06/14/2016: A Molecule In Space Could Help Us Understand The Origin Of Life On Earth

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popular_science_chiral_2016Are your molecules lefties or righties?

There are a lot of concepts that help life exist here on Earth. One is as simple as whether a molecule is right handed or left handed. As straightforward as it is, we still don’t know how the molecules got that way. But a recent discovery of a molecule in space might help us out.

The complex molecules that exist here on our planet often come in two versions, each mirror images or enantiomers of one another. But while its ordinary on Earth, we’ve never seen these kinds of molecules anywhere else in the universe. Now, for the first time, a team of scientists at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia, the California Institute of Technology, and Harvard University discovered one of these so-called “chiral” molecules in space. The researchers think this discovery could help explain why some chiral molecules on Earth exist more commonly as one hand than as another.

Published by Popular Science.  See more at: http://www.popsci.com/molecule-in-space-could-help-us-understand-life-on-earth

Many more articles can be viewed at: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q=chiral+molecule+gbt

06/14/2016: Astronomers find first evidence of chiral chemistry in distant cosmic cloud

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Center_of_the_Milky_Way_Galaxy_IV__CompositeAn organic (if toxic) alcohol could point the way toward finding more “handed” molecules — the kind that make up RNA, DNA, and other building blocks to life.

 To make life, our bodies require many chemicals to have a certain “handedness,” a left or right orientation called chirality that determines the behavior of those substances in our bodies. The requirement is the molecular equivalent of why sticking your left hand onto your right wrist won’t work — despite being mirror images, they are not interchangeable.  Chiral molecules are an essential building block of life. They are ubiquitous on Earth and in some comets / asteroids, but scientists have never observed them in interstellar space.Until now.

Published by Astronomy Magazine.  See more at: http://www.astronomy.com/news/2016/06/astronomers-find-first-evidence-of-chiral-chemistry-in-distant-cosmic-cloud

Many more articles can be viewed at: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&authuser=0&q=chiral+molecule+gbt

06/07/2016: Growing crops, business in WV no small potatoes

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Daily_Mail_potatoes_2016What can people in West Virginia do to make the state more economically productive and diverse, particularly to overcome the loss of many of its traditional big money industries?

How about agriculture?

A crazy idea considering the rugged terrain of much of the Mountain State, but when you look further, is it such a crazy idea after all?

The Sunday Gazette-Mail featured a group of farmers working together at a place you’d least expect it, the grounds of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank.

Last week, farmers planted the last of six five-acre plots on a stretch of level land between the Observatory’s headquarters building and the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope with potatoes. The work, done by six teams of Pocahontas County farmers using a state-owned planting machine, is part of an effort by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture to encourage farmers to consider growing potatoes as a new cash crop.

Records show that in 1927, West Virginia’s best year for agricultural production, about 53,000 acres were devoted to potato production statewide, compared with less than 1,000 acres today.

Published by The Charleston Daily Mail.  See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/daily-mail-editorials/20160607/daily-mail-editorial-growing-crops-business-in-wv-no-small-potatoes#sthash.XWYbqbDe.dpuf

 

6/6/2016: Green Bank tour celebrates role in extraterrestrial intelligence search

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Gazette_SETI_Tour_2016The first scientific search for intelligent life in the universe began in 1960 at the Green Bank Observatory, in Pocahontas County, with a four-month effort to detect interstellar radio signals from two stars in a relatively nearby constellation.

It continues today, as the observatory’s 300-foot Green Bank Telescope serves as a key component of Breakthrough Listen, a 10-year international search targeting the one million stars nearest Earth as well as the centers of the 100 galaxies closest to our Milky Way.

This summer, the Green Bank Observatory is hosting a series of behind-the-scenes tours allowing visitors to explore the Pocahontas County radio astronomy facility’s pioneering role in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI, for short) and learn about the key part it plays in Breakthrough Listen, the world’s most comprehensive SETI effort, involving a decade-long, $100 million probe that began in January.

Published by The Charleston Gazette.  See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/article/20160606/GZ07/160609702#sthash.HqqJt6ea.dpuf

6/5/2016: Green Bank Observatory sets sights on new generation of spuds

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Gazette_Spuds_2016Better known for probing deep space to study the nature of gravitational waves, discover the presence of molecules that could potentially support life, and search for the presence of extraterrestrial intelligence, the Green Bank Observatory has added a more down-to-earth research role to its repertoire: potato production.

On Thursday, the last of six five-acre plots on a stretch of level land between the Observatory’s headquarters building and its iconic 100-meter Green Bank Telescope was seeded with potatoes. The work, done by six teams of Pocahontas County farmers using a state-owned planting machine, is part of an effort by the West Virginia Department of Agriculture to encourage growers to consider the lowly potato, which once had a much higher profile across the state, as a new cash crop.

Records show that in 1927, West Virginia’s best year for agricultural production, about 53,000 acres were devoted to potato production statewide, compared with less than 1,000 acres today.

Published by The Charleston Gazette.  See more at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160605/green-bank-observatory-sets-sights-on-a-new-generation-of-spuds#sthash.zDTCAV2S.dpuf