What’s Next?
I spend quite a bit of time thinking about what the earth is going to look like when humans are no longer around to take care of it. I had a student once who...
A Guide to the Earth for the Layperson
Susie and I woke up to quite a storm yesterday morning — the fall rains have finally arrived (and we can only hope they stick around a bit longer this year). Either way, I...
… for a very good reason. I read an interesting article in the DeseretNews about Lake Powell — the impoundment behind the Glen Canyon dam on the Colorado River. The dam is in Arizona,...
Are we alone in the universe? Whether you are coming at this as a biologist, anthropologist, or religious scholar, this is a question which has occupied — and befuddled — thinking minds for centuries,...
This one will be short but hopefully very much to the point: The rampant disinformation regarding science really needs to stop. This may be true when we’re talking about climate change (or maybe not),...
Before we get started, we need to agree on a couple bits of background information gleaned from the realm of physics (sorry, but it’s gotta be done). First, all matter is composed of tiny...
This one will be short because I need to get back to work (I am so close to getting Marker Bed off for formatting, and then publishing, that any delay rankles). Anyway, I just...
I must confess that there are some things I really try to avoid, and mechanics is one of them. Without going into any of the gory details about what’s been going on with my...
Sorry. This one may stray a bit from the earth sciences, but I have to ask: How ridiculous can we be? It reminds me of the early days of the railroad, when the gauge...
It’s funny how perceptions and interpretations can change over time. Take the fall of the Roman Empire as an example. When I was in school a hundred years ago, one of the reasons I...
It’s all too rare to see true bravery in the face of catastrophe. A couple examples spring to mind: Jesus standing in the dock in front of Pontius Pilate, Davy Crockett at the Alamo,...