Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Marvin's Been At Work Again -- This Time As "Curiosity's Organic Carbon Findings Delivery Boy"


As highlighted by our ever erstwhile Anon., here is a smile-inducer, from Barsoom.

It looks like Mars corresponds nicely with the ratios of organic carbon compounds we see in low life deserts, here on Earth. Not definitive, but is more evidence that Mars -- when wetter, and blanketed by an atmosphere, billions of years ago. . . may have been home to. . . life. Here's the bit, from NASA:

. . .Scientists using data from NASA’s Curiosity rover measured the total organic carbon – a key component in the molecules of life – in Martian rocks for the first time.

“Total organic carbon is one of several measurements [or indices] that help us understand how much material is available as feedstock for prebiotic chemistry and potentially biology,” said Jennifer Stern of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We found at least 200 to 273 parts per million of organic carbon. This is comparable to or even more than the amount found in rocks in very low-life places on Earth, such as parts of the Atacama Desert in South America, and more than has been detected in Mars meteorites.”

Organic carbon is carbon bound to a hydrogen atom. It is the basis for organic molecules, which are created and used by all known forms of life. . . . The new measurement gives the total amount of organic carbon in these rocks.

Although the surface of Mars is inhospitable for life now, there is evidence that billions of years ago the climate was more Earth-like, with a thicker atmosphere and liquid water that flowed into rivers and seas. . . .


Onward. . . grinning -- ever grinning!

नमस्ते

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the boost..

So, my fear with this is that the SCOTUS would just declare the 'coding' passed through such a measure as 'unconstitutional.' https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-filibuster-roe-v-wade_n_62bda589e4b014f50a2ed617

condor said...

You are not wrong to so. . . worry, to be certain.

But the filibuster rules appear nowhere in the text of the Constitution.

[We did hear Lauren Boebert say two mornings ago that she's tired of all this separation of church and state "junk". Yet she loves Amendment No. 2 -- and clearly hasn't yet read. . . Amendment No. 1. . . so it might be that any dumb argument would be one the five might fall for.]

These are among the strangest times our nation's courts have ever seen. It took a 6-3 Supremes decision to teach a Texas USDC Judge that "may" cannot mean "shall."

I N S A N E.

Even so, have a safe and pleasurable July 4!

Namaste. . . .