I’m following with great interest, the saga of the Indonesian mud volcano called Lusi that erupted near Surabaya, the second largest city in Indonesia in May of 2006.  Mud volcanoes are not unheard of.  There are at least 2,000 worldwide including one in the Santa Barbara Channel near Redondo Beach California.  But the mud volcano in Indonesia may be one of the few caused by humans. This week we will take a closer look at this volcano, what we may have done to cause it and what we are planning to control it.   MORE>>

It has been said that everything in the universe is connected to everything else and you can’t pick up one tail without picking up the entire thing.  This is usually not obvious, but there were several news stories this past week that all shared a common link; and that news was space and fire. This week, we revisit the tragedy of Apollo I and look at the ongoing research into how to control a fire that is not constrained by gravity. MORE>>

The first telescope that was turned to the heavens was built and operated by Galileo Galilei in the early 1600’s.  Over the last hundred years, telescopes grew larger as astronomers tried to capture the light of fainter and fainter objects.  Until Hubble, we’d never looked at the sky with any kind of telescope without Earth’s air in the way and the Hubble Space Telescope has taught us more about the universe around us in the last 15 years than we learned in the 50 years before it was launched. But times do move on and as soon as Hubble was launched; astronomers began to plan for larger space telescopes with much bigger mirrors.  But they ran headlong into the problem that keeps you and me earthbound.  It still costs $10,000 a POUND to put anything into space and glass is very heavy.  MORE>>

In last weeks article, I proposed a couple of new heroes for your children.  I said “Don’t you think our kids would be a lot better off if they followed the exploits of Suni and Tim instead of the exploits of K-Fed and Brittany?” So, who are these heros and what have they done to rate hero status? Visit this weeks article and find out! MORE>>