Science reporting relevant to current events with an emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area
Dear Reader,Below are a few items of interest: discoveries, ideas, and issues. Pick and choose as you wish and click on links for deeper stories. CLIMATE Many thousands of Emperor Penguin chicks died because some ice shelves where they hatch broke up before chicks fledged out to their waterproof plumage. Those ice shelves normally break up … Read more
Unused shared bikes in Xiamen, China Credit: Reuters from The Atlantic Bike sharing rentals seemed like a great idea and many millions of these bicycles were manufactured in China, clogging sidewalks and streets. Excess bikes numbering in the millions were rounded up and scrapped. This created tons of non-recyclable waste. This was a tiny trickle of … Read more
Hello again dear SciSchmooze reader, In the U.S. 69% of adults believe that angels are real, and 41% believe that extraterrestrial UFOs are regularly seen. Most children in this country are taught to believe in angels as part of their religious upbringing. I was. So that 69% figure seems explainable. It may be more remarkable that nearly … Read more
Hello again, you who like me enjoys learning, enjoys fireworks, and enjoys sharing the 4th of July with friends and family. SPACE In 2003, Burt Rutan announced that Scaled Composites was building a sub-orbital spacecraft, SpaceShipOne. Pilots twice flew the craft to an altitude over 100 kilometers (the Karmen Line) in 2004 (i was there!) … Read more
Dear science aficionado, Join us in another romp through recent (and not so recent) science revelations. But first, “Infinity.” Somehow i missed the Netflix movie, “A Trip to Infinity,” when it came out last year. Carve out 80 minutes this week to watch it. You won’t be sorry. The movie reminded me of a book … Read more
Greetings, dear reader. I trust you will find some delectable items in this week’s science smorgasbord. SPACE Learned geophysicists years ago concluded that Mars has a hot liquid inner core, unlike Earth with its hot solid inner core. They calculated that Mars’ gravitational pressure is insufficient to make molten iron solid, as is the case with our home planet. … Read more
Welcome again, I get such good feedback from so many of you that i often think of you as colleagues. Lately i’ve been living less than a hundred meters from a heavily-traveled 6-lane, 55 mph thoroughfare. (Quick question: ¿Of the world’s 190+ nations, how many officially use “miles” instead of kilometers for road signs? Answer … Read more
Welcome dear science-aware reader, I’ve been slogging through The Climate Book created through the efforts of Greta Thunberg. It is an astounding collection of 84 short ‘essays’ by scientists, economists, visionaries, philosophers, and respected authors. The book has 5 sections: – How Climate Works– How Our Planet is Changing– How It Affects Us– What We’ve Done About … Read more
Welcome dear science-appreciative reader, When Avian Influenza H5N1 is detected in one chicken on an egg farm, it and all of the tens of thousands of other chickens there are destroyed. Over 50 million birds in the U.S. were destroyed this way last year. ¿Why not vaccinate chickens? It isn’t expensive. It’s because eggs and chickens sold … Read more
Thank you, dear reader, for joining us again and for your kind comments. Christmas Island Rat, Wooly Mammoth, Passenger Pigeon, Thylacine (a marsupial: carries newborns in a pouch). These animals are extinct but efforts are currently underway to “bring them back.” In each case, researchers are compiling the complete genomes of the extinct animals using … Read more