Although they were not the first living things to return from space alive (fruit flies have that honor), 50 years ago Abel and Baker were the first monkeys to venture into space and survive to eat peanuts on their return.
Miss Baker, Squirrel Monkey Astronaut
Credit: NASA
50 Years after C.P. Snow’s Two Cultures lecture, we have over-emphasized the divide between science and the humanities, and overlooked the deeper intent of his essay, the cultural divide between those who have science and those who have not, which translates to haves and have nots in many other ways.
The Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) was a period of time 3.9 billion years ago in Earth’s history when it was pummeled with some 50 100-kilometer-diameter meteors, and a computer simulation shows that bacteria could have survived it, explaining how life was able to erupt so quickly after the event.
These US maps of the Seven Deadly Sins aren’t exactly science, but it’s thought-provoking to consider how we would measure envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, and wrath.
