The Sky Really Is Falling Chicken Little – originally known as Henny Penny – took a lot of flak for constantly touting the end of the world. If you watched the news over the preceding weekend and looked to the skies, you might be forgiven for giving Chicken Little a bit of a reprieve. Space […]
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A New Era for the New River If you live outside the eastern third of the United States, the New River Gorge might not be a name you’ve encountered much. Humans in the region, however, are well aware of West Virginia’s natural hotspot. The river and surrounding area are renowned for outstanding whitewater rafting, rock climbing,
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The Loudest Sound On 27 August 1883, reverberations from the northwest disturbed the morning serenity of sheep ranchers outside Alice Springs, Australia. The men later described the sound as “a series of loud reports, resembling those of artillery.” No war raged in central Australia in 1883; no military exercises took place. Were these ranchers under
May the Forces Be With You Yeah, I’m a day late. When you write articles on specific days of the week you can’t fight the calendar. And this year 4 May landed on a Tuesday. Nobody likes to read about a holiday, no matter how fourced, after it happens. I could have posted this episode on
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The Iron Catastrophe Everyone alive today owes their existence to a catastrophe. To explain that seemingly paradoxical statement, let’s foray into a brief overview of the universe, our sun, and the planet, courtesy of Columbia University. Somewhere around 13.8 billion years ago, the Big Bang kicked things off. There was hydrogen and only hydrogen. The
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The Danish Temblor In our previous issue, we explored the recent confirmation of a theory that Earth has five layers instead of the previously believed four. The standard model included the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. Before 1936, the models would have indicated the earth had just three layers: crust, mantle, core.
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The Inner Inner Most children glean a bit about the geologic makeup of our planet in primary school. We learn the Earth is comprised of four layers: the crust, the mantle, the outer core, and the inner core. The basic construction of our planet by layer – image by BBC The crust is the layer
Mt. Greylock – Massachusetts’ High Point This edition of the High Points series takes us to the northwestern corner of Massachusetts. Mt. Greylock rises 3,489 feet above sea level. Though the peak is often associated with the Berkshire Mountains, it is technically part of the Taconic Mountains. The whole region is filled with craggy goodness. The Green
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The Coastline Paradox What country has the longest coastline in the world? If you answered Canada, peel off a gold star and stick it to your shirt. Great work! OK, now what country has the second-longest coastline? Russia? The United States? Australia? Maybe you figure the question is a trick and answered something along the
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Stick Your Head in a Particle Accelerator The Large Hadron Collider, operated by CERN, the famed European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world’s biggest particle accelerator. Also known as “atom smashers” or “supercolliders,” accelerators are massive machines that use electromagnetic fields to launch particles at extraordinarily high speeds, usually near the speed of light. Particle
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