NRAO telescopes will be featured on National Geographic’s “Known Universe” from 8-11PM EST/PST. There’s more footage from the VLA and appearances by Rick Perley and Jim Braatz from the NRAO!
I met Rick when I was a summer student in Socorro a few years back, and he’s really knowledgeable and super-cool. He gave us our big “introduction to radio interferometry” talks at the beginning of the summer, so I learned a lot from him. Jim Braatz is one of my collaborators, and he guided me through my first research project at UVa! He does great work with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and searches for water megamasers, which are like “radio lasers” that give off spectral line emission using water molecules. These are often excited by the radiation from the active nucleus of a galaxy. Precise measurements of the locations and motions of these masers can give really accurate distanes to galaxies, which can then in turn be used to determine the nature of dark energy. Weird, huh? I’ll have to flesh that one out in a later blog post…
Last week, I talked about how radio astronomy aids the search for intelligent life in the Galaxy. Today, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory put out a press release about radio astronomers searching for the building blocks of life, or organic chemistry. As Carl Sagan said, we are “star stuff,” so we look for protostars and the regions around them for the “pre-biotic” molecules that could seed life on the future planets around those stars. Radio telescopes are especially adept at receiving spectral lines from molecules. Molecules can rotate with certain energies, and when they change from a higher to a lower energy level, they give off a very low energy photon of light. This is seen as a spike in emission at a certain radio frequency.
What we see in the coldest regions of space is a crazy combination of organic molecules residing in the coldest gas clouds in space. There is carbon monoxide**, water, methanol, formaldehyde, various amino acids, and much more. So, the ingredients for life are already there before planets even form! The newest work includes a search for pre-biotic molecules with the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, a detailed look at forming star clusters with the Submillimeter Array in Hawaii, and a new study of dusty disks around young stars from which planets may be forming. A look at astrochemistry is really a look into our own origins as living beings on the planet Earth.
CREDIT: Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF
Remember, you can learn more about ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, an up-and-coming radio telescope high in the Chilean Andes that will probe astrochemistry like never before, from their website, Richard Drumm’s 365DoA podcast, or my first URSI update.
* I originally thought it was carbon dioxide. Richard points out in the comments that it’s most likely actually water! I think by the relative sizes of the model atoms that makes sense. Since the original wasn’t labeled, I’ll be agnostic about it.
** Whoops! Got my CO and CO2 mixed up. See invaderxan’s comment!
Today we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, the biologist (or naturalist, in those days) who first proposed that all species evolved from a common ancestor through natural selection. Today, we see evidence of evolution all around us, and natural selection is the explanation that is most well supported by this evidence. This was certainly not the case 150 years ago when The Origin of Species was first published, but slowly this idea took root in the minds of scientists who couldn’t ignore the evidence all around, whether it be from fossils, genetics, or documented cases of evolution.
But I’m just an astronomer. In our field, stellar and galactic, even cosmological, evolution, refer more to something like “lifetime.” I’ll let the biologists (twoexamples!) handle the biological details today. To celebrate the holiday, I’ll reminisce on my experience in learning about evolution and natural selection.
When I was 12, I knew I wanted to be an astronomer. I had always loved science of all kinds, but by the time I was applying to high schools, I was already hooked on space. It didn’t hurt that the Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner rover were doing their thing, and my imagination was totally captured by that*. I was a bit torn between going to Staten Island Technical High School and St. John Villa Academy. There were a number of reasons why I chose Villa, and one was that they were pioneering a new science program, in conjunction with their already established “scholars program,” called the Science Discovery Institute, or SDI. I knew that this would accelerate and expand my education in all areas of science, so I went for it.
The summer before high school marked my entry into teenage years, and also my first summer reading assignments. In addition to the four novels that we had to read for English class, the SDI girls** also had four science books to read. These were Rosalind Franklin and DNA, The Hot Zone, one that’s clearly not memorable enough for me to still own, and The Origin of Species. I decided to tackle the one that was the most difficult first and get it out of the way. With 460 dense pages and some technical-looking chapter titles, I chose Origin. This book took me a whole month to read, leaving a little over a month to get through the seven remaining books for the summer! It seemed dry, technical, nit-picky, and redundant. Even for a book nerd like me, at 13, it was too much to appreciate fully, especially with a deadline. Also, I was already familiar with the concepts of evolution and natural selection from my junior high science classes, so why was the point being drilled over and over again? When I got to school in the fall and we began discussing this book in our Regents*** biology class, it became clear that I was the only one in the class who sat down and muddled through the whole thing. Nevertheless, we had a great class discussion, and I’m sure there was some assignment attached, and we moved happily on with the basis of modern biology under our collective belt.
Biology was never really my “thing” although I would put it at a close second behind physics (which includes astronomy). I never lost the curiosity about the living things in the natural world. A later assignment in my SDI work was to visit the American Museum of Natural History and write about a number of exhibits, including the Hall of Human Evolution. I’ve been in love with that exhibit to this day, most recently dragging my friend Monti through it last summer. I even picked up The Journey of Man on a recommendation from one of the staff scientists, though I have yet to find time to delve into it. Only more recently, thanks to bloggers like the ones linked above, have I begun to fully appreciate the depth and beauty of evolution and natural selection, and I’ve been truly awed at the complexity and interconnectedness of it all, as well as fascinated by the scope of ongoing research. Evolution and natural selection are at the heart of who we are as a species and how we got here on this planet. It is an important factor in the search for life on other worlds. And it allows us to understand the variety and breathtaking beauty of life forms on this planet. (For an example, just go watch an episode of Planet Earth!)
I’m going to turn to an astronomer, Carl Sagan, for a classic illustration of our origins through evolution:
There is something wonderfully beautiful in that simply illustrated clip.
So I’ve come a long way in my understanding of evolution and Darwin’s great contribution to science. Maybe one day I’ll reread Origin and have a much great appreciation for the prose with my more mature outlook on the scientific method.
But just for today, I want to say, “Thank you and Happy Birthday, Mr. Darwin!”
* And now, you know about how old I am! ** That’s right, I went to an all-girl Catholic high school. Get out your giggling now. *** Oh yes! I just made all the New Yorkers cringe. Mwah ha ha.
I’m going to get political once more, so bear with me here. Much fluff was thrown around in the recent Presidential election about how Obama’s Muslim roots would be a threat to our nation. However, the Obama family were certainly practicing Christians, and much more was thrown around in the media regarding their former pastor. However, our President has said some encouraging things about the separation of church and state, and the American Humanist Association praised his “secular humanist upbringing” in an ad after the inauguration. They may have celebrated too soon.
Obama is now expanding the Faith-Based Initiative that was started under President Bush, which has been highly criticized in the secular community for linking church and state and allowing federal tax dollars to be used for proselytizing and discriminatory hiring practices. The goal of using community organizations to combat poverty seems reasonable to me, which is why it should be scrapped and restarted as a “community-based initiative” without preference to religions. D.J. Grothe from the Center for Inquiry gives a good breakdown of the problems with the initiative, and James Randi is similarly peeved.
This is not new news, but it made me laugh way too hard not to share. It’s Obama cussing up a storm in the audiobook version of his book, quoting his friend from high school. So NSFW, and I so love it, especially the last one about “fries.”
There’s been lots of talk on the science blogosphere the past few days about the stimulus package going through Congress. On Friday, it was believed that the National Science Foundations’s piece of the pie would be cut out completely, and that NASA would receive half to allotted funding. To be honest, I couldn’t get too worked up about it. After all, this was extra money from the stimulus, not the budget that had already been decided on. Also, I considered the economic stimulus package to be a way to boost the economy in the short term, and that’s not the goal of science. My friend Nagini pointed out that a healthy economy needs both short and long term investments, and that science in a worthy long term investment. I agreed with this, and I also see how paying scientists is just one more way to give distribute money to those who will (hopefully) invest back into the economy. But that’s a weaker argument, since you could just give everyone money… again… and hope that works. Anyway, Hank Campbell at Science 2.0 explains his viewpoint of the package, and puts his finger on what was bothering me, that science is not a short term investment. So, before running to grab at whatever little spare change we can get in the short run, check out this alternate viewpoint. We don’t want to hurt science itself, after all.
Last week at the meeting of the Virginia Atheists and Agnostics, we had a fascinating talk by Chris Bell, titled “When are Tibetans not Buddhist?” Chris is working on a Ph.D in religious studies with a focus on, of course, Tibetan Buddhism. I won’t even pretend to recap the incredible depth of detail, including pictures and video from his own trip to Tibet. However, the main point was to compare the ideals, teachings, and writings of Tibetan Buddhism with the actual practices of the monks and the laity. The scholarly study of religion formerly focused on the “pure” religion, the teachings, not the people. Any deviations from this ideal were considered to be the local cultural influence, or “local color,” not part of the religion itself. More modern studies tend to include the practices that deviate from teaching as part of the religion itself. So the answer to the title of the talk is, well, never, since the people help define the religion itself!
This seems like an obvious point, but it was certainly an “ah ha!” moment for me. Really, there are as many religions as there are religious people, when you get right down to it. Each person interprets the religious teachings and acts, thinks, and reacts based on their own cultural and personal influences. My personal experience was with Catholicism, which is fairly strict on what it considers canon. However, most Catholics that I know believed and practiced a religion that was slightly different from that canon. So, is Catholicism all that comes out from the pope? Or is it defined by the Catholic people? What becomes a problem is when it is said that xx% of people are Catholic and Catholics reject birth control. Well… that’s not true. Many Catholics understand the efficiacy, safety, and need for birth control, so they are not being properly represented.
Is there ever a true, pure religion? One can say that the purest form is in the writings, but religious writings are self-contridictory. Therefore, it can never be practiced in it’s “pure” form! In fact, if more people were to realize that religion, and how it is practiced, is so heavily influenced by culture and personality, it could mitigate some of the “my religion is the only correct religion” mentality that threatens political stability and personal relationships. It may also keep non-believers from putting people in a box based on their religious labels. However, believers should be aware of the implications of their label and realize when religion breaks down in describing one’s actions and morals! Maybe, just maybe, religion isn’t needed for describing morality at all!
I’m taking a break from my hectic week on this lovely Saturday, with some light cleaning, laundry, blog reading, and BSG watching. If you, too, want to relax and “space out” as it were, go over to the Carnival of Space #89 at The Moon Society Blog. There are lots of great readings that will have you mulling over humankind’s future in space and astronomy’s look at space today. There are even some hints for astronomy outreach and podcasting! (Future 365ers, check it out.) This week’s wrap-up ends with a bit of chatter on the possibility of alien chatter, inlcuding my own SETI post from the other day. So go and wander over for a great summary of this week’s space blogging!
I’m not a fan of Chuck Norris, so I’m glad to see his fact list superseded by someone much cooler, particularly, an astrophysicist! Check out the list of Dave Green Facts, written up by some smart and creative students at the University of Cambridge. Awesome.
He does however have some competition in the science world. Bill Nye has quite an impressive list of his own! He did, after all, help save the world in a recent “Stargate: Atlantis” episode.
I’m a 7th (and final!) year graduate student in astronomy. My thesis has focused on radio astronomy instrumentation. That means, I get to build cool telescopes that will open up new frontiers in the universe. I also love to teach, both in a classroom setting and informally. I'm happy to talk about the universe with anyone who will listen, and I am skeptically curious about all things.
I’m a 7th (and final!) year