Apparently, religious fundamentalists aren't the only ones willing to turn their backs on science because it profoundly disturbs their sense of the way things should be:
SCIENTISTS are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of “gay” sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans.
I've written before that space exploration is one government program I support -- the public sector has been subsidizing voyages of discovery at least since the time of Columbus. And the idea of a moon base appeals to me, probably as much for romantic reasons as practical ones. But Gregg Easterbrook, writing for Slate, makes a good case that returning to the moon would be an expensive folly:
If this isn't just about the coolest possible scientific breakthrough in recent memory:
WASHINGTON - Scientists are boldly going where only fiction has gone before — to develop a Cloak of Invisibility. It isn't quite ready to hide a Romulan space ship from Capt. James T. Kirk or to disguise Harry Potter, but it is a significant start and could show the way to more sophisticated designs.
As Bob Seger might have written: "Feel like a number, I'm not a number, I'm not a number, dammit I'm a planet." Poor Pluto:
Pluto has been given a new name to reflect its new status as a dwarf planet.
Poor Pluto. After all these years, its status killed, kicked off the list of planets.
I get claustrophobic just reading this:
WANTED: six multinational volunteers ready to spend just under two years in a dimly lit, confined space pretending to be cosmonauts without alcohol, cigarettes and possibly sex.
[. . .]
“Blast-off” in a mock-up of a Russian spaceship that will never leave its Moscow hangar is scheduled for autumn of 2007, and crew applications are already flooding in.
After decades of bad sociology, worse psychology and absolutely deplorable journalism about both, we finally let hard science lead us back to common sense -- men and women are different:
Male and female brains are different in architecture and chemical composition, asserts Brizendine. The sooner women -- and those who love them -- accept and appreciate how those neurological differences shape female behavior, the better we can all get along.
Now you don't have to worry -- the French have a plan:
SCIENTISTS at the French space agency CNES have thought of a new way to save Earth from being hit by an asteroid: manoeuvre a small one into a near-Earth orbit, from where it can be flung into the path of a larger asteroid that threatens to collide with our planet.
The option with the second-most votes: Run away! run away!
Gosh, I thought all the evidence was in and the debate about global warming all but over. That's certainly the gist of this Associated Press review of Al Gore's movie:
