Tag Archives: science

A Super-Earth With an Air About It: 55 Cancri e, Janssen

This month’s analysis of a piping hot super-Earth’s atmosphere is a big deal. But it’s not the “first” detection of a terrestrial exoplanet’s atmosphere, not by about eight years.1 I’ll be talking about how scientists sift through data, 55 Cancri … Continue reading

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

Kamoʻoalewa: Breakaway Asteroid and Quasi-Moon

The asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa isn’t exactly Earth’s second moon. But it’s been circling our world for centuries: and near Earth’s orbit for much longer. Now scientists say they’ve traced the asteroid back to Giordano Bruno crater on the Moon. I’ll … Continue reading

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

Evolution and a Gene Expression Code Library

Scientists have found gene groups we have in common with nearly all animals: thousands of them, from a code library that’s more than half a billion years old. I’ll be talking about that this week, plus why I see no … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Eclipse 2024: Science, the News, Faith, and Me

Next week’s solar eclipse won’t be total here in central Minnesota. I’m not terribly disappointed, since the odds are that I couldn’t see it anyway. There’s rain in the five-day forecast. We need rain a great deal more than I … Continue reading

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

Half-Million-Year-Old Structure: Rethinking Cavemen, Origins

Wood generally doesn’t last long if left out in the open. That’s why finding interlocking logs near the Kalambo River is such a big deal. Well, part of the reason. They’ve been submerged, it that’s the right word, in wet … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments