Moon Plaque, 1969 Left Behind On The Moon By Apollo 11 Astronauts, The Plaque Was Stainless Steel, 9

Throwing it way back! #TBT Pretty groovy, right? It's a map of Pangea - a supercontinent that formed roughly 300 million years ago - mapped with contemporary geopolitical borders. What you see here is an anachronistic mashup - a modern map, complete with geological features that did not exist 300-million years ago, with its various parts relocated to the general position they would have occupied before Pangea began rifting apart some 200-million years ago. It's a view of the supercontinent not often seen, and a mind-bending way of relating to the world on a geological time scale. #Pangea #ThrowbackThursday #supercontinent #ContinentalDrift

Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock #WomenInSTEM #GirlsInSTEM In 1964 Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world.  Her flight took 29 days and was completed April 17, 1964.  According to her obituary, Mock thought her flight was no big deal.  She said she did it mostly “to have fun.” Although she enjoyed flying, she obviously took it seriously, too–she did, after all, live to the age of 88.  When she did her around-the-world flight, she was a full-time mother of three children and had been a licensed pilot for only seven years.  During her famous flight she once had to land in Saudi Arabia.  After she exited the plane, the crowd waited for a man (the pilot) to come out, too.  When no man emerged, they realized she was the pilot and many cheered.  Her plane, the Spirit of Columbus, is in a museum in Chantilly, Virginia.

May The Fourth Be With You "The greatest teacher, failure is." - Jedi Grand Master Yoda https://www.groovylabinabox.com/the-greatest-teacher-failure-is-jedi-grand-master-yoda/ #MayThe4th #MayThe4thBeWithYou #MayTheFourth #StarWars #StarWarsDay #Yoda #Failure https://www.instagram.com/p/B_veWmXhLY7/?igshid=12c6bv9q8omna

Refraction at it's finest! Water Drop Refractions by Markus Reugels http://bit.ly/1amud3u

Poetry...

Stars & Galaxies: A Star Is Born http://bit.ly/19ipvUa

MapMaker Interactive! Looking for more dynamic maps? Cold fronts, precipitation, climate zones? Explore your world with map themes, data, and tools for customizing your map! http://bit.ly/19GfFeS Printable 1-page maps of continents, countries, and states. Customize one-page maps and download, email, print, or share! http://bit.ly/166rFAb

A hypothesized mechanism for the origin of life, an event called abiogenesis.  In this version, called RNA world, small molecules called nucleotides formed in the waters of the early Earth during the Hadean Eon, and polymerized on the surface of clay minerals.  These simple chains of RNA could replicate themselves in solution, but only slowly and inaccurately.  An RNA molecule developed which would fold into a structure that catalyzed RNA polymerization; a ribozyme.  The first ribozymes would replicate their sister strands, and produce copies of themselves and other RNA molecules. 

     In the same environment, long chains of carbon molecules called phospholipids were formed.  These molecules have two parts, the tail, which is hydrophobic, and the head, which is hydrophillic.  Because of these properties phospholipids will stick together and form micelles and vesicles in water.  Vesicles can absorb RNA nucleotides, concentrating them and creating a space where they can replicate, mutate and evolve.  At some point a ribozyme became enclosed within a vesicle, starting a chain reaction that evolved into the multitude of biological forms that we see today.

   Because this event occurred more than 3.8 billion years ago, theories about how and where it happened are highly speculative.  Possible environments for abiogensis include hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, hyper saline bubbles of water trapped in ice, radioactive lakes or lagoons on earths surface, and even in space or on another planet, brought to earth through a panspermia event.  We have very little molecular evidence of the first cells, but ribozymes and catalytic RNA molecules are embedded in the DNA replication machinery of all life.  Because evidence of this event has almost certainly been lost to time, the true mechanisms of the origin of life may remain a mystery to science.

Whether you are a Cardinals or Red Sox fan, Baseball Players are Scientists? Well, some might be... "It's all about ROTATIONAL INERTIA!" http://bit.ly/1amoJWK World Series 2013 Schedule: http://atmlb.com/16IA90y Credit: Chandra X-ray Center Operated for NASA by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

On this day in 1969, this happened... July 20, 1969 - Happy Moon Day