Illustration of NASA's Glory Satellite

What is Glory going to do?

Glory’s mission is to study two things. One thing it will study is the energy output (also known as irradiance) of the Sun and how it changes over time. Our Sun, or any star for that matter, is not unchanging. Stars are very DYNAMIC with lots of activity on their surfaces. Things like sunspots, solar flares and the age of the star will change the energy that is emitted from it. This is very important for us, because our Sun is the ULTIMATE source of energy for all life on Earth.

The second thing Glory will do is collect data on how the particles (also known as aerosols) like soot, volcanic ash, etc. and clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere affect the amount of light that “falls” on it from the Sun. As you probably know, the temperature of the Earth is INCREASING. This is due to the amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere that would normally get emitted into space causing Earth’s temperature to go up. Some of it is produced naturally, for example, when dead planet and animals decompose, they give off carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas. Other greenhouse gas emissions come from activities of humans. For example, cars produce greenhouse gas emissions when they burn fuel.

The amount of energy our Sun puts out combined with how much of that energy is reflected back into space without ever reaching the surface of the Earth is a huge FACTOR in how the temperature of the Earth will increase over the coming years. We are already starting to see the effects of the increase in Earth’s temperature, also known as global warming, in places like the Arctic where the home of the polar bears, ice, is melting away. Other, more subtle, changes include migration of plants and animals from places where they used to grow and live to new locations because their previous homes got too hot for them to survive.

Glory will help us understand how fast the Earth’s temperature is changing and, indirectly, how much time we have to find alternative sources of energy to replace those that cause global warming before even human existence becomes questionable.

Resources

• Submit your name for inclusion on the Glory Satellite.
• Glory mission’s kid’s page.
• About our Sun.
• Learn about global warming from NASA.
• Climate Change Education.
• YOU can make a difference in global warming.

Allen Telescope Array

It STARTED with an astronomer named Frank Drake. He thought, quite reasonably, that since we were using radio waves to communicate here on Earth, beings on OTHER planets around other stars might be doing the same thing. The thing about radio wave transmitters, especially the kinds used by broadcasting stations, is that they transmit radio waves in all directions, including into out space. And if there were anybody out there with a receiver, they could easily pick up those transmissions.

If we can do it, why couldn’t another, sufficiently ADVANCED civilization on another planet do the same? And so, SETI astronomers have been using radio telescopes to look for signals from other civilizations.

Where are they?

There are many reasons why we have not yet detected any aliens. They may not have developed the technology to use radio transmissions, or they may have developed other means of communication like lasers. There is a branch of SETI that looks for laser signals from aliens but this is a very difficult search. As you are probably aware a laser is a concentrated light beam. In order to detect it, the laser has to be pointed right at us.

Is it possible that we have not detected anything because there is nothing to detect? Yes, it is possible but highly improbable. As one character from one of my favorite movies of all time put it, “I’ll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty BIG place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it’s just us… seems like an awful waste of space. Right?”

Will we ever find life outside our solar system?

I believe we will FIND life on planets outside our solar system before the next 50 years of SETI are up. It may not be intelligent life that SETI looks for but it will be life, most likely plant life. As I have posted before, we are looking for other Earth-like planets. Once we find a few, we can start studying them with better telescopes to find the composition, or makeup, of their atmosphere. If we detect oxygen in the planets’ atmosphere, we will know that there are at least plant-based life on those planets. And where there are plants, there are critters to munch on them.

You can help look for ET.

Due to advances in radio telescope technology, SETI astronomers are flooded with data they have not yet analyzed because they do not have the computing resources to do so. So, just like Galaxy Zoo, scientists are recruiting the help of people just like to you to help them sort through the data and see if we have received signals from outside Earth. The project, called SETI@Home allows anyone with a computer and an internet connection to download data from telescopes like the Allen Telescope Array pictured above and analyze it to see if CONTACT has been made. SETI is not just for professionals anymore; YOU could be the one who discovers ET!

Help scientists classify galaxies.

This is where you come in. Galaxy Zoo invites internet users to help scientists classify galaxies. Over 150,000 people are already participants and some have DISCOVERED never before seen objects like the Voorwerp, which was discovered by a school teacher who volunteered some of her free time to classifying galaxies.

A new object discovered by a Galaxy Zoo volunteer.

Well, what are you waiting for? Head over to Galaxy Zoo and get started. You might see YOUR name listed on a scientific paper along with professional scientists. That would be really COOL!

Twist, twist.

Anyway, here is the first TWIST.

Planet hunter’s first catch.

Kepler, the planet hunting satellite has FOUND 5 planets in the first 6 weeks it has been searching for them. Kepler looks for planets that might lie in between Kepler and another star by measuring the dip in the amount of light coming from that star as the planet goes around it. These planets are not Earth-like (these will take longer to detect), which is what Kepler is primarily looking for but it is a good thing anyway since it shows that Kepler is WORKING as expected. News article.

3D or not 3D?

CES, or the Consumer Electronics Show, takes place very first week of January where technology companies bring out their LATEST and GREATEST gadgets along with cool technologies that will be available in stores soon. This year was no different. One of the coolest emerging technologies is 3D televisions. Yes, I know that 3D has been around for a while but it hasn’t quite taken off. This year it will be different. The technology has improved a lot and some TVs don’t even require you to wear those annoying glasses. While a 3D TV may not exist in every home, this is the year when every TV store will start carrying TVs that allow you to watch movies and play games in TRUE 3D. How 3-D TV Works.

You CAN touch this!

This is also the year of the TOUCH computer. No longer will you have to drag your mouse around and enter text using a keyboard. Touch enabled computers allow you to USE your finger(s) to open, close programs, draw pictures and do anything that you used to do with a mouse. You can also write directly on a touch computer as if you were writing on a piece of paper. What’s great is that your input is AUTOMATICALLY converted to text as if it were typed in. This technology has existed for a while but computer screens that could accept touch input were very expensive. Not any more. Some of these computers will just be a screen with no keyboard or mouse, although you could attach them if you wanted to. But why? Here is a good example of what a touch PC would be capable of: Microsoft Courier. Too bad this product was not actually announced so we don’t if it will ever be available for sale.

How does Earth support life?

For starters, Earth is right DISTANCE from our Sun, in what some call the Goldilocks Zone (also known as the habitable zone). It is the region where water can exist in a liquid form on the surface of a planet. Too much closer and the heat from the sun would boil away all the water. Too far, and there isn’t enough heat causing any water on the planet to freeze.

Earth is also a TERRESTRIAL planet, meaning that part of the surface is solid, i.e. made up of rocks and dirt. The Earth is also large enough to have a GRAVITY that can have an atmosphere, you know, the air we breathe. Without enough mass, the gravity would be too low to prevent the air from escaping out into space. You can read more about this in my book.

Believe it or not, those are the pretty much all the things that are needed for a planet to support life. What about OXYGEN, you ask? Oxygen that we breathe is created by plants, which are a form of life. You would think, with these meager requirements, there are probably HUNDREDS, if not thousands, of planets that can support life.

The thing is, detecting other Earth-like planets is not an easy thing to do. Stars are really far away, and planet that may exist around those stars tend to be very TINY compared to the star they orbit. Our own Sun contains more that 99% of all the mass in our solar system. And our, habitable Earth is quite small compared to giants like Jupiter and Saturn.

Kepler Satellite

Kepler, the planet hunter.

As you can imagine, looking for other Earth-like planets is not an easy task. However, a space mission launched in March of 2009 aims to do just that. Kepler, named after the astronomer, Johannes Kepler carries very POWERFUL cameras to catch a planet transiting its parent star. A transit is when the planet that we are looking is in between us and its parent star as the planet goes around the star. When the planet is between us and its star, the brightness of that star as seen by us is lower than when the planet is behind star. The animation below explains it better than I can write it.

Look at the sky on a clear night. What is the largest star you see? Imagine looking for a planet in front of that star. A tiny Earth-like planet around a star that already looks only like a dot from where we are. That is what Kepler is trying to do. At a lecture given by a Kepler mission scientist that I attended, she said that they expected to find about a 100 Earth-like planets in the tiny patch of the sky it will look at. Whether those planets will have ALIENS will be another matter.

Resources

• Goldilocks and The Three Bears (in text form).
• Stars and habitable planets.
• Kepler mission’s education and public outreach.

Illustration of the Akatsui spacecraft around the planet Venus. Credit: Akihiro Ikeshita

The deadline for submissions is January 10, 2010. Sorry for the late notice but I just found out about it. I should add, although the slogan for this outreach program reads, “We will deliver your message to the bright star Venus,” Venus is actually a planet. But, you already knew that. Thanks to my friend Robert Sparks for the info.

I was watching a sci-fi, superhero movie the other day and it occurred to me how evil scientists are always trying to take over the world or something similar, at least in the movies. It is perhaps because of this or, still, the most recognizable scientist that ever existed, Albert Einstein, that when children are asked to draw scientists, they draw them with spiky hair, lab coat and an evil GRIN, although Einstein is rarely pictured with a lab coat and NEVER with an evil grin.

The point is that some children, and, unfortunately, quite a few adults, always imagine scientists as evil. And, because scientists do science, somehow science is evil too. Well, it is NOT. The reason that scientists are depicted as evil GENIUSES in movies is because they have to stand in contrast to the hero or heroine of the movies. The hero/heroine is usually the underdog who has to overcome great odds (in this case the evil scientist and his evil, scientific gadgets) to save the day. If the hero/heroine was as, or more, powerful than the evil scientist, he/she defeat the villain quite easily and then there would not be much a movie to show.

While the villains are clearly marked as evil scientists in movies, the heroes of many of those movies also tend to be scientists, although that fact is often overlooked. Below are listing of some movie scientist heroes.

• Indiana Jones – Archaeologist, a person who studies history and historic creatures, including humans, through analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments, and other remains that may have been excavated (dug up).
• Mr. Fantastic (leader of the Fantastic Four) – Physicist.
• Robert Neville (played by Will Smith in the movie, I Am Legend) – Virologist, someone who studies viruses and the diseases caused by them.

I have not listed more only because these are, after all, fictional characters.

There are a lot of REAL hard-working scientists, who, every day, work to find a CURE for cancer and other diseases, make alternative energy solutions more AFFORDABLE and easier to implement, help us understand the universe in which we live, and push the limits of technology to make BETTER computers, which can aid in all these areas. These scientists DESERVE better than to be looked upon as mad, evil geniuses.

Online resources about scientists in popular media.

• Why We Need Scientist Heroes Again.
• TV, films boldly go down scientific path. Via Scientists in the movies.
• Scientists Seek a New Movie Role: Hero, Not Villain.
• 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Movie Scientists.

Girls make great scientists!

I am sorry that it took me so long to write about this topic. Contrary to what you may have seen (I am talking about pictures and movies where most scientists are guys), girls make GREAT scientists. I consider myself a fairly smart person, placing in top 10 in my elementary and high school classes but I was always, ALWAYS “out-smarted” by girls. Even in college, while studying physics, a girl was the smartest person in our class.

This is not a new thing either. Women scientists have EXISTED as long as men scientists. That link only lists the women scientists we know about. There are probably many more women scientists that we do not know about because either they did not get published, or they were shy, or whatever reason.

Although their contributions to science and humanity are important, this post is about you. If you are a girl who LIKES science, and thinking about a career in science, I am here to say, “YOU GO, GIRL!”

Being a scientist is a WONDERFUL job. You get PAID to figure out how things work. You know, stuff you are curious about anyway. How much better can it get?

How to become a famous women scientist.

How do you keep on track to becoming a SUCCESSFUL women scientist? Besides the regular stuff, like doing well in school here are some other pointers:

1. Declare your intentions of becoming a women scientist.

Letting others know of your intentions, does a couple of things. First, now that you have said you are going to so something, it acts as MOTIVATOR for you to actually do it (like keeping a promise). Don’t worry, you can still change your mind later. Second, if you let others know what it is that you want to do, they will be able to better help you with your interest.

2. Ask questions.

So, you like science. Great! What kind of science exactly? Do you like astronomy, astrophysics, astrobiology, cosmology, etc. It’s OK if you do not know the difference between all those words. That is WHY you have to ask questions.

3. Find other girls with similar interests.

You would be lucky if you know of many other girls in your class who share your interest for science. Having good friends that SUPPORT you in what you want to do is important. If you can’t find other girls in your classes, or neighborhood who are interested in science or you cannot get your friends to get interested in science, the internet is a great place for you to find other girls your age who share your interests. I have listed some websites where you get find such friends.

4. Don’t give up.

BECOMING a famous woman scientist takes hard work. That is why it is also fun. Imagine playing a game where you always won. I doubt it would be fun for very long as there would not be any challenge in it. On your road to becoming a famous woman scientist, you will encounter problems, problems like lots of homework, math problems, and, unfortunately, people who will doubt your abilities, discourage or make fun of what it is you are trying to accomplish. Sometimes, these things will want to you stop chasing your GOALS. Anytime, I ran into something like this, it made me even more determined to succeed. You may encounter set backs but never EVER let anything or anyone from reaching your dreams.

5. Become a famous women scientist.

If you do all the other things, this part will be the easiest. Let me talk about what it means to be a famous scientist. A scientist is someone who works to discover new things, or create them. Things that no one before her or him knew about. Things that will change how people do things. Things that CHANGE the world. So, you may not become someone who has their name mentioned on TV all the time, you will become someone who will go down in history as a person who discovered or created something that changed our understanding of the universe and how we interact with it.

Resources

If I have missed something, please share it with me and my readers by making a comment below.

Here are some websites and organizations that budding, young women scientists like yourself will find useful.

• Nerdgirls.com
• GEMS: Girls Excelling in Math and Science
• Girls Go Tech
• Engineer Girl
• Plugged-In: Scientific Stuff – Just for Girls
• Expanding Your Horizons
• Women of NASA
• Sally Ride Science Camps
• Aspire – From the Society of Women Engineers
• ComputerGirl

I think in the future everyone will have to a strong scientific background to do their everyday jobs. Here is my “evidence.” Up until 10-15 years ago, computers were not part of our everyday lives. Now, it seems that there is a computer on every desk. Anyone who does not know how to use a computer will have a very hard time finding a job.

Sure, there are jobs that do not require much technical knowledge, but they will become rarer as time goes on and anything that can be automated, will be automated.

Example

Future jobs will require creativity and understanding of science. A simple example that exists today is one of a movie stunt coordinator. Since each stunt has to be different and unique, it cannot be automated. In order make it look exciting, the stunt coordinator has to use creativity to choreograph the stunt. To make sure that everything goes smoothly and safely, the stunt coordinator has to know about Newton’s Laws of Motion (e.g. to determine how a car will fly off a ramp),  chemicals and how they react with each other in various quantities (to create explosions) and electronics (to set off the stunts at the right times).

Resources

• Robots in 2015.
• How Robots Will Steal Your Job.
• Strong math and science skills required to meet future Wisconsin workforce needs. This applies to all regions, not just Wisconsin.

*As I have posted before, I believe everyone is already a scientist. This post is to show that in the future people will have to be consciously using science in their daily lives rather than sub-consciously as we currently do.