The Iron Ring

An article appearing last week in Science declares dire times for the field of Astrobiology. Yeah, I never heard of Astrobiology either. In any case, astrobiologists study life on other planets, as well as life found under extreme conditions here on earth which usually means either very high (mountains) or very low (deep in the ocean) UV environments. The field is crucial if we are seriously interested in human exploration or survival on other planets.

Regardless, the point is that NASA is seriously cutting funding and naturally, NASA is the main source of funding for such research. And astrobiology is not the only field suffering from diminishing NASA funds. The National Research Council claims that by 2010, the number of instruments in space observing the earth will be diminished by 40%. This is an unbelievable statistic considering the damage we are doing to our ozone. Suppose we shape up and begin to curb global warming, how will we know we’ve made a difference if we can’t image the polar ice caps or the earth’s oceans?

So if NASA isn’t funding astrobiology or earth-observation, what the hell are they funding?

According to the Times, the President’s space priorities are conducting a manned flight to mars and establishing a permanent base on the moon. I’m so glad that our president has his priorities straight on this one. It will take about two years for humans to reach Mars using our current speeds in space. During that time, any human in space will experience dangerous loss of bone mineral and muscle mass. In other words, in addition to serving little purpose, a human mission to mars is not physically feasible. And what purpose would a permanent station on the moon serve? Consider the current uselessness of the International Space Station. The only reason our country participates anymore is to avoid feeling left out, and to fufill an international promise made a long time ago.

Nearly fifty years after sputnik we’re unable to imagine another country visiting the far reaches of space before we do. We’re even willing to spend billions of dollars and sacrifice our science for it.

Last night I took what is likely my last trip over the South Street bridge by bus. Although it is unclear when the repairs will begin, SEPTA has re-routed the 12 and the 40 due to weight restrictions. How frightening for those of us who have been riding those buses over that bridge for a while now……

No one would argue against the fact that it is time to repair our bridge. It is over 80 years-old! This great piece I read on another blog describes how the bridge was built in 1923 and the Schuylkill highway was opened sometime in the fifties. When the highway opened the bridge was given much more stress than it was built for, with on ramps and off ramps and the roughly fifty years have not been easy on it. Several times in the past few years large chunks of the bridge have fallen onto the highway. Pedestrian’s who cross are offered views of both the river and the highway through gaping holes.

So then why am I nostalgic? I have fond memories of the South Street Bridge. When I was a junior in high school we took a shuttle over it to my sister’s graduation from Penn. Due to traffic we got out halfway over the bridge and walked the rest of the way. It was 80 degrees and sunny and what a great view from the bridge! During my own Freshman year when we secured the Ivy football championship I joined the surge of students carrying the goal posts over the bridge to be dumped in the river. And Sophomore year we studied the rust on the bridge in my Intro to materials Science course.

With an 18 month timetable for completion of the new bridge, I can only hope that I never get to try it.

Having returned from vacation to a pile of sciency things including something extremely important and thesis-related (think nice thoughts for me between Feb 15 and March 15 I’m not telling the real date to anyone) I don’t so much feel like talking science in my off-time today. Instead I am going to relate my very favorite story from vacation, and what was quite likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We were on Frigate bay in St Kitts (fyi- the beach was not so nice, sort of like fancy dirt) and the water was beautiful. So we’re wading in up to our waists or so and enjoying the sun- and I feel something on my leg. Now, I may not live near an ocean or anything but I do consider myself a beach veteran so a brush against my leg does not usually cause me to flinch, but this was not a brush. This was something of serious weight on my right leg. I turned. And as I’m sure you can guess by the pictures posted here, I found an octopus attached to me. He was sort of dark, and his octopus arms (legs? tentacles?) were wrapped around my right thigh. I shrieked. I shook my leg and he didn’t budge- I had to physically remove him from my leg. At this point, the octopus, scared to his little octpus-wits I am sure, squirted his black ink in an attempt to frighten me. I’m sure if I was a fish I would have been rightfully disoriented. The whole incident could not have lasted more than 15-20 seconds. So I have no picture of my new Caribbean friend.

To answer your questions;

1) he did not ‘bite’ me

2) yes, they can bite, they have hard little beak-like mouths to break open shellfish

3) no, it is not a normal incident in st kitts, it is extremely rare to see them in shallow water- lots of divers never see them

4) this picture is as close as I can find on googleimage- but I hear octopi can change colors so there is no way to know what kind of octopus mine was

I would include a beach shot of me and my travel companion after the attack but my companion was sans shirt and as I hear his co-workers are among my readers, I will respectfully omit the picture.

Hello!

Today I share a picture from my weekend in NYC. This picture was taken in Washington Square Park by the arch made famous by Harry and Sally. This is one of my best (and favorite) friends, Renee.

Not too much else to write today, can't really focus on science when I'm watching (and enjoying) Spiderman.

However, in light of my recent postings on the death penalty I think it is worth noting that Sadam Hussein was hanged last weekend. I read in the Times that they think he died in about a minute. I wonder how that decision was made? Did they pick the goriest way? The biggest spectacle? We consider hanging so archaic yet it is likely less painful that lethal injection.