It’s a wonderful thing when kids are invited to get excited about science. And with the launch of the space shuttle Endeavor on Friday, NASA is throwing open the door.
As it heads to the International Space Station, Endeavor will be toting living things besides seven astronauts: butterfly larvae, young spiders, and the nectar and fruit [...]
Silly astronauts. Space travel is for tardigrades!
The world’s space agencies go to great lengths to protect human beings entering the deep frozen vaccuum of space. The prevailing belief has been that nothing could survive the ultra-cold, oxygen-deprived and radiation-intense conditions beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Enter tardigrades: oblong invertebrates about a millimeter in length that can visit space, return to Earth, and [...]
I enjoy writing about astronomy exactly for the reason I once feared it: there’s so much we don’t know. There’s rarely any shame in asking about the nature of a black hole, for example, because scientists are grappling with it too. Usually, if I get confused while writing an astronomy story, it’s because I’ve stumbled [...]
Last week I was working on a story for National Geographic News about the discovery of the most recent supernova explosion in the Milky Way. The story posted on May 14, and you can find it here: Youngest Supernova in Milky Way Found. There was ample material available for reporting the story: a press release [...]
