It was 150 years ago today that papers of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace’s explaining the theory of natural selection - now recognized as the main driver of evolution - were presented to the Linnean Society of London.

This post at The Beagle Project Blog gives an excellent and interesting account of the momentous occasion. Here are they key moments in the story:

Wallace spent much of the late 1840’s and early 1850’s on expeditions in tropical locales, hunting for the mechanism behind the evolutionary change in species. Wallace wrote a paper on the subject in 1855, prompting the eminent geologist Charles Lyell to pay a visit to Darwin, who then spilled the beans on his theory of natural selection that he’d spent the last 20 years mulling over.

Lyell urged Darwin to publish his theory, lest someone else beat him to it. As it happened, in February 1858, Wallace thought of natural selection while stricken by a fever in Indonesia. Wallace even sent an essay to Darwin, who he knew to be interested in the subject, explaining his theory.

Darwin appealed to Lyell and another friend, Jospeh Hooker, who decided to present papers from both Wallace and Darwin to the Linnean Society on July 1, 1858. They were published in the Society’s journal a month later. Fifteen months later Darwin’s semincal “On the Origin of Species” was published.

And such were the beginnings of the most fundamental theory in biology.

There’s been a (somewhat slowly) growing trend in recent years to revamp small things in our lives to make a little bit greener, for example, compact fluorescent bulbs are gradually replacing their more inefficient cousins, incandescent lights.

Companies are jumping on the band wagon as well. Poland Springs, for example, recently debuted their new “eco-shape” bottle that has 30 percent less plastic than the old bottle. Apparently, Sam’s Club is also getting in on the act with brand-new rectangular-shaped milk jugs, according to this article in today’s online version of The New York Times.

The jugs are easier to stack and therefore to ship, cheaper to make and ship (bringing down the cost of milk in the store) and more environmentally-friendly. But to change-resistant consumers, they’re also, well, different.

The new shape just isn’t want people are used to seeing in the diary section. And though the milk in these containers is fresher (because it ships out faster) and cheaper, it’s also apparently harder to pour. The tried-and-true “life, tip and pour” method doesn’t work these jugs, instead resulting in a lot of spilled milk. No need to cry though, because just resting the jug on a counter and tipping it will get all the milk into your glass, Sams Club employees say.

Such reinventions of basic parts of the American way of life are going to become more commonplace, according to experts quote in the article:

“This is a key strategy as a path forward,” said Anne Johnson, the director of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, a project of the nonprofit group GreenBlue. “Re-examining, ‘What are the materials we are using? How are we using them? And where to they go ultimately?”

Sam’s Club is already expanding the number of stores that feature the new milk jugs and Wal-Mart is considering following suit.

Who knows what product will eco-ified next…

In a recent, excellent New York Times op-ed, physicist Brian Green (author of “The Elegant Universe”) explained why science is such an important part of our lives. And not just for the obvious reasons — the technology it has led to and may lead to in the future, as well as the issues it helps us understand now, such as climate change and global pandemics — but for the impact it can have on us in our everyday life.

As Greene wrote, “Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner that’s precise, predictive and reliable — a transformation, for those lucky enough to experience it, that is empowering and emotional.”

You may be aware of this transformation if you’re a scientist (or a science writer), but rarely does any of the wonder of science, the miracle of discovery ever make it into the classroom. (It certainly didn’t when I was in school.)

Science classes tend to emphasize the technical aspects of science, the equations and the facts, without ever presenting the inspirational aspects of it – they leave out the drama. Fortunately, I was able to find some of those inspirational stories on my own, reading about the “big questions” in science and how the answers to those questions shape the world we live in. In Greene’s view, this is exactly what needs to be injected into science education because it may make a child actually want to learn all those equations and fact.

After all, Greene notes, what makes someone want to learn how to play the piano, learning their scales or hearing the beautiful music they can make once they learn the skill?

“We must embark on a cultural shift that places science in its rightful place alongside music, art and literature as an indispensible part of what makes life worth living,” Greene says.

All of this is part of what we do at LiveScience and SPACE.com - we try to communicate science in a way that captures some of that drama, that can relate science to its larger meaning in our lives.

Robert Bonitz of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been working on the Phoenix Mars Lander’s robotic arm for a long time — the arm was originally created for the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander in fact.

When the Phoenix Mars Lander was raised from the ashes of that failure, Bonitz began working on the arm again, this time for the lander to use to dig through the permafrost believed to underlie Mars’ arctic regions.

Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein made a deal with Bonitz, who is an expert parachutist, in the early stages of the mission, about four-and-a-half years ago, that if Phoenix landed safely on the surface and completed its 90-day mission, he would do a tandem jump with Bonitz.

A few days after the bet, a meeting for Sept. 14, 2008 showed up on Goldstein’s network calendar, courtesy of Bonitz. But Goldstein didn’t think too much of it, considering how far away the date was at the time, he told reporters after a press briefing at JPL today.

Needless to say, after Sunday’s picture-perfect landing and the excellent performance of the spacecraft so far, Goldstein is becoming a little apprehensive about making that deal (personally, I can’t blame him). Whether Goldstein is going to follow-through on the deal hasn’t been decided yet — after all, the lander is only three sols (or Martian days) into its mission. So stay tuned come September though, for news of parachuting NASA scientists. And make sure never to enter into bets with expert jumpers.

NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has now been on the surface of Mars for over a day, and mission scientists have wasted no time in getting to work.

Phoenix’s science team at the University of Arizona went straight to work last night, as soon as the news came in that Phoenix had safely landed and had power from its solar arrays. They sent up a set of instructions for Phoenix to follow overnight, which the lander should carry out today. If everything goes according to plan, mission scientists should be hearing back from the spacecraft anytime now. The craft will likely send back more images of itself, so that scientists can make sure everything is working properly, and the Martian surface.

Now that mission control has switched over to the science team, the atmosphere at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is much more subdued today, as weary engineers go to get some rest after the excitement of Phoenix’s “picture perfect” landing.

“I’m going to sleep,” said JPL Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein after this morning’s press briefing.

Live coverage of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander has officially begun. So far NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s mission control looks fairly subdued, with just a few people milling about a talking to one another.

Mission controllers are wearing their Phoenix polo shirts, which are bright blue with the mission logo on the front, for the occasion.

Controllers have been working all night, said JPL Phoenix mission manager Barry Goldstein at a press briefing earlier today, adding they were tired, but excited for the big day.

Goldstein said he is starting to feel the butterflies himself, because he’s been working constantly up until the last communication with Phoenix this morning. But now that that’s done, “that means that means we have nothing to do but watch… and that means I’m a heck of a lot more tense today,” he told reporters.

Humans may not be able to travel to Mars yet, but we our names can.

The Planetary Society, co-founded by the legendary Carl Sagan, has assembled a list of 250,000 names on a DVD that is now attached to NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, set to touch down on the red planet later today.

The DVD, entitled “Visions of Mars,” also features images of Mars from both pop culture (for example, Marvin the Martian) and science, a collections of stories and other works about Mars, Orson Welles’ famous “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast, and greetings to future human explorers to Mars from several people, including Sagan.

Sagan cites the many reasons that the humans listening to him in the future might be there, from impending catastrophe, to simple curiosity, adding that whatever the reason is that they are there, “I wish I was with you.”

The DVD is intended as something of a time capsule from Earth on all things Mars related to let future generations of humans know how the red planet has inspired both science and science fiction. Stories from Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury and Arthur C. Clarke are included on the disk to show the “dance” between science and science fiction, as Sagan says in his greeting on the disk.

The disk was originally strapped to Russia’s Mars ‘96 spacecraft, which failed shortly after launch. Planetary Society members updated the DVD for the Phoenix mission. They also sent disks with names up on the two Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, which are still scuttling around the Martian surface.

If Phoenix makes it safely to the surface of Mars, it will use its stereo camera to image and check its systems. These pictures could show the disk attached to the craft. (The disk is made of a hardy silica glass and has been tested to withstand the vibrations of travel and entry, as well as weathering from wind-blown dust and sand on Mars.)

For those who want to catch a live showing of the Phoenix landing, The Planetary Society is also holding a series of events in cities around the country that will show the mission control live on a big screen. The main event, here in Pasadena (called Planetfest ‘08) that will include speakers such as Bill Nye the Science Guy, Ray Bradbury, and Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith. You can find a list of cities with events here.

Whether the Society’s disk will be recovered in a matter of decades or centuries is a matter of debate amongst Planetary Society members. One member is betting on the later, and says that he hopes it never comes back to Earth.

Tomorrow’s the big day, when NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander attempts to touch down after a nail-biting seven-minute descent through the atmosphere that has mission scientists on edge.

At a press conference at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory today, a few of those scientists described how they’re feeling with just over 24 hours until Phoenix enters Mars’ atmosphere.

“I’m really excited about being here,” JPL Phoenix mission manager Joe Guinn, adding, “I’m getting a real case of the heebie-jeebies now.”

Phoenix Project manager (also at JPL) Barry Goldstein said that he was starting to feel the nerves too, but that the meetings to plan for landing day, as well as lots of ice cream, are helping to keep the butterflies at bay.

Goldstein met with reporters during a tour of JPL mission control yesterday, which was nearly empty, except for a two or three engineers there just in case something went wrong. Tomorrow there, mission control will be packed with mission scientists, engineers, and a few VIPs.

With nerves likely to run high as the time for landing gets closer and closer, Goldstein will be using a long-time JPL nerve-killing tradition: passing out peanuts to the mission control crew.

The practice has apparently been in place since the Ranger missions to the moon. After the first few failed, those in mission control began to pop peanuts in an attempt to calm their nerves.

Phoenix will uphold this grand tradition, Goldstein said, adding, “I’ve already purchased the peanuts.”

So if you watch NASA TV tomorrow, look for peanuts making their way into the mouths of those in mission control.

After NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander makes it nerve-wracking descent through the Martian atmosphere on Sunday and hopefully makes a safe landing on the surface of the red planet, mission scientists will not only be waiting with bated breath for the first beeps of radio signals from the craft, but also the first images it will send.

I had the opportunity yesterday to tour the Multimission Image Processing Lab (MIPL, pronounced “mipple”) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will be responsible for processing those images and sending them to both the Phoenix science team at the University of Arizona and to the public.

MIPL is housed in one of the many buildings on the JPL campus in a modest space that looks like most other government office buildings built in the 1960’s and ’70s (the elevator doors are still coated with that classic burnt orange paint color). But while the building may belong to a different era of NASA, MIPL is on the cutting edge of image and video processing technology. Huge posters of satellite images of Earth hang on the walls, along with a 3-D image of a model of Phoenix.

MIPL scientists Eric De Jong took us through the lab to meet the people who create the images, and to explain a little about how the lab will handle the images from Phoenix.

MIPL can get images from spacecraft out moments after the signal reaches Earth. That’s exactly what they did for Mars Pathfinder, De Jong told reporters. De Jong made a deal with mission scientist Peter Smith that if De Jong could send out the images before Smith saw them, he could have them out within a minute of receiving the signal — and he did, he told us proudly (I’d be proud too). For most missions now, “the images go out to the public as they arrive,” De Jong said.

The first images from Phoenix could arrive as soon as 10 pm EDT on landing day. But because of the “bent-pipe” transmission relay from Phoenix to the three Mars orbiters, when exactly the images will arrive is up in the air. But De Jong says that MIPL intends to send out any images as soon as they get them.

Both NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars Express will be keeping an eye on Phoenix as it plummets through the Martian atmosphere, perhaps even snapping some images of the craft’s orange and white striped parachute deployed. MIPL will process any images from MRO as well, which could also come out as soon as the night of the landing.

The team doesn’t just process images from the spacecraft, they also made the video animations that show what the Phoenix entry, descent and landing is supposed to be like. The team have also used satellite images and data to make 3-D videos of cloud cover on Earth, the Martian around the rover Spirit’s landing site and the roiling atmosphere of the Sun. Reporters were treated to a showing of these videos in the MIPL lab. Seeing a loop of solar material break free from the sun’s magnetic grip and pop out at you is pretty cool, I have to say.

Along the tour, we saw the room where scientists will be processing the images from Phoenix. And though it sat empty now, it will be buzzing with activity come Sunday.

The Daily Kos has reported on an interesting development in the efforts of the Heartland Institute, an organization that opposes environmental regulations, to cast doubt on some of the science of global warming and the projections climate scientists have made.

Dennis T. Avery (a fixture among climate-change skeptics and listed as a senior fellow at the Heartland Institute) wrote an article originally published last fall by the Hudson Institute, “500 Scientists with Documented Doubts of Man-Made Global Warming Scares.” It turns out that the list might not hit such a nice round number, according to DeSmogBlog.

Avery’s article purports to list scientists whose work contradicts the evidence that global warming poses a major threat to us and other species. DeSmogBlog manager Kevin Grandia emailed 122 of the scientists to notify them of their inclusion on the list, and less than 24 hours later, he had 45 responses from rather unhappy scientists, many of whom have demanded to be taken off the list. An example:

“I am horrified to find my name on such a list. I have spent the last 20 years arguing the opposite.” - Dr. David Sugden, Professor of Geography, University of Edingburgh

There are of course uncertainties inherent in climate model projections — I don’t know a climate scientist who would say otherwise. But the fact that human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are driving the current rise in global temperatures is certainly not disputed by any credible climate scientist, and we are already seeing some of the effects of this climate change.

Articles like Avery’s are sadly misleading, and bring up many of the skeptic arguments that scientists have refuted again and again.