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Tornado Alley

I've been crashing today for World News. This map from NOAA's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla, will tell you exactly why: 65 reported tornadoes in a few hours, though such numbers tend to go down a bit when some...

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March 29, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

The High Cost of Anguish

It's quite possible that you know someone who has battled depression, or severe anxiety, or other psychiatric ills, and it's even more possible that you don't even know it, thanks to the power of medication. A lot of Americans take...

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March 28, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (11)

Distant Mystery

Take a look at this picture. You can click to enlarge. I don't want to be a tease about what it is--it's the north pole of Saturn, shot by the Cassini probe in the infrared--but the real question is why...

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March 27, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (18)

Solar Notes

A quick followup to last week's post on the cool new images of the Sun, on which Mike asked a question about scale. The flares you're seeing easily extend for thousands of miles, and can be much larger. NASA sent...

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March 26, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

The Sun, in All Its Glory

The Sun does not simply shine. It roils, and burns, and sends out bursts of light and magnetism and charged particles. A Japanese spacecraft called Hinode has now recorded the Sun's restlessness in more detail than ever before, and the...

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March 22, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (2)

The Moons of Saturn

Titan, Tethys, Enceladus, Dione...the names are from ancient mythology, but they live on today, more than half a billion miles from Earth, in the magnificent, frozen wastes around Saturn. Those are the names of some of Saturn's moons--34 have been...

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March 21, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (9)

At Auction: Mummy's Hand, Mars Rock

A California-based auction house, I.M. Chait, has flagged us to what it labels an "Important Natural History Auction" this weekend in Beverly Hills and New York. Along with various pieces of black opal and feldspar, they list: --"An Extremely Rare...

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March 20, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (4)

The Politically-Charged World of James E. Hansen

Jim Hansen has been an iconic figure in global climate research for two decades now. In the hot summer of 1988, when drought was so severe in the midwest that barges ran aground in the Mississippi, Hansen's testimony to a...

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March 19, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (6)

Does Prayer Work?

The power of prayer. It's something that many people would say cannot be reduced to a mere experiment. But many researchers--some of whom call themselves religious, others who don't--have tried. If you are someone who prays, and you feel it's...

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March 15, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (10)

The Living Daylights

I've written my share about daylight savings, and I thought enough was enough--except that this email was sent out this afternoon by a friend here at ABC: "In case you're wondering why so little work has come from me, my...

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March 14, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (3)