Sunday, April 24, 2005
Martian Rover Discovers Congress
According to some very exciting recent news reports, the rover Spirit recorded images on April 15 and 18 giving evidence of dust devils on the surface of Mars. Though it was known that the thin atmosphere on Mars is capable of generating large windstorms, the micro-events of dust devils is pretty exciting.
Although, on second thought, when people tell me that elaborate scientific instrumentation, which took many years and many dollars to build, has discovered a bunch of hot, windy air in a portion of the universe devoid of intelligent life, I feel like we could have accomplished the same thing for a whole lot cheaper just by sending a grad student with a lab notebook to observe Congress in action.
Although, on second thought, when people tell me that elaborate scientific instrumentation, which took many years and many dollars to build, has discovered a bunch of hot, windy air in a portion of the universe devoid of intelligent life, I feel like we could have accomplished the same thing for a whole lot cheaper just by sending a grad student with a lab notebook to observe Congress in action.
