Venus is a tiny planet...

...when you see it in front of the sun.

Image from NASA taken today during the Venus transit from the International Space Station. Click on the image to read more about this amazing event.

I like this image too, also from NASA. 

Are we there yet?

Now, THIS is worth reading.  Fantastic.

News from space: DNA was there first

Amazing news from NASA today - the building blocks of DNA have been found in asteroids from space.  Maybe Earth's primordial soup was seeded with DNA building blocks, an idea I think is very likely.  Of course it just means that DNA and its building blocks evolved somewhere else in the universe.  I wonder if living cells evolved anywhere else?  Why wouldn't it have?  Fascinating! 

Ponderings on potatoes

Why are so many people more excited over the new flavors on potato chips than over the fact that potatoes (and we) actually exist?  I think that potatoes exist is much, much more awesome and extreme than the latest flavor cooked up in some food chemistry lab. But nobody talks about that...  (OK, for the record, I love salt & vinegar and pickle-flavored chips).

Some photos of recently 'discovered' flavors from the food labs.




Extreme Screamin' dill pickle chips, anyone?  And dipping a chip in ketchup is not longer necessary (who would dip them anyway?).  And horseradish and cheddar, Swedes - would you eat 'pepparrot och ostsmak'?  In Sweden there are chips flavored with dill, chives, and 'juicy onion and cheese'.  There are lots of special chips flavors around the world, and I would like to try the kimchee one from Japan. 
 
But I am getting away from the topic.  My point is that many people sit around and think about and drool over chips, without being in awe that one little planet in a huge vast, maybe infinite,universe has 'managed to' evolve humans and potatoes from scratch (or near scratch). I think that is much more awesome than some new flavor of a chips developed by a human brain and marketed for millions and millions of dollars that could have been spent on making this planet a better home for everybody.