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Getting scared silly by the latest doomsday prediction is silly. So is ignoring real threats. (Copyright M. Ahmetvaleev, via NASA News, used w/o permission.) The Chelyabinsk meteor didn't kill anyone. Only 1,100 or so folks needed medical treatment: for injuries ranging from cuts and bruises to a broken spine. Next time, we may not get off so lightly. Now is a very good time to start getting ready for an incoming asteroid.... ...Looking Ahead (Reaction Engines Limited/Terra Novus, via Wikimedia Commons, used w/o permission.) (Reaction Engines Limited's Skylon spaceplane.) Apart from Space Shuttle fleet, now out of service, and recoverable capsules like Space-X's Dragon, launch vehicles are still a single-use technology. That makes getting into space very expensive. A decade from now, we'll probably see shipping rates go down: dramatically, I suspect. Reaction Engines Limited's Skylon is scheduled for a test flight to the International Space Stati

Maybe some folks still have religious scruples about 'defying God' with lightning rods: but I haven't run into any, and I'm certainly not one of them. My house has a lightning rod , installed by a previous owner. I made sure it's in good working order, since our chimney is one of the taller structures in the neighborhood. Ben Franklin and Prokop Diviš 's invention is on most tallish structures in my part of the world. Lightning rods have apparently joined movable type and the moldboard plow as technology that 'we've always had.' Even the Internet seems to be gaining grudging acceptance: although I regularly encounter folks who don't seem at all comfortable about social media: and express their grave misgivings in online posts. My guess is that every generation has included a few with profound misgivings about newfangled technology: or change of any sort, and that's almost another topic. I grew up in a world of AM radio and dial te

Many of this galaxy's 17,000,000,000 or so roughly Earth-size planets are probably too hot or too cold to support life. Last week, scientists found one that is a little cooler than our home: but not by much.... ...If we discover life on other planets while I'm still around, I'll be delighted. From the way folks respond to new ideas, I'm pretty sure that many will share my fascination. Others, apparently convinced that God wouldn't or couldn't disregard their values and assumptions, will almost certainly denounce reports of extraterrestrial life as a Satanic plot. We've gone through this sort of goofiness with vaccinations and evolution. ( February 12, 2014 ; January 2, 2014 ) I hope we find neighbors in the universe: people who aren't human, but share our nature: creatures with intelligence and will, made of spirit and matter. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 311 , 362 - 368 . I think it's very likely that life started on other worlds. Giv

A 520,000,000 year old fossilized heart caught my eye this week: so did genetically engineered bacteria, and the continuing search for life in the universe.... ...I don't need an iPad to be Catholic: which is just as well, since I don't own one. My son has smartphone, and that's another topic. Catholics coped quite well without WiFi gadgets in their pockets: and without pockets, for that matter. But our faith doesn't depend on avoiding new ideas and technology. We've even been at the cutting edge of new tech a few times: like Gothic cathedrals , stone buildings with walls made mostly of stained glass. The pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses of Gothic architecture are traditional now, but 12th century traditionalists were horrified at the 'barbarous' style. More at A Catholic Citizen in America .