Category Archives: Science News

Seeking truth, learning how things work, using that knowledge to make new tools

TRAPPIST-1 and the Mysterious Pea Pod Planets 0 (0)

There may have been times when one generation’s world was much like another’s. This is not one of those times. Science textbooks of my youth included speculation that Earth’s mountains exist because our planet has been cooling and shrinking. One … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

TRAPPIST-1 b Measured by Webb: Hot, Airless 0 (0)

The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system is news again, this time because we’ve taken the innermost planet’s temperature. That, by itself, isn’t newsworthy. We’ve been using infrared observations to learn how hot exoplanets are at least since 2006.1 What makes the latest … Continue reading

Posted in Science News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Active Volcano on Venus: Before and After Images 0 (0)

Venus is dead as a doornail as far as life is concerned. Life as we know it, at any rate, and already I’m drifting off-topic. Geologically, though, we’ve known that there’s still metaphorical life in Venus. Or was, until very … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Peril in Orion! Beware Betelgeuse? 0 (0)

Betelgeuse, the bright red star in Orion’s right shoulder, is a semiregular variable star, with small periods of 185 days and 2,100 days and a main period of around 400 days. It will explode at any moment, and we’re right … Continue reading

Posted in Science News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Edited Twins, Genetic Engineering and Bioethics 0 (0)

Gene-editing rules showed up in my news feed last Monday. So, indirectly, did genetically-edited twins who, as far as I know, are still alive. If I’d known how little I’d be able to verify about Dr. He Jiankui’s famous (or … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Journal, Science News | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment