NASA Spinoffs

Some folks wonder if space exploration is "worth it." (Not me or anyone I know, but some.) I believe it's because for decades, NASA was not great at advertising its amazing technologies. Not exactly a strength (or even of interest) to most scientists and engineers.

When I worked at Johnson Space Center, I became aware of NASA accomplishments (besides launching rockets and building an international space station) through the annual NASA Spinoffs book that employees received.

You can read the online 2018 edition or download a copy here. It's amazing all the science and technology we take for granted that originated within the NASA space program. If you want a comprehensive look at NASA spinoffs, check out the NASA Spinoff Database which contains abstracts of all Spinoff articles published since 1976.

Next time you hear someone asking the question of what has NASA done for me, direct them to these resources. Go science!

Complex Chemistry in Ocean Spray

 

Have you ever wondered why the ocean is so refreshing? Researchers in San Diego, California at the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment have some of the answers and are working on finding more. It turns out that ocean spray is quite complex and filled with all kinds of interesting things.

Chemists and co-directors of the UCSD Center, Kimberly Prather, Ph.D. (UCSD) and Vicki Grassian, Ph.D. at the Univ. of Iowa are recreating the ocean-atmosphere environment in the laboratory to study how chemical changes in seawater affect the composition and cloud forming ability of sea spray aerosols. The intent of the researchers' experiments is to obtain a more accurate example of aerosol chemistry in computer climate models. 

Ocean research in San Diego? My kind of science!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Scientists studying the songs of songbirds have found it to be mostly a learned behavior subject to environmental influences like rearing and food availability. In fact, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen compared song and brain structure of parents and offspring in zebra finches that were raised with genetic or foster parents. They also varied the amount of food during breeding. They found that song and underlying brain structure didn't appear to be as affected by genetics as by strong environmental factors.

These results related to a human behavioral biology question (i.e., which aspects of behavior are learned compared to those expressed by genetic predisposition). It's known that human personality and behavior are much less set by genetic background. Environmental factors shape brain and behavior by so-called epigenetic effects. In fact, hormones play an big role and can have long lasting effects. 

Research with zebra finch breeding pairs (where half of the hatchlings were raised by their genetic parents, and the other half were raised by their foster parents) showed this too. At 100 days when the male offspring were grown, the researchers recorded their songs. The results showed that genetic heritability was low for most song characteristics, except the number of song syllables and maximum frequency. The rearing environment and song of the foster father mainly predicted the unique syllables of the sons' songs and was dependent on food availability. 

So keep feeding the birds in your backyard and providing a healthy environment. Songbirds will be happy and singing. Go Science!

The Tiny World of Sand

The world at the nanoscale is so interesting. It never ceases to amaze me. I recently came across several TED videos on nano and other small members of our planet. Check out the variety of life in our unseen world. The biological and geological record of life on this planet is all there. It will change the way you think of materials, physics, and even environmentalism. This video shows many components within sand (even sand on the moon). Amazing.