Have you heard about that new dangerous chemical?  It’s called dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO) and it’s a colorless and odorless chemical compound.  It’s also called dihydrogen oxide, hydrogen hydroxide or simply hydric acid.  Each year, dihydrogen monoxide contributes to thousands of deaths worldwide and it’s a major contributor to millions of dollars in damage to property and the environment.  DHMO causes death if you inhale it, even in small quantities.  Prolonged exposure to solid DHMO causes severe tissue damage and in its gaseous state, it can cause severe burns.  It’s found 100% of the time in cancerous tumors and lesions. MORE>>

If I ask you what state in the union is most likely to be hit by big earthquakes, you’ll say “California”.  We all know that the San Andreas Fault is poised for disaster.  “Alaska” would also be a good answer.  The great Alaskan earthquake of 1964 was the largest earthquake in North America and the second largest ever recorded (the most powerful earthquake occurred in Chile in 1960).  The Alaska earthquake measured 8.6 on the Richter scale. But the largest earthquakes ever recorded for the continental US (excluding Alaska and Hawaii) didn’t happen in California. This week, we will talk about the New Madrid fault and the ongoing efforts to monitor this serious threat. MORE>>

Today, we’re going to do a little math and learn some interesting facts along the way.  Don’t click the back button on your browser just because you hate math and never learned your multiplication tables, because we’re going to do the best kind of math.  The kind that’s so big and so complex that you don’t actually have to DO it.  You just have to stare at it in awe and wonder. In this weeks column, we are going to figure out how many holes it would take to cover the entire sky...and from there, we are going to perform some REALLY interesting calculations! MORE>>

All of us have seen falling stars.  We all used to think that these streaks of brilliant light were stars but we’ve known for hundreds of years that the stars are W-A-A-Y too far away to ‘fall’.  So if they aren’t stars; what are they? Although I tell the schoolchildren that space is empty, in our solar system; that simply isn’t true.  There is an incredible amount of solar system ‘leftovers’ out there. This week, we will explore what causes those brilliant lights in the sky and how likely we are to catch one in action! MORE>>