I started a new experiment today. I'm excited about it, since I'm a giant dork and all. I'll get to present the results at a conference later.

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Okay, so I'm feeling burned out due to political events and completely inadequate as a graduate student. But at least I have this: 3 planets in the Gliese system could possibly support life!

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I'm so excited I could scream! I wrote a proposal in April, and I just got the news this morning that I'm getting 75% of the funding I requested. It's not a huge amount, but this is the first time I've written a proposal for a specific project all by myself and succeeded in getting it funded. I feel like a little kid who won a prize. XD

This ( Read more... )

I got my specimens this morning! Then I spent the rest of the scrounging up ingredients to make the medium they need to grow. I'd been hoping to have the medium ready by the time they came in, but I've been sick since Sunday. I'm feeling better now (not at 100% health, but much better than Tuesday)-- just in time to get my medium made up, except ( Read more... )

Guess what, y'all? It's the most Earth-like planet yet discovered! Only 1.5 times Earth's radius, 0.75 AU from a Sol-like star! Here are a few other planets of interest to go along with it: 9 Exoplanets that could support life (more or less) as we know it

Also, stuff is still happening on Earth, but that's not what I'm excited about right now.

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I just completed and emailed an assignment that's been driving me up the wall for more than a week. I'd forgotten how good that feels!

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I've been really busy with grad school things lately, but I just had to post about this:
Curiosity rover has found the best evidence to date that liquid water used to flow on the surface of Mars. The video explains the find very well, and the related video about river fans is worth watching too for the similarities between the recent Martian find ( Read more... )

A planet smaller than Earth has been detected only 33 light-years from our own solar system. Most of the known exoplanets are gas giants. In fact, the team that found this new planet did so while studying a Neptune-sized planet that orbits the same star. The Mars-sized planet is unfit for human habitation for a different reason-- it's too close ( Read more... )

I've been vaguely aware of the existence of an ad campaign using the tagline "Science-- it's a girl thing" and a backlash against it from women who are actually real life scientists. I didn't understand how bad it is until I looked atthe post about it at Sociological Images. Apparently, the ad designers decided that what keeps young women from ( Read more... )

I got accepted in a Ph.D. program! I just got the e-mail this evening! SO EXCITED!!! IT'S CELEBRATION TIME!

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