• We go back a long, long way 

    The late astronomer Thomas Gold often said, "I'd rather be wrong than dull."

  •  The science is called magnetohydrodynamics -- MHD, for short.

    I write novels about the juncture where science and politics meet.

  • 'The Grand Tour' of the future 

    The background for this scenario is the inevitable climate shift, caused by global warming, that is already taking place, here and now. Whatever the causes of today's global warming, the fact is that our planet's climate is changing, as it ...

  • The tradition of Halloween 

    Tomorrow is Hallowe'en, the holiday that bears a faint memory of the times when people actually venerated their departed relatives.

  • Faster than light? Experiment opens interesting possibilities

    There’s an old Chinese curse that reads, “May you live in interesting times.”

  • One long drive: Laying out the 1st golf course on the Moon 

    A few weeks ago I wrote a column about golf. Now I’m working on a short piece of fiction about constructing a golf course — on the Moon.

  • There are so many human beings on Earth' 

    Nearly every problem that faces us today can be traced to a single fact: there are so many human beings on Earth.

  • The quest goes on

    Is there life on other worlds? Where is the best place to search for life in our solar system? Most people think Mars might be the most likely planet to harbor extraterrestrial life. Although NASA has sent probes to all ...

  • An example of what Congress can do...now and then

    We’ve all complained from time to time about how poorly our Congress takes care of the nation’s problems. But a little note in this newspaper’s "On This Date" column reminded me recently that Congress can do the right thing — ...