Science-y

I am so easily distracted. They shouldn't let people like me near things like old record shops and the Internet. I started to look up stuff about jet engines (going fast, lots of fire, skidding out of control) and got hung up on two cool science headlines. Both have their roots in history. Which is good because my wealthy patrons will shut up.

The first is well, we all knew this was true, but here we are again with some more tantalizingly almost for sure proof of water on mars.

According to Samuel Schon, a Ph.D. student in the geological science department at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Mars had flowing water as recent as 1.25 million years ago. His studies of crater rims, and specifically water gullies, shows what he believes to be proof of running water.

Since you and I can't remember back that far, to put this news into perspective, this was a time when early humans were walking about and making very basic things, probably beer.

Now the other piece of science history is only a few days old, the actual item involved was much older. Did anyone happen to notice on Monday a kind of whoosh?Around 8:30am? It seems a rock, described by scientists as a "giant space rock" (glad they got that cleared up) passed by the earth about 72,000 kilometers away.

Oddly enough, the scientists can tell you to practically a car length how far away the thing is but estimate the rock to be anywhere from 21 to 47 meters across. A margin of error of over 2 to 1. And to make us feel better about it, they figure the Tunguska kaboom was caused by a rock about the same size.

All this science has me in a mood.