Science Lush

Science Lush 08/21/12: Historical Science Chicks, Curiosity's Laser and the Art of Botany

Science Chicks From History

I stumbled across the Tumblr Science Chicks From History, which is pretty much exactly like it sounds: a blog dedicated to women from science history. Sweet and simple, each entry features a brief description of a lady scientist, usually partnered with an accompanying image. It serves as a lovely introduction to a group of scientists, mathematicians and technologists you may want to know more about.

I'm particulary intrigued by Aglaonike, cited as the first female astronomer in Greece, and Hypatia of Alexandria (350? - 415 AD), the first historically noted female mathematician. She sounds like a pretty cool chick: 

She dressed in the clothes of a scholar instead of women’s clothes and drove her own chariot. Hypatia was murdered in the streets of Alexandria by a Christian mob after being accused of witchcraft and godlessness. Her writings were destroyed when the Library of Alexandria was burned.

As a member of a classical theater company, I've spent a lot of time in imagined worlds populated with ancient Greek gods and goddesses. But these women clearly had some real-world powers of their own which enabled them to perservere in learning and teaching at a time when science was truly a man's occupation.

Fire It Up! Curiosity's Laser Zaps Her First Target 

"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."
GOLDFINGER

Ok, let's be honest - lasers are just cool! It's fun to watch stuff get blown up, plus they come in awfully handy when trying to destroy the world (yes, I watch a lot of superhero movies). Luckily, Curiosity is on a benevolent mission, so when the Mars rover fired up its laser for the first time on August 19th, she had the best of intentions. Her target for this first test? A fist-sized rock called "Coronation." Here's what went down:  

The mission's Chemistry and Camera instrument, or ChemCam, hit the fist-sized rock with 30 pulses of its laser during a 10-second period. Each pulse delivers more than a million watts of power for about five one-billionths of a second.

The energy from the laser excites atoms in the rock into an ionized, glowing plasma. ChemCam catches the light from that spark with a telescope and analyzes it with three spectrometers for information about what elements are in the target.

The technique has been used in a variety of extreme environments here on Earth, including inside nuclear reactors and on the sea floor, but this is the first time it's been used to explore an object on another planet.  ChemCam was developed, built and tested by the U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and research agency, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

This composite image incorporates a Navigation Camera image taken prior to the test, with
magnified insets taken by the camera in ChemCam. The circular insert highlights the rock before
the laser test. The square inset is further magnified and processed to show the difference
between images taken before and after the laser interrogation of the rock.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP

 

 The Art of Botany: Call for Entries

The Canadian Botanical Association/L'Association Botanique du Canada (CBA/ABC) 49th Annual Meeting and Conference, which is being held June 2013 in Kamloops, BC, will feature an "Art of Botany" show highlighting  how art supports botanical research and learning about plants. The idea for this exhibition grew out of a collaborative relationship between an art instructor Ila Crawford and a botany instructor Lyn Baldwin at Thompson Rivers University.

In this article by Baldwin and Crawford, which appeared in the March 2012 Edition of the CBA/ABC Bulletin, each gives her take on the relationship between art and science.

Here's the official submission information:

Art and Science: Drawing and Botany

Artists and Botanists are invited to submit work that responds to the assertion that “art inhabits the teaching and practice of botany, and conversely botanical subjects and scientific methods have a legitimate place in teaching and practicing art.” The exhibition, "Art and Science: Drawing and Botany," will present an array of work that facilitates discussion about integrating art with science and science with art. Specifically this exhibit will include work that explores questions about the perceived boundaries between art and science, and will add to a growing synergy between art and botany. Many scientists, and specifically botanists, incorporate art practices as part of their own research, and many artists explore the realm of botany in their practice.

Invited: Artists, botanists, and groups of artists and botanists working on special projects (10 or more individuals)

Submissions: Three maximum for individuals; one per member for group submissions. Only original work will be accepted, no reproductions. Sketchbooks will be accepted. Only digital images will be accepted for the jurying process.

Entry Fee: $10 per registration ($10 covers up to three works)

Deadlines: Individual submissions (March 29, 2013), Project-based submissions (January 15, 2013)

For additional information about digital submissions, artist’s statements, insurance and more, visit Art and Science: Drawing and Botany.

 

 

 

 

The Lush List: 8/14/12 - Language Intelligence and Curiosity Rover Update

Reading List: LANGUAGE INTELLIGENCE by Joe Romm

I stumbled across a review from John Cook on SkepticalScience.com for this new book written by physicist and Climate Progress blog editor Joe Romm. When the title of a book includes the phrase "Lessons on Persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln and Lady Gaga," you know there's something intriguing going on inside the covers (and no, I don't mean shenanigans between Lady G. and the three gentlemen).

LANGUAGE INTELLIGENCE is about rhetoric, the art of verbal persuasion. Back in Shakespeare's day, rhetoric was a key part of an education. I've had the good fortune to study Elizabethan rhetoric with master teacher Armin Shimerman. It's amazing how once you start to explore the various rhetorical devices utilized by the Bard, his work comes to life in a completely new way. Incredibly useful for an actor.

While rhetoric is no longer required study, it makes complete sense that a blog dedicated to "getting skeptical about global warming skepticism" would find a book about persuasive communication to be an important read. Understanding how to, as Cook puts it, "[harness]  the power of language to craft compelling, memorable and emotionally engaging communication," is a very useful skill. Cook's thoughts on how scientists might apply the information in the book to their work caught my eye, and that's what made me want to call attention to it on ScienceLush:

For science communicators, I believe the most important lesson is the use of metaphors. Scientists are trained to think in the abstract while in general, people think in metaphors. It’s a “Scientists are from Mars, people are from Venus” kind of thing. People conceptualize and make meaning of the world using analogies and metaphors, which transform the abstract into the concrete. Consequently, we take more notice of messages and remember them better when metaphors are used.

I'm a perfect example of an audience that's hungry for good science metaphors. As y'all know, I'm not a scientist, I'm just intensely interested in science, how it affects our understanding of the world around us, and the areas where science and creativity co-mingle. I love plays, art, music, etc. that have been inspired by scientific discovery, and I constantly find myself wanting to dig deeper, to really understand the theories behind the creative work. Therefore, I'm extremely grateful to those who can communicate about science using metaphors in such a way as to help me feel like I've cracked the code and gained some small measure of understanding about the topic at hand.

I'll be adding LANGUAGE INTELLIGENCE to my list o'books to read this summer. In addition to helping one decipher Shakespeare and rebut those who deny climate change, I have a feeling that a better understanding of rhetoric might come in awfully handy during a presidential election year...

 

Cartoons, Sex and Music

While I'm talking about science communication, I wanted to draw attention to this post from science illustrator Emily Coren on Nature.com's SoapboxScience guest blog. She writes about the connection between the public's understanding of science, their resulting support for it, and the key role that plays in the funding of the work. Her suggestion:

Use mass media to communicate science to the public. We have science research generating vast amounts of new information about our world, and an entertainment industry producing huge volumes of content that is consumed by the public collectively creating our culture. Why not start pairing them to work together?

She includes examples such as "Yakko's Universe" from ANIMANIACS and this totally nutty cartoon about Narwhals, and then calls for "science placement" in television shows, much like product placement. I'm excited about the organizations and creators who are already actively engaged in the fusion of science and entertainment, such as The Science & Entertainment Exchange, which is dedicated building a bridge between science and the Hollywood community. YouTube also provides an outlet for the meshing of science and entertainment, with channels such as SciShow and MinutePhysics.

 

Curiosity Update: Surface Operations Begin

This update on the Curiosity rover from MSL engineering operations team member Jessica Samuels uses a combination of animations and some of the amazing pictures that have come back to update us on what's gone down so far and what's up next for our favorite rover.

 

During my NASA Social adventure, Samuels spoke to us about what the first month or so of Curiosity's life on Mars might look like. The first priority would be making sure Curiosity was healthy and that all systems were in order, followed by loading the new software that would turn Curiosity from a flying machine into a surface chemist. Samuels anticipated that they'd really get into the science of the mission about a month after landing. 

Samuels also talked with us about the team's plans here on Earth for coping with the sliding Martian day. For the first 90 days, aka "sols" of the mission, the team will be on Mars time, following the Red planet's 24 hour, 40 minute long day. This means that eventually their Earth days and nights will be reversed. In addition to coffee, survival mechanisms include heavy blackout curtains in the surface mission control area. And of course, there's an app to help keep track of the time! Alas, you won't find Mars Time in the iTunes store - it's only for internal mission use.

 

Curiosity Rover: Behind the Scenes at JPL in Pics

Here's a look at some more of what we got to experience during our time at JPL. I'll be continuing to add photos as people share them and as I continue to download them from my own devices. Many thanks to the NASA Social crew who took such great pics!

 

Dr. Randii Wessen kicks off the tour by using me as a planetary model to demonstrate different types of interplanetary missions, including flybys and landings.Good to know all that $$$ I spent on my theater degree from Northwestern was worth it!
Photo credit: Tristam Sparks.

 

Mars Science Laboratory Flight Director Keith Comeaux gives me the scoop on what we can expect on Sunday night during entry, descent and landing (EDL), aka "7 minutes of terror."
Photo credit: Tristam Sparks.

 

Space Camp's Kimberly Stockton sets up Peanut Luck.
Photo credit: Brad Snowder.

 

A great night to raise your hands and be sure!
Photo credit: Brad Snowder

 

Mohawk-stronaut Bob Fedowski stops to celebrate with the NASA Social team.
Photo credit: Brad Snowder.

 

Curiosity Rover: Driving Lessons on Mars

Now that we all know that Curiosity is officially safe on Mars, I wanted to share a few things I learned and experienced at JPL during the three days I spent there.

While I've never particularly enjoyed driving, maybe it's just because I never had the right vehicle. Don't get me wrong - I'm very fond of my zippy little Corolla. But I think I could finally get really, truly excited about a road trip if I were commanding my own rover.

During a panel over the weekend, Deputy Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada said that Curiosity has "Better suspension and more ground clearance than any car you can buy on the market. If we had to, we could drive over an obstacle the size of this table." Check out the shot below for reference.

Deputy Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada, SAM Deputy Principal Investigator Pan Conrad and
MAHLI Principal Investigator Ken Edgett

We didn't actually destroy any furniture while at JPL, but during our visit to the Mars Yard, we got to see the "Scarecrow," a stripped down version of Curiosity, go through its paces. Here's a quick video took of the Scarecrow showing off it's rock climbing skills.



The Yard is one of the two locations used for practice runs with the rover, helping the team understand more about both the hardware and the software used to command it.  I talked with rover driver Matt Heverly, who gave us a quick Drivers Ed course. Thanks to Tristam Sparks for capturing a portion of it on video...



Heverly told us, "One of the things I love about this job is the fuzziness. The nature of exploration includes unknowns. We use both engineering data and intuition to decide if we can safely go where the scientists would like us to go."

In this closer look at the rover's wheels, you'll notice some holes. Heverly explained that just like on Earth, Martian sand dunes have no real features. Reference points are needed for the rover to orient itself, so Curiosity has to create it's own. And that's where the holes come in, leaving a pattern in the sand as Curiosity rolls over it.

Fun fact: The original version of the wheels had "JPL" stamped in them, but apparently NASA wasn't thrilled about leaving JPL tracks on Mars. However, if you know anything about Morse code, look closely at the pattern of dots and dashes...

[Need a hint? This post on Wikipedia spells it out for you. Pun intended.]

Curiosity is on Mars! Who says we've lost our moxie???

It's 11:21pm and I'm sitting in the media room at NASA JPL, watching the first post-landing press conference. When the team walked in, the room erupted into a prolonged round of applause. Rock stars have nothing on these guys!

JPL Director Dr. Charles Elachi kicked off the conference by telling us how about an hour and a half before landing, he went outside, looked up at the sky, saw Mars and said, "You're going to have a visitor soon."

Charlie Bolden then introduced John Holdren, the President's Science Advisor, who talked about the USA's dominance in space exploration. He said, "Even the longest of odds are no match for America's technical acumen and gusty determination," and then added that if anyone has been harboring doubts about the status of the USA's leadership in space exploration, there's a big ol' rover sitting on the surface of Mars that should quell those thoughts ("big ol' rover" would be my terminology, not his). He said the administration is committed to a strategy of Martian exploration and interplanetary exploration, and ended with "Long live American Curiosity!

Dr. Elachi that the landing is an "Amazing demonstration of what we can do!...Next week and next month and next year, we'll be bringing new discoveries to all of you. We're going to continue exploring not only Mars, but the solar system and the universe - because our Curiosity knows no limits."

John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, refuted the idea that the US space program is on the decline. "There are many out there who say NASA doesn't know how to explore and that we've lost our moxie. We know how to explore, and WE'RE ON MARS! While we welcome international collaboration, this is something only the US could do...and the rover is Made in the USA."

At this point, I started live tweeting the group's comments, so check out @tamarakrinsky for more great quotes from the night. Over the next few days, I'll be downloading pics and posting moments from the last three days at JPL. A huge thanks to the NASA Social team for having me as part of their program. The experience of being at mission control when a happy landing was confirmed is something I'll never forget.

 

 

NASA Social: Gettin' Curious with the Mars Science Laboratory

I've spent the last two days at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) as part of NASASocial, and it's been an intense, incredible experience. Friday morning was jam-packed with speakers, followed by a tour of the facility on Friday afternoon and a NASA Social dinner that evening. This morning we attended the press briefing, followed by additional time for questions with various members of the team.

I'll be writing about my adventures in more detail in future posts, but I'm going to attempt to get to bed early tonight in prep for the long day tomorrow. With Curiosity's landing scheduled for 10:30pm PDT, it's going to be a long day. But before I head off, just had to leave you with a few tidbits...

The big question, of course, is can we actually LAND the rover now that we've managed to get MSL closer to Mars than the Earth is to the moon. This morning at the press briefing, Doug McCuistion, Mars Exploration Program Director, NASA Headquarters, spoke eloquently about what it will mean if we fail. He said, "If we're not successful, we're going to learn from this. We've learned from the past. We will do it again, this is not the end. the human spirit gets driven by these kinds of challenges."

I just re-read what I wrote, and noticed my use of the pronoun "we." I've only been at JPL for two days, but I feel like I'm a part of this incredible adventure. Maybe it's because I've been reading stories about imagined versions of planetory exploration and life on Mars since I was a little kid. Maybe it's because the energy at JPL right now is so electric that it can't help but draw one in. Or maybe it's just that there is something so breathtaking about the size and scope of this endeavor that it engages all of us dreamers, all of us who have gazed up at the night sky and wondered if we're really alone out here on this big blue rock.

For more insight on someone who's been involved in this mission in a way that goes beyond tweeting about it, though, check out this CNN profile on rover driver Scott Maxwell. A Shakespeare fan and devoted boyfriend, Maxwell has driven both Spirit and Opportunity, and is super-excited about getting his hands on Curiosity.  He beautifully describes the source of his continued enthusiasm:

"I reach out across 100 million miles of emptiness and move something on the surface of another planet. That feeling has never left me."

For more, you can follow him on Twitter @marsroverdriver.

The big question at the press conference was how will we know if we've been successful? And when will we know?

[Side note: the journalists in the audience were really antsy about the 'when' question, as they still apparently have earthly deadlines to meet].

Steve Sell, from the JPL MSL entry, descent and landing (EDL) team explained that as Curiosity is making her descent, she'll transmit a series of "tones", or Event Records (EVR) back to Earth as she hits various points during the sequence. The team won't actually hear anything - the tones will appear as numbers on a screen and won't include information or data. They're essentially like very short text messages that will let us know she's hit certain milestones in the sequence.

In addition, the orbits of Odyssey and Mars Reconaissance Orbiter (MRO) have been adjusted so that they'll pass over Curiosity at various stages of EDL. The communications sent through the orbiters will include data-rich messages with information such as altitude and velocity...and eventually images. Odyssey will transmit "live", while MRO will be on a tape delay (no, the NBC Olympics schedulers were not consulted about this).

Within the first 24 hours of landing, there are four times we're expecting Curiosity to"phone home" and let us know she's doing ok. Here's when we're hoping the phone will ring...

-12:30 a.m. PDT: (two hours after landing): Odyssey passes over the rover
-11:30 a.m. PDT: Odyssey passes over the rover again
-11:40 a.m. PDT: MRO flies over Curiosity
-5:30 p.m. PDT: Curiosity communicates directly with the Deep Space Network for the first time

Meredith Popolo, one of my fellow @NASASocial participants, is writing about our adventure for PC Magazine, and goes into more detail in "What's Ahead for the Mars Curiosity Rover."

Last but not least, @MarsCuriosity and Neil deGrasse Tyson had a fantastic conversation on Twitter earlier today. Let's just say Curiosity's got a great sense of humor...

To follow all the action on Twitter on landing night, use the hashtags #MSL and #NASASocial.

 

 

 

 

 

NASA Social: Gettin' Curious

NASA Social event for the Mars Curiosity rover landing starts tomorrow! I'll head to the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) bright and early clad in my rover t-shirt, phones and Kindle charged and ready to go. Looking forward to an amazing three days! 

If you happen to be in Times Square late on Sunday night, the Toshiba Vision screen, aka the big ass TV right below the New Year's Eve ball, will broadcast NASA TV coverage from 11:30pm EDT to approximately 4am. More info about the broadcast can be found here.

To whet your appetite for what's in store, here's an infographic from NASA JPL that breaks down the entry, descent and landing.

Science and Entertainment Exchange: Medical Miracles, Part 1

On July 25th, 2012, I spent the evening over at the Directors Guild of America at “Medical Miracles: Cutting Edge Health Technology,” an event hosted by the Science & Entertainment Exchange. The Exchange is a program of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) intended to foster creative collaborations between scientists and entertainment industry professionals. As the organization’s website describes itself: “Think of us as 1-800-FIND-A-SCIENTIST. When Hollywood needs a scientist, a quick call to us is all they need.”

The Exchange’s scientists advise on anything from physics to robotics to climate change to what explosions in zero gravity might actually look like. The goal of the Exchange is to inspire creators to write, direct and produce stories that will, in turn, inspire audiences by the amazing possibilities of science, either real or imagined. It makes a lot of sense – after all, there are a LOT of scientific careers that got started because someone wanted to know how warp speed actually worked or whether A Long Time Ago there was really A Galaxy Far, Far Away...

In addition to consultations, the Exchange also occasionally puts on panel conversations, which they have been nice enough to invite me to. Last Wednesday’s program focused on medical breakthroughs that extend or enhance human health in significant or surprising ways. Stuff that sounds like it’s out of the latest sci fi movie, but is actually being explored or put to use right now. Panelists included regenerative surgeon/researcher Anthony Atala, M.D.; microsurgeon/extreme medical practitioner Ken Kamler, M.D.; Leslie Saxon, M.D., executive director of the USC Center for Body Computing and chief of cardiovascular medicine at USC; and nanoscientist, chemist, physicist and engineer Paul S. Weiss, Ph.D.

Dr. Kamler kicked off the evening regaling us with his adventures of performing medicine and exploring experimental techniques in some absolutely cah-razy situations...like when he went to Mt. Everest as the Chief High Altitude Physician for NASA-sponsored research. Part of the trip involved monitoring remote body sensors worn by climbers to provide real-time medical data as they headed up the mountain. The data was sent back to the USA, where remote grand rounds with doctors at Yale were held. And just why were they doing this? NASA needs to answer the question: “How do you fix a broken astronaut?” and figure out how to take care of astronauts’ medical issues, no matter where in the Galaxy they may occur.

Dr. Kamler has also ridden the Vomit Comet to see how to best deal with medical situations in 0-G. While in flight, astronauts, robots, and doctors all attempted the same work, and then they compared the results to see what might be the best way to get the job done. They found that the astronauts were every bit as good as the doctors were at the suturing, but both the doctors and the astronauts were better than robots. Good to know human jobs are still safe for the moment...

Here’s a TEDMED Talk Dr. Kamler gave about his experience on Mt. Everest as the only doctor on the mountain during the 1996 storm that claimed 12 lives, the worst disaster in the history of Mt. Everest climbs. If you think his talk sounds like a movie plot, you’re not too far off – his treatment of the survivors was portrayed in the IMAX film EVEREST.

 

Next up was Leslie A. Saxon, who caught my attention with her ideas about how technology can potentially allow the patient to re-emerge at a time when most doctors are “owned by large corporations,” including hospitals and Kaiser. Her background involves designing and innovating devices to help prevent heart failure. She described how as she progressed through her career and became increasingly busy doing procedures, she became less available to her patients. She came to the realization that it wasn’t enough to give someone a device – you had to actually work with the patients for them to get the most use out of them.

In 2006, when devices became programmable, she started thinking about how mobile could become the dominant technology for medical care. The combination of wireless networks all over the world, the ability to deliver high quality video for the purposes of diagnostics, cheap cloud storage and mobile phone penetration has a lot of potential. She did a national study of how patients with devices in their hearts that are connected to a network fare, compared to how those who have devices that are not connected. The results were clear: those who have connected devices live longer. The patients feel more engaged, become more educated about their condition, and feel like a partner in their own care. Doctors get continuous data, which they can review on a daily basis, enabling them to act in minutes rather than seeing someone at an arbitrary time every couple of months.

This all led to the founding of the USC Center for Body Computing, where they are working on all sorts o' fascinating projects. My favorite that she mentioned was a vampire-themed game they created built around a glocometer that allows kids to check their blood, stick it into an iPhone and then send data back to their parents. In addition to the raw data, the project is also allowing them to explore how social networks affect care.

She also talked a bit about everyheartbeat.org, an endeavour to collect the heartbeat of every person in the world. Here's her TEDMED talk about it. I really dig the way she talks about the stories that data can tell.

I'll be doing a future post about highlights from Dr. Atala and Paul S. Weiss's presentations, as well as some of the post-panel discussion prompted by the audience's questions.

Later this week, I head to the Jet Propulsion Lab as part of the NASASocial program for the landing of the Curiosity rover. Stay tuned to my tweets @tamarakrinsky for live updates.

 

 

The Lush List: 7/23/12 - Age of Miracles, deGrasse Tyson at ComicCon and RIP Sally Ride

Pages: The Age of Miracles

I just finished reading Karen Thompson Walker's THE AGE OF MIRACLES, a lovely, pensive book about what happens when the Earth's rotation begins to slow. Yep, that's right, another book I love about the end of life on Earth as we know it! One day I'll figure out why I'm addicted to stories about the worst possible versions of our future...

As far as this particular gem goes, Walker draws readers into the devastating scenario through her 11 year-old narrator Julia. Smart, quiet, yearning for acceptance, Julia chronicles "the slowing" (the name given to the situation) against the backdrop of 6th grade - a time when it doesn't take a natural disaster for one's world to turn upside down. The days and nights may be getting longer and longer, but eternity has a different meaning entirely when your best friend deserts you at the lunch table for other, more popular girls. Or when you're trying to think of just the right thing to say to the boy you like who has finally realized you exist.

In an NPR interview, Walker says that she did scientific research to help make the story feel realistic.

"I would lift details from newspaper stories," she says. Reports on strange weather, climate change, extinctions and industrial farming all became fodder for the story.

When it was done, Walker worked up the nerve to show her manuscript to an astrophysicist. "I was relieved at how many of the consequences [of the slowing] he felt were based in real science," she says. "And then he helped me make a few of them a little more realistic."

This got me curious about scientists' answers to the "what if" scenario Walker presents, which includes all of the things she mentions in the interview, as well as changes to gravitational force and the Earth's magnetic field. If you're curious as well, here' are some topical tidbits for ya':

• Over at "Ask the Astronomer," Dr. Sten Odenwald answers the question: "What would happen if the Earth stopped spinning?"
• Joelle Renstrom's post on Slate.com: "Could the Earth's Rotation Really Slow Down Like It Does in the New Novel THE AGE OF MIRACLES?", in which she mainly focuses on tidal friction. [FYI, she has a blog called COULD THIS HAPPEN?, where she explores the relationship between science and science fiction. Lots of yummy reading there, and possibilities for S'lush postings...have a feeling I'm going to lose a lot of time to this one...].

Neal DeGrasse Tyson's ComicCon Spaceship Smackdown

Sadly, I was not able to attend ComicCon this year. The only consolation is that because I didn't go, I didn't have to make the difficult decision of which events to actually attend! But apparently one session I would not have wanted to miss was this year's Starship Smackdown panel. As described in the ComicCon program guide:

The must-see panel of Comic-Con, brought to you by the new Geek Magazine, as featured on National Public Radio, returns for another action-packed year as the greatest spaceships in the history of the universe converge in the ultimate cosmic conflagration for the highly-coveted Smackdown title in Comic-Con's most scholarly and erudite panel. Will the Enterprise once again defeat an Imperial Star Destroyer? Can the Serenity make mincemeat out of the Battlestar Galactica? In space, can anyone hear you scream on the Prometheus and can you actually get cell reception in the TARDIS? And what exactly is the "Captain's Courageous" lightning round anyway?

A group of experts debating the merits of competing (fictional) spacecraft? Sign me up!! But what made this year's Smackdown particularly notable was the spontaneous address from audience member Neal deGrasse Tyson. Yep, that's right...when the panelists couldn't make a final decision about which ship was going to take the 2012 title, they turned to the audience for help. And luckily for them, there just happened to be a famous astrophysicist in attendance. Here's what he had to say:

[Source: Seriocity's fantastic, enthusiastic description of the panel,
which I found via THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER].

RIP Sally Ride

I don't remember a time when there weren't female astronauts.
I have Sally Ride to thank for that.

• NASA Tribute: An overview of Ride's accomplishments
• SallyRideScience.com:  The science education company she founded dedicated to supporting children's - especially girs' - interests in science, math and technology.
• Space.com has a number of tributes to Ride. My favorite is a personal memory from X-Prize Chairman/CEO Peter H. Diamandis: "I remember clearly the signs at the Cape during STS-7..."RIDE SALLY RIDE AND ALL YOU GUYS CAN GO ALONG TOO"... All of us rode with Sally on that flight. Her passion and dedication to education and to inspiring women to become scientists and engineers will be sorely missed."
• Related Reading: THE MERCURY 13: THE UNTOLD STORY OF 13 AMERICAN WOMEN AND THE DREAM OF SPACEFLIGHT: Martha Ackmann's book about the women who pre-dated Ride, training in secret in 1961 for the Mercury missions, with the hopes of becoming America's first female astronauts.

ABCNews coverage of Ride's passing, which includes several clips of Ride

Ride talks about her historic flight on NASA's 50th anniversary

 

 

NASA Social: Curiosity Rover Landing

What's the next best thing to going to Mars?

Being at Mission Control when the Curiosity Rover lands on the Martian surface!!

I am incredibly stoked to report that I'll be taking part in NASA Social, a program that gives special access to specific NASA events to a group of folks active on social media. I've been chosen to be part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, and will spend 3 rockin' days at the Jet Propulsion Lab from August 3rd - 5th learning about the program, touring JPL, and witnessing the final prep for and landing of the MSL Curiosity rover. I cannot imagine what it's going to be like to be present when the first signal of the rover's landing is detected by JPL mission control, but rest assured, I'll be tweeting the hell out of it!! So stay tuned to @tamarakrinsky at 10:31 pm PDT on August 5th.

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be doing a lot of reading and research in prep for the event (I don't expect to become a rocket scientist overnight, but I'd like to be able to at least ask the scientists some intelligent questions). Expect ScienceLush to be astronomy-heavy for a bit, as I pass along the tidbits of my Googling to you, dear S'lushees.

And that starts right now, with the fantastic video CHALLENGES OF GETTING TO MARS: CURIOSITY'S SEVEN MINUTES OF TERROR. In the vid, scientists detail the harrowing final minutes of Curiosity's journey from when it hits the Martian atmosphere to contact with the planetary surface. This phase of the mission is called EDL - Entry, Descent and Landing - and involves six different vehicle configurations, 76 pyrotechnic devices and an insane number of calculations and adjustments that all need to take place without help from Mission Control.

And why are the scientists letting the rover do this final leg of the journey on its own?

Because they don't have a choice. It takes approximately 14 minutes for signals from Mars to reach Earth. Which means that by the time we here on the Blue planet start receiving information about the EDL phase, Curiosity will already be on the surface of the Red planet...hopefully in functioning form.

Thank goodness I'm not a nail biter...though I might need to have a serious stash of M&M's on hand...

And because you know I'm all about the Art as well as the Science, here's an interview KPCC's Patt Morrison did with producer/dirctor John Beck. The video is garnering quite a li'l following on YouTube: since its posting on June 22nd, the video has racked up approximately 678,000 views. In addition to directing the video, Beck also composed the music, which greatly adds to the sense of drama.

In the interview, Beck talks about his desire for the film to capture the vulnerability of the risk-taking inherent in the undertaking. When putting the piece together, he said he thought about what it would be like if he were sitting in the movie theater watching the story of this mission.

I am a bit of a comment voyeur, and my favorite one from this radio interview is from "sandor", who excitedly urges JPL to get the video into movie theaters, where (s)he suggests it should play as a preview before all of the summer blockbusters. I actually think it's a great idea - it's a great way to draw attention to the space program and inspire both kids and adults to embrace math and science. After all, as sandor so eloquently puts it, "Do it! You're landing on flipping Mars again."

Over the next couple of weeks, I'll tell you more about the NASA Social experience, but for now I'll leave you with a resource for a detailed mission timeline. Check out Spaceflight 101's MSL Landing Special - thanks to @susanbellfilm for passing it along.