Big Bang Science News

September 27, 2012 at 1:23 pm | Posted in Big Bang, Regular Feature, Science News | Leave a comment
Tags: curiosity, nasa, smithsonian

A thousand year old religious icon, a Nazi SS expedition into Tibet, and a meteorite. Sounds like the latest installment in the Indiana Jones franchise, right? You aren’t far off. A small Buddhist statue, originally uncovered by a Nazi expedition to Tibet, has been analyzed by scientists and found to have been carved from a meteorite fragment.  From Red Orbit

Sounds like a Lucas fan’s dream story, right?  It’s true which makes it even more amazing.  Back in 1938, a Nazi led expedition discovered the statue and brought it back to Germany.  In 2007 it was finally available for study and that’s when scientist learned it was chiseled from a piece of the Chinga meteorite (it’s made of ataxite).  The Chinga meteorite crashed into parts of Mongolia and Siberia 15,000 years ago.

In this video, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku espouses that cloning dinosaurs is a distinct possibility.  You might remember Dr. Kaku from the George Lucas episode of Prophets of Science.  He’s the fellow who said the Force actually does exist all around us.

(via Big Think)

However, Brian Switek has a counterpoint to Dr. Keku in his article on the Smithsonian website.  Mostly it has to do with not having any non-avian dinosaur DNA available.  Which is fine with me.  I’ve seen Jurassic Park.

Maybe those Martian canals are myth after all.  Curiosity has discovered an ancient stream bed on the red planet.

(via NASA)

Posted by Synlah for Roqoo Depot