“We think of terraforming as something we’ll do in the future to other planets, but we have thousands of years of experience changing the shape of our own planet in profound ways.”
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When I first met Tony Blair in 1993 at his house in Islington in North London, I was struck by two things. First, the man who had just recently become […]
“If a week is a long time in politics”, as Harold Wilson once said, two weeks away from politics on paternity leave is clearly an age. The Leader of Britain’s […]
So let’s now speak about the future. You may have heard about the asteroid Apophis, which is about the size of the Rose Bowl Stadium. It’s said that the large […]
To watch from afar as the drama of the US mid term elections unfolded as a Brit who has lived in America, likes America and likes Americans, is deeply frustrating. […]
nn Folks have been suggesting that life on Earth started near volcanic vents for a long time now (and of course, some people don’t buy it). Whether or not life […]
Piles of news from the last week or so including a look back at Eyjafjallajökull’s eruption, shots of Sakurajima and Chaiten from space, mud volcanoes on Mars and tourism in Vanuatu
According to a recent press release: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, will complete the exploration phase of its mission on Sept. 16, after a number of successes that transformed […]
We’ve found out the winner of 2010 Pliny for volcanic event of the year yesterday, so now let’s look back at the entire year in volcanic activity. It was a […]
The pessimist mourns the glass’s half-emptiness, the optimist rejoices that it’s semi-full and the engineer just thinks the glass is twice the size it should be. What would a space […]
Shiveluch continues its noisy summer, we hope to avoid unnecessary noise at Crater Lake National Park and former noise spotted on Mars.
“Painting is a battlefield… about what is, what is not, what ought to be, what I like, what I hate, what I love,” says Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca, subject of […]
Gallup has released its latest tracking data on American views of NASA. As Gallup describes, according to the Sept. 14-16 poll, 56% of Americans rate the job NASA is doing […]
Things may be settling down in Iceland, Chilean volcanoes still quiet after the earthquake and views of Chaiten from space.
Updates on Mayon, Turrialba and Nyamuragira, news of an eruption in Ecuador and a round up of NASA images of the past week.
A recent study by members of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has been getting a lot of attention – one where it was suggested that we are very close to the […]
This map is drawn up by a proponent of evolution, as can be deduced from the remarks on the map and even its colours (green is good, red is bad).
I am proud to announce that the second season of “Sci Fi Science: Physics of the Impossible,” debuts next Wednesday, Sept. 1, at 9 pm, on the Science Channel (check […]
“The new national space policy calls on NASA to target missions beyond low-Earth orbit — such as to an asteroid — by 2025, with the eventual goal of sending astronauts to Mars.” The CSM reports.
I have to agree with Brandon Keim, who reviewed this map for Wired Magazine (here): it most definitely is one of “the coolest planetary maps ever”. This map is of […]
Like any “top 10” list, Discovery Channel’s “Top 10 Volcanoes in Geologic History” doesn’t get the whole picture. Meanwhile, MSNBC continues the fine tradition of terrible science journalism.
It’s plain to see that I’m an optimist, sometimes more than is socially comfortable. The ease with which I dismiss the disastrous economic decline above serves as one example of that. I wrote that the recession will benefit our political system, and, before I cut this line, as having “rewarded our company for methodical execution and ruthless efficiency by removing competitors from the landscape.” I make no mention of the disastrous effects on millions of people, and the great uncertainty that grips any well-briefed mind, because it truly doesn’t stand in the foreground of my mind (despite suffering personal loss of wealth).
Our species is running towards a precipice with looming dangers like economic decline, political unrest, climate crisis, and more threatening to grip us as we jump off the edge, but my optimism is stronger now than ever before. On the other side of that looming gap are extraordinary breakthroughs in healthcare, communications technology, access to space, human productivity, artistic creation and literally hundreds of fields. With the right execution and a little bit of luck we’ll all live to see these breakthroughs — and members of my generation will live to see dramatically lengthened life-spans, exploration and colonization of space, and more opportunity than ever to work for passion instead of simply working for pay.
Instead of taking this space to regale you with the many personal and focused changes I intend to make in 2009, let me rather encourage you to spend time this year thinking, as I’m going to, more about what we can do in 2009 to positively affect the future our culture will face in 2020, 2050, 3000 and beyond.
MSNBC has jumped the shark when it comes to coverage of these recent earthquakes, implying that nature is “out of control”.
“Corruption has marred every aspect of Somali society,” says Afyare Abdi Elmi, a professor of International Affairs. It is, he says, the most corrupt country in the world.
n … then “Jupiter would be revoking democracy in Russia, Saturn would be curling in Canada, Uranus would be trying to figure out how to speak Kalaallisut, Neptune would be […]
The War of the Worlds dramatization that aired October 30, 1938 has been called “the most famous radio show of all time.”
Skeptic Michael Shermer thinks we deceive ourselves because “we did not evolve a baloney-detection device in our brains to discriminate between true and false patterns.”
While researching the Botticelli’s Venus and Mars (shown) at the National Gallery, London, David Bellingham, a program director at Sotheby’s Institute of Art, made an interesting discovery. The fruit held […]