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Ben Stein Holds Court

"There's a lot of your fans out there," Ben Stein was asked, "who may think you've lost your mind." Stein, the star and writer of his anti-evolution film, "Expelled," was on a conference call for reporters, though it was one...

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March 31, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (395)

The Tangled Orbits of Saturn's Moons

NASA plans three more closeup passes at Enceladus, the moon of Saturn that has been mysteriously venting organic compounds into the space around it. Good Friday morning. An update to yesterday's post: Tom Carnesi, you asked three good questions, and...

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March 28, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (11)

The Enigma of Enceladus

In 2005, NASA's Cassini probe, orbiting Saturn, made a remarkable and tantalizing discovery: Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons, was venting something -- possibly liquid water -- into the frozen space around it. Enceladus. Even the name, coming from Greek mythology,...

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March 27, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (13)

God vs. Godless: 'Expelled,' the Anti-Darwinism Film, Expells a Critic

"Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal." That's what PZ Myers, a biologist at the University of Minnesota in Morris, Minn., says he covers on his widely-read blog, Pharyngula. You could have guessed he'd get into a...

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March 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (243)

A Scare on Mars

The famed Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are still going, four years after they landed on the rusty Martian surface. But the scientists and engineers who run them from Earth say they've had a few heart-stopping moments in the last...

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March 25, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (16)

God, Man, and Arthur C. Clarke

I must have been nine when my father gave me a small paperback of Arthur C. Clarke's short stories. The book was called "Expedition to Earth," and in the title story, long-ago aliens visit the third planet of an unremarkable...

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March 24, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (22)

Space Shuttles: A Traffic Jam?

Gina Sunseri, reporting for us from Houston, has been told by several sources that the shuttle program has run into a potential crunch. The problem is in assembling the shuttle's external tanks at the Michoud assembly plant in New Orleans....

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March 21, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (9)

Gore and Bloomberg Have Closed-Door 'Climate Crisis' Meeting

This is a post from Richard Esposito of our staff: New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, arguably the nation's most prescriptive politician on issues from gun control to diet, met with Al Gore today at City Hall to discuss a...

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March 18, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (29)

Would You Like Some Carbon in Your Coffee?

A few years ago you probably had never heard that you had a carbon footprint. Now, reducing it has become the South Beach Diet of environmentalism. If you scoff at the notion of climate change, then this is not for...

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March 17, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (33)

Just What IS That?

Please take a look at the image that comes with this post and try to guess what it is. Could it be... A) The exhaust from a shuttle's solid rocket booster? B) A double-vortex hurricane at the south pole of...

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March 14, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (35)