Life abounds in Antarctic lake sealed under ice : Nature News & Comment November 27, 2012
Posted by sandyclaus in Drake Revisited.add a comment
It is permanently covered by a massive cap of ice up to 27 metres thick, is six times saltier than normal sea water, and at −13 °C is one of the coldest aquatic environments on Earth — yet Lake Vida in Antarctica teems with life.
Scientists drilling into the lake have found abundant and diverse bacteria. “Lake Vida is not a nice place to make a living in,” says Peter Doran, an Earth scientist from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a member of the team that has been exploring the lake — the largest of a number of small bodies of water in the McMurdo Dry Valleys Antarctic desert. “It is quite remarkable that something wants to live in that cold, dark and salty environment at all.”
via Life abounds in Antarctic lake sealed under ice : Nature News & Comment.
Microbial life at −13 °C in the brine of an ice-sealed Antarctic lake November 27, 2012
Posted by sandyclaus in Drake Revisited.add a comment
Microbial life at −13 °C in the brine of an ice-sealed Antarctic lake.
TB surge: CDC asked state to tell public | www.palmbeachpost.com November 22, 2012
Posted by sandyclaus in Politics.add a comment
More than 4,000 emails among staff at the Florida Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obtained by The Palm Beach Post, show how a disease outbreak became secondary as Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s staff advanced his political priorities to downsize and privatize much of the department.
The emails, which span 2009 to mid-2012, portray CDC staff as consistently deferential to the state, even as their concerns about Florida’s handling of a deadly TB outbreak grew. A key worry: A disease cluster, once confined to the homeless, apparently had affected two Jacksonville teens in 2011, an indication it might be reaching new communities.
via TB surge: CDC asked state to tell public | www.palmbeachpost.com.
50 Years of NASAs budget vs. 1 year of Pentagon spending – Democratic Underground November 22, 2012
Posted by sandyclaus in Politics, Public History.add a comment
50 Years of NASAs budget vs. 1 year of Pentagon spending – Democratic Underground.
Museum History: Dr. Frank Oppenheimer | Exploratorium November 8, 2012
Posted by sandyclaus in History of Science, Public History, Science Center News.add a comment
Dr. Frank Oppenheimer
The qualities that made Exploratorium Founder Frank Oppenheimer so special are the same qualities that make the Exploratorium special: an insistence on excellence, a knack for finding new ways of looking at things, a lack of pretentiousness, and a respect for invention and play.
Culture Foam: Bubbling Up 