Month: July 2014

The Future is Here: Morphable Skins

https://i0.wp.com/www.m25audi.co.uk/images/audi/technology/aerodynamics.jpgTomorrow’s cars could have a feature that will reduce wind drag and allow them to go faster: smart, morphing skins that form dimples or go smooth on command. It is all part of a growing field of mechanics that seeks to make surfaces “smart”, and it is being considered for everything from increasing aerodynamics to reducing the damage caused by hurricanes and high winds.

The research comes from MIT, where engineers have developed a smart curved surface that can morph at will to reduce drag. Known as a “smorph” (short for smart morphable surface), they were able to get their creation to wrinkle into a dimpled pattern similar to a golf ball’s, with similar aerodynamic properties. In short, when the smorph wrinkles, it is able to travel faster than if it were smooth.

smorphScientists and golfers alike have long known that the dimples on the surface of a golf ball allow it to drastically reduce drag and travel much farther than would otherwise be possible. This happens because the small dents hold the airflow near the surface of ball for a longer time. This reduces the size of the wake, or zone of turbulence, as the ball takes off. However, the mechanics employed here are a bit more complex.

In recent years, in-depth aerodynamic studies have shown that the dimples reduce drag only at lower speeds. As you move toward faster speeds, the advantage of irregularities disappears and a smooth surface becomes the best way to minimize the wake. Now, researchers at MIT have married the best of both worlds by developing a surface that can it’s smoothness on the fly to maximize aerodynamic efficiency at all speeds.

Smorph_0The smorph manages to change its shape by changing the balance between its materials. Basically, an empty core is surrounded by two different polymers. One is thick and squishy, while the outermost layer is stiff skin. As the volume of  a the inner layer is reduced by sucking air out of its hollow core, the core shrinks. The squishy layer is soft enough to contract smoothly, but the skin is forced to wrinkle. The trick is controlling exactly how a smorph wrinkles.

Because the dimples look so much like those on a golf ball’s surface, the researchers were inspired to test their creation in a wind tunnel. Sure enough, when the researchers tested the smorph in a wind tunnel, they found that it was about twice as aerodynamically efficient when dimpled. But the sheath of vortices only form at relatively low speeds, and then convert back to a smooth surface at higher speeds in order to maintain aerodynamic velocity.

smorph_1This is where smorphs could offer a huge advantage. By being able to morph to control drag, they could be especially useful in building structures that won’t collapse or incur significant damage when facing very high winds – one example being the so-called radomes, the spherical, weatherproof domes that enclose radar antennas. The researchers also say that the materials could also be used to minimize drag in cars in order to maximize fuel efficiency.

Earlier this year, Reis won an NSF grant to keep developing smorphs, which he hopes to someday scale up to use on cars, aircraft, and even buildings. There are some issues to overcome before this happens though, such as the fact that hexagonal dimples are unstable on flat surfaces. So far smorphs have only been used on a round, ball shape, but Reis and his co-authors believe they can figure out how to reproduce the pattern on slightly curved surfaces.

Alongside such concepts as morphing wings and self-adjusting and reconfigurable robots, the creation of surfaces that can change shape in order to better accommodate airflow, or be optimal for different tasks, is part of the manufacturing revolution that seeks to replace rigid structures and products with something that can adapt, flow and transform depending on what is being asked of it.

And be sure to check out this video from MIT of the smorph in action:


Sources: wired.com, gizmag.com

Climate Crisis: The DOE’s Massive CC Operation

CC_PlantUntil such a time exists that clean, renewable energy can provide sustainable energy for cheaper than gas or coal, we can expect that producing energy will continue to generate a carbon footprint. However, the energy industry has been been touting the benefits of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), which they claim can make traditionally dirty forms of energy much cleaner.

Thus far, few of the project have worked out as planned. But now, the US Department of Energy has started construction on a CSS project using proven technology that will be the largest system in existence. All the action is happening at a coal-fired power plant near Houston where – with the help of NRG Energy and JX Nippon – the DOE hopes to build a carbon capture system that can put 90% of the CO2 output of coal back into the ground where it can’t affect the climate.

CC_operationThe Petra Nova refit was originally going to be a modest DOE project that would retain 60 megawatts of energy generation, but the extra engineering muscle from NRG Energy and JX Nippon boosted the plan dramatically. Petra Nova will now be built with the intention of capturing the carbon output from 240 megawatts. The whole idea of carbon capture is to get the energy out of fossil fuels like coal and oil without releasing the carbon at the same time.

By taking carbon out of the ground and putting it in the atmosphere, the overwhelming majority of scientists believe we are causing global temperatures to increase. Putting the carbon back underground removes it from the atmosphere and maintains the environmental balance we currently enjoy. However, carbon sequestration might need to expand beyond new energy production.

PFTBA-greenhouse-gas-has-greater-global-warming-potential-than-CO2Petra Nova will be using a scaled-up version of smaller amine-based CO2 CC systems. In these, CO2 is routed into a chamber where an amine-based solvent absorbs the gas. The resulting carbon-rich solution isl then sent through another chamber where low pressure steam is used to break the bond holding the carbon in solution so it can be captured while the solvent is reused.

The last step in any CCS system is to get the carbon back underground, but the Petra Nova is doing that in an unusual way. Instead of simply pumping it down in any old place, it will be transmitted via pipeline to the West Ranch oil field about 130 km (80 miles) away. There, it will be used for so-called “enhanced oil recovery”, which means it will be pumped into an oil reservoir deep underground to push previously unreachable oil closer to the surface.

The carbon dioxide does end up underground at the end of the day, but the hydrocarbon fuel cycle keeps on churning with increased oil output from the field. Naturally, the amount of carbon released by oil recovered from the West Ranch oil field will be far greater than what is recovered by this one power plant. Still, the Petra Nova project is a good way to subsidize the development of carbon capture tech until such time as it’s installed in all suitable facilities.

Source: extremetech.com

Video Goes Viral, Kim Jong Un is Pissed!

https://i0.wp.com/media3.s-nbcnews.com/i/newscms/2014_30/579296/140723-kim-jong-un-video-mn-835_f0a62be658cd09bb2ea7bde45d25c135.jpgA new video was recently posted online that shows North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un breaking out the dance moves, getting pranked, and engaging in some serious fight scenes. The video has gone absolutely viral and has everybody laughing – except for Kim Jong Un himself. In fact, the “Great Leader’s” outrage was such that North Korea made  a public statement denouncing the video and demanding it be taken down.

According to the English-language Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo, the video was made by a Chinese man bearing the surname Zhang who reportedly studied at a university in South Korea. The paper goes on to cite a source in China saying North Korea felt the clip “seriously compromises Kim’s dignity and authority” and asked China to stop the spread of the video, but that “Beijing was unable to oblige.”

https://i0.wp.com/www.financetwitter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Funny-Hilarious-Video-Kim-Jong-un-Dancing.jpgThe reaction is predictable, and the request certainly betrays the North Korean regime’s internet-phobic tendencies, not to mention their ignorance of how the internet actually works. For starters, once something is posted on the internet, it becomes part of the digital ether and can never be destroyed. In addition, drawing attention to an internet phenomenon only makes it stronger! By condemning it, Kim Jong Un’s people just ensured it’s viral nature!

The video consists of the Dear Leader’s head being spliced onto a variety of bodies that see him getting down on a ball field, getting karate-kicked by Obama (who also has his head spliced onto various heads), skipping through a field with Osama Bin Laden, and doing some serious kung fu fighting. And it all takes place to a Chinese pop hit by the Chopstick Brothers, who have made viral videos of their own in the past.

Needless to say, it’s really quite funny. And it’s only made more so by the fact that the man-child leading the world’s most backward and ridiculous regime finds its so infuriating. So be sure to watch it, enjoy it, and contribute to its circulation!


Source: cnet.com

The Future of Housing: Casa Futebol Concept

casa_futebol_brazilIt’s no secret that Brazil’s decision to host the 2014 World Cup was the source of controversy. With roughly $4 billion spent on renovating and constructing the stadiums needed to host the international event, many wondered why that money could not have been spent addressing other infrastructure concerns – such as providing housing and utilities for its many impoverished citizens.

However, drawing inspiration from the social issues plaguing much of the publicity around the event, a pair of French architects have developed a proposal to re-invent the structures as complexes for low-cost housing. While most of the stadiums constructed for the World Cup will continue to host football matches, Brazil’s local teams stand to draw a fraction of the crowds that attended the event, doing little to assuage concerns of wasted resources.

casa_futebol_brazil-1Other buildings, such as the Arena da Amazonia, face a less certain future. Located in the jungle city of Manaus, the 44,500 seat stadium is perhaps the most contentious of Brazil’s World Cup creations. A local judge proposed converting it into a center for temporary detainees to tackle the city’s overflowing prisons, though this was met with fervent opposition from government officials.

The proposal by Axel de Stampa and Sylvain Macaux is perhaps the most ambitious. Dubbed Casa Futebol, it involves transforming each of the 12 World Cup Stadiums into affordable housing for Brazil’s poor and displaced. As Stampa explained in an interview with Gizmag:

The project covers 12 Brazilian stadiums. There are actually six stadiums where we can colonize the exterior facade. Five of these have an exterior structure composed of concrete and metal columns separated by seven or eight meters (23 to 26 ft). We just have to insert pre-fabricated housing using the existing structures.

casa_futebol_brazil-2The remaining stadiums would see housing modules that are 105 m2 (1,130 ft2) fitted to the interior at the expense of rows of seating, the only difference between these and those receiving exterior additions being the installation process. Conscious of Brazil’s adoration for the world game, the proposal would see the stadiums altered slightly, but continue to host matches with profits going towards ongoing maintenance and construction of the housing.

The project is based on modular pre-fabricated houses. So the only thing that changes is the implantation of the houses… We think that the concept is achievable in all 12 stadiums. You just have to take up some seating and reduce their capacity a little bit.

The team guesses that if converted, the stadiums could each house between 1,500 and 2,000 people per building, and a total of approximately 20,000 across the entire project. This bold proposal for Brazil’s stadiums forms part of a year-long architecture project called 1 week 1 project, where the pair endeavor to produce spontaneous architecture projects every week for one year.

casa_futebol_brazil-4While they don’t have current plans to take the Casa Futebol beyond the concept stage, it is hoped that the project can inspire more socially-conscious approaches to problems of this kind. Combined with 3-D printed housing and other prefab housing projects, this kind of re-purposing of existing infrastructure is a way of addressing the problem of slums, something which goes far beyond the developing world.

Source: gizmag.com

 

The End of HIV: Two Men Cleared After Marrow Transplant

hiv-virus-cuFor decades, bone marrow transplants have been used for the treatment of cancer, particularly lymphoma, leukemia, and multiple myeloma. However, after three years of receiving transplants, two Australian men who were previously diagnosed with HIV have shown no signs of the AIDS virus. Moreover, one of the patient’s is the first recorded case of clearing the virus without the presence of a rare anti-HIV gene in the donor marrow.

The two patients, a 53-year-old and 47-year-old male, were diagnosed with leukaemia and lymphoma respectively at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia, which has been working in partnership with the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute. To date, there have been several reported cases of patients cleared of HIV that were related to bone marrow transplants, but this is something new entirely.

HIV_virusTimothy Ray Brown, a US citizen, was treated in 2007/8 for leukaemia with transplanted stem cells from a donor with the CCR5 delta32 mutation – which is resistant to HIV – and was reported clear of the virus. Afterward, Brown stopped taking his antiretroviral medication and remained HIV-free. In 2012, two other US patients were treated with marrow that did not contain the mutation and initially tested clear. But when they ceased taking antiretroviral medication, the virus returned.

The Australian lymphoma patient, treated in 2010, did receive one transplant of bone marrow that contained one of two copies of a gene that is possibly resistant to HIV. However, the leukaemia patient, treated in 2011, received donor marrow with no resistive gene. Both patients remain on antiretroviral medication as a precaution, since the virus may be in remission rather than completely cured.

021204-N-0696M-180The next step is to figure out why the body responds to a bone marrow transplant in a way that makes the virus retreat. One possible explanation is that the body’s immune response to the foreign cells of the transplant causes it to fight harder against HIV. This is because, while bone marrow transplant seems to be the most effective means of clearing the AIDS virus to date, it is not an acceptable risk for patients whose lives aren’t already endangered by bone cancer.

As Professor David Cooper, the study’s senior author and the director of the UNSW Kirby Institute, explained:

We’re so pleased that both patients are doing reasonably well years after the treatment for their cancers and remain free of both the original cancer and the HIV virus… The procedure itself has an up to 10 percent mortality rate. But you take that risk in someone with leukemia or lymphoma because they’re going to die without it, and the transplantation will result in cure. For someone with HIV, you would certainly not transplant them when they have an almost normal life span with standard antiretroviral therapy.

Kersten Koelsch, a doctor at the Kirby Institute and the study’s first author, added:

We still don’t know why these patients have undetectable viral loads. One theory is that the induction therapy helps to destroy the cells in which the virus is hiding and that any remaining infected cells are destroyed by the patient’s new immune system.. We need more research to establish why and how bone marrow transplantation clears the virus. We also want to explore the predictors of sustained viral clearance and how this might be able to be exploited without the need for bone marrow transplantation.

The team will be presenting their research 19 July 2014 at the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. There, they will be amongst such high-profile speakers as former President Bill Clinton, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé and artist and activist Sir Bob Geldof, as well as thousands of the world’s top AIDS researchers, community leaders, people living with HIV and policy-makers at AIDS 2014.

Source: cnet.com, aids2014.com

Buzz Aldrin: Let’s Go to Mars!

Apollo11_Aldrin1This past weekend was the 45th anniversary of the Moon Landing. To mark that occasion, NASA mounted the @ReliveApollo11 twitter campaign, where it recreated every moment of the historic mission by broadcasting updates in “real-time”. In addition to commemorating the greatest moment in space exploration, and one of the greatest moments in history, it also served to draw attention to new efforts that are underway.

Perhaps the greatest of these is one being led by Buzz Aldrin, a living-legend and an ambassador for current and future space missions. For decades now, Aldrin has been acting as a sort of elder statesman lobbying for the exploration of the cosmos. And most recently, he has come out in favor of a mission that is even grander and bolder than the one that saw him set foot on the Moon: putting people on Mars.

mars_spaceXmissionIt’s no secret that NASA has a manned mission planned for 2030. But with space exploration once again garnering the spotlight – thanks in no small part to commercial space companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic – Aldrin is pushing for something even more ambitious. Echoing ideas like Mars One, his plan calls for the colonization of Mars by astronauts who would never return to Earth.

To be sure, the spry 84 year-old has been rather busy in the past few years. After going through a very public divorce with his wife 0f 23 years in January of last year, he spent the past few months conducting a publicity blitz on behalf of the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11. In between all that, he has also made several appearances and done interviews in which he stressed the importance of the Martian colonization project.

Mars_OneA few months ago, Aldrin wrote an op-ed piece for Fast Company about innovation and the need for cooperation to make a new generation of space exploration a reality. During a more recent interview, which took place amidst the ongoing crisis in the Ukraine, he once again stressed the importance of cooperation between the United States, Russia, China, and their respective space programs.

As he told Fast Company in the interview:

I think that any historical migration of human beings to establish a permanent presence on another planet requires cooperation from the world together. That can’t be done by America competing with China… Just getting our people back up there is really expensive! We don’t compete but we can do other things close by with robots, which have improved tremendously over the past 45 years (since Apollo 11). You and I haven’t improved all that much, but robots have. We can work together with other nations in design, construction, and making habitats on both the near side and far side of Mars. Then when we eventually have designs, we’ll have the capacity to actually build them.

SLS_launchSimilarly, Aldrin took part in live Google Hangout with Space.com’s managing editor Tariq Malik and executive producer Dave Brody. This took place just eight days before the 25th anniversary of the Landing. During the broadcast, he discussed his experiences as an astronaut, the future of lunar exploration, future missions to Mars and beyond, and even took questions via chatwindow on Google+’s webpage.

At this juncture, its not clear how a colonization mission to Mars would be mounted. While Mars One is certainly interested in the concept, they (much like Inspiration Mars) do not have the necessary funding or all the technical know-how to make things a reality just yet. A possible solution to this could be a partnership program between NASA, the ESA, China, Russia, and other space agencies.

terraformingSuch ideas did inform Kim Stanley Robinson’s seminal novel Red Mars, where an international crew flew to the Red Planet and established the first human settlement that begins the terraforming process. But if international cooperation proves too difficult, perhaps a collaboration between commercial space agencies and federal ones could work. I can see it now: the Elon Musk Martian Dome; the Richard Branson Habitat; or the Gates colony…

With that in mind, I think we should all issue a prayer for international peace and cooperation! And in the meantime, be sure to check out the video of the Google Hangout below. And if you’re interested in reading up on Aldrin’s ideas for a mission to Mars, check out his book, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration, which is was published by National Geographic and is available at Amazon or through his website.


Sources: fastcompany.com, buzzaldrin.com, space.com

The Future is Here: Glucose-Monitoring Contact Lenses

google-novartis-alcon-smart-contact-lens-0Earlier this year, Google announced that it was developing a contact lens that would be capable of monitoring blood glucose levels. By monitoring a person’s glucose levels through their tears, and sending that information to a smartphone, the device promised to do away with tests that require regular blood samples and pinpricks. And now, a partnership has been announced between that will help see this project through to completion.

Alcon, the eye care division of Novartis – a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company – recently joined Google’s project to commercialize “smart contact lens” technology. The project, which came out of the Google X blue-sky innovation arm of the company, aimed to utilize a “tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor that are embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material,” in order to detect glucose levels present in tears.

google-novartis-alcon-smart-contact-lensAt the time of the initial announcement in January, Google said its prototypes were able to take one glucose reading per second and that they was investigating ways for the device to act as an early warning system for the wearer should glucose levels become abnormal. All that was needed was a partner with the infrastructure and experience in the medical industry to see the prototypes put into production.

Under the terms of the new agreement, Google will license the technology to Alcon “for all ocular medical uses” and the two companies will collaborate to develop the lens and bring it to market. Novartis says that it sees Google’s advances in the miniaturization of electronics as complementary to its own expertise in pharmaceuticals and medical device. No doubt, the company also sees this as an opportunity to get in on the new trend of digitized, personalized medicine.

future_medicineAs Novartis said in a recent press release:

The agreement marries Google’s expertise in miniaturized electronics, low power chip design and microfabrication with Alcon’s expertise in physiology and visual performance of the eye, clinical development and evaluation, as well as commercialization of contact and intraocular lenses.

The transaction remains subject to anti-trust approvals, but assuming it goes through, Alcon hopes it will help to accelerate its product innovation. And with that, diabetics can look forward to yet another innovative device that simplifies the blood monitoring process and offers better early warning detection that can help reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, foot ulcers, loss of vision, and coma.

Sources: gizmag.com, novartis.com

Encoding Equality: Girl Geek Academy

girlgeekWhen it comes to the gaming industry, there appears to be something of a glass ceiling. According to a developer satisfaction survey that was released last month from the International Game Developers Association, only 22 percent of people working in the gaming industry are women. And while this presents a twofold increase from five years ago (11.5%), it’s proportionally low considering that women make up some 48% of the gaming community.

This disparity is pretty common across software, app development, and tech startups (even though startups led by women produce 12 per cent higher returns). The logical next step would be to encourage more women to enter these fields. This is where Girl Geek Academy comes in, an initiative aimed at teaching women the skills they need to start their own ventures – everything from coding classes to mentoring programs from successful start-ups.

girlgeek_dinnerAnd there’s definitely demand for it, according to co-founder, programmer and senior digital strategist Tammy Butow:

We have seen over the years that female-focused groups have helped increase the number of women attending technology events and learning technology skills. Over the last few years I have run Girl Geek Dinners Melbourne – in January 2013 we had 350 members – and we then ran a series of tech workshops to teach skills such as HTML, CSS and JS…

Girl Geek Dinners Melbourne now has over 1000 members. [Fellow co-founder] April [Staines] and I also ran Australia’s first all-female hackathon She Hacks in Melbourne. She Hacks sold out in one week, a few weeks later we also ran Australia’s first Startup Weekend Women event and that sold out too.

After running these workshops and discovering just how many women were interested in learning these skills, Butow and her associates decided to widen their scope. This they did by opening up a series of classes and programs for women of all ages (above the age of 18) and skill levels with a target of achieving a total of one million women building apps and learning to create startups by the year 2025.

girlgeek_acadAs Butow explained, it’s all about taking the next step in the development of the internet as we know it:

The internet we know now was primarily built by men. We are interested in finding out what women would like to create. At the Startup Weekend Women event we recently ran, there were several teams that created apps focusing on flexible work opportunities for women. This was a very clear theme for the weekend. We had several women in attendance who were expecting children or had small children; they are interested in using technology to solve the problems they are experiencing.

Partnered with Google, Aduro and 99Designs, the Academy offers a number of classes – either as face-to-face workshops, or via Google Hangouts and Aduro. The two-hour classes include learning different programming languages, such as JavaScript and Ruby, down to the basics of founding a startup, such as a public speaking class and how to manage your finances.

https://i0.wp.com/klausandfritz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/GGAcademyLaunch-19.jpgMore experienced women are encouraged to teach classes, and the Academy already boasts a variety of events, ranging from hackathons, makerfests, code getaways and study tours. The team is already organising the very first study tour, hoping to take Australian women to visit global startup hotspots such as Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv. And though women are the focus, men are welcome too, as long as they attend with a girl geek and are willing to lend a helping hand.

The first class took place on July 15th in Richmond, Victoria. For the price of AU$35, people got a healthy dinner and a seminar that focused on the very first issue relating to development: how to pitch an idea. For an additional AU$10, people were able to get tickets for the Google Hangout. For those interested in getting in on events held in the next 12 months, they can look them up on the Girl Geek Academy website.

Personally, I think this is a great initiative with a noble purpose. Despite great strides being made by women in all walks of professional life, certain industries remain tougher than others to crack. By creating an organization and atmosphere that fosters support, guidance and welcomes contribution, the gaming industry is likely to see a lot more women on the supply side in coming years.

the_evolution_by_pedro_croft-d5qxi09-600x259Perhaps then we can look forward to more positive representations of women in games, yes?

Sources: cnet.com, girlgeekacademy.com

Funny Video: An Unexpected Briefing

https://i0.wp.com/www.thereelbits.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/anz-briefing001-730x365.jpgWith all the publicity New Zealand has been getting from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit franchises, both of which use the scenic land as the setting of Middle Earth, it was only a matter of time before the country’s air carrier began pimping it for all it was worth! Entitled “An Unexpected Briefing”, this safety briefing video is being used by New Zealand Air to both entertain and inform their passengers.

I think you’ll agree, it’s equal parts satire, thinly-veiled references, safety information, and good ol’ comic cheekiness. I dp wonder how JRR Tolkien would react… most likely, I think he’d be angry he wasn’t alive long enough to cash in on it! And pay special attention to all the costumes too, that’s the real money went as far as I am concerned. And thanks to my friend Janice Monk for turning me onto it! Check it out below:

News from Mars: Laser-Blasting and Soil Sampling

mars_lifeAs the exploration of Mars goes on, the small army of robotic rovers, satellites and orbiters continue to provide us with information, photographs and discoveries that remind us of how great a mystery the Red Planet truly is. For instance, in the past month, two major stories have been announced concerning the nature of Martian soil, its ancient history, and some of the more exciting moments in it’s exploration.

For example, Curiosity made news as its high resolution camera caught an image of sparks being generated as it zapped a Martian rock. In it’s lifetime, the rover has used its million watt Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) laser to zap over 600 rock or soil targets as part of its mission. However, this was the first time that the rover team was able to get the arm-mounted Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) to capture the action as it occurred.

Curiosity-Laser-BeamThe ChemCam laser is used to determine the composition of Martian rocks and soils at a distance of up to 8 meters (25 feet). By hitting targets with several high-energy pulses, it is able to yield preliminary data for the scientists and engineers back at Earth to help them decide if a target warrants a closer investigation and, in rare cases, sampling and drilling activities.

ChemCam works through a process called laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. The laser hits a target with pulses to generate sparks, whose spectra provide information about which chemical elements are in the target. Successive laser shots are fired in sequence to gradually blast away thin layers of material. Each shot exposes a slightly deeper layer for examination by the ChemCam spectrometer.

Mars_novarockAs Curiosity fired deeper into the target rock – named “Nova” – it showed an increasing concentration of aluminum as the sequential laser blasts penetrated through the uninteresting dust on the rock’s surface. Silicon and sodium were also detected. As Sylvestre Maurice, ChemCam’s Deputy Principal Investigator at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology, said in a statement:

This is so exciting! The ChemCam laser has fired more than 150,000 times on Mars, but this is the first time we see the plasma plume that is created… Each time the laser hits a target, the plasma light is caught and analyzed by ChemCam’s spectrometers. What the new images add is confirmation that the size and shape of the spark are what we anticipated under Martian conditions.

During it’s first year on Mars, Curiosity has already accomplished its primary objective of discovering a habitable zone on Mars that contains the minerals necessary to support microbial life billions of years ago when Mars was wetter and warmer. Currently, the rover is driving swiftly to the base of Mount Sharp at the center of Gale Crater, where it hopes to find more.

Mars_soilIn that same vein, according to new geological information obtained by Curiosty’s images and soil examinations, samples that were pulled out of a crater that is estimated to be some 3.7 billion years old contain more evidence that Mars was once much warmer and wetter. These findings were announced in a recent paper published in the online edition of Geology by University of Oregon geologist Gregory Retallack.

Unlike Earth, the Martian landscape is littered with loose rocks from impacts or layered by catastrophic floods. However, recent images from Curiosity from the Gale Crater reveal Earth-like soil profiles with cracked surfaces lined with sulfate, ellipsoidal hollows and concentrations of sulfate comparable with soils in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys and Chile’s Atacama Desert.

mars-180-degrees-panorama_croppedRetallack, the paper’s lone author, studied mineral and chemical data published by researchers closely tied with the Curiosity mission. As a professor of geological sciences and co-director of paleontology research at the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History, he internationally known as an expert on the recognition of paleosols – ancient fossilized soils contained in rocks.

As he explains in the paper:

The pictures were the first clue, but then all the data really nailed it. The key to this discovery has been the superb chemical and mineral analytical capability of the Curiosity Rover, which is an order of magnitude improvement over earlier generations of rovers. The new data show clear chemical weathering trends, and clay accumulation at the expense of the mineral olivine, as expected in soils on Earth. Phosphorus depletion within the profiles is especially tantalizing, because it attributed to microbial activity on Earth.

dryvalleysThe ancient soils do not prove that Mars once contained life, but they do add to growing evidence that an early, wetter and warmer Mars was more habitable than the planet has been in the past 3 billion years. Surface cracks in the deeply buried soils suggest typical soil clods. Vesicular hollows, or rounded holes, and sulfate concentrations, he said, are both features of desert soils on Earth.

Since Curiosity is currently on its way to Mount Sharp, future missions will be needed to fully explore these features. But as Retallack explained, the parallels with Earth are quite exciting:

None of these features is seen in younger surface soils of Mars. The exploration of Mars, like that of other planetary bodies, commonly turns up unexpected discoveries, but it is equally unexpected to discover such familiar ground.

The newly discovered soils indicate that more benign and habitable soil condition existed on Mars than previously expected. What’s more, their dating to 3.7 billion years ago places them within a transition period when the planet went from an early, benign water cycle to the acidic and arid Mars of today. This is especially important since major changes were taking place on Earth at around the same time.

Living-Mars.2Roughly 3.5 billion years ago, life on Earth is believed to have emerged and began diversifying. But some scientists have theorized that potential evidence that might indicate that life existed on Earth earlier may have been destroyed by tectonic activity, which did not occur on Mars. Basically, it may offer some credence to the theory that while flourished on Earth, it originated on Mars.

One person who supports this theory is Steven Benner of the Westheimer Institute of Science and Technology in Florida.  In the past, he has speculated that life is more likely to have originated on a soil planet like Mars than a water planet like Earth. In an email interview with Science Daily, Benner wrote that Retallack’s paper:

[S]hows not only soils that might be direct products of an early Martian life, but also the wet-dry cycles that many models require for the emergence of life.

So in addition to shedding light on the mysteries of Mars, Curiosity has also been pivotal in addressing some major questions which only increase the mystery of our own existence. Did life as we know it originate on Mars but flourish on Earth? Are there still some remnants of this microbial “Eden” being preserved deep within the soil and rocks? And could life exist there again some day?

All good questions that will no doubt keep robotic rovers, orbiters, landers, and even manned missions busy for many decades to come! In the meantime, check out the video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Curiosity’s spark-generating laser blast being caught on tape:


Sources: universetoday.com, sciencedaily.com