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How much like Earth is Kepler’s new planet? How we’ll find out!
“Life is not a miracle. It is a natural phenomenon, and can be expected to appear whenever there is a planet whose conditions duplicate those of the Earth.” -Harold Urey One of the most exciting...
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Are You Being Honest With Yourself?
“Be careful. People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things…well, new things aren’t what they expect. They like to know...
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The Power of Admitting “I’m Wrong”
“Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.” -Mark Twain “It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it...
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Reverse Terraforming (for Supervillains only)
“The Earth destroys its fools, but the intelligent destroy the Earth.” -Khalid ibn al-Walid Usually, when we talk about terraforming, we think about taking a presently uninhabitable planet and making...
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The Cosmic Story of Carbon-14
“Life exists in the universe only because the carbon atom possesses certain exceptional properties.” -James Jeans Here on Earth, every living thing is based around four fundamental, elemental building...
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Discovering the Earth from Space: Top 10 Pictures from the ISS
“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.” -Bill Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut From hundreds of miles up, the International Space Station...
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Weekend Diversion: Making it Count!
“The time will not be taken from the sum of your life. Instead of shortening it, it will indefinitely lengthen it and make you truly immortal. Nevermore will time seem short or long, and cares will...
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My First Trip To A Glacier May Be My Last
“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed Everybody knows that the war is over Everybody knows the good guys lost Everybody knows the fight was fixed The poor...
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Why the World Will Run Out of Helium
“I have this one little saying, when things get too heavy just call me helium, the lightest known gas to man.” -Jimi Hendrix Hendrix, as I told you once before, was almost right. We know of helium,...
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The Solar Storm of a Lifetime
“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.” -Alexander Graham Bell Imagine a beautiful, clear day. The Sun is shining, the skies are...
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Where does an earthquake’s energy come from?
“As seismologists gained more experience from earthquake records, it became obvious that the problem could not be reduced to a single peak acceleration. In fact, a full frequency of vibrations occurs.”...
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Weekend Diversion: The Top 10 Forests in the World
“But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest and get very quiet, you’ll come to understand that you’re connected with everything.” -Alan Watts As we move farther away...
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You NEED more science in your politics! (Yes, YOU!)
“One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people’s minds.” -Frank Zappa One of the most difficult things to talk...
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How would you figure out whether Global Warming is real? Part 1.
“There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.” -David Attenborough It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything on this...
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How would you figure out whether Global Warming is real? Part 2.
“We make the world we live in and shape our own environment.” -Orison Swett Marden If you had never heard of global warming before, how would you figure out whether it’s real or not? And if it is real,...
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How would you figure out whether Global Warming is real? Part 3.
“Being told about the effects of climate change is an appeal to our reason and to our desire to bring about change. But to see that Africans are the hardest hit by climate change, even though they...
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Weekend Diversion: The Edge of the World
“Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black And the dark street winds and bends. Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow, And watch...
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The Story of Mars
“Mars once was wet and fertile. It’s now bone dry. Something bad happened on Mars. I want to know what happened on Mars so that we may prevent it from happening here on Earth.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson Oh,...
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Weekend Diversion: The greatest addition to Earth of 2013!
“I had seen birth and death but had thought they were different.” -T. S. Eliot Time passes, and things grow; that’s the way of the world, so it seems. 2013 was no exception, and as Joshua Radin...
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Weekend Diversion: Building Down (Synopsis)
“It is not the beauty of a building you should look at; it’s the construction of the foundation that will stand the test of time.” -David Allan Coe As the population of cities continues to grow, real...
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