Author Archives: IanO12

The Case for Tardigrades

Posted on April 25, 2019 by IanO12

I can’t remember if it was Cosmos or Planet Earth, but it was narrated by Neil DeGrasse Tyson. My roommate and I were watching it before bed, and it was fascinating. Almost the entire episode was dedicated to tardigrades, more colloquially known as water bears. These microscopic animals are uncannily resilient. Like, scarily so. According […] Continue reading →

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A Brief, Incomplete History of “Earth”

Posted on March 12, 2019 by IanO12

When looking at our solar system, it is pretty easy to notice one thing that separates Earth from the other planets with which we share a star. Namely, Earth is the only planet not named after a Roman deity. You have Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and even Pluto! So where does “Earth” […] Continue reading →

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Terraforming Mars: Chances are as Thin as the Air

Posted on March 12, 2019 by IanO12

Many of the futurists and sci-fi enthusiasts of today will at some point think about trying to live on Mars. However, terraforming the planet seems increasingly difficult as we learn more about the process. The first step, and a limiting one, is Mars’ atmosphere. This NBC article summarizes the findings of a 2018 study concerning […] Continue reading →

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Some Context… But More!

Posted on January 29, 2019 by IanO12

Tycho Brahe (14 December 1546 – 24 October 1601) was the master of unassisted observational astronomy. A major portion of this was due to his building of the observatory and castle Uraniborg. Uraniborg was designed inside and out to collect the most precise measurements known at the time. Possibly though, more important was that he […] Continue reading →

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Some Context…

Posted on January 22, 2019 by IanO12

I thought to start out the semester, I would look back and provide a little context for myself and everyone else as to how we as humans used to do astronomy. I learned some of the basics of the history of astronomy in a class called the Scientific Revolution. We discussed some of the big […] Continue reading →

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A little big place

Posted on January 15, 2019 by IanO12

By me!My favorite website as mentioned on the first day of class is existentialcomics.com.

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