQuest Blog.   After seeing this blog post at COSMOQuest.org –I was greatly saddened by the way in which politics as usual has been conducted inside the beltway. I can only hope enough individuals see this post and contact their Congress-person and Senators–write them. Please act– this is not the time to [...]

INTRODUCTION The years 1996-2000 were interesting to the astronomy community for many reasons. Many will remember the pronouncement of Martian fossilized life and the huge groundswell of commentary that the Allan Hills meteorite garnered. And, it was during those years that NASA announced the past presence of water on the Martian surface. Thus it would [...]

The following post is based (in part) upon an article that appeared in the journal Astrobiology—Grenfell, et al. Volume 12, Number 12, 2012, Response of Atmospheric Biomarkers to NOx-Induced Photochemistry Generated by Stellar Cosmic Rays for Earth-like Planets in the Habitable Zone of M Dwarf Stars It is available behind a paywall. A major reason for [...]

Astronomers produce most detailed analysis of alien planet’s atmosphere.   In light of the finding–this is a great post. I thought I would reblog it since this is a subject which I am currently interested   Many kudos to MSNBC!.

Reblogged from Science Springs: This is copyright protected material, so just enough exploration to get you interested. Mar 12 2013 By Paul Alivisatos is director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Eric D. Isaacs is director of Argonne National Laboratory. Thom Mason is director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. "Cutting the meager amount the federal government [...]

Reblogged from someone somewhere: “Every tiny atom in your body came from a star that exploded long before you were born.” “Everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was … lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam,”Carl Sagan famously marveled in his poeticPale Blue Dot monologue, [...]

Reblogged from Cristian Mihai: With less than two weeks until the Indiegogo campaign is over, we're at 73% funded. So here's that post that just might give it a little push. So, yeah, support this crazy Romanian kid get his novel published. Of course, for that to happen, you have to go here and see [...]

Reblogged from Eideard: NASA scientists say tests on a Mars rock show the planet could have supported primitive life. At a briefing at NASA's Washington headquarters on Tuesday, NASA scientist said that an analysis of a Mars rock sample by the Curiosity rover had unveiled minerals, including hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, that are the building [...]

Up until now, I have spoken of current findings. However I will speak of a mission that is set to launch in the coming years. The James Webb is set to launch in 2018. The mission will consist of four science packages–(see links at end of post for the three other aspects of the telescope) [...]