NASA's Spaceward Bound: Arctic 2008
Follow along as American, Canadian and Inuit teachers work side by side with NASA scientists studying remote and extreme environments in the Arctic July 25 through Aug. 2, 2008. Training slides and biographies of expedition participants are available online. Science plans are also available that outline the investigations that will be taking place to search for life in extreme environments. During the expedition, participants will post journal entries.
The mission of Spaceward Bound is to train the next generation of space explorers. The mission has students and teachers participate in the exploration of scientifically interesting but remote and extreme environments on Earth as analogs for human exploration of the moon and Mars. Spaceward Bound Field Expeditions involve teachers in authentic fieldwork so that they can bring that experience back to their classrooms and assist in the development of curriculum related to human exploration of remote and extreme environments.
For more information, visit http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/projects/spacewardbound/arctic2008/index.html.
If you have any questions about this event, please e-mail Liza Coe at Lizabeth.K.Coe@nasa.gov.

WCHS HSTA students present a funny, informal video about Diabetes, blood sugar levels and exercise. Produced by James Hanna and Josh Hamrick.







BALTIMORE
Astronomers analyzing the first images captured by the new Hubble Space Kaleidoscope, which went online Tuesday, announced that they've acquired the first concrete evidence that the universe is in a constant state of total weirdness.
"With their unprecedented resolution, the latest images from the new kaleidoscope reveal that space, once thought to be isotropic, is actually continuously expanding, unfolding, and rearranging in a series of freaky patterns," said astronomer Douglas Stetler, head of the Space Kaleidoscope Science Institute in Baltimore. "It's an exciting time for the field of astrokaleidoscopics, or anyone interested in the vast, wacked-out nature of space."
At $200 billion, the HSK, as scientists designate it, is the most expensive kaleidoscope ever built. Orbiting 300 miles above the Earth, the high-powered, 12-ton optical device has revealed unexpected discoveries at the farthest reaches of the universe, including a multitude of brilliantly colored interlocking and rotating diamond things never before observed by scientists.

[snip]

The object chamber, located on the end that gathers and focuses incoming light from the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as the infrared and ultraviolet continua, is filled with 10,000 pounds of marbles, costume jewelry, beads, and the largest bits of colored glass ever produced

[snip]

Unlike the Hubble Telescope, which has allowed astronomers to view remote objects millions of light years away, the orbital kaleidoscopic observatory has taken humankind's knowledge of the cosmos one step further: Scientists now have access to clear images of the multicolored polygons and sparkling glitter now believed to cover up to 99.999 percent of the known universe.

[snip]

According to the new data, the so-called asteroid "belt" is actually an asteroid squiggle; and Mars is only red "some of the time," vacillating between purplish-blue, orange, and turquoise with specks of green as it moves along its six separate orbits around the sun.

[ http://www.theonion.com/content/node/82477 ]

BTW: The Photos are Eye-Bending ...