Saturday March 3, 2007
Walking on the Moon, Again, Caterpillar Clicking, Sounding the Southern Seafloor, Tracking Transgenic Salmon, Question of the Week: Blood Types in Animals
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Walking on the Moon, Again
Harrison Schmitt on the moon, paving the way for settlement? - Courtesy, NASA |
Just over 2 years ago, President George W. Bush announced plans for NASA to return to The Moon. Since then, the big question at the space agency has been, what should the priority for the mission be? At the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in San Francisco, a group of researchers laid out some of NASA's goals. Quirks & Quarks producer, Pat Senson, went to the session, and spoke to these space researchers:
Dr. Paul Spudis, from NASA's Applied Physics Laboratory discussed how The Moon could be a good jumping off point for future travel to Mars. He says learning how to mine minerals, water and other resources will act as a practice run for the kinds of obstacles we'll face once we start moving out to the stars.
Dr. Jeffrey Taylor, from the University of Hawaii, thinks setting up colonies on The Moon is an important challenge for humanity. He doesn't know what resources we'll find there, but thinks there could be a wide range of materials, ranging from aluminum to glass, to water.
For Dr. Simon P. Worden, Director of NASA Ames Research Center, one priority is setting up giant telescopes on the far side of The Moon. He's hoping to use these telescopes to look for signals from the early days of the universe and to find evidence of life on other planets.
Life on The Moon will be hard, according to Dr. Harrison Schmitt. Dr. Schmitt was one of the astronauts who flew on Apollo 17, the last mission to land on The Moon. He also thinks colonists will enjoy the experience, as they learn to ski on the surface, and to practice pioneering.
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Related Links
George W. Bush's Original announcementNASA information on a return to The MoonHarrison Schmitt's NASA biographyDr. Schmitt's homepageDr. Spudis' homepageSpudis Lunar ResourcesDr. Taylor's homepageDr. Worden's homepage at NASA Ames Research CenterMoon Session at the meeting of the AAASCaterpillar Clicking
Clicking Caterpillars - Courtesy, Dr. Jayne Yack |
Lots of creatures make sounds to communicate. Sometimes it's to attract a mate. But caterpillars have come up with a third reason to communicate. Some species of caterpillar click. Until recently, no one knew why, but Dr. Jayne Yack, a professor of biology at Carleton University thinks she's found a reason. When Dr. Yack and her student, Sarah Brown, started testing caterpillars to try and make them click, she found they would follow the clicking by regurgitating a noxious brown liquid. Further experiments, including tasting this liquid, showed it was repulsive to animals. So Dr. Yack thinks the caterpillar is using its click to warn off predators.
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Related Links
Dr. Yack's homepageDr. Yack's research pageEarlier conference reports of caterpillar clicking by Sarah BrownDr. Yack's paper in Journal of Experimental BiologyDr. Yack's previous interview on QuirksDr. Yack answers a question on Quirks about insect hearingSounding the Southern Seafloor
The German research vessel, Polarstern, off Antarctica - Courtesy, Jonas Ziegler/Alfred Wegener Institute |
This week marks the beginning of the International Polar Year - a world-wide scientific collaboration looking at how climate change is affecting our polar ecosystems. As part of IPY, the Census of Antarctic Sea Life will be conducting a series of 14 exploratory sea voyages in order to collect and catalogue the marine life in the southern seas. The first of these voyages, aboard the German research vessel, the Polarstern, has just wrapped up. Dr. Michael Stoddart is the coordinator and lead scientist for the Census in Hobart, Australia. He says, if the Polarstern's voyage is representative of the coming expiditions, researchers will have a lot in store for them throughout IPY. Fifty-two marine scientists from 14 countries worked round the clock, trawling, casting nets, taking photos and using robotic submersibles in order to collect samples from 200 to 850 meters. The researchers collected close to 1000 different species; perhaps as many as 200 of them are newly discovered. Dr. Stoddart says one of the most exciting parts of the voyage was exploring the parts of the seabed which, until recently, had been covered by the Larsen iceshelves. This was the first time humans had explored this virgin territory.
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Related Links
Homepage of the Census of Antarctic Marine LifeHomepage of the Census of Marine LifeA press release from CAML, detailing the findings of the Polarstern's voyageHomepage of the International Polar Year (IPY)
Canada's IPY Web pageTracking Transgenic Salmon
A male Coho Salmon - Courtesy, US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration |
Dr. Bob Devlin is a research scientist with the Centre for Aquaculture and Environmental Research, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, in West Vancouver. He and his colleagues have been studying a strain of fast growing transgenic salmon, trying to find out how they interact with their non-transgenic cousins. A couple years ago, Dr. Devlin found that the transgenic salmon, which grow 10 to 20 times faster than normal salmon, ended up eating their smaller cousins when the two types of fish were reared together in a large tank. In his most recent study, Dr. Devlin found that the transgenic salmon didn't grow nearly as fast or large (nor did they eat the small fry for lunch as often) when they were put in a more natural environment. But this doesn't guarantee that transgenic salmon won't cause a problem if they're released into the wild. It simply means that scientists can't predict exactly how genetically modified animals will interact in a natural ecosystem, from lab tests alone.
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Related Links
Dr. Devlin's research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesDr. Devlin's Web siteDr. Devlin's previous interview on QuirksQuestion of the Week: Blood Types in Animals
This week, we have a blood-curdling question from Cynthia MacFarlane in Chelsea, Quebec, who asks: Do other animals have different blood types within their species, as humans do? If so, do they have the same issues of incompatibility when the mother and her babies have different blood types?
For the answer, we go to Dr. Deborah Haines, a professor of veterinary immunology at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
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