The Palisades Fire on January 7, 2025. ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo Topics: Civilization, Climate Change, Existentialism “People have changed the climate of the world. Now they’re waiting for the old days to come back.”—Lauren Olamina, “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia E. Butler I called my cousin, our family historian last night, to checkContinue reading “Santa Ana Winds…”
Monthly Archives: January 2025
Urban Climate Science…
CROCUS researchers crossed Chicago’s Michigan Avenue as they collected data on how buildings, streets, and greenspaces impact temperature and air quality. (Image by Argonne National Laboratory.) Topics: Civilization, Climate Change, Environment, Global Warming, Thermodynamics CROCUS’s Urban Canyon campaign captured data on heat islands and air quality while also helping scientists understand how to conduct aContinue reading “Urban Climate Science…”
The Matter of Methane…
Image source: https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/methane-molecule Topics: Chemistry, Civilization, Climate Change, Entropy, Environment, Global Warming The “good news”: you can download the PDF for free by registering an email, or read the report from the National Academies of Science and Medicine here. Citizenship takes work and effort to be informed. It would be nice to carry on aContinue reading “The Matter of Methane…”
Dark or Lumpy…
An artist’s impression of the cosmic web (Volker Springel/Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics/et al) Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Dark Matter, Einstein, Research Q: Why does science seem to always change its mind? A: Because, the enterprise of science is about discovery, and a lot of discoveries happen when you have better instrumentation, apply The ScientificContinue reading “Dark or Lumpy…”
Post-Trauma Citizens…
Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Civilization, Democracy, Existentialism September 11, 2001, was on a Tuesday. We were a year from a contested election decided by the Supreme Court. We were scrambling to make sense of the senseless, and trying mightily, not to individually, or collectively go insane. I remember President George W. Bush being told thatContinue reading “Post-Trauma Citizens…”
Physics and Nano 