Recent Posts
- Magic of the Future or Just Another Green Mirage?
- A Second Look at Life Expectancy: What the 1918 Flu Tells Us About the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Take the Extra Minute: Listen to Your Adrenaline
- Laying Track in the Cloud: Why AI is the Railroad Mania of Our Time
- The Age of Re-Engineering: How Science Is Rewriting the Limits of Human Life
Recent Comments
Category Archives: Science
Magic of the Future or Just Another Green Mirage?
In response to my recent piece on a civilization poisoned by progress, a reader commented: “Just as we’ve had better energy options, like sodium ion batteries, there’s been fossil fuels alternatives that are far more sustainable. Just algae tech alone … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Technology
Tagged algae, energy, environment, food, kelp, plastic, pollution, public health, recycling, science
Leave a comment
A Second Look at Life Expectancy: What the 1918 Flu Tells Us About the COVID-19 Pandemic
My recent article on the evolution of life expectancy generated a fascinating series of questions that I will attempt to address in the coming weeks. One reader pointedly asked about the historical U.S. life expectancy chart. If you look at … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged 1918, 2020, COVID-19, epidemic, flu, Germ Theory of Disease, history, influenza, life expectancy, longevity, medicine, miasma, mortality rates, mRNA, pandemic, pathogen, science, Spain, Spanish Flu, vaccination, virology, virus, World War I
Leave a comment
Laying Track in the Cloud: Why AI is the Railroad Mania of Our Time
Two centuries ago, the world was intoxicated by the smell of burning coal and the screech of iron wheels. It was the dawn of the railroad era. A blinding convergence of new technology and aggressive westward expansion that forged the … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Science, Technology
Tagged AI, artificial intelligence, economy, future, gold rush, innovation, railroads
Leave a comment
The Age of Re-Engineering: How Science Is Rewriting the Limits of Human Life
Just a century ago, the average human life expectancy in the United States hovered around 65 years. When the Social Security Act was signed into law in 1935, that exact age was chosen as the baseline for eligibility. The choice … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged aging, Aubrey de Grey, biology, CRISPR, DNA, gene editing, gene therapy, genetics, genome, healthspan, life, life expectancy, lifespan, longevity, longevity escape velocity, medicine, Shinya Yamanaka, Steven Austad
Leave a comment
Beyond Plastic: Rediscovering the Materials That Served Humanity for Millennia
When I recently wrote about our civilization quietly poisoning itself with microplastics, one reader asked a perfectly reasonable question: “If not plastic, then what?” It’s the right question. We’ve become so accustomed to plastic that many people can’t imagine life … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Society, Technology
Tagged cast iron, ceramics, chemistry, cookware, glass, history, microplastics, nanoplastics, plastic, pollution, public health, science, silicone, steel, technology
Leave a comment
A Civilization Poisoned by Progress: From Lead Pipes to Microplastics
History rarely repeats itself perfectly, but it often rhymes in chilling ways. We often look back at the giants of the past and wonder how a civilization so advanced, so structured and so dominant could simply dissolve. No collapse comes … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Society
Tagged dystopia, economy, extinction, future, history, Imperial Rome, lead, microplastics, nanoplastics, plastic, pollution, public health, science, technology
Leave a comment
These Aren’t the Aliens You’re Looking For
On a recent visit, my mother asked me what my thoughts were on those declassified UFO videos the United States government released. You know the ones, grainy, green-tinted, dramatic and supposedly the definitive proof that E.T. is playing tag with … Continue reading
Posted in Science
Tagged Air Force, alien life, aliens, Area 51, aviation, conspiracy, extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrials, JANET, Lockheed, mythology, Nevada, Paradise Ranch, Roswell, science, UFO, ufologists
Leave a comment
Why Leave Earth? (An Earth Day Reflection on Going Beyond It)
This Earth Day, while we celebrate the only home we’ve ever known, it might seem strange to talk about leaving it, but after my recent post on the Artemis II mission, a reader asked a question that stopped me in … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Technology
Tagged Artemis II, Earth, Earth Day, exploration, International Space Station, Mars, Moon, NASA, science, space
Leave a comment
Riding the Invisible Currents of Gravity
After exploring why gravity doesn’t “turn off” and why astronauts in low Earth orbit are really just falling forever, we can finally follow that idea to its natural conclusion: what happens when you keep falling all the way to the … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Technology
Tagged Artemis II, Christina Koch, Earth, equi-gravis, falling, free-return trajectory, gravity, Jeremy Hansen, Lagrange points, Mars, Moon, orbital mechanics, physics, Reid Wiseman, rocketry, science, space travel, three-body problem, translunar trajectory, Victor Glover, weightlessness
Leave a comment