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Once is Not Enough

There are those of us who worry about the economic situation, and there are those who don't have to. Charles Simonyi, the computer engineer who oversaw the development of Microsoft Word and other programs, bought himself a seat on a...

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September 30, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (1)

Hubble Telescope Trouble

Updated: A post from ABC's Gina Sunseri in Houston: The Hubble Telescope is having trouble downlinking its scientific discoveries to Earth -– its main communication channel has failed, which means for now what Hubble finds can’t be seen by anyone....

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September 29, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (6)

Squeakers

How close have Presidential elections been? Closer, perhaps, than we ever guessed. Mike Sheppard, a grad student in statistics at Michigan State, has done a mathematical exercise that shows it. He ran a computer program to answer this question: "What...

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September 29, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (8)

Red Stars: China Launches Three Astronauts

The People's Republic of China has launched its third manned spacecraft, Shenzhou 7, with three astronauts, one of whom will perform China's first-ever space walk, and -- what, you hadn't noticed? The crew is comprised of three Chinese fighter pilots,...

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September 25, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (9)

Campaign 2.0

There's a website called Versionista, designed to keep track of websites as their owners edit them. For political operatives looking to catch their opponents' flip-flops, it's heaven. John McCain's website has been known to link to it, catching any shift...

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September 22, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (12)

Would You Want to Know?

Sergey Brin, the Google co-founder, says that when he had his genome tested for predisposition to various diseases, he "viewed it mostly as entertainment." His wife, Anne Wojcicki, started a company, 23andMe, which does the testing. Mr. Brin says he...

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September 19, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (25)

Game On

If video gaming is really as big as we're told -- with 40 percent of American adults and 83 percent of teenagers reported by the Entertainment Software Association to be playing -- then do the players fit the stereotypes that...

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September 18, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (4)

Report From the Arctic

The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that the earth's Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its minimum for the year. It's "the second-lowest amount recorded since the dawn of the satellite era," they say. The record was...

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September 17, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (62)

The View From a Distant Star

Take a look at the picture that goes with this blog post. It may be a piece of history. Scientists at the University of Toronto say they believe the dot, circled in the upper left, is the first planet ever...

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September 16, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (7)

Men of Science

Wall Street is in crisis, south Texas is recovering from Hurricane Ike, there's been a terrible train crash in California -- in other words, the timing is terrible for a debate between the presidential candidates on science policy. But Science...

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September 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (2)