Guest Thinkers — September 1, 2010

SI/USGS Weekly Volcano Activity Report for 4/22-28/2009

Keep up with the week's volcanism with the latest USGS/SI update.

The weekly USGS/SI roundup is out. Highlights (beyond Slamet) include:

Explosions (some heard 25 km away) and incandescent blocks that started fires at Galeras, Colombia.

Ash and tephra being thrown tens of meters into the air and a 4-m tall spatter cone being built at Pacaya, Guatemala

Also in Guatemala, Santa Maria’s Santiaguito dome produced ash plumes and explosions.

Steam, ash and sulfur odors from the continuing eruption at Redoubt, Alaska.

Increased seismicity, steam and ash plumes along with a thermal anomaly at El Reventador in Ecuador

Starts With A Bang

The unsurprising non-detection of intelligent aliens

Life arose on Earth very early on. After a few billion years, here we are: intelligent and technologically advanced. Where's everyone else?

A person in a dark robe wielding a glowing red lightsaber on a desert dune under a night sky with a large crescent moon and a visible planet.

High Culture

Does science fiction shape the future?

Six visionary science fiction authors on the social impact of their work.

A human brain preserved in a clear glass container filled with a yellowish preserving fluid, set against a bright, light green background.

13.8

The key problem with the “brain in a vat” thought experiment

Even with the best technology imaginable, you'd probably never be able to exist as a consciously aware brain in a vat.

A dramatic solar eclipse with a radiant ring of fire visible around the moon, set against a backdrop of clouds and a sunburst.

13.8

A cosmic coincidence: What eclipses tell us about Earth

Total eclipses are a product of a strange and almost eerie cosmic coincidence — one that makes Earth an even rarer world in the galaxy and, by proxy, in the Universe.

Starts With A Bang

If photons have mass, could they explain dark matter?

Our Universe requires dark matter in order to make sense of things, astrophysically. Could massive photons do the trick?

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

Fernandina roars back – UPDATED

Either the eruption at Fernandina has kicked back up again, or, based on the accompanying photo, we've landed on Gliese 581 D.