Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Believable Extraterrestrials - Scientific American Blog Network

Believable Extraterrestrials - Scientific American Blog Network

On the 26th of April 1920, in a bit of canny PR, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D. C. hosted a debate between the astronomers Harlow Shapley and Heber Curtis. The topic was the question of whether or not the 'spiral nebulae' were actually distant galaxies (implying a universe far more expansive than previously imagined) or simply a part of our own Milky Way (implying that this galactic realm was, in effect, the universe).

Regardless of the immediate value of this slightly contrived discussion, it did help push along the publication of works by Shapley and Curtis and in some ways become a model for bringing the nature of the scientific method (and argument) more into the public eye. In fact, back in 1995 the format was resurrected , again at the Smithsonian, for the first of a new generation of public debates. That one tackled the then-unknown nature of gamma-ray bursts.

Publisher: Scientific American Blog Network
Author: Caleb A Scharf
Twitter: @sciam
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Many things are taking place:

Drill projects set to expand sub-surface climate knowledge | The Engineer The Engineer

Glasgow University engineers are providing their drilling expertise to projects that will extract rock samples from the Antarctic and deep beneath extraterrestrial surfaces.

Dr Patrick Harkness and Dr Kevin Worrall from the James Watt School of Engineering are leading the engineering research on a projected titled INCISED which is headed to Antarctica, and the ESA-funded Deeper project to build a collapsible drill for sample collection on other planets.

Publisher: The Engineer
Date: 2020-05-04T11:38:18 01:00
Reference: (Read more) Visit Source



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