Earth Mars Oct 2016

TERRESTRIAL ANALOGS In their insightful book Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee propose that life may be ubiquitous in the universe, and give many good reasons why this could be so. For example, they note that some...

Satellites Sep 2016

Man must rise above the Earth – to the top of the atmosphere and beyond – for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives. -Socrates     THE GREAT COSMIC QUILT In 1729, Isaac Newton theorized that if a cannon ball could be shot...

Story of Earth September 2015

RETHINKING THE STORY OF EARTH It is easy to regard oxygen as an essential gas that constitutes about 21% of our atmosphere.  This is .0001% of the whole story.  The remaining 99.9999% of the earth’s oxygen is locked up in rocks and minerals.  Most of the atoms in the...

Nuanced History March 2015

A NUANCED VIEW nuance |ˈn(y)o͞oˌäns| nouna subtle difference in or shade of meaning, expression, or sound: the nuances of facial expression and body language. -Apple Dictionary It is an easy thing for many of our friends and members to visualize the geology of the...