Podcast: Why Explore Space?

Our “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for May features a discussion between Dr. Sanjoy Som and Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra about the philosophical question “Why explore space?“. One of the questions raised by skeptics of space exploration is the particular value that this enterprise adds to human civilization. The auxiliary discoveries of space exploration often are cited as the reasons for public investment, such as technologies that resulted from investment in space exploration but now benefit everyday consumers. Other reasons for valuing […]

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Astrobiology: An Evolutionary Approach

A new astrobiology textbook is scheduled for publication in October and includes chapters written by our own Dr. Jim Cleaves and Dr. Sara Walker! The book is titled Astrobiology: An Evolutionary Approach and will be released by CRC Press on October 2, 2014. The book provides an interdisciplinary cross-section of many contemporary issues in astrobiology and could form the basis for an undergraduate or graduate course. Pre-orders can be placed now on Amazon.com!

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Iceland Photoblog

Join Dr. Sanjoy Som on a recollection of his field work in Iceland from this past June. Follow along on his SAGANet.org blog as he shares photos, memories, and strategies from exploring the basaltic rock systems in Iceland and discusses possible research applications for his collected data. [read the blog on SAGANet.org]

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Podcast: Are science appropriations appropriate?

Our “Beer with BMSIS” podcast for April features a conversation with our own Dr. Jeff Bowman titled “Dispatch from the AAAS-CAS workshop: How a bill becomes a law, what you can do about it, and are science appropriations appropriate?“. Science today is characterized by uncertain funding cycles that largely are dependent on government support, and many scientists–including professors at large state universities–will receive only partial salary at one (or many) points in their career due to a lack of available […]

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Updated Support Page

Our support page has been revamped! We can now accept credit card donations directly through our website with SSL security verified by Geotrust. Donations can be marked for a particular BMS initiative, and donors can also select the option to make monthly recurring payments. We have retained options for PayPayl and Dwolla, and we still have some minor design improvements to make to the page over the next few weeks. In the meantime, feel free to spread the word about […]

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Dr. Azua-Bustos Wins Chilean Scientific Photo Contest

The Chilean National Commission for Scientific Research and Technology (CONICYT) recently sponsored a photography contest, and our own Dr. Armando Azua-Bustos has won first place! The photo (above) was taken inside a cave of the Coastal Range of the Atacama. Here, Dr. Azua-Bustos and colleagues found a very primitive microalgae of the Cyanidium genus, which was able to photosynthesize with extremely low levels of light. This finding is of astrobiological interest because if photosynthetic life exists on Mars, then it […]

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Pubs: Habitable Zones & Planetary Mass

A new paper led by Dr. Ravi Kopparapu explores the liquid water habitable zone for terrestrial planets and how these limits change with planetary mass. Astronomers are currently interested in identifying extrasolar planets that may be habitable, and calculations such as those led by Dr. Kopparapu help to understand the range of planetary parameters that could retain such conditions. The paper is titled “Habitable zones around main-sequence stars: Dependence on planetary mass” and is available as a pre-print on arXiv.org. […]

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BlueSciCon Episode 29: Why explore space?

Dr. Sanjoy Som and Dr. Jacob Haqq-Misra Beverage: Irish Death (United States – Washington) Listen: [mp3 download] [ca_audio url=”http://beerwith.bmsis.org/BwBMSIS_29_MAY2014.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player”]

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