I saw a few great April Fool’s jokes today, but this one at NASA Watch really got the prize: “Pluto is Now Just a Fairly Large Rock” With perfect mock-serious delivery, blog author Keith Cowing reported it like straight news — given the growing number of solar system bodies in Pluto’s neighborhood, the beleaguered little [...]
Termite kings are fine for fathering the workers, but when it comes to producing daughters, the queen‘s got it under control, thanks … That’s the new finding from researchers in Raleigh, North Carolina and Japan, embellished with my romantic cynicism. Scientifically speaking, here are the goods: the researchers have shown for the first time that it is possible [...]
Ever see pictures of the other planets and fight the ridiculous urge to pack a picnic, or don the hiking boots for a little interplanetary adventure? I do. With all the images now coming back from Mars, for example — and the fact that the surface boasts as many named features as some of our [...]
Ever since I was exposed to information about human-caused environmental problems, in college, I’ve remained generally horrified — sometimes vaguely, and other times acutely — about the runaway train that is our collective effect on our planet. Moments of peace have shone through. One such moment was sparked when I read David Quammen’s book “Song [...]