Perhaps the root of “barking up the wrong tree” is easier to decipher. Yet, one should take the latter advice to heart in trying to understand the apologetic implications that the recent … more

Much to my kids’ chagrin, I enjoy leisurely wandering around The Home Depot (or any other tool/hardware store). Occasionally, I’ll find a new or improved tool that would help me finish a … more

A couple of weeks ago, I reported on a recently discovered exoplanet that some scientists felt confident hosted life.1 Now, another team of astronomers question whether the planet even exists. Are … more

“My own personal feeling is that the chances of life on this planet are 100 percent...I have almost no doubt about it.” What would cause UC Santa Cruz astrophysicist Steven Vogt to make … more

The Moon has fascinated every one of my kids. Sometimes they would look out the window with their favorite stuffed animal. Often they made sure everybody knew the Moon’s location if they found … more

It was 1980. I was scheduled to speak in what was then an extremely violent part of Soweto, South Africa. Five burly men joined me in a car ride to the event; I sat in the middle of the back seat and … more

In 1995, astronomers detected, for the first time, planets outside the solar system .1 At the time, many researchers expressed great optimism that most, if not all, exoplanets would prove to be close … more

During my late teens some friends entered me in a dance endurance contest. Unbeknownst to me, they laid bets about how long I could go before my pace would slow down. Long after I’d worn out … more

Most recently, the European HARPS collaboration announced the detection of a star orbited by at least five, maybe seven, planets. The five strongest signals in the data correspond to planets similar … more

A recent article published by Fox News contains some bold claims. The article describes the preliminary analysis of the first six weeks of data from NASA’s Kepler Mission, which searches for … more

On a larger scale, another form of California dreamin’ is the desire of modern-day humans for a bigger planetary home. In fact, the latest justification for an atheistic worldview is the charge … more

I spent most of my childhood in Vancouver, British Columbia. On those rare winter days when we did get snow it was wet and slushy. Consequently, getting hit by a snowball in Vancouver was a much more … more

When extrasolar gas giant planets were first discovered in 1995,1 many astronomers presumed these planets would prove close analogues to the gas giants in our solar system. The list of known … more