TPD Podcast EP: 005
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We're back from vacation with new exciting stories from the science world. Our 5th episode, I feel, is the best one yet (leaps and bounds over 004). Looking back on the previous podcasts, it truly shows how much our show has evolved. We realize the episode names have been inconsistent recently, but from this episode on, we're naming them in numbers of ###. This allows for better sorting alphabetically. The next episode will be named 006, in line with the blog title. If the podcasts have also been coming in a bit quiet and a bit large (filesize-wise), we're testing different encoding procedures. It should be better in a couple shows, though. Also, for the future, we will be linking to the articles themselves so you can read more behind the reports. As far as astrophysical research goes, we'll link you directly to their research papers as well as a couple articles explaining it.

For this week, we covered:

1. Lucy's Daughter - Six years later, archeologists have unveiled the oldest, most complete fossil of the 'missing link.'

- More Info

1. Here's Lookin' at You, Kid - After three decades, the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe gives new angles and new origins to the infamous 'face on Mars.'

- More Info

Special: The Big Bust?
Could some new ways of looking at the interactions of Cosmic Microwave Background photons disprove the central pillar of inflationary cosmology?



The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Each change in color is a difference of 1 part in 100,000. More info on the CMB can be found here.
We also have links to the research paper and the easier to understandspace.com article.

For our Thought Experiment this week, I ask Andrew some common questions about where it all came from.


-Scott

The Farse on Mars:


Zooming in (Viking 1 orbiter images):








(Mars Global Surveyor images)





(ESA's Mars Express images)