Jan. 15th, 2009

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Martian Methane Reveals the Red Planet is not a Dead Planet

NASA has detected plumes of methane being emitted during the spring and summer, indicating that microoganisms may exist on Mars. The true test, other than finding the organisms, is to test for the level or deuterium in the methane. Living organisms prefer lighter isotopes so methane with less deuterium than the water released with it indicates it was formed through a biological process.
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the physics arXiv blog » Blog Archive » How to spot vegetation on Earth-like planets

Scientists have determined that life can be detected from space, using data collected from the Galileo spacecraft. it indicated that, no matter earth's orientation and distance, chlorophyll-based vegetation generated a spike at 700-nm that doesn't exist on planets that we know don't have vegetation (that is, every other planet and moon in our solar system). It should be possible to detect this spike on planets around other suns, but there are significant technical challenges to overcome.

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the physics arXiv blog » Blog Archive » Memristors made into low cost, high density RRAM (Resistive Random Access Memory)

University of California researchers have determined that low-cost, high-density memristor-based memory is feasible with current technology. Current research is focused on figuring out which substances work best.

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Casu marzu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Casu marzu is a type of cheese that is riddled with the live larvae of the Cheese Fly. Considered by some to be an aphrodisiac, the cheese is only considered "safe" to eat when the larvae are still alive. Because the larvae can jump up to 15 cm, diners hold their hands above the sandwich made of this cheese to prevent being hit in the eye. Unfortunately, the larvae, which are resistent to stomach acid, have powerful mouthooks so can lacerate intestinal walls as the attempt to bore into the person's internal organs.

Found on William Gibson's blog.


I cannot make this stuff up....

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