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Science In Action: Clueless about Martian Atmosphere

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cropmars_landscape_dry_wet.jpg

09/02/2017 GMT

Clueless about Martian Atmosphere

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Clueless about Martian Atmosphere

NASA’s Curiosity Rover still can’t unravel the mystery of water on early Mars

NASA’s Curiosity Rover still can’t unravel the mystery of water on early Mars. Also fermenting carbon dioxide to make fuel

NASA’s rover Curiosity reached 1600 Sols on Mars last week. Since it landed in 2012, we’ve been bombarded by discovery after discovery on the Red Planet. But are we any closer to solving the conundrum of a warm planet with a faint young Sun? 3-4 Billion years ago, our Sun was only 70% as bright and warm as it is today, yet there is evidence of liquid water on the surface of Mars around this time. Ideas about the sort of Martian atmosphere needed for this to occur, never seem to fit the geological observations. And the latest analysis of the sediment in Gale Crater is not helping to solve the problem either.

Carbon Dioxide Fermentation
More news on harnessing the special abilities of microorganisms which don’t live by using oxygen but have different metabolisms for converting carbon dioxide to make biofuels.  These microbes which, like plants, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide or methane - so called C1 carbons - because they have only carbon atom – as their food. By bolting these microbial fermenters onto the waste pipes of industrial processes such as steel foundries, researchers think they could reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make fuel.

Artificial Pollinators 
With bees and other insect pollinators under threat from disease, pesticides and intensive agriculture, could technology provide a helping hand?  A discarded ionic sticky gel was the inspiration for Japanese scientists to create tiny remote-controlled drone pollinators. They used the sticky gel to coat horsehairs on the drone. This allows the pollen from one flower to be lifted up carefully and then deposited on the next flower. 

Helium
If you look up the element helium, one of the first things you’ll read is that it’s the most unreactive element in the periodic table. It’s so stable, that helium that’s used by astronomers as a golden standard to measure the chemical signatures of other planets. But now, chemists here on Earth have forced Helium to react with sodium. Under immense temperatures and pressures the Russian and US team have created Na2He.

Understanding Phobias
New work monitoring fear in the brains of volunteers using MRI scanners is helping us understand phobias. People who are scared of spiders – arachnophobes – have been shown flash pictures of spiders to encourage the subliminal, sub conscious part of the brain deal with the fear.

Picture: This artist’s concept depicts the early Martian environment (right) – believed to contain liquid water and a thicker atmosphere – versus the cold, dry environment seen at Mars today (left)., Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Presenter:	Professor Adam Hart
Producer: 	Fiona Roberts

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