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Recommended Lab Resources
Help Map an Asteroid
The asteroid 4 Vesta is one of the largest asteroids in the solar system. In 2011, the space probe Dawn entered into orbit around Vesta and sent back detailed images of its surface, which is marked with craters and other features. Since the human eye is the best image recognition device out there, NASA scientists are now asking for the public’s help to map Vesta’s surface. At Asteroid Mappers, you can participate in the project by marking craters and other features on Vesta’s surface. Anyone who wants to can take part; by aggregating all of the maps generated by human users, researchers will get a detailed and accurate map of Vesta’s surface. Visit this link to try it out.
Image: NASA/JPL
Vatican Stem Cell Conference
The Vatican Information Service reports:
“Vatican City, 5 April 2013 (VIS) – This morning in the Holy See Press Office, a press conference was held to present the Second International Vatican Adult Stem Cell Conference, “Regenerative Medicine: A Fundamental Shift in Science & Culture”, which will place in the new Synod Hall of the Paul VI building in the Vatican from 11–13 April. Participating in the press conference were: Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture; Dr. Robin Smith, president of The Stem for Life Foundation and CEO of NeoStem; and Msgr. Tomasz Trafny, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture’s Science and Faith foundation.
[...]
[Msgr. Trafny explained,] “We want “to have a cultural influence on society, pointing to research models of excellence that are, nevertheless, in tune with the highest moral values of protecting the life and dignity of the human being from the moment of conception. However, we are aware that you cannot permanently influence society and culture without the constant and far-sighted support that comes from religious, social, and political leaders, from the community of entrepreneurs and from benefactors who are ready to commit to developing long-term scientific, bioethical, and cultural research.”
More information is also available from Zenit.
[DOT]
2013 Solar Cycle Update
Science@NASA reports:
“Something unexpected is happening on the sun. 2013 is supposed to be the year of Solar Max, the peak of the 11-year sunspot cycle. Yet 2013 has arrived and solar activity is relatively low. Sunspot numbers are well below their values in 2011, and strong solar flares have been infrequent for many months.
The quiet has led some observers to wonder if forecasters missed the mark. Solar physicist Dean Pesnell of the Goddard Space Flight Center has a different explanation:
“This is solar maximum,” he suggests. “But it looks different from what we expected because it is double peaked.”
Easter
The Empty Tomb, Fra Angelico, ca. 1437
“The Resurrection accounts certainly speak of something outside our world of experience. They speak of something new, something unprecedented — a new dimension of reality that is revealed. What already exists is not called into question. Rather we are told that there is a further dimension, beyond what was previously known. Does that contradict science? Can there really only ever be what there has always been? Can there not be something unexpected, something unimaginable, something new?”
- Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. 2
