This is disappointing news: Based on a number of experimental studies, brain-training exercises and games don’t seem to improve general brain health or ward off dementia. It is true that practicing specific tasks, such as learning and recalling names or … Continue reading
This three-minute silent animation shows how the International Space Station was assembled over a period of many years in near-Earth orbit: Link: https://youtu.be/vgfWH3g9kpY There’s not a lot of information given on how the various modules are used, but that’s covered … Continue reading
Odd questions occur to me once in a while. For example, I recently started wondering how big a lightyear actually is. It’s of course the distance light travels in a year, but exactly how long is a year? The word … Continue reading
Hank Green very briefly (in about 2 1/2 minutes) talks about whether we crazy humans could destroy the Earth several times over with nuclear weapons: Link: https://youtu.be/3CerozsNjgw I think Hank is probably right in his conclusion that no, we probably … Continue reading
You will occasionally run into people who think that climate scientists are lying about climate change in order to get grant money. This reflects a misunderstanding of the grant process, not to mention overlooking the fact that fossil fuel interests … Continue reading
On Sunday’s edition of the CBS news program Face the Nation (transcript), Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) was asked about Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and the Speaker said, “I’ll refer you to my remark at a fund-raiser I … Continue reading
A few days ago I posted a four-minute video from John Green talking about the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, an ambitious proposal from the year 2000 to address a number of major world problems in just 15 years. You might … Continue reading
The latest from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day: NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) website: http://apod.nasa.gov Permanent link to today’s page: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150925.html by … Continue reading
This is way more interesting than you might expect. Some young folks drive to a dry lake bed in Nevada and set up a scale model of the Solar System, that is, with all the planets and their orbits laid … Continue reading
Friday’s Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA (link) may be the most remarkable picture yet released of those taken by the New Horizons spacecraft of the distant dwarf planet Pluto. New Horizons shot a huge number of pictures as … Continue reading