About me
I am a graduate of Grinnell College with a degree in Biological Chemistry. The name of this blog is derived from the name I use in Chinese, 孟柏民 (Mèng Bómín).
I can be reached by email at:
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Category Archives: Astronomy
Best view of Earth ever
Via Phil Plait, here is an amazing timelapse series taken from the International Space Station and assembled by James Drake as it flies over the Americas from north to south during the night: The timelapse starts over the clouded North Pacific … Continue reading
An Earthly haze
Wired Science has a short piece on the Solar Dynamics Observatory‘s eclipse season and features an image of a partially occluded sun, much like the one below. As the article describes, the shadow of the Earth does not form a … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Science
Tagged atmosphere, earth, Geosynchronous orbit, SDO, Solar Dynamics Observatory, Sun, ultraviolet
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Mercury Rising
Yesterday, the MESSENGER spacecraft released the above image as the first of the main stage of its mission, orbiting around the innermost planet and surveying the surface. When that’s complete, we will have the first complete detailed map of the … Continue reading
Two spacecraft milestones
Today, two different spacecraft at different ends of the solar system are closing in on major milestones. The first is the New Horizons spacecraft, destined for a flyby of Pluto in 2015. Tomorrow, it will pass the orbit of Uranus, … Continue reading
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming
I just finished reading the book by Mike Brown that shares its name with this blog post, so I thought I’d post a short review here. The book is essentially an account of the set of discoveries that Mike Brown … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Reviews, Science
Tagged Eris, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming, Mike Brown, Pluto, Sedna
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Some criticism of the Mono Lake results
Here’s a post from DNA researcher Rosie Redfield critically analyzing the paper that was released in Science and announced by NASA on Thursday regarding aresenic-tolerant bacteria in Mono Lake. I haven’t read the paper myself (I don’t have a Science … Continue reading
My thoughts on the bacteria of Mono Lake
On Thursday, NASA held a press conference announcing some surprising news with implications for astrobiology. A team of scientists led by Felisa Wolfe-Simon found a form of bacteria living in Mono Lake in California, near the border with Nevada, which … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Current events, Science
Tagged arsenate, arsenic, bacteria, Lake Mono
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December has come…
…and that means it’s time for another of the Boston Globe’s The Big Picture’s Hubble Space Telescope Advent Calendars. There will be an HST image unveiled every day until Christmas. Granted, all of these images have already been released to … Continue reading
Posted in Astronomy, Science
Tagged Advent Calendar, Bad Astronomy, Big Picture, Death Spiral, Hubble, Phil Plait
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Devil Sun makes pick of the week
Ok, I don’t think I had anything to do with it, but the Solar Dynamics Observatory website chose to spotlight the activity on the Sun on October 27 and 28 captured in 304 Å ultraviolet light for Friday’s Pick of … Continue reading
This is what a comet looks like
This is the nucleus of comet Hartley 2 as imaged this morning by the EPOXI spacecraft, the rechristened mothership of the Deep Impact mission that launched an imapactor that was mainly 370 kg (820 lb) of copper in the comet … Continue reading
Meng Bomin 