More Interesting News
There never seems to be a lack of interesting news, which hardly ever makes it into the main media. I have found quite a few articles which interest me, I hope you also find them interesting.
Space scientists have said they believe that mankind now has a fifty-fifty chance of finding life on Mars in the next three years. Why have they come up with such a bold statement, and who is saying this? First of all, there is a British led team conducting trials for the ExoMars robot, which is going to be sent to Mars, and which will dig deeper into the soil than ever before. It is hoped it will come up with proof of life. This life may be past life, or even current. Some scientists have said this because they believe the reason nothing was found on the surface of Mars was due to the radiation hitting it.
There is a company named SpaceLife Origin and it seems their goal is more ambitious than anything I have heard lately, and seemingly at least partly pointless. The first part of their plan is to put human reproductive cells into “safe” capsules by 2020. Some capsules will be stored on Earth, but some in orbiting satellites. The company claims the cells will be protected for at least 100 years and live footage available will be available of them. Okay this isn’t so far out if a disaster strikes, and the human race needs to rebuild, but the second part of the plan disturbs me and seems pointless. The company wants to unite male and female cells in space, bring them back to earth, and replant them in a human female so she can carry out the birthing process. There is a third part to the plan, and it is to allow a human birth to take place in space. The company believes if all goes well they can do this by 2024.
Denver has long been the object of conspiracy theories. Many believe it was built so far from the city to hide secret projects taking place under it. When it was being built many said far too much material was removed for an airport, and this indicated an underground complex. There were also strange pictures hung on the wall of a dystopian future which disturbed many. The pictures have since been removed. Now there are new pictures on the walls again, and this time posters were created to make fun of the conspiracy theories. One poster is said to show lizard people living under the airport. Why would an airport stoop to recognizing these theories, and try to counter them? Seems strange to me.
Mars is in the news again. A new program from NASA would put the most capable rover on Mars which as ever been sent. It will be designed to cover more territory than any of the rovers before it, and it is said it will push the limits of robotic technology. It is being called a Mega Mission. NASA is hoping to find fossils and collect the most rocks it has ever collected. The launch is scheduled for 2020 and engineers are saying they want NASA to dream big this time. The main target will be rocks formed in watery environments, because it is believed the planet was more earth like when these rocks were created. A follow up mission is scheduled to be launched by NASA in 2026.
The earth is getting noisier. Humans all over the planet are being bothered by additional sounds and also the volume of the sound. It isn’t only the humans which the loud sounds bother, it has affected some of the animal life in ways we can detect and maybe other in ways we can’t yet detect. Dolphins which are being studied have shown they have now gotten a lot louder when “talking” to each other. Scientists have called this the equivalent of shouting. When whales were studied a sad fact was found. They have become a lot quieter. Apparently, they feel they can’t compete with all the noise so they are not communicating as much with each other, which is a shame.
Something has happened in Mexico which was supposed to be impossible according to some scientists. There was an earthquake which measured 8.2 on the Richter scale in Tehuantepec. It wasn’t impossible for this region to have an earthquake, but scientists thought it was impossible for it to happen the way it did. It was first believed the earthquake was caused by the overriding of a continental plate, but this just wasn’t the case. Computer modeling software showed it shouldn’t have happened the way it did. It turned out the epicenter was 28 miles deep in a continental plate. Scientists don’t understand the mechanics of this yet. Here is what one of the scientists said, “We don’t yet have an explanation on how this was possible, we can only say that it contradicts the models that we have so far, and indicates that we have to do more work to understand it.”
There are certain shapes we usually do not find in nature. One would be a perfect rectangle which is a mile across, and yet this is just what we found. An iceberg was seen which incredibly is a perfect rectangle, and looks like it was carved out with a giant knife. These are called tabular icebergs and the biggest one recorded was 4,200 square miles which dwarfs this one. It is just such a perfect shape it has brought a lot of attention to itself on the internet. Some have even credited the usual aliens with carving it out.
Stephen Hawking died recently, and now his last book has just been released, and it has raised a lot of eyebrows. He said AI (artificial intelligence) was dangerous and we shouldn’t ignore the threat of AIs taking over. He also put down religion, and this probably had to do with the terrible life he had, confined to his wheelchair. He felt the planet was getting too small to support the growing population, and we had only about a century left. He believed we had to colonize other planets to continue to exist.
The world’s oldest shipwreck, which is in almost perfect condition has been found at the bottom of the Black Sea. The ship is 2,400 years old, with all parts still in place including the seats for the rowers. The reason this wooden ship was so perfectly preserved is the fact there was no oxygen where the ship was located, so there was nothing to make it decompose.