Gypsum deposit on Mars provides definitive evidence of water
The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity is on its way to the red planet, scheduled for a landing in August. In the meantime, the Opportunity rover, which has been operating for nearly eight years, is still sending back scientific results. Its latest, announced at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, provides a clear indication that water once flowed through underground fissures, giving us a better picture of Mars' geological history.
The findings are based on a vein of material that's picked up the name "Homestake," found near the rim of the Endeavour Crater. The material is only a couple centimeters across, but about 50cm long. Readings with a spectrometer indicated it was a form of calcium sulfate, and that it contained significant amounts of water. Gypsum crystals are formed when calcium sulfate associates with water; they tend to dissolver readily, but Mars' dry climate allows them to be stable. The material has been spotted elsewhere on Mars, in the form of sand dunes in the northern polar region.
Gypsum is formed when calcium-containing water comes in contact with sulfates, either from rocks or via volcanic activity. The calcium sulfate precipitates, capturing water molecules within the crystal structure in the process. The gypsum vein clearly indicates that water was flowing through through cracks below the surface of Mars at some point in its past; the rover's scientific lead, Cornell's Steve Squyres, calls it a "slam-dunk story."
By now, the evidence for liquid water on Mars' surface in its past is so extensive that we can probably treat it as a fact. But, so far at least, we haven't found a way to determine whether that water ever supported living creatures. Still, the Homestake find is another indication that Mars' waters were present in a variety of environments, both on the surface and percolating beneath it.
(Incidentally, many of you may be familiar with a common form of gypsum: drywall. If we ever want to put a housing development on Mars, we maybe able to locally source some of the material.)
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Spanish site: seizing our domain was unconstitutional prior restraint
This week has seen two developments in the case of RojaDirecta.com, the Spanish sports domain that the US federal government seized almost a year ago based on allegations that the site was promoting links to illegal streams of sporting events. On Tuesday, Puerto 80, the owner of the domain, filed a brief arguing that the seizure constitutes prior restraint of speech, something that's prohibited under the First Amendment. And on Wednesday, a federal judge dismissed the forfeiture action against the domain.
It's important to note that these developments are not connected. The government's effort to formally forfeit the domain, and the company's effort to get the domain back pending the outcome of the forfeiture proceeding, are separate cases. The government can, and probably will, refile its complaint.
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Motorola wins injunction against Apple, could spell trouble for EU sales
Motorola Mobility on Thursday won an important injunction against Apple in Germany, which could potentially bar Apple's European sales arm from selling iPhones and 3G-equipped iPads. At issue is a Motorola patent for cellular data transmission, part of wireless data transmission standards that are encumbered by an agreement to license the patent on "fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory" terms. The ruling suggests that, at least in Germany, raising a FRAND defense against standards-essential patent infringement claims could be a difficult proposition, and may force Apple to accept Motorola's licensing terms—FRAND or not—for "past infringement."
The FRAND defense has worked for Apple elsewhere, including in lawsuits brought by Samsung in The Netherlands and France. The basic argument is that suing over standards-essential patents instead of working out a FRAND agreement amounts to violation of anti-competition laws. Without some legal barrier to suing over such patents, they could potentially be used as a club to thwart any would-be competitors once they have built products incorporating a particular technology standard.
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HP's decision means webOS could end up more open than Android
The ultimate fate of HP's webOS mobile platform was finally revealed today. The company has announced plans to contribute its operating system to the open source software community. The move will open the door for other hardware manufacturers to adopt the operating system and ship it on their own devices.
We called for HP to open webOS last month in response to rumors that were circulating about the operating system's future. As we pointed out at the time, key components of the webOS userspace stack have considerable value. We argued that HP, existing webOS users, and the open source software community would all benefit if the platform were opened. HP apparently reached the same conclusion.
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Google, driving the getaway car for online bandits?
Remember the days when Google was the business "started by two guys in a garage" that was repeatedly held up as the example of Internet innovation and American can-do engineering? Those days are long gone. The newest rhetorical picture of Google paints the company more like the getaway driver for a group of snatch-and-grab thugs.
Speaking to Variety magazine, MPAA CEO Chris Dodd got positively feisty when asked about Google's opposition to Web censorship and search engine de-listing of "rogue sites."
"How do you justify a search engine providing for someone to go and steal something?" said Dodd. "A guy that drives the getaway car didn't rob the bank necessarily, but they got you to the bank and they got you out of it, so they are accessories in my view."
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Feature: How the EPA linked "fracking" to contaminated well water
Hydraulic fracturing (more commonly referred to as “fracking”) involves the injection of fluid at high pressure into a well, opening or widening fractures in the rock below that free up the flow of natural gas. Domestic natural gas production has been booming as a result, but opponents claim the technique contaminates drinking water, causing serious health effects.
Rigorous studies on fracking have been sparse, and the impassioned debate has raged on. A new investigation by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at a site in Wyoming is one of the first to look thoroughly at the potential link between fracking operations and groundwater contamination. The agency's report was released yesterday—and it provides a clear link between fracking and water supply problems.
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