Mars Avalanche — and a rant
Every once in a while you come across something that just makes you stand (or sit) and stare with your mouth hanging open. Today, for me, it was looking at a satellite photo of an avalanche that occurred on Mars.
Just think about it for a minute. Today, we got to see a photo of an avalanche that happened on another planet. Not only can we see it but there’s a puff of dust from the avalanche in the photo.
I remember in high school begging to stay up late to see the pictures coming back from our space program. The launches were seen in school on a TV that was brought in for that purpose. Then things seems too ho-hum for constant coverage and even today it’s usually just an item in the news program unless you go to a NASA or other science site to see the news coverage. For example, I didn’t know or didn’t follow up on the Swift Science Satellite program and if I hadn’t seen the link on TechRevu I’d have missed the gorgeous 
photo of the M33 galaxy (better known as the Triangulum Galaxy).
There is just so much to learn about our world, the universe around us and yet we constantly find conservative lobbies trying to curtail science education in our schools. There’s nothing like seeing an avalanche on another planet in our solar system or other galaxies beyond our own to bring home just how much there is to learn and how far we’ve come to understanding ourselves and our universe.
There seems to be a willingness in this country (the U.S.) to denigrate science and scientists, to glorify sports heros, and honor ignorance. We’ve reduced scholarships and funding for students to attend colleges — in some cases pricing it out of reach of middle as well as low income students. I worked my way through college as well as having a lot of financial aid but from talking with people now and looking at going back for an advanced degree — I really don’t see how many families can afford to send their children to college without taking some drastic steps (like second and third mortgages) that could impact their retirement years.
If the US wants to once again be a leader in the world in science and engineering — it must take educating its people seriously. I remember seeing several years ago a news item where they were talking about American ingenuity and the wonderful breakthrough in science that had been made at an American college. The camera then switched to a picture of the team of students and professor in the lab — guess what? The professor was from the US but all those Ph.D students were foreign students. That’s a fact of life in academia — and until the government and the people become concerned enough to support US students who make the grade as other countries do we’ll continue to sink down into mediocrity.
But meanwhile, I’ll enjoy the wonder of what we have done and have high hopes that our future will see more wonders and insights into our universe.