Category Archives: Space

Apollo 11

Posted on 20 July 2019 by Mark R. Kelly

Like most others of my generation, I remember watching the Apollo 11 moon landing in grainy footage on a black & white TV in July 1969. I was not quite 14, and was living with my family in Glen Ellyn, … Continue reading →

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A Vision of Possible Futures

Posted on 13 February 2017 by Mark R. Kelly

Here’s a great video called Wanderers, by Erik Wernquest, that depicts visions of a future in which humanity has “conquered the solar system” in the words of this frame article at ScienceAlert.com. It’s narrated by Carl Sagan, whose introduction alludes … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: Biblical Literalism; the Manhattan Option; the excessive optimism of 2001; Neil de Grasse Tyson explains everything

Posted on 3 August 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Adam Lee: So Wrong For So Long: On Liberal Biblical Reinterpretation Lee discusses the cognitive dissonance of those who espouse progressive social views while maintaining fealty to their Biblical-based religions. They rely on relativistic interpretation of scripture, as if the … Continue reading →

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Revisiting Carl Sagan’s The Cosmic Connection

Posted on 26 June 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

The Cosmic Connection, published in 1973, was the first popular book by Carl Sagan, after some academic tomes and an anthology of essays about UFOs, who later gained much fame as the author and host of the 1980 book and … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: the vastness of the universe; Hubble photos; the physics of everyday life; science books; creationists and the possibility of alien life

Posted on 23 April 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

Vox: 11 images that capture the incredible vastness of space. Related: Phil Plait celebrates 25 Years of Cosmic Treasures: Hubble’s 12½ Greatest Hits \\ Physicist Sean Carroll this week references an earlier post that spells out an important point: The … Continue reading →

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Links and Comments: The Size of the Universe; The Size of the Planets

Posted on 7 February 2015 by Mark R. Kelly

» NPR’s blog Cosmos & Culture: Lessons From The Beginning Of Time. One report, among many in the past few days, that the apparent detection of ‘gravitational waves’ from the Big Bang, a year ago, was a false alarm: the … Continue reading →

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The Science of Interstellar

Posted on 10 December 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

Just finished reading Kip Thorne’s THE SCIENCE OF INTERSTELLAR, a big trade paperback with lots of diagrams and a few photos. Takeaways: 1) Thorne was one of the creators of the initial premise for the film, long before Christopher Nolan … Continue reading →

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Cosmos and My Amateur Astronomy

Posted on 1 May 2014 by Mark R. Kelly

I liked last Sunday’s episode of Cosmos for a couple reasons. The second reason is what the bulk of the show explored: the process of scientific data collection and analysis, the way simple classification can give way to insight about … Continue reading →

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Gravity

Posted on 6 October 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

[Capturing my Facebook post as a blog post.] Just back from seeing Gravity. It’s quite a ride — spectacular in many ways. Terrific effects, portrayal of people in orbit over Earth, and even the simulated zero-G (or micro-G) movements look … Continue reading →

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Thoughts of a Thursday Afternoon: After the Apocalypse

Posted on 28 September 2013 by Mark R. Kelly

Every human being starts from scratch: he or she comes equipped with a mind honed by evolution for survival, prone to superstitious, self-interested thinking for the same reason, but ill-equipped to accurately perceive reality, the reality that can be deduced … Continue reading →

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