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Fifty years after the eagle landed, Apollo 11 is still inspiring young minds to dream of the stars, and now, they’re making a career of it. (View the video lasting 10:28, but it takes a few moments to load)
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It’s been a quarter of a century since the Magellan spacecraft burned up as it plunged into the atmosphere of Venus.
The probe’s radar mapper, which peered through the planet’s clouds, had revealed a rugged surface of high “continents,” volcanic mountains, spidery domes, and deep canyons. Scientists interpreted the chaotic landscape as evidence of massive outpourings of molten rock that repaved the planet’s surface hundreds of millions of years ago. Modern-day Venus was considered dead, or almost so—a world whose craggy face had been frozen in time. […]
“We can show beyond a shadow of a doubt that there was no catastrophic resurfacing,” added Vicki Hansen, a professor of geology at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “You can absolutely re-create the crater database without catastrophic resurfacing.” Her detailed mapping of roughly a quarter of the surface, Hansen said, demonstrates that it could have been sculpted over a period of up to a few billion years.
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Alaska Wilderness League joined Protect our Winters and the American Packrafting Association to advocate on behalf of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, bringing outdoor adventurers and athletes to Washington, D.C., to educate members of Congress.
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Wendell Duffield ’63 Considers The Minnesota River A Source Of The Mississippi
19 May 2019Recently while sifting through family photographs, Murzyn, now a Star Tribune reader in Fridley, began to wonder: Is Lake Itasca the true headwaters of the Mississippi River or can we trace it to another source?
That’s the latest question for Curious Minnesota, our community-driven reporting project that invites readers into the newsroom to ask questions they want answered. Readers then vote on which query we should investigate — and Murzyn’s was the winner of a recent round.
“There’s two parts to the answer,” said Connie Cox, the lead interpretive naturalist at Itasca State Park. “One is a cultural story. The other one is a science story.” […]
Wendell Duffield, a geologist and native Minnesotan, argues that the Minnesota River should be considered an alternative source. By following the Minnesota River, Duffield has traced the source of the Mississippi to the northeast corner of South Dakota.
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Megan Ferre Clendenon ’12 Writes On Scholarships For Moms
13 May 2019Happy Mother’s Day! For all you ladies who have children or have given birth to children but don’t want to let that stop you from achieving your academic dreams, there is money out there specifically for you. Aside from applying for federal student aid and checking for institutional scholarships, you can also consider applying for the scholarships for moms listed in this blog post.
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Lucy Livesay ’14 Writes On Court Reactions To Trump Energy Push
25 April 2019Since the start of the Trump administration, the Department of the Interior has offered more than 17 million acres of public lands for oil and gas development — in critical wildlife habitat, next door to iconic national parks, and throughout archaeologically-rich landscapes. In the rush to spur an energy free-for-all, Interior has neglected basic legal tenets. Now the courts are pushing back, dealing repeated setbacks to President Trump’s energy agenda.
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Bess Koffman ’04 Teases Earth History From Dust In Glacial Ice
21 April 2019BAR HARBOR — Paleoclimate scientist Bess Koffman will talk about her research using mineral dust to track wind patterns over thousands of years May 3 at the College of the Atlantic. The free talk is open to the public and takes place at 4:10 p.m. in McCormick Lecture Hall.
Koffman’s research focuses on learning about past changes in Earth’s atmospheric circulation by analyzing mineral dust from the ice cores.
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Alissa Morson ’11 Develops International Understanding In Mankato
4 April 2019There will be a lot of fun and entertainment for students and visitors to enjoy as the 2019 Mankato Area International Festival is set to take place Sunday.
The event, one of the largest in Minnesota, will showcase multiple different cultures that continue to grow each year. MNSU has hosted the International Festival for over 40 years now. This year, the event will be featured on Minnesota Public Radio’s Art Hounds. […]
This year’s theme is Fusion and Inclusion which Alissa Morson, the interim programming and retention advisor for MNSU’s Center for International Student Services, says is because with the growing diversity on campus and Mankato in general, the CISS wanted to make sure every student is welcomed at the university.
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Walter Alvarez ’62 Confirms Link Between The Great Extinction And N. Dakota Deathbed
29 March 2019The beginning of the end started with violent shaking that raised giant waves in the waters of an inland sea in what is now North Dakota.
Then, tiny glass beads began to fall like birdshot from the heavens. The rain of glass was so heavy it may have set fire to much of the vegetation on land. In the water, fish struggled to breathe as the beads clogged their gills. […]
Richards and Walter Alvarez, a UC Berkeley Professor of the Graduate School who 40 years ago first hypothesized that a comet or asteroid impact caused the mass extinction, were called in by DePalma and Dutch scientist Jan Smit to consult on the rain of glass beads and the tsunami-like waves that buried and preserved the fish. The beads, called tektites, formed in the atmosphere from rock melted by the impact. […]
“When we proposed the impact hypothesis to explain the great extinction, it was based just on finding an anomalous concentration of iridium — the fingerprint of an asteroid or comet,” said Alvarez. “Since then, the evidence has gradually built up. But it never crossed my mind that we would find a deathbed like this.”
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Cameron Webb ’14: Head Baseball Coach
15 March 2019When the Scappoose High varsity baseball coaching job opened up over the summer, Cameron Webb was instantly intrigued.
Webb, an assistant with Lincoln for four years, considered Scappoose the perfect place for his first gig as a head coach. The supportive athletic community, backing administration and the quality of kids both already in the program and scheduled to come through the pipeline all checked Webb’s boxes.