Thursday, May 12, 2022

Guess what they're growing on the moon

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Overheard Conversation."


overheard conversation


That comic is true -- too true.


There is good news today in the world of science:


For the first time, scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon collected by Nasa’s Apollo astronauts.

Researchers had no idea if anything would sprout in the harsh moon dirt and wanted to see if it could be used to grow food by a new generation of lunar explorers. The results stunned them.

“Holy cow. Plants actually grow in lunar stuff. Are you kidding me?” said Robert Ferl of the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.


The University of Florida explains:

Scientists have grown plants in soil from the moon, a first in human history and a milestone in lunar and space exploration.

In a new paper published in the journal “Communications Biology,” University of Florida researchers showed that plants can successfully sprout and grow in lunar soil. Their study also investigated how plants respond biologically to the moon’s soil, also known as lunar regolith, which is radically different from soil found on Earth.

This work is a first step toward one day growing plants for food and oxygen on the moon or during space missions. More immediately, this research comes as the Artemis Program plans to return humans to the moon.

“Artemis will require a better understanding of how to grow plants in space,” said Rob Ferl, one of the study’s authors and a distinguished professor of horticultural sciences in the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).

Even in the early days of lunar exploration, plants played an important role, said Anna-Lisa Paul, also one of the study’s authors and a research professor of horticultural sciences in UF/IFAS.

“Plants helped establish that the soil samples brought back from the moon did not harbor pathogens or other unknown components that would harm terrestrial life, but those plants were only dusted with the lunar regolith and were never actually grown in it,” Paul said.

Paul and Ferl are internationally recognized experts in the study of plants in space. Through the UF Space Plants Lab, they have sent experiments on space shuttles, to the International Space Station and on suborbital flights.

“For future, longer space missions, we may use the moon as a hub or launching pad. It makes sense that we would want to use the soil that’s already there to grow plants,” Ferl said. “So, what happens when you grow plants in lunar soil, something that is totally outside of a plant’s evolutionary experience? What would plants do in a lunar greenhouse? Could we have lunar farmers?”

To begin to answer these questions, Ferl and Paul designed a deceptively simple experiment: plant seeds in lunar soil, add water, nutrients and light, and record the results.

The complication: The scientists only had 12 grams — just a few teaspoons — of lunar soil with which to do this experiment. On loan from NASA, this soil was collected during the Apollo 11, 12 and 17 missions to the moon. Paul and Ferl applied three times over the course of 11 years for a chance to work with the lunar regolith.

The small amount of soil, not to mention its incalculable historical and scientific significance, meant that Paul and Ferl had to design a small scale, carefully choreographed experiment. To grow their tiny lunar garden, the researchers used thimble-sized wells in plastic plates normally used to culture cells. Each well functioned as a pot. Once they filled each “pot” with approximately a gram of lunar soil, the scientists moistened the soil with a nutrient solution and added a few seeds from the Arabidopsis plant.

Arabidopsis is widely used in the plant sciences because its genetic code has been fully mapped. Growing Arabidopsis in the lunar soil allowed the researchers more insight into how the soil affected the plants, down to the level of gene expression.

As points of comparison, the researchers also planted Arabidopsis in JSC-1A, a terrestrial substance that mimics real lunar soil, as well as simulated Martian soils and terrestrial soils from extreme environments. The plants grown in these non-lunar soils were the experiment’s control group.

Before the experiment, the researchers weren’t sure if the seeds planted in the lunar soils would sprout. But nearly all of them did.

“We were amazed. We did not predict that,” Paul said. “That told us that the lunar soils didn’t interrupt the hormones and signals involved in plant germination.”

However, as time went on, the researchers observed differences between the plants grown in lunar soil and the control group. For example, some of the plants grown in the lunar soils were smaller, grew more slowly or were more varied in size than their counterparts.

These were all physical signs that the plants were working to cope with the chemical and structural make-up of the moon’s soil, Paul explained. This was further confirmed when the researchers analyzed the plants’ gene expression patterns.

“At the genetic level, the plants were pulling out the tools typically used to cope with stressors, such as salt and metals or oxidative stress, so we can infer that the plants perceive the lunar soil environment as stressful,” Paul said. “Ultimately, we would like to use the gene expression data to help address how we can ameliorate the stress responses to the level where plants — particularly crops — are able to grow in lunar soil with very little impact to their health.”

How plants respond to lunar soil may be linked to where the soil was collected, said Ferl and Paul, who collaborated on the study with Stephen Elardo, an assistant professor of geology at UF.

For instance, the researchers found that the plants with the most signs of stress were those grown in what lunar geologists call mature lunar soil. These mature soils are those exposed to more cosmic wind, which alters their makeup. On the other hand, plants grown in comparatively less mature soils fared better.

Growing plants in lunar soils may also change the soils themselves, Elardo said.

“The moon is a very, very dry place. How will minerals in the lunar soil respond to having a plant grown in them, with the added water and nutrients? Will adding water make the mineralogy more hospitable to plants?” Elardo said.

Follow up studies will build on these questions and more. For now, the scientists are celebrating having taken the first steps toward growing plants on the moon.

“We wanted to do this experiment because, for years, we were asking this question: Would plants grow in lunar soil,” Ferl said. “The answer, it turns out, is yes.”

Support and funding for this work was provided by NASA’s Biological and Physical Sciences Division, NASA’s Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Division, NASA grant NNX14AT24G, NASA grant 80NSSC19K0752 and the University of Florida


That's history being made before our eyes.


"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):

Thursday, May 12, 2022.  Today, we look at the fake assery.


The lies and the fake assery never stop and that includes from the media.  Deepa Shivaramn (NPR) types up the following:


The Women's Health Protection Act, a Democrat-led bill that would effectively codify a right to an abortion, failed to pass, as expected, after it did not reach the Senate's 60-vote threshold. All Democrats voted for the legislation except Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and all Republicans opposed the bill.

In a rare occurrence, Vice President Kamala Harris presided over the vote, which was 49-51.


[. . .]


Because it was never likely to pass, the vote was effectively symbolic. "I think it's really important to have this vote to show where everyone stands," Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota told NPR on Tuesday.


I'm sick of the damn lairs in congress and I'm sick of them in the press.


The bill needed 51 votes.  The 49 were expected.  Yes, even Bob Casey Jr. because he knows how unpopular outlawing Roe is in Philadelphia.  Joe Manchin should have been held in line with carrots or sticks.  The stick should have included, we will priamry you.  And they should primary him.  He never votes with the party when they need him.  He gives cover to Republicans who would otherwise look extreme "Even Democrat Joe Manchin . . . "  

It should have been explained to him wha tthe consequences were.  Barac k Obama explained to Dennis Kucinich that if he didn't vote for ObamaCare that he would not be in the US Congress.  (Dennis caved and,  ha ha, lost re-election anyway.)


That would have brought you fifty.  You needed one more with Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski the two you nudge.  It shouldn't take much and that's where you use the carrots.  


But let's say you couldn't get either of them to budge -- hugely doubtful --but let's say it.


It would have been a fifty to fifty bote.  What happens then?


The tie breaking vote comes from the sitting vice president Kamala Harris.  All that needed to be explained to Joe was how hard the party would come down against him and that they would primary him.  


they didn't fight for it, they didn't do a damn thing except pose and preen.


And that shouldn't cut it.


Nor should we buyi into the lie that if we turn out in November, then our Dems in Congress will pass the law making Roe legal.


It's not going to happen.  ANd you're trash if youre presenting that lie as truth.


Forget everything that is going on right now.  Th ehistorical pattern is that the party in power (Democrats) will lose at least one house this fall in the mid-terms.


So that's two years of nothing.


Now Nancy Pelosi told us ahead of the 2006 mid-terms that to get US forces out of Iraq, we had to deliver one of the two houses of Congress to the Democratic Party.  We delivered both houses to the party.  


Earlier this week, in what the US government is calling a "mistake," US forces shot up homes in Iraq.


US forces didn't leave Iraq.  


They used people, they lied to them and since theyd done so well lying about ending the war in 2006, they used it to grab the White House in 2008.


Barack never pulled all US troops from Iraq -- it was a drawdown, not a withdrawal.  In addition, in the fall of 2012 he began sending US troops back into Iraq -- a detail that the presidential debates chose to ignore that year despite THE NEW YORK TIMES reporting on it and having a general on record explaining it.  Then in 2014 even more were sent in.


What does the US Congress do?


If they can't protect a woman's right to choose right now, when are they going to?


Never.


And I don't need to hear their lies about 'when they grow up.'


Nancy Pelosi is is 82 years old, Chuck Schumer is 71.


they've been in Congress for years, they've been in leadership for years.


They aren't cute little six-year-olds telling us that some day, when they're big, they're going to be ballerinas and cowboys.  


This is the job they wanted and they need to do their job.


The press needs to stop lying for them.  


zAll they needed was to get Joe to vote yes and it would have gone to tie-breaker Kamala even if Lisa and Suan had refused to come on board.


And that would have given Kamala something historical to run on.  


People say I'm not hard enough on her.  They give her nothing.  Can you imagine Joe Biden putting up with the scraps the administration tosses to Kamala?


The Democrats need to ge ttheir act together or the people need to face the fact that the party never will.


Now they are going to suffer a loss in the mid-terms this fall.  That's  a given before you add in the realities.  There is the very unpopular Ukraine issue.


A lot of people are finally noting that Barack Obama refused to support the fighters with money the way Joe is doing.  Barack wa shappy to overturn an election there in 2014 and install Nazi linked people.


He just wasn't so stupid that he was going to send large amounts of US monies to racists.  That's what Ukraine is.


And that's what the media loves, right? 


They look like them -- I'm sure they do, in their heart of hearts, they look just like the US corporate media -- racist.


That's why they don't care about the wars in AFrica.


But they'll show up to stand with their racist brothers and sisters.


And Barack realized that his bi-racial card -- he claimed bi-racial until he lost to Bobby Rush -- would get pulled historically if 'the first Black man to be US president' also gave billions to a racist regime that used the N-word for Black people and that the Peace Corps had to provide an advisory warning on.  


Joe Biden doesn't care.  He thinks he can bamboozle again -- maybe come up with a story about someone named June Bug?  


But there were serious racial issues at play and Joe ignored them and shoved this down the throats of the American people.  


It's unpopular and it's only going to get more unpopular.


Some people are angry that Us (Bono and The Edge) went to Ukraine.  I'm not.  That photo of them on stage with the Ukraine musician as that musician flashed White power signs?  People are seeing it and they are reacting.  And they should be.  


Then you've got all the pro-Nazi Tweets that the 'leader' keeps Tweeting out.


The world is watching this and there will be accountability for those who have argued that the American people should live in poverty and face 40 year high inflation rates while Joe Biden and our Congress supported racists in another country.


There will be hell to pay.  


And I'm talking historically.  Jen, you didn't get out soon enough to save your lily white ass.


Now in the immediate future?


Abortion is not going to rally people to the polls for Democrats.  It never has.  It has let them peel off a group of voters in tight elections.


People will be focused on the economy in the mid-terms -- and in the next presidential election.  In the mid-terms people will be coping with the way Joe Biden has ruined their lives.


A woman e-mailed, I've mentioned her before.  She's a single mother in college.  Her classes start early in the morning and there's no way she can get there in time by public bus.  She takes it back home but she would miss class if she tried to take it in the morning.  So she has to pay for a cab.  And, in 2020, that cab ride cost her $7.13 before the tip.  Today>  Well, yesterday, she wrote that the prices had again gone up and the same trip was now #12.13 cents.


That's without any tip.


People can't afford that.


He has screwed up the country and he and Congress are out of touch.  


How many seats they lose in the mid-terms will depend upon whether or not they codify Roe.  And, if theyre not doing right now, they're not going to do it.   They'll always have an excuse and they'll always use it -- as they have in the past -- to turn out votes in close elections.








From the US House website -- a page maintained by the House of Representatives:


Laws begin as ideas. First, a representative sponsors a bill. The bill is then assigned to a committee for study. If released by the committee, the bill is put on a calendar to be voted on, debated or amended. If the bill passes by simple majority (218 of 435), the bill moves to the Senate. In the Senate, the bill is assigned to another committee and, if released, debated and voted on. Again, a simple majority (51 of 100) passes the bill. Finally, a conference committee made of House and Senate members works out any differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. The resulting bill returns to the House and Senate for final approval. The Government Printing Office prints the revised bill in a process called enrolling. The President has 10 days to sign or veto the enrolled bill.


They fight for trouble, where ever there's freedom, NATO troops are there.  NATO issued the following:


 On 10 May 2022, Major General Giovanni Iannucci from Italy assumed command of NATO Mission Iraq, following a change of command ceremony held in Baghdad. He succeeds Lieutenant General Michael Lollesgaard from Denmark, who had assumed his command on 6 May 2021.

On the occasion of the change of command, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg offered the following recognition: ''I commend Lieutenant General Lollesgaard for his outstanding services and exemplary leadership, and for the daily efforts that he and his personnel undertook to ensure the progress of our mission, in close coordination and cooperation with the Iraqi authorities. And I welcome the arrival of Major General Iannucci to head up our mission. I look forward to working closely with him as he leads our capacity-building activities in support of the Iraqi security institutions and armed forces, as requested by the Iraqi government.''

NATO Mission Iraq was launched at the NATO Summit in Brussels in July 2018, following a request from the Iraqi government. Established in Baghdad in October 2018, it is an advisory and capacity-building non-combat mission that assists Iraq in building more sustainable, transparent, inclusive and effective security institutions and armed forces, so that they themselves are able to stabilize their country, fight terrorism, and prevent the return of [ISIS].

All efforts of NATO Mission Iraq are carried out with the consent of the Iraqi government and conducted in full respect of Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

NATO Mission Iraq is another concrete demonstration of NATO’s readiness to address all challenges to the Euro-Atlantic region, from any direction, through a 360 degree approach to security.




Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "No Soul To Save" from earlier tonight.  The following sites updated: