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Jason and the Solar Winds
I was having a discussion with Jason the other night while he brushed his teeth and got ready for bed. He noted that the North and South Poles of Earth have actual magnetic properties. I mentioned that the Earth’s magnetic field is generated by its molten core, and that its existence is probably what keeps our atmosphere from being ripped away by solar winds. In fact, some experts believe that when the core of Mars cooled, its magnetic field disappeared, causing a loss of atmosphere in just this way.
As I tucked him into bed, Jason said, “Solar winds would blow our house away easily, then.” I asked, “You think so?” and he answered, “Yes, because scientists estimate the weight of the atmosphere is 5,630 trillion tons, so if solar winds blew that away, they’d blow our house like a quadrillion miles into the Universe.”
“You’re probably right,” I conceded, and said goodnight. And that’s why I’m giving up trying to impress my 7-year-old with science trivia.
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Yeah, the current, trendy theory about the loss of Mars’s atmosphere is that the molten core’s interior dynamo action stopped because of some giant collision, possibly with a comet of some kind, and that allowed the charged ionic particles of the solar wind to sweep the atmosphere away, all about 4 billion years ago (…probably around the time they built the atmosphere factories based around the Ninth Ray, of course).
Speaking of people that hold beliefs about science that disappoint me on a personal level, did you hear about the recent legislation to prevent the patenting of genes? It wouldn’t surprise me if the legislators met specifically to prevent Michael Crichton’s “Next” from happening. How could people venerate a guy so much, that is wrong so much of the time? Take for instance his series of thrillers based around laughably dated, reactionary hysterias: “Disclosure,” a panicky novel about women using sexual harassment for leverage in the workplace, and “Rising Sun,” about a Japanese corporate takeover of the U.S (remember those days?).