Starting about 135 million years ago, long after the Pangea supercontinent fragmented into shards of planetary crust, one of those geological slivers began noodling toward the north and east. Near the end of the Eocene epoch, it bumped into what is now Florida. With a newborn ocean giving it a shove from behind, it overrode…
Snow fell on the four quarters of the world; icy winds blew from every side; the sun and the moon were hidden by storms. — Writer and folklorist Padraic Colum, citing an Icelandic legend in Orpheus: Myths of the World When you live in Iceland, you kind of expect a rough winter. But…
June 2-6, 2014 This week began with cosmic conundrums. Jessa looked at the maladies astronauts suffer after long periods in zero gravity. For Mars-bound explorers of the future, the toll on their bodies–and their psyches–is unknown. “Travelers won’t even see stars. Outside the window, there will be blackness. Utter blackness.” And Ann wrestled with what to…
People say that writing a book is something of an obsession. It has to be. Why else would you turn over your life for several years to, say, the sex life of bedbugs or the dark energy driving the universe? In our case, it was 18th-century Iceland that did us in — more specifically, a…
January 13 – 17 This week, a modest proposal from Helen: Golden Globes, science writing edition. Cameron debated the merits of keeping a journal. Based on her observations on anemone, it’s a strong “yes please” from me. No big bang, ever? Guest poster Jeff Kanipe introduced us to Halton Arp, his galactic pathologies, and his…
Halton Arp — “Chip” to his friends — died in Munich on December 28, 2013, and with him a cosmological banner has fallen to the ground. It’s a banner that younger astronomers may choose to take up. If they do, however, they should be cautious: it could mean the end of their careers. As a…
Sept 2 to 6 We’ve been spoiled by gluts of gorgeous hi-res Hubble photos of spiral galaxies and nebulae, but it wasn’t always that easy to see off this planet. This week, guest poster Jeff Kanipe unearthed the compelling mystery behind the first public glimpse of Arcturus at the 1933 worlds fair. Erik explained why…
Yesterday I related the official version of how photons from the star Arcturus triggered an electrical signal that lit up the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. My research into that event, however, has sent me deep into the weeds. Most historical accounts claim that four observatories — Yerkes, Harvard College, Allegheny, and the University of…