October Shows

October 14, 2011

A little late on the update this month, but thanks to everyone in Camp Mysterytrain who came out to Trail’s End this past weekend. The festival was a blast and helped open us up to some new opportunities for next summer.

Oct 1 – Mysterytrain @ Stir Fry Music Revival 3 (Wind Gap, PA)

Oct 9 – Mysterytrain @ Trail’s End Harvest Fest (Laurelton, PA)

Oct 22 – Mysterytrain @ Shaw’s Tavern (Altoona, PA)

Oct 29 – Mysterytrain @ All Night Halloween Bash (Millmont, PA)

Keeping with tradition, we’ve still got our own Halloween party this year. Also keeping with tradition, I still have to figure out my costume!

Sending Messages Into Space

October 1, 2011

One possibility for communicating across the vast distances of space is the use of radio or other electromagnetic waves. Human civilization already posses the technology to broadcast and receive signals at many wavelengths. If other extraterrestrial civilizations exist in the galaxy, then it is possible that they could develop similar capabilities. Based on this premise, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has scanned the sky for over fifty years now to look for any such signals. Along similar lines, a handful of attempts at messaging to extraterrestrial intelligence (METI) have been undertaken in recent years, with hopes of being picked up by an extraterrestrial listener. The content of these messages has increased in complexity and content, though, which may produce cryptic messages that are disorganized or difficult to decipher.

In a recent paper published in the journal Space Policy, my co-authors Dimitra Atri and Julia DeMarines and I propose the development of a METI protocol in order to guide the construction and transmission of messages to extraterrestrials. A METI protocol would include technical considerations such as the method of signal encoding, message length, and transmission strategy. This protocol would also provide guidelines for the content of messages, which includes limits on culturally-dependent, anthropocentric, or sense-dependent information. This will help ensure that a message into space is more representative of Earth as a whole and may also increase the likelihood that the message is understood by potential listeners.

As a way of testing messages and promoting educational outreach, we will implement an interactive website in which users can attempt to submit or decrypt messages according to a METI protocol. This will allow messages to be tested across cultural borders, which arguably is a minimum requirement for a message that would be sent to unknown extraterrestrial listeners. Such an exchange will also help users of the website to gain insight into cultures other than their own by discovering success or failure at effectively communicating a message to unknown receivers on Earth.

August/September Shows

August 10, 2011

It’s been a crazy summer of travel for me, and I’m finally home for a good stretch after spending a week in Banff, Alberta in the picturesque Canadian Rockies.

Aug 11 to 14 – Mysterytrain @ A Bear’s Picnic (Laurelton, PA)

Aug 28 – Mysterytrain @ Kind Roots II (Blain, PA)

Sep 9 & 10 – Mysterytrain @ Fall Jam (Brookville, PA)

Sep 16 & 17 – Mysterytrain @ 3rd Anniversary Campout (Millmont, PA)

It’s good to be home, and just in time for Bear’s Picnic!

July Shows

July 3, 2011

Lots of Mysterytrain festivals this month, so there’s plenty of chances to catch some sun, fresh air, and live music.

Jul 4 – Mysterytrain @ 4th Fest (State College, PA)

Jul 8 & 9 – Mysterytrain @ Jester Fest (Tipton, PA)

Jul 14 to 16 – Mysterytrain @ Looney Moon Jam (Artemus, PA)

Jul 22 & 23 – Mysterytrain @ Sunny Daze (Millmont, PA)

We’re excited to be a part of the Central PA 4th Fest this year, too, which features a pretty spectacular fireworks display!

Did respiration evolve before photosynthesis?

June 6, 2011

Animals today stay alive by breathing in oxygen-rich air through a process known as oxygenic respiration, which consumes oxygen (O2) and releases carbon dioxide (CO2) as a byproduct. Most plants, on the other hand, convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into energy through a process known as photosynthesis, which consumes CO2 and releases O2 into the atmosphere. Because photosynthesis is a source of oxygen, it seems intuitive that photosynthesis evolved first: once enough O2 was in the air, then respiration would be able to arise in the newly oxygen-enriched atmosphere. However, some biologists have argued since the 1970′s that respiration in fact evolved first. There are many reasons that this might be the case, and new measurements of bacterial respiration at very low levels of O2 have revived this “early-respiration” hypothesis.

In a recent paper written by myself and my two graduate advisers, we argue that small quantities of O2 could have reached the surface of early Earth through transport by atmospheric dynamics. This transport would primarily occur in the Wintertime hemisphere, where a “polar Winter vortex” develops near the polar region, because the lack of sunlight in Winter would allow for greatest amount of O2 to accumulate. Our calculations show that enough dissolved O2 could have accumulated in polar Winter waters to allow early forms of marine life (i.e. microbial life) to develop and use respiration–without needing to wait for photosynthesis to oxygenate the atmosphere. Although our model calculations cannot prove that respiration did in fact evolve first, they least demonstrate a proof-of-concept that the “early-respiration” hypothesis is in fact viable.

Our paper is titled “Availability of O2 and H2O2 on pre-photosynthetic Earth” and appears in the May issue of the journal Astrobiology.

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