Entradas

¡Bacterias!

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Se proponía en la última entrada de este blog una consideración del desenfocado punto de vista antropocéntrico desde el que se valora el impacto humano en nuestro planeta y sus catastróficas consecuencias. Abundando en el asunto y dando un paso más, se tratará ahora otra visión miope de la naturaleza y, en particular, de la vida; la llamaremos “complejocentrismo”, un término grotesco quizá, pero que ya se ha utilizado por ahí en alguna ocasión y que, en cualquier caso, resulta ilustrativo. Veamos.   No parece controvertido asumir de entrada que, entre el público en general, cuando se habla de “la vida” se piensa automáticamente en la vida superior: plantas y animales complejos que habitan con exuberancia la superficie de la Tierra integrando la biosfera. La vida simple (bacterias y arqueas), no entran en principio en la consideración mayoritaria como parte integrante de dicha biosfera. Si se mencionan, se suelen entender como una suerte de excrecencia de la vida, habitantes de un submu

El fin del mundo

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Es una idea amplia y recurrentemente diseminada desde hace tiempo que la actividad humana está acarreando consecuencias apocalípticas para la Tierra en su conjunto. Es común oír hablar de “destrucción del planeta” o de “aniquilación de la vida” en diferentes ámbitos, incluyendo hasta algún parte meteorológico televisivo en el que se ha planteado la posibilidad de que estemos (los humanos) “haciendo el planeta inhabitable” a cuenta del cambio climático; ¡hala!. Estas propuestas, si se molesta uno en ponderarlas con un mínimo de criterio y mesura, resultan cuando menos disparatadas, y parecen generadas desde una actitud soberbiamente antropocéntrica. Nacen de la creencia en una capacidad omnipotente de Homo Sapiens para dominar “la naturaleza” y determinar sus cursos y su configuración. Bien es cierto que somos una especie esencialmente tecnológica, y que a lo largo de nuestra historia hemos desarrollado formas cada vez más sofisticadas para moldear el entorno a nuestra comodidad y pr

Exploring Mars on Earth

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The planning of missions to Mars, as well as the optimal scientific exploitation of the huge amount of information those missions provide, need an appropriate contextualization that, obviously, is difficult to achieve without being there. Fortunately, researchers count on many places on Earth where there are some features, processes, environmental conditions etcetera similar enough to get reliable references: the Mars analogue sites. Atacama Desert and Mars landscapes. Credits: University of Texas and NASA respectively Mars is a preferential target within planetary science field, and some of the most sophisticated spacecrafts have been sent there for exploring in situ different areas of the planet, besides the fleet of orbiters observing from above. In the near future, some others will arrive to go into depth in the main scientific conundrums posed so far, especially the Martian liquid water issue and the assessment of the habitability of the plan

Bringing Astrobiology into focus

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Although the question of whether life could exist in other worlds apart from our planet is as old as western culture (it was already raised by ancient Greek philosophers), it could be asserted that only after the advent of the “space age” the matter has reached the status of a scientific concern. Nowadays, astrobiology permeates widely the field of space sciences, and it is the main reference subject in some research areas such as planetary sciences. Furthermore, the astrobiological perspective guides some study lines in different disciplines, from biology and astronomy (obviously), to geology, through chemistry and biochemistry, physics etc., making astrobiology a most typical transdisciplinary area. Therefore, astrobiology is somehow a field in construction, and even its pillars have still to be accurately outlined. This is the case with one of its most basic questions: the definition of life; a cardinal matter in order to determine the further research strategies that have not been

Exploration of Mars and Schiaparelli's canals episode

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It could be asserted that Mars is currently the main target in planetary exploration. More than 40 missions have been sent to explore our neighbour planet since the early sixties (half of which have failed), and up to three more are scheduled for launch within the next two years, having turned Mars into the most explored celestial body besides Earth. Nevertheless, there were times when Mars was probably more popular among the general public than it is nowadays, and it was in a good measure because of the observations performed by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli during the 7 oppositions of Mars between 1877 and 1890. Here we review the history of the observations of the canali performed by Schiparelli and others, their controversial interpretations, and relate them with our current knowledge of the Mars environment provided by modern rover and satellites exploring Mars. SCHIAPARELLI'S CANALI: BETWEEN MYTH AND REALITY Gi