It's been awhile since I've had much to say about science, but tonight at 9pm, the National Geographic Channel will be having a show called "Naked Science" which might interest some. No, there's no Skepchicks.
Instead, this episode covers one of the five major extinctions in Earth's history. Specifically, this show will be addressing the Ordovician era extinction. A large part of the show's premise will feature work done by one of my professors here at KU, Dr. Mellot, who works with a number of other professors.
In this show, they address their theory of what caused this extinction, which is where the astronomy comes in. Instead of a meteor like the one thought to have killed off the dinosaurs, they claim that it was a nearby Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) which struck the Earth and had devastating results.
For more information, go here. And if you miss it, the episode will repeat 1 PM on Saturday, Nov 4.
This comment is off-topic but you might be interested to know that there is a short article on the Sydney Morning Herald web site about those mising Apollo tapes, saying that some of them have been located and will be checked and handed over to NASA.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.smh.com.au/news/National/WA-physicist-hands-Apollo-tapes-to-NASA/2006/11/03/1162340051078.html