Why there’s a huge collection of vintage cars stored in the middle of the desert base bridge Back at the turn of the 21st century Qatar was a country with few cultural attractions to keep visitors and residents entertained. Yet the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum — known as the FBQ Museum — was a place that most people visited as an alternative to the then-still rather ramshackle National Museum of Qatar. You had to make an appointment and drive out into the desert getting lost a few times along the way but then you were welcomed to the lush Al Samriya Farm with a cup of tea and some cake. The highlight was being allowed into a space crammed full with shelves and vitrines holding all sorts of eclectic artifacts from swords to coins — with the odd car and carriage standing in the grounds. It wasn’t necessarily the kind of museum you’d find elsewhere in the world but it was definitely a sight that needed seeing. Today it has grown and now claims to be one of the world’s largest private museums. It holds over 30000 items including a fleet of traditional dhow sailboats and countless carpets. There’s also an entire house that once stood in Damascus Syria. There are archaeological finds dating to the Jurassic age ancient copies of the Quran a section that details the importance of pearling within Qatar’s history and jewelry dating to the 17th century. There are also items from 2022’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar including replica trophies balls used in the games entry passes football jerseys and even shelves full of slightly creepy dolls and children’s plush animals. Some of the more disturbing exhibits include various items of Third Reich paraphernalia in the wartime room and strangely enough several showcases of birds’ legs with marking rings on them. Basically whatever you can think of you have a very good chance of finding it here. Rumor even has it that behind a locked door is a room filled with the late Princess Diana’s dresses and other memorabilia accessible only to a select few visitors. Another door hides a room no longer open to the public filled with collectibles of the late Saddam Hussein.
Curiosity rover makes ‘arguably the most exciting organic detection to date on Mars’ bungee exchange The NASA Curiosity rover has detected the largest organic molecules found to date on Mars opening a window into the red planet’s past. The newly detected compounds suggest complex organic chemistry may have occurred in the planet’s past — the kind necessary for the origin of life according to new research. The organic compounds which include decane undecane and dodecane came to light after the rover analyzed a pulverized 3.7 billion-year-old rock sample using its onboard mini lab called SAM short for Sample Analysis at Mars. Scientists believe the long chains of molecules could be fragments of fatty acids which are organic molecules that are chemical building blocks of life on Earth and help form cell membranes. But such compounds can also be formed without the presence of life created when water interacts with minerals in hydrothermal vents. The molecules cannot currently be confirmed as evidence of past life on the red planet but they add to the growing list of compounds that robotic explorers have discovered on Mars in recent years. A study detailing the findings was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The detection of the fragile molecules also encourages astrobiologists that if any biosignatures or past signs of life ever existed on Mars they are likely still detectable despite the harsh solar radiation that has bombarded the planet for tens of millions of years. “Ancient life if it happened on Mars it would have released some complex and fragile molecules” said lead study author Dr. Caroline Freissinet research scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in the Laboratory for Atmospheres Observations and Space in Guyancourt France. “And because now we know that Mars can preserve these complex and fragile molecules it means that we could detect ancient life on Mars.”
Greenland’s leader says US officials’ visit is ‘highly aggressive.’ Trump says it’s ‘friendliness not provocation’ extra finance Greenland’s prime minister said a planned visit to the island by US officials including second lady Usha Vance is “highly aggressive” plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory. But despite the backlash Trump has insisted the visit is about “friendliness not provocation” – and claims the US team was “invited.” Vance the wife of US Vice President JD Vance will travel to Greenland this week to watch the island’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity” according to a statement from the White House. National security adviser Mike Waltz is also expected to visit the territory this week according to a source familiar with the trip. Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede called the US delegation’s trip to the island “highly aggressive” in an interview with Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday and raised particular objection to Waltz’s visit. “What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us” Egede said. “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase.” Trump claimed on Monday that people in Greenland have responded warmly to the US’s recent interest in the territory. “They’re calling us. We’re not calling them. And we were invited over there” he said. “We’re dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to them being properly protected and properly taken care of” Trump told reporters following a meeting with his Cabinet. “I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future” Trump added. The president said he believes Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be traveling to Greenland too. Trump’s idea to annex Greenland has thrown an international spotlight on the territory which holds vast stores of rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries and has raised questions about the island’s future security as the US Russia and China vie for influence in the Arctic. Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in the US taking the island by force or economic coercion even as Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea.
This Mixer Money also supports Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin bearing no logs policy. It requires a minimum deposit of 0.005 BTC 0.01 BCH 0.1 ETH 1 LTC and the transaction fee is 0.5 plus 0.0005 for each extra address. It supports multiple addresses of up to 10 and requires confirmation from 1 to 50. No registration is required and it does offer a referral program. Also it comes with a letter of guarantee. Yomix : Zero-log policy Bitcoin Mixer : It offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limit Bitcoin Laundry : Uses stealth pools to anonymize transactions Coin Mixer : Fast payouts Mixero : Excellent customer support 1. Yomix – Zero-log policy And last but not least there is a coin mixer with a number of cryptocurrencies to tumbler named Yomix. At the moment there are three currencies and Ethereum is going to be represented in future. This mixer offers a very simple user-interface as well as the opportunity to have control over all steps of the mixing process. A user can select a delay not just by hours but by the minute which is very useful. The tumbler gives the opportunity to use a calculator to understand the amount of money a user finally receives. The service fee is from 1 to 5 with fees for extra addresses 0.00045529 BTC 0.01072904 LTC and 0.00273174 BCH. Having funds from different resources helps the crypto mixer to keep user’s personal information undiscovered. This last mixer does not offer its users a Letter of Guarantee.Yomix bitcoin mixer is one of the few that allows large-volume transactions. The minimum size for a mixing operation is 0.001 BTC any amount below this level is considered a donation and is not sent back to the client there is no maximum transfer limit. The minimum commission is 0.5 with an additional fee of 0.0005 BTC for each incoming transaction. During the transaction you will receive a letter of guarantee as in all previously mentioned mixers.Another solid Bitcoin Tumbler option Yomix requires a minimum deposit of 0.01 BTC to be made but makes up for this with a lower transaction fee of 2 coupled with a 0.0004 BTC network fee. Support for multiple addresses and customer options is provided with users required to provide confirmation for only 1 address. While there is no referral program available Yomix does offer users with a letter of guarantee for their peace of mind.Supporting multiple types of cryptocurrency Yomix is one of the most flexible Bitcoin tumblers available today. Besides requiring a minimum deposit service fees are charged and users are required to register to use this site. Referral programs are also on offer along with support for multiple recipient addresses max 10. Pros: Zero-logs of your transactions Doesn’t require registration 2. Bitcoin Mixer – It offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limitBitcoin Mixer is a Bitcoin cleaner tumbler shifter mixer and a lot more. It has a completely different working principal than most other mixers on this list. So it has two different reserves of coins one for Bitcoin and the other for Monero. It cleans coins by converting them to the other Cryptocurrency. So you can either clean your Bitcoins and receive Monero in return or vice-versa. The interface is pretty straight-forward. You simply choose your input and output coins and enter your output address. For now only 1 output address is supported which we believe simplifies things. The fee is fixed which further makes it easier to use. You either pay 0.0002 BTC when converting BTC to XMR or 0.03442 XMR when converting XMR to BTC. It also provides a secret key which can be used to check transaction status or get in touch with support. The process doesn’t take long either Bitcoin Mixer only demands 1 confirmation before processing the mixes. Bitcoin amounts as low as 0003BTC and XMR as low as 0.05 can be mixed. It doesn’t require any registrations so obviously there’s no KYC. The company seems to hate the govt. and has a strict no-log policy as well.And last but not least there is a coin mixer with a number of cryptocurrencies to tumbler named Bitcoin Mixer. At the moment there are three currencies and Ethereum is going to be represented in future. This mixer offers a very simple user-interface as well as the opportunity to have control over all steps of the mixing process. A user can select a delay not just by hours but by the minute which is very useful. The tumbler gives the opportunity to use a calculator to understand the amount of money a user finally receives. The service fee is from 1 to 5 with fees for extra addresses 0.00045529 BTC 0.01072904 LTC and 0.00273174 BCH. Having funds from different resources helps the crypto mixer to keep user’s personal information undiscovered. This last mixer does not offer its users a Letter of Guarantee.Bitcoin Mixer currently only supports Bitcoin mixes however it has plans to bring in ETH mixes in the near future. It has been featured on Bitcoin.com/ News BTC/ Crypto News/ The Next Web etc. hence building a bit of trust. Very modern advanced user-controlled interface. Allows upto 5 output addresses. Obviously doesn’t keep any logs whatsoever. The user-control is impressive. You get to control the fund-distribution as well as the time-delay for each output address manually. Even the fee can be set manually. The cheapest allowed fee is 0.5 which is more than acceptable. The highest is set at 5. Obviously the 0.25mBTC blockchain transaction fee is attached on top of the selected fee. It even has a “strength meter” which shows how strong your mix is based on all the factors you’ve selected. No registration required whatsoever. And it does provide the mixing code to ensure all outputs are fresh and not linked to any of your previous deposits.Bitcoin Mixer runs on the Darknet and is one of the most popular Bitcoin toggle switches. This dark service uses new technology it doesn’t just clean up your coins you get brand new coins that have never been on the dark web. The cleaning process can take no more than 4 hours. To carry out cleaning on Helix in the basic version of Grams you need to register in the versions of Helix Light and Helix Market this is not necessary. If you still decide to use the Grams version you will have to pay an entrance fee of 0.01 BTC. Helix has an additional feature Auto-Helix that allows you to specify which addresses your coins will be mixed with when they are credited to your account. Helix also enforces a “no log” policy all logs are deleted automatically after 7 days or by the user immediately after completion of the output. Helix has a third party server not connected to Grams. A number of Bitcoin client programs that he uses are located on a completely separate server from Helix and Grams. Even if Grams is attacked or compromised Helix will not be affected. Pros: Secure ExchangeUser-controlled time delays 3. Bitcoin Laundry – Uses stealth pools to anonymize transactions One absolutely unique crypto mixing service is Bitcoin Laundry because it is based on the totally different principle comparing to other services. A user does not just deposit coins to mix but creates a wallet and funds it with chips from 0.01 BTC to 8.192 BTC which a user can break down according to their wishes. After chips are included in the wallet a wallet holder can deposit coins to process. As the chips are sent to the mixing service beforehand next transactions are nowhere to be found and there is no opportunity to connect them with the wallet owner. There is no usual fee for transactions on this mixing service: it uses “Pay what you like” feature. It means that the fee is randomized making transactions even more incognito and the service itself more affordable. Retention period is 7 days and every user has a chance to manually clear all logs prior to this period.Bitcoin Laundry is a very impressive service if you want to maintain your anonymity when you make purchases online. It can also be useful if you want to do p2p payments and donations. The service is used to mix a person’s funds and give this person some fresh bitcoins. The focus here is on making sure that the blender has the ability to confuse the trail as somebody could try to figure out the source. The best mixer is that one that keeps your anonymity at a max. You want each bitcoin transaction to be very hard to trace. This is where using our bitcoin mixing service makes a lot of sense. Protect your income and personal information becomes much easier. The reason why you want to use our service is because you want to hide your coins from hackers and third-parties. They can do a blockchain analysis they may be able to track your personal data to steal your bitcoins. With our bitcoin tumbler you don’t have to worry about that anymore.This particular Bitcoin Laundry supports Bitcoin cryptocurrency and does not bear any logs policy. It requires a minimum deposit of 0.01 BTC and the transaction fee is 1–3. It supports multiple addresses of up to 10 and requires confirmation. No registration is required and it does offer a referral program.Another trustworthy mixer is Bitcoin Laundry which supports two cryptocurrencies with Ethereum to be added soon. The mixing process is quite typical and similar to the processes on other tumblers. It is possible to set a time-delay option up to 72 hours and a sender has an opportunity to split the transaction so the funds are sent to several addresses. Thus sender’s funds are more secured and untraceable. Pros: It offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limitNo logs 4. Coin Mixer – Fast payouts Coin Mixer only supports Bitcoin transactions and requires customers to deposit a minimum of 0.001 BTC. Transaction fees range from 0.5 to 3 depending on the amount that is being transferred. This Bitcoin mixer supports multiple addresses and custom options max of 10. Nonetheless confirmation is required. Coin Mixer does not have a referral program in place.This platform can work not only as a toggle switch but also as a swap that is you can clear your coins and change the cryptocurrency to another when withdrawing which further increases anonymity. As a Bitcoin mixer this platform provides the ability to set a custom commission: the higher the commission the better the privacy. There is also a time delay option that increases the level of anonymity by delaying the transaction by 24 hours. The service has an impressive supply of coins so your transactions are made instantly as soon as confirmation of the receipt of coins arrives unless you manually set time delays. The minimum deposit is 0.01 BTC per transaction. Any smaller amount is also accepted but is considered a “donation” and is not returned to Coin Mixer customers. Finally they also have a no log policy.Another solid Bitcoin Tumbler option Coin Mixer requires a minimum deposit of 0.01 BTC to be made but makes up for this with a lower transaction fee of 2 coupled with a 0.0004 BTC network fee. Support for multiple addresses and customer options is provided with users required to provide confirmation for only 1 address. While there is no referral program available Coin Mixer does offer users with a letter of guarantee for their peace of mind.Coin Mixer supports Bitcoin cryptocurrency bearing no logs policy. It requires a minimum deposit of 0.001 BTC and the transaction fee is 0.5–3. It supports multiple addresses of up to 10 and requires confirmation. No registration is required and it does offer a referral program. Letter of guarantee is provided. Pros: Has impressive time delaysIt offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limit 5. Mixero – Excellent customer support Mixero has a deposit requirement of 0.001 BTC and supports a maximum of 2 different addresses. Registration is not compulsory but there is a service charge of 4 – 5 on the amount being transferred. For those with a need for additional privacy Mixero also accepts Bitcoins with a no log policy.Mixero is one of the most pocket-friendly easy to use and customizable Bitcoin laundry platforms in the industry. The user-interface is extremely simple and clean anyone who has never before used any such service too can navigate around and tumble Bitcoins easily. No registration is required to mix Bitcoins on Blender.io Its “delay” feature lets you set delays from 1-24 hours which increases your anonymity by providing a gap between the deposited coins and the outgoing ones. As for the fee it’s dynamic meaning you get to choose the amount of fee you’d like to pay the minimum fee being 0.5 and the maximum being 2.5 with an additional 0.0005/address. It’s also one of the rare platforms which provides you with a mixing code which makes sure your previous coins do not get mixed with your newer deposits if you do multiple deposits to the tumbler. The minimum amount you can mix is 0.001BTC while there’s no specific maximum amount as their Bitcoin reserve seems to be quite large. It also has a No Logs Policy and all data is instantly deleted as soon as a transaction is complete; and as for the number of confirmations required it’s 3 for your deposit to be mixed by Mixero It supports 8 addresses for each mix so you can further increase your anonymity. In a nutshell it gives you the power to choose is fast anonymous and totally worth a try. It also supports Segwit and bech32 Addresses with some terms attached. For e.g. only witness version bech32 addresses are supported. Similarly only the addresses starting with the number “3” are supported.Let’s take a look at another one of the leading bitcoin mixers which is incredibly easy to operate. Mixero has a straightforward interface and it is worth mentioning that the service fee is the lowest possible it is 0.0 with 0.0002 BTC per extra address. Retention period is 7 days when it is easy for a user to manually remove all the logs which are saved for this period because of any future transaction-related problems. There is a time-delay feature however it is not possible to be controlled by a user but the mixing platform only.Another solid Bitcoin Tumbler option Mixero requires a minimum deposit of 0.01 BTC to be made but makes up for this with a lower transaction fee of 2 coupled with a 0.0004 BTC network fee. Support for multiple addresses and customer options is provided with users required to provide confirmation for only 1 address. While there is no referral program available Mixero does offer users with a letter of guarantee for their peace of mind. Pros: Provides user-controlled time delays Customizable mixing settings for better anonymity
Remote and rugged eigenlayer A more organic way to see this coast is by the multi-day coastal ferry the long-running Sarfaq Ittuk of the Arctic Umiaq Line. It’s less corporate than the modern cruise ships and travelers get to meet Inuit commuters. Greenland is pricey. Lettuce in a local community store might cost 10 but this coastal voyage won’t break the bank. The hot ticket currently for exploring Greenland’s wilder side is to head to the east coast facing Europe. It’s raw and sees far fewer tourists with a harshly dramatic coastline of fjords where icebergs drift south. There are no roads and the scattered population of just over 3500 people inhabit a coastline roughly the distance from New York to Denver. A growing number of small expedition vessels probe this remote coast for its frosted scenery and wildlife. Increasingly popular is the world’s largest fjord system of Scoresby Sound with its sharp-fanged mountains and hanging valleys choked by glaciers. Sailing north is the prosaically named North East Greenland National Park fabulous for spotting wildlife on the tundra. Travelers come to see polar bears which during the northern hemisphere’s summer move closer to land as the sea-ice melts. There are also musk oxen great flocks of migrating geese Arctic foxes and walrus. Some of these animals are fair game for the local communities. Perhaps Greenland’s most interesting cultural visit is to a village that will take longer to learn how to pronounce than actually walk around — Ittoqqortoormiit. Five hundred miles north of its neighboring settlement the 345 locals are frozen in for nine months of the year. Ships sail in to meet them during the brief summer melt between June and August. Locked in by ice they’ve retained traditional habits. “My parents hunt nearly all their food” said Mette Barselajsen who owns Ittoqqortoormiit’s only guesthouse. “They prefer the old ways burying it in the ground to ferment and preserve it. Just one muskox can bring 440 pounds of meat.”
‘For the public to enjoy’ keplr wallet The museum’s history starts in 1998 when Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani opened a building to the public on his farm some 20 kilometers 12 miles north of Qatari capital Doha. A distant relative of Qatar’s ruling family founder and chairman of Al Faisal Holdings one of Qatar’s biggest conglomerates and a billionaire whose business acumen had him recognized as one of the most influential Arab businessmen in the world Sheikh Faisal had already amassed a substantial private collection of historically important regional artifacts plus a few quirky pieces of interest allowing visitors an intimate look into Qatari life and history. In an interview with Qatari channel Alrayyan TV in 2018 Sheikh Faisal said that the museum started as a hobby. “I used to collect items whenever I got the chance” he said. “As my business grew so did my collections and soon I was able to collect more and more items until I decided to put them in the museum for the public to enjoy.” His private cabinet of curiosities has since evolved into a 130-acre complex. Through the fort-like entrance gate lies an oryx reserve an impressive riding school and stables a duck pond and a mosque built with a quirky leaning minaret. There’s now even a five-star Marriott hotel two cafes and the Zoufa restaurant serving modern Lebanese cuisine. Of course there’s also the super-sized museum with a recently-opened car collection housing everything from vintage Rolls-Royces to wartime Jeeps and colorful Buicks. Outside you’ll find peacocks roaming the grounds and signs warning drivers to be aware of horses and ostriches. Visitors to the FBQ museum are free to explore the grounds and can even enter the stables to pat the horses.
A long time in the making Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on August 6 2012. More than 12 years later the rover has driven over 21 miles 34 kilometers to ascend Mount Sharp which is within the crater. The feature’s many layers preserve millions of years of geological history on Mars showing how it shifted from a wet to a dry environment. celer network Perhaps one of the most valuable samples Curiosity has gathered on its mission to understand whether Mars was ever habitable was collected in May 2013. The rover drilled the Cumberland sample from an area within a crater called Yellowknife Bay which resembled an ancient lake bed. The rocks from Yellowknife Bay so intrigued Curiosity’s science team that it had the rover drive in the opposite direction to collect samples from the area before heading to Mount Sharp. Since collecting the Cumberland sample Curiosity has used SAM to study it in a variety of ways revealing that Yellowknife Bay was once the site of an ancient lake where clay minerals formed in water. The mudstone created an environment that could concentrate and preserve organic molecules and trapped them inside the fine grains of the sedimentary rock. Freissinet helped lead a research team in 2015 that was able to identify organic molecules within the Cumberland sample. The instrument detected an abundance of sulfur which can be used to preserve organic molecules; nitrates which are essential for plant and animal health on Earth; and methane composed of a type of carbon associated with biological processes on Earth. “There is evidence that liquid water existed in Gale Crater for millions of years and probably much longer which means there was enough time for life-forming chemistry to happen in these crater-lake environments on Mars” said study coauthor Daniel Glavin senior scientist for sample return at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland in a statement.
Everyone is talking about Greenland. Here’s what it’s like to visit cow fi A few months ago Greenland was quietly getting on with winter as the territory slid deeper into the darkness that envelops the world’s northerly reaches at this time of year. But President Donald Trump’s musings about America taking over this island of 56000 largely Inuit people halfway between New York and Moscow has seen Greenland shaken from its frozen Arctic anonymity. Denmark for whom Greenland is an autonomous crown dependency has protested it’s not for sale. Officials in Greenland meanwhile have sought to assert the territory’s right to independence. The conversation continues to intensify. A contentious March 28 visit to a US military installation by Usha Vance the second lady accompanied by her husband Vice President JD Vance was the latest in a series of events to focus attention on Trump’s ambitions for Greenland. The visit was originally planned as a cultural exchange but was shortened following complaints from Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede. Had the Vances prolonged their scheduled brief visit they would’ve discovered a ruggedly pristine wildernesses steeped in rich Indigenous culture. An inhospitable icecap several miles deep covers 80 of Greenland forcing the Inuit to dwell along the shorelines in brightly painted communities. Here they spend brutally cold winters hunting seals on ice under the northern lights in near perpetual darkness. Although these days they can also rely on community stores. The problem for travelers over the years has been getting to Greenland via time-consuming indirect flights. That’s changing. Late in 2024 the capital Nuuk opened a long-delayed international airport. From June 2025 United Airlines will be operating a twice-weekly direct service from Newark to Nuuk. Two further international airports are due to open by 2026 — Qaqortoq in South Greenland and more significantly in Ilulissat the island’s only real tourism hotspot.
Siham Haleem a private tour guide for 15 years says that Doha now has many world-class modern museums — the National Museum of Qatar being a firm personal favorite. And yet he says that visiting Sheikh Faisal’s museum should still be on everybody’s to-do list. simpleswap “For those eager to learn about Qatar’s — and the region’s — heritage and beyond the museum is an ideal destination” he says. “Personally I’m captivated by the car collection the fossils and especially the Syrian house painstakingly transported and reassembled piece by piece.” Stephanie Y. Martinez a Mexican-American student mobility manager at Texas A&M University in Qatar likes the museum so much she includes it on all of her itineraries for students visiting from the main campus in Texas. “The guided tours are very detailed and the collections found at the museum have great variety and so many stories to unfold” she says. “Truly the museum has something to pique everyone’s interest. My favorites are the cars and the furniture exhibits showcasing wood and mother-of-pearl details. Definitely one of my favorite museums in Qatar every time I visit I learn something new.” Raynor Abreu from India also had praise for the unusual and immense collection. “Each item has its own story making the visit even more interesting” he says. “It’s also impressive to know that Sheikh Faisal started collecting these unique pieces when he was very young. Knowing this makes the museum even more special as it reflects his lifelong passion for history and culture.” It takes time and dedication to truly examine the many collections within the museum — especially since most of them are simply on display without explanation. Eclectic it may be but it’s hard to fault the determination of Sheikh Faisal who has brought together items that tell the story of Qatar and the Middle East. Sarah Bayley from the UK says she visited the museum recently with her family including 16 and 19-year-old teenagers and was won over by its sheer eccentricity. “Amazing. Loved it. It is a crazy place.”
Curiosity has maintained pristine pieces of the Cumberland sample in a “doggy bag” so that the team could have the rover revisit it later even miles away from the site where it was collected. The team developed and tested innovative methods in its lab on Earth before sending messages to the rover to try experiments on the sample. changelly In a quest to see whether amino acids the building blocks of proteins existed in the sample the team instructed the rover to heat up the sample twice within SAM’s oven. When it measured the mass of the molecules released during heating there weren’t any amino acids but they found something entirely unexpected. An intriguing detection The team was surprised to detect small amounts of decane undecane and dodecane so it had to conduct a reverse experiment on Earth to determine whether these organic compounds were the remnants of the fatty acids undecanoic acid dodecanoic acid and tridecanoic acid respectively. The scientists mixed undecanoic acid into a clay similar to what exists on Mars and heated it up in a way that mimicked conditions within SAM’s oven. The undecanoic acid released decane just like what Curiosity detected. Each fatty acid remnant detected by Curiosity was made with a long chain of 11 to 13 carbon atoms. Previous molecules detected on Mars were smaller meaning their atomic weight was less than the molecules found in the new study and simpler. “It’s notable that non-biological processes typically make shorter fatty acids with less than 12 carbons” said study coauthor Dr. Amy Williams associate professor of geology at the University of Florida and assistant director of the Astraeus Space Institute in an email. “Larger and more complex molecules are likely what are required for an origin of life if it ever occurred on Mars.”
Why there’s a huge collection of vintage cars stored in the middle of the desert base bridge Back at the turn of the 21st century Qatar was a country with few cultural attractions to keep visitors and residents entertained. Yet the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum — known as the FBQ Museum — was a place that most people visited as an alternative to the then-still rather ramshackle National Museum of Qatar. You had to make an appointment and drive out into the desert getting lost a few times along the way but then you were welcomed to the lush Al Samriya Farm with a cup of tea and some cake. The highlight was being allowed into a space crammed full with shelves and vitrines holding all sorts of eclectic artifacts from swords to coins — with the odd car and carriage standing in the grounds. It wasn’t necessarily the kind of museum you’d find elsewhere in the world but it was definitely a sight that needed seeing. Today it has grown and now claims to be one of the world’s largest private museums. It holds over 30000 items including a fleet of traditional dhow sailboats and countless carpets. There’s also an entire house that once stood in Damascus Syria. There are archaeological finds dating to the Jurassic age ancient copies of the Quran a section that details the importance of pearling within Qatar’s history and jewelry dating to the 17th century. There are also items from 2022’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar including replica trophies balls used in the games entry passes football jerseys and even shelves full of slightly creepy dolls and children’s plush animals. Some of the more disturbing exhibits include various items of Third Reich paraphernalia in the wartime room and strangely enough several showcases of birds’ legs with marking rings on them. Basically whatever you can think of you have a very good chance of finding it here. Rumor even has it that behind a locked door is a room filled with the late Princess Diana’s dresses and other memorabilia accessible only to a select few visitors. Another door hides a room no longer open to the public filled with collectibles of the late Saddam Hussein.
Curiosity rover makes ‘arguably the most exciting organic detection to date on Mars’ bungee exchange The NASA Curiosity rover has detected the largest organic molecules found to date on Mars opening a window into the red planet’s past. The newly detected compounds suggest complex organic chemistry may have occurred in the planet’s past — the kind necessary for the origin of life according to new research. The organic compounds which include decane undecane and dodecane came to light after the rover analyzed a pulverized 3.7 billion-year-old rock sample using its onboard mini lab called SAM short for Sample Analysis at Mars. Scientists believe the long chains of molecules could be fragments of fatty acids which are organic molecules that are chemical building blocks of life on Earth and help form cell membranes. But such compounds can also be formed without the presence of life created when water interacts with minerals in hydrothermal vents. The molecules cannot currently be confirmed as evidence of past life on the red planet but they add to the growing list of compounds that robotic explorers have discovered on Mars in recent years. A study detailing the findings was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The detection of the fragile molecules also encourages astrobiologists that if any biosignatures or past signs of life ever existed on Mars they are likely still detectable despite the harsh solar radiation that has bombarded the planet for tens of millions of years. “Ancient life if it happened on Mars it would have released some complex and fragile molecules” said lead study author Dr. Caroline Freissinet research scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in the Laboratory for Atmospheres Observations and Space in Guyancourt France. “And because now we know that Mars can preserve these complex and fragile molecules it means that we could detect ancient life on Mars.”
Greenland’s leader says US officials’ visit is ‘highly aggressive.’ Trump says it’s ‘friendliness not provocation’ extra finance Greenland’s prime minister said a planned visit to the island by US officials including second lady Usha Vance is “highly aggressive” plunging relations to a new low after President Donald Trump vowed to annex the autonomous Danish territory. But despite the backlash Trump has insisted the visit is about “friendliness not provocation” – and claims the US team was “invited.” Vance the wife of US Vice President JD Vance will travel to Greenland this week to watch the island’s national dogsled race and “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity” according to a statement from the White House. National security adviser Mike Waltz is also expected to visit the territory this week according to a source familiar with the trip. Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede called the US delegation’s trip to the island “highly aggressive” in an interview with Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday and raised particular objection to Waltz’s visit. “What is the national security adviser doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to demonstrate power over us” Egede said. “His mere presence in Greenland will no doubt fuel American belief in Trump’s mission — and the pressure will increase.” Trump claimed on Monday that people in Greenland have responded warmly to the US’s recent interest in the territory. “They’re calling us. We’re not calling them. And we were invited over there” he said. “We’re dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to them being properly protected and properly taken care of” Trump told reporters following a meeting with his Cabinet. “I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future” Trump added. The president said he believes Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be traveling to Greenland too. Trump’s idea to annex Greenland has thrown an international spotlight on the territory which holds vast stores of rare earth minerals critical for high-tech industries and has raised questions about the island’s future security as the US Russia and China vie for influence in the Arctic. Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in the US taking the island by force or economic coercion even as Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea.
This Mixer Money also supports Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin bearing no logs policy. It requires a minimum deposit of 0.005 BTC 0.01 BCH 0.1 ETH 1 LTC and the transaction fee is 0.5 plus 0.0005 for each extra address. It supports multiple addresses of up to 10 and requires confirmation from 1 to 50. No registration is required and it does offer a referral program. Also it comes with a letter of guarantee. Yomix : Zero-log policy Bitcoin Mixer : It offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limit Bitcoin Laundry : Uses stealth pools to anonymize transactions Coin Mixer : Fast payouts Mixero : Excellent customer support 1. Yomix – Zero-log policy And last but not least there is a coin mixer with a number of cryptocurrencies to tumbler named Yomix. At the moment there are three currencies and Ethereum is going to be represented in future. This mixer offers a very simple user-interface as well as the opportunity to have control over all steps of the mixing process. A user can select a delay not just by hours but by the minute which is very useful. The tumbler gives the opportunity to use a calculator to understand the amount of money a user finally receives. The service fee is from 1 to 5 with fees for extra addresses 0.00045529 BTC 0.01072904 LTC and 0.00273174 BCH. Having funds from different resources helps the crypto mixer to keep user’s personal information undiscovered. This last mixer does not offer its users a Letter of Guarantee.Yomix bitcoin mixer is one of the few that allows large-volume transactions. The minimum size for a mixing operation is 0.001 BTC any amount below this level is considered a donation and is not sent back to the client there is no maximum transfer limit. The minimum commission is 0.5 with an additional fee of 0.0005 BTC for each incoming transaction. During the transaction you will receive a letter of guarantee as in all previously mentioned mixers.Another solid Bitcoin Tumbler option Yomix requires a minimum deposit of 0.01 BTC to be made but makes up for this with a lower transaction fee of 2 coupled with a 0.0004 BTC network fee. Support for multiple addresses and customer options is provided with users required to provide confirmation for only 1 address. While there is no referral program available Yomix does offer users with a letter of guarantee for their peace of mind.Supporting multiple types of cryptocurrency Yomix is one of the most flexible Bitcoin tumblers available today. Besides requiring a minimum deposit service fees are charged and users are required to register to use this site. Referral programs are also on offer along with support for multiple recipient addresses max 10. Pros: Zero-logs of your transactions Doesn’t require registration 2. Bitcoin Mixer – It offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limitBitcoin Mixer is a Bitcoin cleaner tumbler shifter mixer and a lot more. It has a completely different working principal than most other mixers on this list. So it has two different reserves of coins one for Bitcoin and the other for Monero. It cleans coins by converting them to the other Cryptocurrency. So you can either clean your Bitcoins and receive Monero in return or vice-versa. The interface is pretty straight-forward. You simply choose your input and output coins and enter your output address. For now only 1 output address is supported which we believe simplifies things. The fee is fixed which further makes it easier to use. You either pay 0.0002 BTC when converting BTC to XMR or 0.03442 XMR when converting XMR to BTC. It also provides a secret key which can be used to check transaction status or get in touch with support. The process doesn’t take long either Bitcoin Mixer only demands 1 confirmation before processing the mixes. Bitcoin amounts as low as 0003BTC and XMR as low as 0.05 can be mixed. It doesn’t require any registrations so obviously there’s no KYC. The company seems to hate the govt. and has a strict no-log policy as well.And last but not least there is a coin mixer with a number of cryptocurrencies to tumbler named Bitcoin Mixer. At the moment there are three currencies and Ethereum is going to be represented in future. This mixer offers a very simple user-interface as well as the opportunity to have control over all steps of the mixing process. A user can select a delay not just by hours but by the minute which is very useful. The tumbler gives the opportunity to use a calculator to understand the amount of money a user finally receives. The service fee is from 1 to 5 with fees for extra addresses 0.00045529 BTC 0.01072904 LTC and 0.00273174 BCH. Having funds from different resources helps the crypto mixer to keep user’s personal information undiscovered. This last mixer does not offer its users a Letter of Guarantee.Bitcoin Mixer currently only supports Bitcoin mixes however it has plans to bring in ETH mixes in the near future. It has been featured on Bitcoin.com/ News BTC/ Crypto News/ The Next Web etc. hence building a bit of trust. Very modern advanced user-controlled interface. Allows upto 5 output addresses. Obviously doesn’t keep any logs whatsoever. The user-control is impressive. You get to control the fund-distribution as well as the time-delay for each output address manually. Even the fee can be set manually. The cheapest allowed fee is 0.5 which is more than acceptable. The highest is set at 5. Obviously the 0.25mBTC blockchain transaction fee is attached on top of the selected fee. It even has a “strength meter” which shows how strong your mix is based on all the factors you’ve selected. No registration required whatsoever. And it does provide the mixing code to ensure all outputs are fresh and not linked to any of your previous deposits.Bitcoin Mixer runs on the Darknet and is one of the most popular Bitcoin toggle switches. This dark service uses new technology it doesn’t just clean up your coins you get brand new coins that have never been on the dark web. The cleaning process can take no more than 4 hours. To carry out cleaning on Helix in the basic version of Grams you need to register in the versions of Helix Light and Helix Market this is not necessary. If you still decide to use the Grams version you will have to pay an entrance fee of 0.01 BTC. Helix has an additional feature Auto-Helix that allows you to specify which addresses your coins will be mixed with when they are credited to your account. Helix also enforces a “no log” policy all logs are deleted automatically after 7 days or by the user immediately after completion of the output. Helix has a third party server not connected to Grams. A number of Bitcoin client programs that he uses are located on a completely separate server from Helix and Grams. Even if Grams is attacked or compromised Helix will not be affected. Pros: Secure ExchangeUser-controlled time delays 3. Bitcoin Laundry – Uses stealth pools to anonymize transactions One absolutely unique crypto mixing service is Bitcoin Laundry because it is based on the totally different principle comparing to other services. A user does not just deposit coins to mix but creates a wallet and funds it with chips from 0.01 BTC to 8.192 BTC which a user can break down according to their wishes. After chips are included in the wallet a wallet holder can deposit coins to process. As the chips are sent to the mixing service beforehand next transactions are nowhere to be found and there is no opportunity to connect them with the wallet owner. There is no usual fee for transactions on this mixing service: it uses “Pay what you like” feature. It means that the fee is randomized making transactions even more incognito and the service itself more affordable. Retention period is 7 days and every user has a chance to manually clear all logs prior to this period.Bitcoin Laundry is a very impressive service if you want to maintain your anonymity when you make purchases online. It can also be useful if you want to do p2p payments and donations. The service is used to mix a person’s funds and give this person some fresh bitcoins. The focus here is on making sure that the blender has the ability to confuse the trail as somebody could try to figure out the source. The best mixer is that one that keeps your anonymity at a max. You want each bitcoin transaction to be very hard to trace. This is where using our bitcoin mixing service makes a lot of sense. Protect your income and personal information becomes much easier. The reason why you want to use our service is because you want to hide your coins from hackers and third-parties. They can do a blockchain analysis they may be able to track your personal data to steal your bitcoins. With our bitcoin tumbler you don’t have to worry about that anymore.This particular Bitcoin Laundry supports Bitcoin cryptocurrency and does not bear any logs policy. It requires a minimum deposit of 0.01 BTC and the transaction fee is 1–3. It supports multiple addresses of up to 10 and requires confirmation. No registration is required and it does offer a referral program.Another trustworthy mixer is Bitcoin Laundry which supports two cryptocurrencies with Ethereum to be added soon. The mixing process is quite typical and similar to the processes on other tumblers. It is possible to set a time-delay option up to 72 hours and a sender has an opportunity to split the transaction so the funds are sent to several addresses. Thus sender’s funds are more secured and untraceable. Pros: It offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limitNo logs 4. Coin Mixer – Fast payouts Coin Mixer only supports Bitcoin transactions and requires customers to deposit a minimum of 0.001 BTC. Transaction fees range from 0.5 to 3 depending on the amount that is being transferred. This Bitcoin mixer supports multiple addresses and custom options max of 10. Nonetheless confirmation is required. Coin Mixer does not have a referral program in place.This platform can work not only as a toggle switch but also as a swap that is you can clear your coins and change the cryptocurrency to another when withdrawing which further increases anonymity. As a Bitcoin mixer this platform provides the ability to set a custom commission: the higher the commission the better the privacy. There is also a time delay option that increases the level of anonymity by delaying the transaction by 24 hours. The service has an impressive supply of coins so your transactions are made instantly as soon as confirmation of the receipt of coins arrives unless you manually set time delays. The minimum deposit is 0.01 BTC per transaction. Any smaller amount is also accepted but is considered a “donation” and is not returned to Coin Mixer customers. Finally they also have a no log policy.Another solid Bitcoin Tumbler option Coin Mixer requires a minimum deposit of 0.01 BTC to be made but makes up for this with a lower transaction fee of 2 coupled with a 0.0004 BTC network fee. Support for multiple addresses and customer options is provided with users required to provide confirmation for only 1 address. While there is no referral program available Coin Mixer does offer users with a letter of guarantee for their peace of mind.Coin Mixer supports Bitcoin cryptocurrency bearing no logs policy. It requires a minimum deposit of 0.001 BTC and the transaction fee is 0.5–3. It supports multiple addresses of up to 10 and requires confirmation. No registration is required and it does offer a referral program. Letter of guarantee is provided. Pros: Has impressive time delaysIt offers flexible transaction fees and a low minimum transaction limit 5. Mixero – Excellent customer support Mixero has a deposit requirement of 0.001 BTC and supports a maximum of 2 different addresses. Registration is not compulsory but there is a service charge of 4 – 5 on the amount being transferred. For those with a need for additional privacy Mixero also accepts Bitcoins with a no log policy.Mixero is one of the most pocket-friendly easy to use and customizable Bitcoin laundry platforms in the industry. The user-interface is extremely simple and clean anyone who has never before used any such service too can navigate around and tumble Bitcoins easily. No registration is required to mix Bitcoins on Blender.io Its “delay” feature lets you set delays from 1-24 hours which increases your anonymity by providing a gap between the deposited coins and the outgoing ones. As for the fee it’s dynamic meaning you get to choose the amount of fee you’d like to pay the minimum fee being 0.5 and the maximum being 2.5 with an additional 0.0005/address. It’s also one of the rare platforms which provides you with a mixing code which makes sure your previous coins do not get mixed with your newer deposits if you do multiple deposits to the tumbler. The minimum amount you can mix is 0.001BTC while there’s no specific maximum amount as their Bitcoin reserve seems to be quite large. It also has a No Logs Policy and all data is instantly deleted as soon as a transaction is complete; and as for the number of confirmations required it’s 3 for your deposit to be mixed by Mixero It supports 8 addresses for each mix so you can further increase your anonymity. In a nutshell it gives you the power to choose is fast anonymous and totally worth a try. It also supports Segwit and bech32 Addresses with some terms attached. For e.g. only witness version bech32 addresses are supported. Similarly only the addresses starting with the number “3” are supported.Let’s take a look at another one of the leading bitcoin mixers which is incredibly easy to operate. Mixero has a straightforward interface and it is worth mentioning that the service fee is the lowest possible it is 0.0 with 0.0002 BTC per extra address. Retention period is 7 days when it is easy for a user to manually remove all the logs which are saved for this period because of any future transaction-related problems. There is a time-delay feature however it is not possible to be controlled by a user but the mixing platform only.Another solid Bitcoin Tumbler option Mixero requires a minimum deposit of 0.01 BTC to be made but makes up for this with a lower transaction fee of 2 coupled with a 0.0004 BTC network fee. Support for multiple addresses and customer options is provided with users required to provide confirmation for only 1 address. While there is no referral program available Mixero does offer users with a letter of guarantee for their peace of mind. Pros: Provides user-controlled time delays Customizable mixing settings for better anonymity
Remote and rugged eigenlayer A more organic way to see this coast is by the multi-day coastal ferry the long-running Sarfaq Ittuk of the Arctic Umiaq Line. It’s less corporate than the modern cruise ships and travelers get to meet Inuit commuters. Greenland is pricey. Lettuce in a local community store might cost 10 but this coastal voyage won’t break the bank. The hot ticket currently for exploring Greenland’s wilder side is to head to the east coast facing Europe. It’s raw and sees far fewer tourists with a harshly dramatic coastline of fjords where icebergs drift south. There are no roads and the scattered population of just over 3500 people inhabit a coastline roughly the distance from New York to Denver. A growing number of small expedition vessels probe this remote coast for its frosted scenery and wildlife. Increasingly popular is the world’s largest fjord system of Scoresby Sound with its sharp-fanged mountains and hanging valleys choked by glaciers. Sailing north is the prosaically named North East Greenland National Park fabulous for spotting wildlife on the tundra. Travelers come to see polar bears which during the northern hemisphere’s summer move closer to land as the sea-ice melts. There are also musk oxen great flocks of migrating geese Arctic foxes and walrus. Some of these animals are fair game for the local communities. Perhaps Greenland’s most interesting cultural visit is to a village that will take longer to learn how to pronounce than actually walk around — Ittoqqortoormiit. Five hundred miles north of its neighboring settlement the 345 locals are frozen in for nine months of the year. Ships sail in to meet them during the brief summer melt between June and August. Locked in by ice they’ve retained traditional habits. “My parents hunt nearly all their food” said Mette Barselajsen who owns Ittoqqortoormiit’s only guesthouse. “They prefer the old ways burying it in the ground to ferment and preserve it. Just one muskox can bring 440 pounds of meat.”
‘For the public to enjoy’ keplr wallet The museum’s history starts in 1998 when Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani opened a building to the public on his farm some 20 kilometers 12 miles north of Qatari capital Doha. A distant relative of Qatar’s ruling family founder and chairman of Al Faisal Holdings one of Qatar’s biggest conglomerates and a billionaire whose business acumen had him recognized as one of the most influential Arab businessmen in the world Sheikh Faisal had already amassed a substantial private collection of historically important regional artifacts plus a few quirky pieces of interest allowing visitors an intimate look into Qatari life and history. In an interview with Qatari channel Alrayyan TV in 2018 Sheikh Faisal said that the museum started as a hobby. “I used to collect items whenever I got the chance” he said. “As my business grew so did my collections and soon I was able to collect more and more items until I decided to put them in the museum for the public to enjoy.” His private cabinet of curiosities has since evolved into a 130-acre complex. Through the fort-like entrance gate lies an oryx reserve an impressive riding school and stables a duck pond and a mosque built with a quirky leaning minaret. There’s now even a five-star Marriott hotel two cafes and the Zoufa restaurant serving modern Lebanese cuisine. Of course there’s also the super-sized museum with a recently-opened car collection housing everything from vintage Rolls-Royces to wartime Jeeps and colorful Buicks. Outside you’ll find peacocks roaming the grounds and signs warning drivers to be aware of horses and ostriches. Visitors to the FBQ museum are free to explore the grounds and can even enter the stables to pat the horses.
A long time in the making Curiosity landed in Gale Crater on August 6 2012. More than 12 years later the rover has driven over 21 miles 34 kilometers to ascend Mount Sharp which is within the crater. The feature’s many layers preserve millions of years of geological history on Mars showing how it shifted from a wet to a dry environment. celer network Perhaps one of the most valuable samples Curiosity has gathered on its mission to understand whether Mars was ever habitable was collected in May 2013. The rover drilled the Cumberland sample from an area within a crater called Yellowknife Bay which resembled an ancient lake bed. The rocks from Yellowknife Bay so intrigued Curiosity’s science team that it had the rover drive in the opposite direction to collect samples from the area before heading to Mount Sharp. Since collecting the Cumberland sample Curiosity has used SAM to study it in a variety of ways revealing that Yellowknife Bay was once the site of an ancient lake where clay minerals formed in water. The mudstone created an environment that could concentrate and preserve organic molecules and trapped them inside the fine grains of the sedimentary rock. Freissinet helped lead a research team in 2015 that was able to identify organic molecules within the Cumberland sample. The instrument detected an abundance of sulfur which can be used to preserve organic molecules; nitrates which are essential for plant and animal health on Earth; and methane composed of a type of carbon associated with biological processes on Earth. “There is evidence that liquid water existed in Gale Crater for millions of years and probably much longer which means there was enough time for life-forming chemistry to happen in these crater-lake environments on Mars” said study coauthor Daniel Glavin senior scientist for sample return at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt Maryland in a statement.
Everyone is talking about Greenland. Here’s what it’s like to visit cow fi A few months ago Greenland was quietly getting on with winter as the territory slid deeper into the darkness that envelops the world’s northerly reaches at this time of year. But President Donald Trump’s musings about America taking over this island of 56000 largely Inuit people halfway between New York and Moscow has seen Greenland shaken from its frozen Arctic anonymity. Denmark for whom Greenland is an autonomous crown dependency has protested it’s not for sale. Officials in Greenland meanwhile have sought to assert the territory’s right to independence. The conversation continues to intensify. A contentious March 28 visit to a US military installation by Usha Vance the second lady accompanied by her husband Vice President JD Vance was the latest in a series of events to focus attention on Trump’s ambitions for Greenland. The visit was originally planned as a cultural exchange but was shortened following complaints from Greenland Prime Minister Mute B. Egede. Had the Vances prolonged their scheduled brief visit they would’ve discovered a ruggedly pristine wildernesses steeped in rich Indigenous culture. An inhospitable icecap several miles deep covers 80 of Greenland forcing the Inuit to dwell along the shorelines in brightly painted communities. Here they spend brutally cold winters hunting seals on ice under the northern lights in near perpetual darkness. Although these days they can also rely on community stores. The problem for travelers over the years has been getting to Greenland via time-consuming indirect flights. That’s changing. Late in 2024 the capital Nuuk opened a long-delayed international airport. From June 2025 United Airlines will be operating a twice-weekly direct service from Newark to Nuuk. Two further international airports are due to open by 2026 — Qaqortoq in South Greenland and more significantly in Ilulissat the island’s only real tourism hotspot.
Siham Haleem a private tour guide for 15 years says that Doha now has many world-class modern museums — the National Museum of Qatar being a firm personal favorite. And yet he says that visiting Sheikh Faisal’s museum should still be on everybody’s to-do list. simpleswap “For those eager to learn about Qatar’s — and the region’s — heritage and beyond the museum is an ideal destination” he says. “Personally I’m captivated by the car collection the fossils and especially the Syrian house painstakingly transported and reassembled piece by piece.” Stephanie Y. Martinez a Mexican-American student mobility manager at Texas A&M University in Qatar likes the museum so much she includes it on all of her itineraries for students visiting from the main campus in Texas. “The guided tours are very detailed and the collections found at the museum have great variety and so many stories to unfold” she says. “Truly the museum has something to pique everyone’s interest. My favorites are the cars and the furniture exhibits showcasing wood and mother-of-pearl details. Definitely one of my favorite museums in Qatar every time I visit I learn something new.” Raynor Abreu from India also had praise for the unusual and immense collection. “Each item has its own story making the visit even more interesting” he says. “It’s also impressive to know that Sheikh Faisal started collecting these unique pieces when he was very young. Knowing this makes the museum even more special as it reflects his lifelong passion for history and culture.” It takes time and dedication to truly examine the many collections within the museum — especially since most of them are simply on display without explanation. Eclectic it may be but it’s hard to fault the determination of Sheikh Faisal who has brought together items that tell the story of Qatar and the Middle East. Sarah Bayley from the UK says she visited the museum recently with her family including 16 and 19-year-old teenagers and was won over by its sheer eccentricity. “Amazing. Loved it. It is a crazy place.”
Curiosity has maintained pristine pieces of the Cumberland sample in a “doggy bag” so that the team could have the rover revisit it later even miles away from the site where it was collected. The team developed and tested innovative methods in its lab on Earth before sending messages to the rover to try experiments on the sample. changelly In a quest to see whether amino acids the building blocks of proteins existed in the sample the team instructed the rover to heat up the sample twice within SAM’s oven. When it measured the mass of the molecules released during heating there weren’t any amino acids but they found something entirely unexpected. An intriguing detection The team was surprised to detect small amounts of decane undecane and dodecane so it had to conduct a reverse experiment on Earth to determine whether these organic compounds were the remnants of the fatty acids undecanoic acid dodecanoic acid and tridecanoic acid respectively. The scientists mixed undecanoic acid into a clay similar to what exists on Mars and heated it up in a way that mimicked conditions within SAM’s oven. The undecanoic acid released decane just like what Curiosity detected. Each fatty acid remnant detected by Curiosity was made with a long chain of 11 to 13 carbon atoms. Previous molecules detected on Mars were smaller meaning their atomic weight was less than the molecules found in the new study and simpler. “It’s notable that non-biological processes typically make shorter fatty acids with less than 12 carbons” said study coauthor Dr. Amy Williams associate professor of geology at the University of Florida and assistant director of the Astraeus Space Institute in an email. “Larger and more complex molecules are likely what are required for an origin of life if it ever occurred on Mars.”