I read a chilling (you’ll pardon the pun) news item the other day.  It quoted Dr, James McCarthy, an oceanographer who was aboard a Russian icebreaker.  He said that the ship found a large expanse of water and not ice at the North Pole.  "I don't know if anybody in history ever got to 90 degrees north to be greeted by water, not ice," Dr McKenna was quoted as saying. What does this have to do with us in the tropics? MORE>>

Why would we spend $750 million to visit the plantet forerly known as Pluto, given that it is so small and far away? And why are we still doing it when Pluto isn’t even considered a planet anymore? Well, even in the midst of conflict and natural disaster, the scientific quest to understand the universe and humanity's place in it goes forward. Our commitment to exploration and the gathering of new knowledge is a worthy investment. It says much not only about us, but also about the human condition. MORE>>

In ancient times, if a woman didn’t die in childbirth, she likely died of plague, infection, influenza, pneumonia, tuberculosis, malaria or any of a host of common diseases that either no longer exist today or are easily treatable. One of my favorite strips from the “For Better or For Worse” comic, shows Elly complaining to her friend about the downside of menopause. “How did our ancestors stand it?” she whines. Her friend replies “Most of them didn’t live long enough to have the problem.” This weeks topic discusses what appears to be an epidemic of bad health and how best to cope with it. MORE>>

Virtually all of us know that Guam is on the Pacific Rim, in the most seismically and volcanically active area on the planet. The Pacific planet is plunging beneath Asia and the light seafloor basalt seeks its way back to the surface to form the Ring of Fire. Our topic this week is The Submarine Ring of Fire 2006 expedition that was in our neighborhood recenty and the remarkable things that they found. MORE>>