[X] My Assistant

[Guest_John Flushing_*]

http://www.space.com/news/070627_mars_storm.html

[dvandorn]

My interest in Mars ranges through the entire gamut -- origin, early climate, geological processes, atmospheric evolution -- the whole nine yards. Heck, my interest in all of the bodies of the Solar System ranges through the same gamut (as appropriate -- I don't think atmospheric evolution and early climate issues are very applicable to, say, Mercury).

All of these processes are contributing factors to a very large system. Becuase of its complexity, this system *must* incorporate a large number of chaotic factors, but as in any complex system, order seems to rise from chaos and develop mechanisms which maintain and enhance order. It is this basic creative force (for want of a better term), working against entropy, that fascinates me the most. All of the disciplines we have discussed serve to investigate different aspects of this basic force -- the force that counter-balances entropy and serves to create order from chaos.

In a way, my interest in and exploration of the natural sciences is simply my way of exploring the face of the creative force of the Universe... It comes as close to spirituality for me as anything else, and holds a similar place in my life as religion holds for many people. Which is why I take all of this so seriously...

-the other Doug