2 March 2026 Greetings again, friends of science, Kwaziwai zvakare, shamwari dzesainzi, [15 million people speak Shona, one of 16 official languages of Zimbabwe.] When the Environmental Protection Agency repealed the ‘2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding’ in February, it was abundantly clear it was done to favor the fossil fuel industry. That’s hardly surprising since … Read more
2 February 2026 Welcome, glad you are reading this.Mwaniriziddwa, musanyufu nti osoma bino.[Over 10 million people speak Luganda in Uganda.] Subscribe to the SciSchmooze at Bay Area Science. Heck, sign up your friends too. It’s free. Reid, Christina, Jeremy, and Victor are leaving for the Moon next Sunday. Their spacecraft will loop around the Moon twice … Read more
5 January 2026 Hello again, friends of science,Bongu mill-ġdid, ħbieb tax-xjenza,[Spoken on Malta, Maltese is an Arabic dialect with some vocabulary borrowed from Sicilian, Italian, and English.] It’s a new year. Our Earth, traveling at 108,000 k/hr, completed another 360° circuit of Sol, our star, the Sun. The Sun, traveling at 828,000 k/hr around our … Read more
8 December 2025 Hello there, friend of scienceこんにちは、科学の友よ[It is estimated that 30,000 Bay Area residents speak Japanese.] The federal government’s ‘war on meritocracy’ sidelines those who achieved their merits via formal education. They are being replaced by those who have instead achieved wealth and renown: the elements of a Plutocracy. The Federal Advisory Committee on … Read more
1 December 2025 Hello again, friends of science,ສະບາຍດີອີກຄັ້ງ ເພື່ອນໆວິທະຍາສາດOver 3 million people speak Lao in Laos. The damage to science continues unabated. Dr. Katelyn Jetelina – Your Local Epidemiologist – recommends people avoid the CDC website due to the misinformation residing there. Yesterday, Fareed Zakaria mentioned that Pakistan’s Army Head was given immunity from prosecution. He summed up with: … Read more
Hello again, dear reader, SPACE While we were Earth-bound last week, 17 out of Earth’s 8 billion people were in orbit – a new (if soon-to-be-exceeded) record. ¿How high an orbit? Consider the standard (in the U.S.) 12-inch globe. They were orbiting 4 tenths of an inch above its surface. The thickness of a piece of standard … Read more
Dear science aware reader, Last Monday, September 26, the 600 kg DART spacecraft struck the 4.8 billion kg asteroid Dimorphos. An Italian CubeSat detached from DART 15 days earlier to take pictures of the collision with cameras Leia and Luke. The collision ‘should’ slow the asteroid’s speed by 2 cm/sec from its initial (stellar) velocity of … Read more
It was in Lesotho, Africa in 1968 when Ashton-Martin Moejane and i reached Maletsunyane Falls on horseback. There wasn’t much water in the stream that plunged 630 feet to a rocky pool below. We dismounted our horses, and tied their reins to a stubby bushes. Ashton walked right up to the precipice edge with no … Read more
Although dawn was merely a suggestion in early morning darkness, i woke to sounds of cheery banter and laughter as men and women greeted each other in my end of Hamahlong village. Thatched roofs aren’t sound proof. I turned over – a challenge in a tub-shaped torture device masquerading as a bed – and put … Read more
James Michael Harris, D.V.M. persuaded the folk at U.C. Berkeley Extension to let the International Bird Rescue Research Center offer a six-week night course in avian anatomy & physiology. This was when the Bird Center was in the warehouse on Eighth Street in Berkeley adjacent to the East Bay Humane Society. I would co-teach with … Read more