_small_image.jpg "Emiliania huxleyi - single-celled marine phytoplankton that produce calcium carbonate scales (coccoliths). A scanning electron micrograph of a single coccolithophore cell.")
Sean Cole tries to square the idea that the fallout from a war between teensy organisms and teensier viruses can be seen from space. Luckily, he finds a perspective-shaking demo built by two 14-year-old boys that helps him get his bearings. Read more, and play with the demo, here.
Edward Dolnick tells an escape story involving God, humanity, and a huge rewrite of cosmic laws. It began in 1665. A plague hit Cambridge University. All of the students were sent home. One of them is a twenty-something Isaac Newton, who spent his forced summer vacation solving "the problem of ...
In 1977, NASA launched two spacecraft as part of the Voyager Interstellar Mission. Each probe carried a copy of the Golden Record--a copper album, coated in gold, of images and recordings meant to convey life on earth to extraterrestrials who might someday cross paths with the probes. In addition to ...
