Space-based missile defense: Golden Dome or gold brick? To justify US attempts to acquire Greenland, the Trump administration has argued—among other things—that this island is essential to the operation of the

Will space-based missile defense be a Golden Dome or a multi-trillion-dollar Gold Brick that will sink the national budget? Read my report at thebulletin.org/2026/04/spac...

Oldest Moon Rocks Found on the Lunar Farside The 4-billion-year-old Moon rocks brought back from the farside of the Moon challenge ideas about what it was like in the early solar system.

Oldest moon rocks from the far side of the moon show the inner solar system probably did not get started with a Late Heavy Bombardment
skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

New Study Identifies Organic Molecules Spewing from Saturn's Icy Moon Enceladus The discovery of a new array of molecules spouted from Enceladus indicates new promise for habitability within its frozen-over ocean.

Organic molecules found in icy jets from Saturn's Enceladus may be signs of life in its ocean. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

TaleWind Business Podcast · The TaleWind pod features interviews with authors of books related to science, technology, and business.

Here's a new podcast about my book, Lasers, Death Rays, and the Long, Strange Quest for the Ultimate Weapon with Andrew Rubenstein of ShoreWindCapital that brings the story up to date. The Apple version is at podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
A Spotify version is open.spotify.com/episode/1pSo...

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Read about the carbon-rich interstellar comet skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

New interstellar comet is made of different stuff than solar system comets. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne... The dust and gas around it are mostly carbon dioxide not water vapor found in solar system comets. The comet will be around until mid-2026, stay tuned for more.

Archaeologists Keep Finding Massive Shoes at an Ancient Roman Fort—and They Have No Idea Why They're So Big Discovered near Hadrian's Wall in northern England, the oversized leather footwear has left researchers puzzled

I was amused to find that the "massive" 11.8 inch shoes found in an ancient Roman fort www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a... are smaller than the 13-inch sneakers I wear.

Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics Electronic Records Reference Report Introduction The following tables were generated from the Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS) Extract Files, which is ...

To put the war in Gaza in context, the National Archives records 58,220 U.S. military casualties in the Vietnam War www.archives.gov/research/mil... . The Guardian www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...? now reports the Gaze war has claimed "nearly 60,000 lives." We need peace now.

Traffic Tribulation: Mass Pike work to bring Car-mageddon to region - Newton Beacon You may think Memorial Day weekend is the biggest traffic headache of the season. Most years, you’d be right. This year, you’d be wrong. Next weekend, May 30 to June 2,work will begin on the [...]

Car-mageddon typo: As of this morning, the east-west Massachusetts Turnpike has been re-designated I-95 in a story in the Newton Beacon on a major road reconstruction project www.newtonbeacon.org/traffic-trib... Let's hope they fix it soon.

Our lilacs are blooming here in the Boston area. What's blooming in your yard?

Updating Old North Church's famous message Adam Balsam captured the latest work tonight by Silence Dogood, a local artists' collective using one of Ben Franklin's pen names to spread the word against tyranny, in this case by updating Paul Reve...

www.universalhub.com/2025/updatin...

Looked out the back window this morning to see a beautiful wild turkey checking out our bird feeder and back yard. It's great to see them here in suburbia.

Kip Siegel - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia Keeve M. (Kip) Siegel (19231975) was a US physicist. He was a professor of Physics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI, and the founder of Conductron Corporation, a high tech producer of el...

Kip Siegel, founder of KMS Fusion, died just over 50 years ago after suffering a stroke while trying to persuade Congress to support his company's laser fusion tech. Livermore now has ignited seven fusion targets. That's progress, but will fusion energy take 50 more years? alchetron.com/Kip-Siegel

Did a Ring of Rocks and Dust Orbit Earth Before the Dinosaurs Roamed? A team of scientists thinks a clustering of ancient impact craters points to a temporary ring around Earth hundreds of millions of years ago.

Sky & Telescope is one of only five monthly magazines that has published regularly for 80 years. The February 2025 issue was number 1000, and I had a story in the that print issue on the theory that Earth may have had a ring in it. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

Against the odds: 12 women who beat bias to succeed in science A book deftly highlights how women have been considered unsuitable as researchers for reasons other than their ability and commitment.

In Against the Odds, John and Mary Gribbin say a lack of women's toilets held back women in science. In 1969 the Caltech faculty told a committee on admitting women undergraduates in 1969. A plumber could solve that problem, and the first women were admitted in 1971. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Why Is Mars Red? Martian dust is red because of rust — but the rust on Mars is not the same iron oxide mineral found on Earth.

The rusty dust on Mars is different than terrestrial rust. It's a different iron oxide ferrihydrite that isn't stable on Earth, but it can survive billions of years on Mars which is very much colder. Neat stuff skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

Remembering Human Error Specialist James Reason | Aviation Week Network James Reason was a leader in recognizing many mistakes as expected occasional outcomes rather than seeing all errors as intentional, deviant acts.

How James Reason became a specialist in human error, something should all think about. From his obituary in Aviation Week: aviationweek.com/air-transpor...?

Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for February 06, 2025 | GoComics.com

Cryptocurrency is "Schroedinger's Piggy Bank" www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis...

“Drop that baby!” My watercolor of Leptoceratops defends their young against Quetzalcoatlus. I do think smaller ceratopsians were punching above their weight class and made sure to convey it here. #paleoart #sciart

The Clear Space Foundation Making a sale.

What's the Kessler Syndrome. Here's what it can do in science fiction www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Perseverance Reaches Rim of Jezero Crater It’s been a long upward climb for NASA’s premier rover. But the commanding view — and the geology — were worth it.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover has reached the rim of the Jezero crater to explore new territory skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

Oldest and Largest Impact Crater Found on Venus Scientists have found possibly the oldest and largest crater on Venus — and it's like none they've ever seen on our sister planet.

The oldest and largest impact crater on Venus is nothing like what has been found before. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

We’ve Found the Source of Most Meteorites Scientists have traced 70% of meteorite falls to three collisions that occurred in the asteroid belt within the past 40 million years.

We've found the source of meteors. The biggest are fragments of asteroid collisions during the last 40 million years. skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-ne...

Vacuum tubes are back! Today I found the local electronics store is selling antiques -- vacuum tubes from the mid-20th century, many in their original boxes. I hadn't seen vacuum tubes on sale in a store for decades. Thanks to You-Do-It-Electronics for the blast from the past.