History has been made yet again in the world of science. On March 12th., NASA announced that an analysis of soil samples recently drilled on Mars has revealed that the planet was once capable of supporting microbial life. In fact, the Yellowknife Bay area where the rover has been exploring is believed to be the remnants of a dry river bed. And, it's believed that Mars at some point, had a much thicker atmosphere.
NASA scientists also say that the finding of a combination of oxidized, less-oxidized, and non oxidized chemicals proves that Mars' soil provided an energy gradient for microbes like that found on Earth. The partial oxidation of the samples that were drilled appear gray. NASA is now characterizing the area of probable habitation as, the new "gray Mars." This new find not only justifies Curiosity's mission on Mars, but also lays the ground work for the possibilities of future findings.
On March 14th scientist at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN say that new data all but confirms the existence of the Higgs Boson. Since the Higgs was first discover in July 2012, scientists had been just a little cautious about their findings. But, now with twice as much data as before, many are ready to stop call calling the new particle, "Higgs like."
The Higgs Boson is theorized to be the particle that gives mass to all matter. The theory was first proposed by Dr. Peter Higgs, in 1964. With the discovery of the Higgs, there has been much speculation about the possibility of such things as faster than light speed travel, or at least the ability of being able to un-mass an object, and possibly voiding inertia and/or canceling the effects of gravity.
Life on Mars. Light speed travel. I'd say that those are two for the books and definitely representative history in the making. It's just my opinion, but I think we would all be wise to stay tuned. I'm sure that there is more to come from both fronts.
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