EU Normalizing: Sightseeing, shopping and socializing: Normal life resumes in some EU nations as pandemic restrictions ease

With nearly 180 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in European Union nations, some member nations are slowly easing pandemic restrictions, meaning people can enjoy the sights, shops and nightlife. Here, people visit the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican on May 3, the day of its reopening after weeks of closure

Read more at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/photos/sightseeing-shopping-and-socializing-normal-life-resumes-in-some-eu-nations-as-pandemic-restrictions-ease-1.6022581

News from outer space: Astronomers may have found hints of life in clouds of Venus - by Nicole Mortillaro

Astronomers have detected a chemical signature in the atmosphere of Venus that may be associated with life.

While the signature isn't robust enough to definitively declare that there's life on our nearest planetary neighbour, in a new paper published today in the journal Nature Astronomy, the international team says they have ruled out any other known sources that could have produced the chemical compound, phosphine.

"The reason we're so excited about this finding in this paper is that we found phosphine gas, which doesn't belong in the Venus atmosphere," said Canadian co-author Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

"We can say that it might be associated with life."

Phosphine, chemically known as PH3, is produced on Earth by organisms that don't require oxygen to survive, or can be created in laboratories. Over recent years, astronomers have proposed that it could be used as a chemical signature that might be associated with biological processes on exoplanets, planets orbiting distant stars.

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Astronomers may have found hints of life in clouds of Venus | CBC News

The Universe: Could life have started on Mars before coming to Earth? Possibly, new study suggests

How life arose on Earth remains a mystery, though many theories have been proposed. Now a new study by Japanese scientists has reinvigorated the discussion around panspermia: The idea that life may have reached Earth from Mars.

The panspermia hypothesis suggests life may have arisen on another planet, with bacteria travelling through space, hitching a ride on a piece of rock or other means, eventually making its long-distance journey to Earth. Mars is a particularly appealing source, as studies suggest it was once potentially habitable with a large hemispheric ocean.

However, the biggest challenge has been determining if bacteria could survive the harsh interplanetary — or even intergalactic — journey.


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Could life have started on Mars before coming to Earth? Possibly, new study suggests | CBC News

USA: Economy vs. human life is not a moral dilemma - those proposing it are sick in their head

As the coronavirus brings the global economy to a halt, some leaders are seriously suggesting that a few should die so the many can live. Such a suggestion is nothing less than moral bankruptcy, says Martin Gak.

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-economy-vs-human-life-is-not-a-moral-dilemma/a-52942552

Space Exploration: NASA reveals clues to Mars’ watery past

“What happened to the Mars atmosphere? I’ll quote Bob Dylan – ‘The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind’,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist at the Mars Exploration Program, said in Washington DC on Thursday.

The findings suggest a solar storm blasted away Mars’ atmosphere around three and a half billion years ago. Unlike Earth, Mars did not have a global magnetic field to protect its atmosphere.
NASA’s Mars-orbiting MAVEN spacecraft caught such a storm stripping away the planet’s atmosphere, scientists said.

“Up until about 3.7 billion years ago, water seemed to be very abundant and active. So the stripping of the solar wind, the stripping by the solar wind, of the atmosphere, would have occurred in that same time-frame,” said MAVEN lead researcher Bruce Jakosky.

“Mars appears to meet all of the conditions required for life or to have met them at the surface in the past. And that begs the question of whether was ever any life there, and if there was, whether it was genetically related to terrestrial life or would represent an independent origin.

“So as we go into the future, I think these questions about life and climate and the history of the planet as a whole are really at the centre of the exploration,” Jakosky continued.

Read more: NASA reveals clues to Mars’ watery past | euronews, world news

Why Pragmatism Should Beat Capitalism and Consumerism Every Time - by Swami Grover

The other day, I lamented that in the upcoming Presidential Election, neither party was seriously talking about ways to work less. And yet the evidence keeps piling up that we work too hard.

In my post, I suggested that talking about working less, sharing more, or generally reprioritizing our relationship with money does not necessarily have to be an anti-capitalist stance. And it doesn't.
So long as we are talking about capitalism with a small "c".

But it does mean taking on the notion of Capitalism as a be-all-and-end-all of human wellbeing. In fact, it means taking on Socialism while we are at it. And Consumerism too. Which leaves us simply with one "ism" worth keeping—pragmatism.

We need to refocus our attention not on what ideology we wish to follow—but rather what solutions work best. And that means we need to stop making a false distinction between "the economy" and that thing we call "life".

Read more: Why Pragmatism Should Beat Capitalism and Consumerism Every Time : TreeHugger