Bob Collins
China intends to establish a human base on the moon by late in the next decade, and to send a probe to Mars that can return to Earth.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Science
Tonight is the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 orbit of the moon. No human had ever seen its dark side, and no human had ever seen an earthrise, as captured by the famous picture, which some credit with propelling the environmental movement. Read more →
There was a little more freezing fog around the upper Midwest overnight, which provided another chance to consider the advantage of living in flyover country. Light pillars, for example. Read more →
Aaron Parmlet, a sheriff’s deputy in Butte County, Calif. thought he was done for. The flames from the northern California wildfire were on all sides of him when his police car broke down. And he still hadn’t found nurses he was sent to rescue. Read more →
One supposes that when it takes six months for your spacecraft to travel to a far-away planet, a team of scientists has plenty of time to practice the handshake-celebration for when it all goes according to plan. Read more →
In 2013, a 29-year old Wisconsin man was paralyzed in a snowmobile accident. In the old days, that’s the end of the story. A life in a wheelchair followed. But he’s walking again. Ain’t science grand? Read more →
With little fanfare this week, science revealed the answer to a mystery of life that has bedeviled humankind: Why on earth can’t you break a handful of spaghetti in half without it splintering into multiple pieces? Read more →
For the University of Minnesota researchers, there’s big money in mice.
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Researchers from Stanford looked at data back to the ’60s, and factored in confounding things like air conditioning, income level, and gun ownership, and it has found that a monthly rise in temperature of 1 degree Celsius leads to about a 1 to 2 percent increase in the suicide rate. Read more →
We have a new way of looking at the universe. Read more →
The summer solstice provides us with another opportunity to consider the half-full/half-empty nature of the cosmos. Read more →
Koko the gorilla could do some amazing things. But in her lifetime, her notable achievement was making humans stop to consider whether we do right by our evolutionary pals. Read more →
White, old, bearded. That’s the image that those who believe in God often see when they imagine him/her/it.
Or so we’re told. But maybe not. Read more →
We have proof today that Americans have not lost their insatiable curiosity, at least where allergies and sniffles are concerned. Read more →
Pele, the volcano goddess, has not yet been satisfied with the offerings placed before the advancing lava in Hawaii. Read more →