Thirty-six years ago today, human beings first set foot on another world. Forty-six years ago today, I made my own first appearance on this world. I modestly leave it to the reader to decide which was the more momentous event.
Why is the sky blue…and not purple?
Avoid clichés like the plague, writing books tell you, and ordinarily I do my best to do so–but this week, I can’t help but start out with a cliché, one of the oldest in the book, the question every small child supposedly asks at some time or other: “Why is the sky blue?” It might …
"Where’d those boulders come from?"
That’s the question being asked by space scientists after the Cassini spacecraft returned images from its 175-kilometre-away pass of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The landscape is strewn with giant boulders–and right now, nobody can explain how they got there. I love it when space probes–or other kinds of scientific research–result in surprises like this. Show you …
An interesting experiment
The U.K. Globe Theatre (as opposed to Regina, Saskatchewan’s, Globe Theatre) is going to use reconstructed Elizabethan accents in its upcoming production of Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. Now that, I’d love to hear. But I’d want a copy of the script to follow along.
Dem bones
Scientists have discovered more about what keeps young healthy bones strong–which may point the way to therapies to keep old, brittle bones from breaking and repair bones that do break. Did I mention I have a birthday this week? Not that my bones are fragile, yet, but there’s something about the tick of the birthday …
A layer of life we never knew was there
The collapse of a giant ice shelf in Antarctica has revealed an ecosystem of clams and bacteria we never knew existed, in freezing cold and darkness half a mile beneath the sea. Life may be fragile in the form of an individual organism, but, boy, it’s tough and adaptable in the aggregate, isn’t it?
Return of Star Beast!
Orson Scott Card finally gets around to reading–and reviewing–the Robert A. Heinlein classic Star Beast, which has apparently been reissued. I loved Star Beast (along with everything else Heinlein wrote in his “juvenile” period) when I was a kid. And Card agrees with me, which is always nice. My favorite Heinleins of the period? Tunnel …
Lots of blogging over on Willetts on Wine
I’ve been quiet here for a couple of days, but I have been blogging! I think I’ve finally brought The Willetts on Wine up to date. Check it out if you’re interested in fermented grape juice.
Key to aging found?
New research indicates that aging, at least in mice, is triggered by the buildup of mutated DNA in cells’ mitochondria. This may give us a target for true anti-aging drugs. Did I mention my 46th birthday is coming up? Faster, please!
Do you see what I see?
You won’t if we’re using one of these.
Worst news lead I’ve seen in a while…
This has got to be the worst example of paint-by-numbers newswriting I’ve seen in, if not forever, at least a good long while–since, maybe, journalism school? “It began like any other morning on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, that was, until a wall came tumbling down onto Broadway.” A total waste of pixels (online version) or …
Synthetic society
Scientists are working to create a virtual world in which computer-generated individual agents will, they hope, build a society from scratch–maybe even create their own language. They’re just missing one bet, as far as I can see: they should put the whole thing on TV. Instead of just a reality show, it would be a …
My latest live walk and vlog
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