The headline Super Committee Stalled As Deadline Approaches is ominous. I'm trying hard to view this through a prism of rationalit­y and not let emotions get the best of me as is the case with many of the comments associated with the McAuliff and Stein story. We are...

It is so easy to speak at a complex problem from the safety of the presidential candidate's bully pulpit and heap insults on the guy that has to make the really tough decisions every day. Spewing opinion is easy. And a candidate spewing misguided opinion -- or opinion informed by...

Have you ever just stopped on a cloudless night and stared at the Moon? And I'm not talking about a 2-second passing glance and a smile. A jewel in the night, it is a sight most of us learn to ignore. Yet it is...

OK, so I'm a regular on Twitter, and proud of it. I guess that makes me a Tweep, and if you aren't, I've got something to tell you.

There are lots of folks that think Twitter is where you go when you've got this intense need to broadcast to...

Don't let your seemingly vast experience as an inhabitant of this world fool you. It's easy to be lulled into a false sense...

Endeavour in orbit on flight STS-118, August 15, 2007. For a breathtaking closeup of this photo, visit the cross-post at Blog on the Universe and click on the photo. Read more about this photo at NASA, and visit the...

Thought I'd try something completely different with this post. It's a challenge to you! If folks like it, I can post one every month, each providing conceptual understanding of some facet of our world or the greater universe. It's based on my philosophy that building bridges to the familiar --...

I had a day of meetings yesterday, with no connection to the outside world. When I got home a good friend stopped over and asked if I had heard what Al Gore said in Copenhagen, and the firestorm it created in the world media. I had not. So I made...

A little over a week ago I watched space shuttle Atlantis land at Kennedy. I had lots and lots of mixed emotions. The shuttle is just a remarkable technological achievement, and watching it land can be a pretty emotional experience.

But the space shuttle was never supposed to be...

A space shuttle has now lifted off from Kennedy Space Center 129 times. The flight of Atlantis that began on Nov. 16 is also the 31st to the International Space Station. After she returns to Earth, a space shuttle will clear the tower only 5 more times before the fleet...

Here's how the argument goes -- and do it justice by reading it out loud, and kinda yelling whenever you see words in CAPS.

"Hey, you're worried about CO2 concentration in the atmosphere going up because of human activity and causing an increase in global temperature?! GIVE ME A BREAK!...

We're slamming a satellite into the Moon?! Hasn't anybody thought this through? The Moon's going to be forced from its orbit! Giant tides will wash around the Earth! Buildings will topple! The Man in the Moon will be mad at us! Do we really need another catastrophe?!

It was an...

I'll remember Tuesday September 8, 2009 for quite a long time. My Jordi turned 7. How can that be? It seems like only yesterday I took my wife Kathy to the hospital, both of us thankful that he wasn't going to be born on September 11. And now he's 7!...

It's a new school year and teachers are now back in classrooms across America. During these tough times I wanted to write something that might help inspire the new teacher, reaffirm to the seasoned professional why we went into teaching in the first place, and recognize the remarkable gift that...

The blue-ribbon panel tasked by the White House with reviewing NASA's current strategic plans for human space flight, and exploring other options, wraps up deliberations this week. They've been at it just 2 months, and this Friday Norman Augustine, the panel's chair, briefs new NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and WH...

Note to reader: click on the links in the text for the real data. This is not a work of fiction.

About a month ago, I was driving my son to school on a sunny day. So he started asking me lots of questions about the Sun. "How old...

HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH
FIRST SET FOOT UPON THE MOON
JULY 1969 A.D.
WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND
-- Plaque on Lunar Module Eagle, Tranquility Base

It happened 40 years ago next month. It was a...

Yesterday (Thursday, June 18) the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, and will reach the Moon next Tuesday, June 23. LRO is a robotic mission that will pave the way for humans to return to the lunar surface. It's also a timely...

Here it is, my very first post. It wasn't easy figuring out how I wanted to start my blogging days at the Huffington Post. I needed to say something that would set the stage for all the posts to come (assuming they let me post this one.) Then I realized...