believe it or not:the 1K yr old seed grows

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Purple rocks on Mars!!

Mars may appear red when viewed from Earth, but NASA's Curiosity rover has captured an up-close photo of the planet's mountainous landscape, with purple-colored rocks littered across the foreground.

[+] SPOILER

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/01/ ... -mars.html

After arriving at the crater in 2012, Curiosity found evidence that suggested that the area could have supported microbial life in the ancient past.

[Watery Star]

It's kind of cool how our perception of things changes depending on how close or far we are from things.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

As I look at the photos that are beamed back to Earth ( or maybe because I watch so many sci fi movies) but I could totally see myself walking around on the landscape. Problem is that the picture doesn't remind you that you can't breathe the air or that radiation may kill you or decompression could get you... still, the photo makes the planet seem accessible.

[Polaris]

Woaahh, purple rocks on the red planet? Well, purple is kind of a variation of the color red. Maybe, if we can collect samples of the purple rocks, we can study the chemicals and minerals they're comprised of and learn more about Mars' history/geology.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

we really need to improve the testing abilities of the robots we send up, they should be like super mini science labs, even better then what we can do, so that we can do like a star trek recorder - flash a laser type light on the rocks and be able to record what kind of minerals or crystals or chemical composition they are made up of and get a microscopic picture.

[Of the Stars]

That would be cool but seems like we're a ways off from being able to do anything like it.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

ya, but I am amazed that we can take core samples and do pictures etc from way over here to way over there...we may still be primitive as far as space exploration but we are making progress.

[Watery Star]

True. There are simple things that amaze me. Like the machine that can copy your signature. My dad had one at work when I was younger and it amazed me but he said it was pretty old technology.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

wonder what you used that for? Like was it before photocopy machines?

[Watery Star]

Yeah. It was for things the president of his company needed to sign.

[Lemon Cheesecake]

come to think of it, we do "electronic" signatures now when we submit applications on line. Guess it is all relative.

Before the internet web I think it was phone lines for sending copies - fax machines (which are still around) before that Telex machines? When you think about the progress made in just a few decades it really is quite amazing. Now we can send things instantly, video chat like we are there ...

[Lemon Cheesecake]

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/01/ ... ellas.html

"Beijing's snow is so dirty it advises use of umbrella's...apparently, the particles present in the air have settled into the precipitation, turning the city's first snowfall of the year on Thursday into what the magazine refers to as "toxic snow."

TOXIC SNOW!?!? What has our world come to!? I am so sad for those living there!

[Gingerale]

I will never look at a snowflake the same way

[Lemon Cheesecake]

I remember as a kid grabbing a handful of snow and eating it....of course if the snow looked dirty we would never eat it...and what about catching snowflakes on your tongue?

[Lemon Cheesecake]

Who knew?

"urine signals mediate aggressive interactions in the cooperatively breeding cichlid," researchers explain that urination for the cichlid fish is not only a bodily function but also a form of communication, per Science."

[+] SPOILER

":To figure that out, they injected the fish with a dye that turned urine blue, then measured a fish's urine while it was kept separate from other fish.

Researchers then placed a larger cichlid and a smaller cichlid in the same tank, separated by a transparent barrier. When the fish spotted each other, they swam toward the barrier in an aggressive manner with fins raised and peed.

Researchers say the fish clearly used their fins to communicate visually. But the fish also gave off a chemical signal with urine. In cases where the barrier had tiny holes allowing water to flow through, for example, the smaller fish appeared to get a signal from the larger fish to stop their attack since they were more likely to show aggression when the barrier was solid."

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2017/02/ ... stead.html