Postcards from the Planet

After 130 days at sea (and 8300 miles) the Plastiki arrived yesterday in Australia. The boat, made of more than 12,000 plastic bottles, sailed across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco. The voyage was partly inspired by Thor Heyerdahl’s epic voyage on the raft Kon Tiki, when Heyerdahl tried to prove that ancient mariners could have traveled long distances without motors. Read about Plastiki’s arrival and visit the Plastiki site: The Plastiki.

As the Gulf Oil Spill from the BP well drilled by the Deepwater Horizon continues, things are getting worse and worse for local wildlife. Here are a few places where you can find out more about what’s happening and how to help!

How Bad is the Gulf Oil Spill? Ask the Pelicans.

Bird Rescue
US Fish and Wildlife Service’s info on what you can do
Cornell Ornithology Lab oil spill bird tracker

(photo by IBBRC)

Another shuttle mission ended today — but this one was the last for Space Shuttle Atlantis. Its final planned mission was to deliver an Integrated Cargo Carrier and a Russian-built Mini Research Module to the International Space Station. STS-132 was the 32nd mission for Atlantis. Despite the success of the shuttle missions in helping to build and re-supply the International Space Station, there are no new shuttles planned by NASA, due to changes in US government plans for NASA. You can read more about Atlantis’ final mission: Atlantis.

As oil continues to flow from the leaking oil well located a mile underwater in the Gulf of Mexico, some of the oil is washing up on beaches. Unfortunately, this looks like the early stages of a massive, tragic ecological disaster. Fishermen, wildlife, tourism, and the environmental health and  beauty of the Gulf Coast will all be affected by the magnitude of this spill. For more on the spill and the US government response: Oil Spill.

The most detailed image of our earth to date (credit: NASA)

There’s still (always) a lot of work to be done, but the fortieth celebration of Earth Day is definitely a big moment! Visit Earth Day to find celebrations near you, or just make up your own! For possible actions you can take, try Actions.

As the space shuttle Discovery circles the earth this week , the Obama administration is proposing a 60% rise in funding for NASA to study the earth. One particular focus of study will be carbon dioxide and its effects on the atmosphere — part of the money would pay for a new Orbiting Carbon Observatory. The GRACE satellites, which study gravity, will also be replaced. You can listen to the NPR story here: NASA Slated to Receive Billions of Dollars to Study Earth.

For updates on the Discovery mission, the astronauts, and to find out when Discovery is passing overhead, visit NASA Shuttle and Space Station.

It hasn’t been a very good winter for Monarchs – bad weather seems to have taken a toll on them. Plan now to plant some milkweed for them and help the population recover. Read an update here: Monarch Butterflies . (Do you know how to tell the sex of Monarchs? The one in the picture is a male – you can tell by the dark spots on the inner wings. Those are the pheromone sacs, part of the way that the males communicate with female butterflies – by smell!)

Plastic Rubbish Blights Atlantic Ocean

After more than 6100 tows of special nets over twenty years, scientists and students from the Sea Education Association have shown that the Atlantic Ocean has its own garbage patch area. Like the Great Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, the ocean currents collect small bits of plastic and trash, endangering sealife and birds. The maximum “plastic density” found by the researchers was 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometer.

Researchers led by Eske Willerslev at the University of Copenhagen this week announced the first completed sequencing of the genome of an ancient human. The genetic material came from an ancient clump of hair, collected in Greenland by Danish archeologists in the 1980’s. “From the DNA, we can tell a lot about the individual,” says Willerslev. “He had brown eyes, brown skin, a tendency to baldness, dry earwax, and shovel-shaped front teeth.” The researchers have named him “Inuk,” which means “man” or “human” in Greenlandic. To see a drawing of Inuk and read more about the research, check out this article: Ancient Human Sequenced for First Time.