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Mike Malaska

mike_malaska@deepspace.social

<p>Planetary scientist, organic chemist, astrobiologist, field scientist. Works at Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. Champion of Titan exploration. Fascinated by life in Deep Ice. Studies the mysterious labyrinths and dissolution geology (karst) on Titan. Opinions expressed are my own. He/Him.</p><p><a href="https://deepspace.social/tags/PlanetaryScience" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>PlanetaryScience</span></a><br /><a href="https://deepspace.social/tags/astrobiology" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>astrobiology</span></a><br /><a href="https://deepspace.social/tags/chemistry" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>chemistry</span></a><br /><a href="https://deepspace.social/tags/geomorphology" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>geomorphology</span></a><br

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    Gain-of-function (GOF) research. It&#39;s back in the news, and I&#39;ve got indirect experience in this. It is part of the &quot;lab leak&quot; hypothesis for the origin of COVID. There are some really key takeaways, but nobody&#39;s discussing those. I will. But first, what is Gain-of-Function research and why should we do it? Gain-of-Function research is where you take an infective disease causing agent and deliberately try to make it resistant to treatments. Why would you do this? [Thr...

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    Had a great time at #AbSciCon2026! In particular, one conversation, or set of conversations I guess, stood out. For me, as a massive paradigm shift. Will try to formulate it. The &amp;quot;battle&amp;quot; is the search for life. (Up until now, I had thought this was the big goal.) But the &amp;quot;war&amp;quot; is to understand how organic chemical reaction networks are set up in different environments, and different worlds (and even in space itself.) Which means.... #astrobiology

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    Old Town Cemetary, Hillsborough, North Carolina. Taken May 28, 2026.

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    Poll time! Here is a quote from NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (see: https://deepspace.social/@mike_malaska/116384128140587012): “If we wake up and we see our rival’s taikonauts on the moon before we’re able to return, the blow to American exceptionalism will be so damaging, the shock wave will be felt around the world.” If China beat the US to the Moon, how would you feel personally?

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    Very neat article examining how calcium carbonate gets dissolved in oceans, sequestering away CO2 into the deep cold ocean. Borer et al., Microbially enhanced dissolution of calcite in sinking marine particles. PNAS, 2026, Came out yesterday, so this is pretty fresh Science! UPDATED: Link to free version (thanks to @Artemis201 for finding this!) https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/165057/ParticleDissolution_borer_PNAS_Revision2_FiguresWithin.pdf So...what is happening? Why should...

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    Ripple marks in Death Valley. Furnace Creek formation. Golden Canyon just below Manly Beacon. How did this form? 1) About 9 million years ago during the Miocene-Pliocene, there was a big deep lake here. It was dry, but mot as dry as current Death Valley. 2) Muds, silts, sands, and volcanic tuffs were deposited in the lake building up a thick sequence of layers. 3) Nearby rhyolite got altered by hrdrothermal activity. And then... #Geology #DeathValley

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    Please RT. This link will help find the nearest foodbank in the United States. There is a search bar by zip code that provides a list of food pantries nearby. https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank