| Exploding Planets April 1982 |
Interesting speculation as to the source of the asteroid belt. The view that there was a planet there as recently as 4 million years ago is counter to the vast majority of scientists; still, it is worthy of consideration. But it would require the acceptance of another doomsday scenario: the only process I can think of which could rip apart a planet would be the super-rare creation of a black hole or other remarkably energy-releasing process by the interaction of cosmic rays with a planet. Unlikely, but interesting to think about. (Email me if you want to debate this, or ask what I'm talking about.) |
| Breakaway Moon April 1982 |
A substory to the one above. It describes a theory that the Moon split from a rapidly-spinning Earth. The most widely-accepted theory right now is that the Moon was created by a collision between the Earth and a Mars-sized object. |
| Fury on The Sun | From TIME, July 3, 1989, pp. 46-55: Solar storms, cycles. My interest in this? I believe that it's very likely that solar activity plays an extremely important role in Earth's environment. (Search for "Maunder minimum" and "little ice age".) 5 of the last 6 solar cycles have had the most sunspot activity, of those for which we have records (since the early 1600s). |
| Quick question about a 10th planet December 12, 1989 |
Not directly related to this: just recently (October 1999), there have been reports of evidence of a supermassive planet or a brown dwarf in orbit around our sun. Not conclusive yet. |
| Discovery of the Great Attractor January 1990 |
This and other discoveries of large-scale structure in the universe forced many theories to be revised. |
| The Search for Brown Dwarfs April 1990 |
In this case, as part of the search for "dark matter." |
| Red moon will rise in evening eclipse December 9, 1992 |
If you ever get the chance to see one, do: it's quite interesting. Also interesting are the accounts of the many astronomical observations, experiments, etc. done by ancient peoples. Look around for discussions of them, for they're quite useful in thinking about how best to use the tools at hand. |
| Whew! Earth has close call with asteroid December 9, 1992 |
One of several recent examples of a "close call" (in planetary terms) with an asteroid capable of causing a mass-extinction. Odds are low, but effects are high, so it's worth thinking about. |
| Evidence of Cosmic Snowballs Starts Scramble for Explanations June 1 1997 |
Earth may have gotten much of its water from a constant rain of tiny comets. |
| Response to Bush's Mars proposal July 26, 1989 |
In it, the editorialist encourages a straight-to-Mars mission, rather than builiding a Lunar station first. Personally, I'd rather see a permanent Lunar station than a Mars mission. |
| Prelude to the Shuttle's retrieval of the LDEF satellite January 10, 1990 |
This mission became more complicated than expected, with 3 astronauts performing a very long spacewalk to manually grab the satellite. It was difficult and expensive, but inspiring in showing how much people can do in space. |
| Next step in the prelude to the Shuttle's retrieval of the LDEF satellite January 12, 1990 |
| "Magic" Crystals: Key to New Technologies? February 20, 1990 |
From New York Times, Science Times. Photorefractive crystals change the amount they bend light depending on how much light they get. This leads to making it seem as if they "know" where reflective objects are. My interest in this? It's pretty darned bizarre, and fun to think about. And I like to follow things which could be essential in future technologies. |
| Cool Sounds at 200 Decibels December 19, 1997 |
The loudest sounds, and sonic cooling |
| The force of darkness March 7, 1998 |
There may be such a thing as a gravitational charge. |
Environment
My interest in this? I think that the effects of human activity have been far overstated as far as global warming and the ozone layer are concerned. At the very least, there is still a great deal of uncertainty. I am quoting rather outdated sources, but that's what I have available to scan. Also, I know that the debate continues, from many well-respected sources.
| GREENHOUSE ADVANTAGE September 1982 |
The final paragraph makes a good point:"Sherwood Idso, a research physicist at the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory in Arizona, concurs. His 12-year study of the greenhouse effect indicates that doubling atmospheric CO2 would increase Earth's temperature by only about 0.25 degrees, less than our climate's natural variations. Furthermore, he claims that temperatures would not rise significantly even if CO2 levels increased 10-fold. According to Idso, doubling or tripling the amount of CO2 is actually desirable, since it could increase global agricultural productivity by 20 to 50 percent." |
| Coming Soon: Another Ice Age...Scientists Tell Why December 1982 |
In Earth's history, the planet has been alternately far warmer and far cooler than anything mankind has experienced. There are very many processes going on entirely separate from Man's activity which have profound consequences for our climate. We don't yet understand most of these, yet many environmentalists claim to know that mankind is causing global warming. It has been presented to the public as a certain conclusion, but there is still great uncertainty. There are as many good arguments for global cooling as for global warming, as this article shows. |
| Worst Fears on Acid Rain Unrealized February 20, 1990 |
The lead quote, and my opinion all along: "Significant problems, yes. An environmental disaster, no." Other relevant quotes: "At the levels at which acid is now being deposited in North America, the study found that with the exception of Eastern red spruce at high elevations, there is 'no evidence of widespread forest damage.' Moreover, it found that acid rain 'is not associated with crop damage.' The real villain, it found, is ozone, which 'is capable of regional-scale crop growth and yield reduction' and is 'the pollutant of greatest concern' with respect to forests." |
| Exxon: Valdez oil spill damage overestimated | Again, honesty and scientific rigor are needed to keep environmental issues from simply following a political agenda. A quote from the article: "We don't want to belittle it," said Exxon scientist Dr. Hans 0. Jahns. "But we're all going to be living with oil production, and it doesn't serve anybody well to have an exaggerated perception what an oil spill can do." |
| Instant Evolution July 1982 |
From Science Digest, p. 18: A very odd article about an entirely new species of kangaroo, evolved in only 60 generations, and less than 70 years in Hawaii. |
| Scientists use sheep's DNA to produce first-ever clone February 1997 |
A brief AP article about the first clone. |
| One of the early articles about Biosphere 2 | Biosphere 2: that strange project in the Arizona desert, where people hoped to build a viable environment totally separate from the outside world. It failed in that goal, but did manage to teach us a great deal about the intricacies of the natural world. |
| School science books get failing grade from experts September 30, 1999 |
Judging by the students I taught as freshmen at Purdue, science teaching is often poor. Everyone is capable of understanding this stuff, and of finding some relevance for it in their lives. Bad textbooks are just one source of bad teaching. |