Aeronauts call circumnavigating the world in a balloon “the Last Great Adventure.” One attempt ended in the Pacific Ocean on December 26, but other balloonists are raring to go–eight expeditions in all. The most technologically advanced balloon ever to make the attempt, sponsored by Re/Max, may have already been launched by the time you read …
Tag: science
Santa physics
A few years ago I wrote a column about the fledging science of “clausotechnolometry,” the study of the advanced technology of Santa Claus. Well, time marches on, and this year I am pleased to be able to bring you the results of exciting new research into this field. Santa Claus has been the subject of …
Breakthroughs of 1998
New Year’s is traditionally a time of looking back at the previous year’s accomplishments. Every year brings a flood of new scientific discoveries, and 1998 was no exception. Choosing which to mention would is a daunting task; fortunately, the editors of Science magazine already did all the work. Briefly, I want to pass along to …
Why we crave chocolate
It’s the season for sweets, and one of the favorites, this Christmas and every Christmas (not to mention Valentine’s Day, Easter, and assorted other special occasions) is chocolate. Why do we crave this unique food? It’s not just the taste. As new research has shown, a lot of the pleasure we get out of eating …
Space stations, once more with feeling
In his 1984 State of the Union Address, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced that the U.S. would build a space station, a permanently inhabited base in orbit. It’s a safe bet that Reagan would have been shocked and disbelieving had you told him that it would be 14 years before the first component …
Dreams
Dreams have fascinated people for millennia. Ancient people sought portents of the future in dreams. Not-so-ancient people, such as Sigmund Freud, sought information about the psyche: he felt that an examination of dreams could help a psychoanalyst guide a person in the resolution of inner conflicts. In the 20th century, the function of dreams has …
Mirror, mirror
Ever since the first caveman saw himself in a pool of water and became the first human in history to complain of a bad hair day, we’ve recognized that being able to see our reflection has its uses–and so we’ve made mirrors. A mirror is any object that reflects light rays in such a …
Extraterrestrials
On the television program The X-Files, FBI agent Fox Mulder is always searching for proof of extraterrestrials, mostly by exploring old warehouses with his trusty flashlight and cell phone. But as an article by Ron Cowen in the November 1 issue of Science News points out, the real search for non-terrestrial life is taking place in university and …
Black holes
They were talking about black holes recently at the 189th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Toronto. New evidence of their existence was presented, along with evidence of black holes at the centers of three typical galaxies. This may prompt you to ask the question, “So what’s a black hole, and why should I …
The Shroud of Turin
In medieval times, Holy Relics did boffo box-office. Saints’ finger bones–even entire saints–and pieces of the One True Cross drew the kinds of crowds most CFL teams would envy. Eventually, however, people noticed there were enough pieces of the One True Cross floating around to build a house, and holy relics fell into disrepute–all …
SETI @ Home
Alas for the good old days, when we thought the Earth was the center of the universe. Today we know our sun is only a very average star in a very average galaxy, in a universe where there are 50 billion galaxies, containing half a trillion stars each, around which, based on recent observations, planets …
Life on other planets
On the television program The X-Files, FBI agent Fox Mulder is always searching for proof of extraterrestrials, mostly by exploring old warehouses with his trusty flashlight and cell phone. But as an article by Ron Cowen in the November 1 issue of Science News points out, the real search for non-terrestrial life is taking place in university and …
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