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    Category Environment/Geology

    Signs of Acid Fog found on Mars

    November 3, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    This Microscopic Image Mosaic is the "smoking gun" for this story (the aqueous alteration part, not the acid fog). It shows a pre-existing crack which is being "healed over", which is evidence for the gel weathering alteration process. This image is from a Watchtower Class outcrop named Hillary on the Husband Hill summit. The full mosaic shown on the left is ~5 cm across. Credit: Image courtesy NASA/JPL and S. Cole.

    This Microscopic Image Mosaic is the “smoking gun” for this story (the aqueous alteration part, not the acid fog). It shows a pre-existing crack which is being “healed over”, which is evidence for the gel weathering alteration process. This image is from a Watchtower Class outcrop named Hillary on the Husband Hill summit. The full mosaic shown on the left is ~5 cm across. Credit: Image courtesy NASA/JPL and S. Cole.

    While Mars doesn’t have much in the way of Earth-like weather, it does evidently share one kind of weird meteorology: acid fog.
    Planetary scientist Shoshanna Cole has pieced together a compelling story about how acidic vapors may have eaten at the rocks in a 100-acre area on  ...

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    Scientists find link between Comet, Asteroid Showers and Mass Extinctions

    October 21, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

     

    For >30 years, scientists have argued about a controversial hypothesis relating to periodic mass extinctions and impact craters – caused by comet and asteroid showers – on Earth. Now scientists have concluded that mass extinctions occurring over the past 260 million years were likely caused by comet and asteroid showers.

    A graph showing how the rate of cratering has changed on Earth over time

    A graph showing how the rate of cratering has changed on Earth over time. The arrows indicate the dates of mass extinctions. Credit: Michael Rampino / NYU

    Michael Rampino, NYU geologist, and Ken Caldeira, a scientist in the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, offer new support linking the age of these craters with recurring mass extinctions of life, including the demise of the dinosaurs...

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    Drug Delivery Technique Bypasses BBB may help many patients with Neurological Conditions

    October 20, 2015, Categories  Biology/Biotechnology, Environment/Geology, Health/Medical

    Drugs used to treat a variety of central nervous system diseases may be administered through the nose and diffused through an implanted mucosal graft (A, in red) to gain access to the brain. Under normal circumstances, there are multiple layers within the nose that block the access of pharmaceutical agents from getting to the brain including bone and the dura/arachnoid membrane, which represents part of the blood-brain barrier (B). After endoscopic skull base surgery (C), all of these layers are removed and replaced with a nasal mucosal graft, which is 1,000 times more porous than the native blood-brain barrier. Consequently, these grafts may be used to deliver very large drugs, including proteins, which would otherwise be blocked by the blood-brain barrier. Credit: Garyfallia Pagonis and Benjamin S. Bleier, M.D.

    Drugs used to treat a variety of central nervous system diseases may be administered through the nose and diffused through an implanted mucosal graft (A, in red) to gain access to the brain. Under normal circumstances, there are multiple layers within the nose that block the access of pharmaceutical agents from getting to the brain including bone and the dura/arachnoid membrane, which represents part of the blood-brain barrier (B). After endoscopic skull base surgery (C), all of these layers are removed and replaced with a nasal mucosal graft, which is 1,000 times more porous than the native blood-brain barrier. Consequently, these grafts may be used to deliver very large drugs, including proteins, which would otherwise be blocked by the blood-brain barrier...

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    Dates for Cataclysms on Early Moon, Earth questioned

    October 19, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology, Physics

    Photo: Highly shocked zircon

    This highly shocked zircon, from the Vredefort Dome in South Africa, shows thin, red bands that are a hallmark of meteorite impact. Photo: Aaron Cavosie

    A study of zircons from a gigantic meteorite impact in South Africa casts doubt on the methods used to date lunar impacts. Durable crystals zircons are used to date some of the earliest and most dramatic cataclysms of the solar system. One is the super-duty collision that ejected material from Earth to form the moon roughly 50 million years after Earth formed. Another is the late heavy bombardment, a wave of impacts that may have created hellish surface conditions on the young Earth, about 4 billion years ago.

    Both events are widely accepted but unproven, so geoscientists are eager for more details and better dates...

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