A series of linked loops across the face of the Sun highlighted the dynamic magnetic connections generated by several active regions over the period Jan. 3-6, 2015. Courtesy of the Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA.
If it's not cold enough where you are, two new subcommittee assignments in the Senate might chill you even more. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX & OIL) will chair the subcommittee that oversees NASA, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) will do the same for the subcommittee overseeing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. Both senators have a long record of denying science. Here's Cruz last
year on CNN:
Beaumont, TX (CNN) – Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, questions whether global warming is real, arguing that the "data are not supporting what the advocates are arguing." "The last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming. Contrary to all the theories that – that they are expounding, there should have been warming over the last 15 years. It hasn't happened," said Cruz.
James Inhofe (R-EXXON-MOBIL) will head the Senate's Environmental Protection Agency committee. Oh, and 2014 is
the hottest year on record in the
NOAA database.
- Not much is known about proposed, new Redmond satellite-engineering outfit reportedly funded by SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
- Mass die offs becoming more common in recent years.
- Hey Brits, don't call it a weather bomb, it's just explosive cyclo-genesis. Which means you folks in California aren't so much drought stricken as experiencing hydrological-nota-genesis?
- Bats live a surprisingly long time (Hat tip to Balloon Juice).
- Speaking of life spans, why do humans and other metazoans like our beloved furry friends age and die? Science bloggers have been taking a crack at that question this week:
We have a couple of strategies. One is to put a strict time limit on our cells. ... It’s the Logan’s Run strategy. Once you hit a certain age limit, in this case a certain number of cell divisions, it’s off to Carousel with you. Why is this useful for the organism (or in the case of the story, society)? Because older individuals are more likely to carry a dangerous load of accumulated mutations, so they must be destroyed for the good of the whole.