Last Wednesday, the world's eyes looked to the skies (well, via streaming, natch) as the four astronauts of the Artemis II mission departed Earth to swing around the moon at a distance farther than any Terran has been from home. It's pretty remarkable what humans can do when we put our minds to it and collaborate. So what's next? There's talk of moon bases, trips to Mars, asteroid mining, and more. Or we can stay here and focus on terrestrial matters. … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Life Victorious
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Science Corner: Suitable Help Math
Everyone has thoughts on artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) these days, so it can be tough to cut through the noise. Personally, the novelty applications that make the rounds on social media don't really grab me. Caricature portrait of myself? I'm sure I'll like what my wife can draw better. Pop culture mashup? I'll just wait for Avengers Doomsday. A knowledgeable person has found a practical use case that solves a real problem they had? Now we're talking. So I perked up when I saw that Donald … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Suitable Help Math
Science Corner: Multidimensional Justice
We just observed Super Bowl Sunday, the culmination of the American football season. There are downsides to having so much of our attention and our culture revolve around the sport. On the plus side, it provides common ground for metaphors. One of the quirks of football is the possibility of offsetting penalties. I'm not sure if we saw them in this Super Bowl; I didn't notice any, but the slow-starting game lost my attention for a while. But if you've watched at least a few football games, you've likely come across … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Multidimensional Justice
Science Corner: Don’t Wanna, Can’t Make Me
After several days at work prodding myself to complete, well let's call it a non-preferred task, and given everything else going on in the world, I was struggling to find a science news story I wanted to write about. An astronomical anomaly? Pretty pictures, as always, but the possible explanations didn't really stir the imagination. Commenting on the latest pronouncements from Health & Human Services? I can only go that well so many times (but please talk to your physician before making medical decisions or diet … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Don’t Wanna, Can’t Make Me
Science Corner: Help from a Little Friend
'Tis the season to rehearse the arrival of a small, unexpected gift. So let's talk about the latest microbe discovery: Solarion arienae. S. arienae is a single-celled eukaryote that was found living in sediment of the Adriatic Sea off the coast of Croatia. It is so named by Valt et al because it has a form which is reminiscent of the sun, a round central body with many protrusions in every direction that it uses for catching bacteria to eat. It turns out to be a distant relative of, well, nearly every other living … [Read more...] about Science Corner: Help from a Little Friend