NASA’s open position for a planetary protection officer isn’t as glamorous as it sounds.

NASA had recently sparked enthusiastic scenarios when the agency announced that they are basically waiting for a Guardian of the Galaxy to protect Earth. However, as it is often the case, the title is the only feature in this job that seems plucked from the science fiction realm. A Planetary Protection Officer sounds like a compelling career when in fact it requires 100% knowledge of interplanetary science and zero experience of fighting green aliens.

The Planetary Protection Officer Has to Make Sure Astronauts, Equipment or Samples Don’t Contaminate Foreign Planets

NASA is hunting for the ideal professional for their opening. Here’s another expression that sounds cool when in actuality it is a tedious job. One of the main jobs of a planetary protection officer is to protect potentially habitable environments from contamination with microbes brought from Earth.

The task works the other way around as well. When astronauts return with extraterrestrial samples, the officer has to make sure that the foreign material doesn’t infect humans and the Blue Planet.

John Rummel is a biology professor at East Carolina University who occupied this position twice. The first time happened between 1990 and 1993 only to return in 1998 until 2006. He offered more explanations for what this job is really up to.

From his experience, the most challenging part was to make sure astronauts understand the importance of their mission. It was not just about attaining the goal but being also aware of the impact of their success.

“From that aspect, the job was definitely worth it. But as to ‘rewards,’ those were mostly internal.”

Former Officer John Rummel Offered Insights into This Controversial NASA Position

Rummel also revealed that his job was often times in a dependency relation with the associate administrator who is in charge of the project expenses. If he didn’t receive the green light, it meant that there were no more funds to support his side projects as well.

Nonetheless, his contribution was substantial for NASA’s Mars program. It was up to the planetary protection officer to decide whether equipment such as Sojourner was sterile enough to land on other planets and investigate their environment.

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A new set of genetic tests offered a new set of answers as to the faith and origin of the Canaanites.

The mysterious Canaanites are quite a source of debate as, although mentioned several times in the Bible, their origin, status, and faith remained open for question. Now, a new series of DNA tests with have just offered an answer to a number of these questions.

For archeologists, the Canaanites were a group of pastoral nomads and settlers which lived in the southern Levant or present-day Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, and Syria. They are believed to have lived sometime during the late second millennium BC.

The Mysterious Canaanites Trace Back their Origins to a Mixture of People?

This new study is based on bones found during archeological digs on the southern coast of modern day Lebanon, at the Sidon site. The discovered human remains, dated as being some 4,000 years old, identified as being of Canaanite origins. Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists collaborated with an international team of researchers and conducted a more detailed study of the remains.

Samples taken from the five discovered individuals identified traces of DNA which was later sequenced. The genome data of these people, believed to have lived in the Levant region in 1,700 BCE, was then compared to that of 99 modern-day individuals with a Lebanese ancestry.

According to the results, the modern-day Lebanese population seems to share some 90 percent of their genes with the old Canaanite remains.

This goes quite against the faith attributed to the Canaanites by Ancient Hebrew texts. These describe how cities and settlements in the Canaanite territory were reduced to rubble by the Israelites. However, the people themselves apparently escaped.

Study results also found an explanation for the 10 percent genetic difference to the present-day inhabitants of the same region. According to them, this DNA came from other migrant populations considered to have settled in the area in between 1,800 and 200 BCE.

This period is seen as the time of cultural shift which saw the disappearance of the Bronze Age Canaanites and the emergence of the Iron Age Phoenicians.

“For the first time, we have genetic evidence for substantial continuity in the region, from the Bronze Age Canaanite population through to the present day. These results agree with the continuity seen by archaeologists,” stated Claude Doumet-Serhal, the Sidon site director.

While this new study might offer a possible answer as to the faith of the Canaanites, specialists are still looking to understand and discover this lost culture.

Current analysis results are available in the American Journal of Human Genetics

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An accident led to the discovery of a rare fossil in New Mexico, a complete stegomastodon skull.

In a chance discovery in the deserts of New Mexico, two young boys out for a hike in the wilderness were using their walkie-talkies, when one of the brothers stumbled over a strange formation.

It looked to them like the piece of a cool skull. One of them believed it was “just a big, fat rotten cow”, while young Jude Sparks was sure he saw a tusk. Well, their parents took some photos and contacted an expert at New Mexico State University. It appears the boys found a rare fossil over 1 million years old, and a paleontology team is already on site.

Rare Fossil Turns out to Be Stegomastodon

The boys’ parents emailed biology Professor Peter Hourde, who gets several inquiries per month about potential fossils in the desert. Most of them turn out to be just rocks.

“They sent me a picture on a Friday night. I mean, it was 100 percent immediately obvious that they’d either found a skull or a jaw. I could see teeth,” Houde stated. “I wrote right back to them; I said let’s go out there right away.”

When they arrived, they found out that Jude had been far more correct in his scientific assessment. The jaw and skull are that of a 1 million years old stegomastodon, a relative of the modern elephant and the wooly mammoth. This rare fossil was difficult to find, because its bones are extremely fragile, despite the massiveness of the beast.

Houde added that the Sparks were actually “very responsible” for trying to get in contact with him. He points out that others might have wanted to keep the fossil for themselves.

That’s because the technique is intense to remove such delicate fossils, mostly due to their massive size. They can deteriorate immediately once they leave their supporting medium. The team continues to examine the site to make the most of this chance discovery.

Image Source: Wikimedia