Science News
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Saturday, October 10, 2026
The US-China Space Race Has Begun
The claim is that we need to go to the Moon so that we can go to Mars. We don't need to go to Mars. It far too risky and to costly to go to a dead, dangerous planet with a 1/3 of the gravity of the Earth. The radiation on Mars and on the way is too dangerous.
Friday, October 9, 2026
Wednesday, October 7, 2026
William Shatner on AI
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Sunday, October 4, 2026
Friday, October 2, 2026
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Wednesday, September 30, 2026
Space Travel
Science fiction romanticizes space travel, but what it really romanticizes is traveling to other worlds and finding alien creatures. Space itself is not particularly romantic and is perhaps best described as "the big empty." Really, really empty. The nearest star is about 4.2 light-years away, and the nearest large spiral galaxy is about 2.5 million light-years away. Between these things is an almost unimaginable amount of nothing, which is not the least bit romantic or exciting. Traveling to another star requires so much energy that it is close to impossible, or at least impractical with our current technology. There are also many problems and dangers. I don't see us traveling to another star for at least a few thousand years. Fortunately, there is plenty to explore within our own solar system.
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Monday, September 28, 2026
Sunday, September 27, 2026
A Journey Through the Atmosphere
The atmosphere is conventionally considered to end at 100 km, or about 62 miles, above Earth's surface, a boundary known as the Kármán line. In reality, there is no sharp boundary where the atmosphere ends. It gradually becomes thinner with increasing altitude, eventually becoming an extremely tenuous atmosphere that approaches a vacuum.