Bob Collins
Southeastern Minnesota just barely got into the picture astronaut Jeff Williams took during an overnight pass of the International Space Station. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Science
If there’s a red-flag word in any headline that should keep people from getting too excited, it’s the word ‘may.’
Still, this headline can still make a jaw or two drop, we learned this afternoon. Read more →
Nobody knows how to sell you a box of cereal like General Mills, whose various ad campaigns for Cheerios have tapped into social change and, at least to some degree, propelled it.
General Mills Canada this month, a Cheerios-branded campaign focused on another species: bees.
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It was a lovely morning walk at my usual appointed time of 5:45 this morning. The eastern sky was orange. I almost don’t need my headlamp anymore.
On Monday, that all disappears because somewhere along the line we decided the conveniences of the afternoon people were far more important than those of the morning people. Read more →
That short blast of summer earlier this week was a refreshing break from a mild winter, but perhaps you noticed something about it that we’ve never experienced before: guilt.
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Say what you will for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and the overblown Deflategate scandal in which Brady was accused of letting air out of footballs, but it apparently is doing wonders for inspiring kids into science. Read more →
The end of the Clearview typeface on the nation’s highways has begun.
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One wonders if the astronauts considered that at some point in the future, we would be sitting on our couches with a computer on our laps many times more powerful than their entire spacecraft’s technology, reading their scribbles.
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Sometimes, it’s hard for mere mortals to grasp the genius of Einstein.
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What do scientists do underground on the Mesabi range? No big deal. They’re just looking for the secret of the universe. Or at least they were. Read more →
Totino-Grace Engineering Institute student Jens Rataczak has spent a year preparing to do what he did on Sunday. He sent a weather balloon aloft from the Fridley school with a data logging and tracking system and a GoPro camera, which proved — again — that earth is round, and that sometimes the farther you get away from it, the prettier it looks. Read more →
There really aren’t that many “where were you when” moments in our individual histories. The day the space shuttle exploded is one of them. Unbelievably, it was 30 years ago today. Read more →
Today’s photograph from NASA, taken from the International Space Station, is a joy to behold, particularly if you believe, as I do, that the wonder of flight is that it gives you an entirely fresh perspective on your place in relation to the world around you. We learned that when Apollo 8 made its first swing around the moon and gave us a chance to look at ourselves, and this photograph does the same thing.
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Space and technology can still provide a few ‘gee whiz’ moments and SpaceX’s effort to create a reusable rocket finally paid off last evening when the Falcon 9 rocket landed perfectly upright, ending a short string of spectacular disasters in previous attempts.
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