Prepare for Impact...throw an asteroid on the barbie!

     Next summer an asteroid will come rocketing through the atmosphere heading straight for Australia! Ok not exactly, actually, it will be samples of an asteroid know as Itokawa inside a capsule that will be released from Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa, as it burns up in the atmosphere.
    Hi, I’m Ashleigh, one of the research interns here at NOVA and I’ve been working on researching this story. Sadly, we can’t make the trip to Australia next June, but here are some of the details:
     In the summer of 2003 JAXA (the Japanese space program) sent Hayabusa to the asteroid to sample it, the first mission of its kind. Next June, Hayabusa (which means falcon in Japanese) will return to earth, falling, just like an asteroid. NASA and JAXA will be tracking the spacecraft using asteroid tracking software, though they anticipate that it will land in Australia.
     Once the capsule containing (hopefully) the asteroid samples has been collected, the samples will be analyzed in a lab in japan. The teams involved are the Hayabusa mission team from Japan, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA. The story of the returning spacecraft was first reported by National Geographic Daily News.

Buzz Aldrin's Rocket Experience

Why do we love physics raps? Maybe it's the same sweet cringe that makes us devour sour lime popsicles and 8 am reruns of Saved By The Bell. Who knows?

In any case, Buzz Aldrin (yes, the astronaut), Snoop Dogg, Talib Kweli, and friends have teamed up to create the king of all physics raps. It's called Rocket Experience, and that's about all I have to say about it, except that you should really check out the "making of" video for some additional surreality.

As Buzz Aldrin says, "I have only two passions: Space exploration, and hip-hop."

'Honor' to have phallus-shaped mushroom named after scientist

Image credit: Brian Perry

Not many people get to have something in nature named after them. And Dr. Robert Drewes, Curator of Herpetology for the California Academy of Sciences recognizes his good fortune. He thinks it's a 'wonderful honor' to lend his name to a new species of stinkhorn mushroom, discovered on the African island of Sao Tome. Perhaps Dr. Drewes has yet to see the new fungus, now dubbed Phallus drewesii, which is two inches long, shaped like a phallus and gives off a foul, rotting meat odor. Or perhaps he is blinded by the celebrity that often comes with having something named after you.

Our president can commiserate - not long ago, he had a new species of lichen named after him - Caloplaca obamae. Once again, he didn't have much choice in the matter since it's the finder's choice in naming the discovery. But like Dr. Drewes, I'm sure the president smiles fondly whenever he comes across his bright orange lichen. In the same way, Dr. Drewes must be so proud to look upon his namesake phallus-shaped 'shroom.

What We're Watching: Chickens, Ferrets and Cane Toads, Oh My!

Filmmaker Mark Lewis knows how to showcase an animal. This is a producer who can bring a chicken to life like you wouldn't believe. His famous documentary 'The Natural History of the Chicken' is a perfect example. In what other nature film could you watch the story of a woman who brings back to life a once frozen solid chicken using 'mouth-to-beak' resuscitation? Or who else could make an ordinary ferret extraordinary through the eyes of eccentric ferret-lover pet owners who write songs about their beloved animals and even dress them up as cowboys, hula dancers and ballerinas?

One of my favorite scenes of a documentary comes from another of Lewis' hilarious film on the Australia animal scourge: 'Cane Toads: An Unnatural History.' The scene starts with a long shot of a truck swerving back and forth along a road. The driver is speaking while he's swerving and he's talking about how he takes aim at and kills as many cane toads on the road that he can - he does it to protect the natural wildlife, which, unlike the artificially introduced toads, he truly does love. As the truck gets closer, you start to hear thumping, which you can only assume are the toads getting run over.

These amazing films are no typical nature shows - Lewis' verite style that lacks narration draws you in to a subject you never thought could interest you and keeps you coming back for more.

Check out the PBS blog Q&A with filmmaker Mark Lewis to learn more.

How many fingers am I holding up?

Concussion science has come a long way since the bad old days when head injuries were diagnosed by finger-counting. But a new study finds that minor league hockey players have trouble identifying basic concussion symptoms and don't know when its safe to get back out on the ice after a knock to the head.

That's a sobering thought to anyone who watched Chicago Blackhawk Martin Havlat lying glassy-eyed on the ice after taking a major thump during one of last week's NHL playoff games. Okay, maybe not so many people watched that (except for Canadians, Chicagoans, and Detroiters like me), but here's the kicker: Two days later, Havlat was back in the game. Not for long, though: After taking a fresh hit, he made his way off the ice and didn't come back.

Concussions aren't harmless, especially they come in pairs. NOVA scienceNOW talked about the long-lasting and frustratingly nebulous symptoms of concussion in a story story that aired last year. Even more disturbing are results from the Boston University School of Medicine, where researchers are studying the brain tissue of deceased NFL players. Many of these players were in their 30s and 40s when they died, but their brains were mottled with the same tangles neuropathologists expect to see in elderly dementia patients.

Before they died, the players had reported crippling depression, memory problems, uncontrollable emotions, and debilitating headaches. Is this what we envision for our sports heroes' golden years?

-KB

The Science of Orgasms

It's not often you find the label 'Viewer discretion advised' accompanying a science talk. But that is what this Ted Talk by author Mary Roach warns. And for good reason. In her talk, Roach, bestselling author of 'Stiff' and 'Bonk,' shows a highly disturbing movie of a pig farmer inseminating and 'manually stimulating' a female pig to improve its litter numbers.

Aside from the cringe-worthy film, the talk is actually quite interesting. But for all the crazy experiments that have been done over the years to examine orgasms, we still have no clue what evolutionary purpose the behavior serves in us. So although I'm still not sure why it's 'good for me,' I do know why it's good for a pig.

Rocking the boat

Like music? Hate invasive species? Bret Shaw has some tunes for you.

Shaw, an environmental communication specialist, teamed up with three singer/songwriters to make rockin' instructional music about preventing the spread of aquatic invasive species. (Invasive species can travel from lake to lake on contaminated boats, bait, and bilge. I don't know what bilge is but it definitely sounds like something that should be properly drained.)

There's The Ballad of Aquatic Invasive Species, the rockabilly-inspired Clean Boats, Clean Waters, and my personal favorite, One Bait, One Lake.

Take a listen...and then take comfort knowing that, when they're not singing about draining bilge tanks and Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia, these guys all have day jobs.