Image: ASU

Paul Davies

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Arizona State University scientist Paul Davies and research technician Robert Wagner propose a sort of "why not" project in search of proof for extraterrestrial civilizations:

In Acta Astronautica, an online scientific journal, they suggest inspecting new, close-up photos of Earth's moon for signs of a visit by aliens, because artifacts on the airless surface would be preserved for hundreds of millions of years. Their article was published in October, but has gained the attention of online news sites since being noticed over the weekend by the U.K.'s Guardian.

"In this paper we take as a case study one particular new and rapidly-expanding database: the photographic mapping of the Moon's surface by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) to 0.5 m resolution," they write. "Although there is only a tiny probability that alien technology would have left traces on the moon in the form of an artifact or surface modification of lunar features, this location has the virtue of being close, and of preserving traces for an immense duration."

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Our trusty Scientology tour guide Didi

​The Arizona Church of Scientology is hard up for cash and is begging for contributions in one of the most frightening Youtube videos we've ever seen. More >>

Image: National Weather Service

A Doppler radar image captures the enormity of the July 5 dust storm.

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The July 5 dust storm was among the most "significant" ever seen by National Weather Service experts who have been in the Valley 30 years, according to a new online report.

Everything you wanted to know about the meteorology of the storm that sand-blasted the Valley on Tuesday is contained in the NWS' report published today on the Web, (tip of the hat to Scottsdale newshound Pete Kosednar, who told us about it).

The "very large and historic" dust storm began with thunderstorms that developed east of Tucson on Tuesday, the report says. The monsoon-season weather produced downdrafts of up to 70 mph, which helped whipped up all that beige powder.

Although the height of the ensuing dust cloud that began heading toward the southeast Valley was up to 6,000 feet high, Doppler radar typically only works for storms at higher than 4,000-feet elevation, making the dust storm difficult to detect. Ground spotters in Eloy then began calling to say something major was about to happen.

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Image: ASU, NASA

The Grand Canyon of Mars: Valles Marineris. This and other great views of Mars are available on a new, zoomable map created by ASU and NASA

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Wanna take a trip to Mars, without donning a spacesuit?

Try the new Mars map compiled for online use by Arizona State University, in collaboration with NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Microsoft. Philip Christensen, Regents' Professor of geological sciences in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, calls it "the best global map of Mars to date."

The zoomable, interactive map sounds like kind of a Google Earth for the Red Planet -- we can't tell you what it's like to use it, though. The site has crashed this afternoon because of heavy traffic. An error message tells users to check back after 6 p.m. (If you're jonesing for a fix right now, Google does, in fact, have its own, lesser Mars maps).

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A breakfast that makes you go "mmm?" Not in Chandler, reportedly, where a teacher said his McDonald's bag contained a special ingredient: A live scorpion.

Jeff Tallman, according to Channel 15 (KNXV-TV), found the critter along with his meal last Friday morning after stopping at the Mickey D's on Arizona Avenue and Ray Road. Channel 15 says Tallman is "the science teacher at Chandler High School." (What, there's only one?)

Normally, we'd say this sounds fishy to us and dismiss the whole thing as an attempt to turn out the pockets of Ronald the Clown. But everyone trusts a science teacher about things like scorpions and the odds of finding an arachnid lurking in our Egg McMuffins, so we'll suspend disbelief for a moment.

Except on one thing. 

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Image: Wikimedia Commons

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Creationists will have a field day with this one.

Turns out that Charles Darwin was wrong about the appendix. Darwin believed the organ didn't do anything useful, so it might have been vestigial -- an evolutionary leftover from an early antecedent of humans.

However, a team of researchers from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Duke University recently published an scholarly article that describes how the appendix actually servers a critical -- though somewhat disgusting -- function.  

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​It's a miracle!

Or not.

According to one scientist, the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe that supposedly appeared on a peasant's cloak more than 200 years ago defies rational explanation.

This load of hokum was foisted on a crowd of believers at the First International Marian Congress held over the weekend in Phoenix. Adolfo Orozco told folks that two miracles are associated with the cloth, both having to do with its supposed resistance to decay.

 

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Image: Arizona State University

In 2004, Arizona State University geologist Phil Christensen put out a request via Internet: Send rocks.

In five years, children and adults worldwide have answered the call -- big-time. Last week, ASU reported the Rock Around the World program was sent its 10,000th rock, the piece of quartz from Nepal in the picture at right.

The milestone -- get it?? -- caught the attention of ABC News, which contains an amusing anecdote about how Christensen (below) started the program, then skipped town for a few days on business.

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Image: Wikimedia Commons

More than half a billion years ago, life on Earth wasn't very interesting. No cats, dog, people, dinosaurs -- not even plants.

What did the landscape look like back then? Endless miles of green "pioneer vegetation," say according to researchers at Arizona State University and the University of California, Riverside.

The scientists think they've found the answer to what triggered an explosion of more complex, multi-cellular life that led to the plants and animals we know today. Before that explosion could occur, the researchers wrote in the science journal, Nature, these primitive, photosynthesizing life-forms covered the planet, dumping vast amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere.

ASU geologist L. Paul Knauth led the research, says Science Daily:

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How's this for romantic:

A University of Arizona professor found a new species of moth -- one with beautiful pink wings -- and named it after his wife, who likes the color pink. Tests proved the critter was a previously unknown species.

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