Bad Headline, Junk Science
The misleading headline in the paper this morning's read, "New cervical cancer vaccine is said to be a very painful injection." The sub-headline: "Health officials also note reports of fainting among girls getting the shot."Mike Stobbe's Associated Press piece is bad...
In The Shadow Of The Moon
Until now, there were exactly three great movies about the US space program: "The Right Stuff," "Apollo 13," and Tom Hanks' HBO series "From The Earth To The Moon."Add to that "In The Shadow Of The Moon," a new documentary about the Apollo program that stars the men...
Space Age
During a discussion of Microsoft's new tabletop computer last night, I heard one analyst refer to this as "real space-age technology." I'm sure she meant this was cutting-edge, 21st-century stuff, but space-age? So, it's technology from more than four decades ago?...
Surface of the Sun
The telescope aboard the Japanese spacecraft Hinode (Sunrise) has captured some remarkable pictures of the sun. This video shows an area of about 5,000 square miles of the solar surface, complete with flares, bubbling, and hot plasma...You may need some sunscreen with...
HPV Vaccine
With the national debate over the HPV vaccine Gardasil and whether it should be mandatory for girls going into sixth grade, I invited Dr. Rosanna Gray-Swain onto my show this afternoon. She's an ob-gyn at Barnes Jewish Hospital, who explained why this is a public...
Asteroid!
It sounds like the movie "Armageddon" -- an asteroid is hurtling towards Earth, and we have to stop it before it smacks into the planet and causes massive destruction. Turns out that astronomers have their eyes on one such asteroid that will come close -- in space...
Medical Ethical Dilemma
Lots of debate today about Ashley, the 9-year-old severely mentally and physically disabled girl whose parents have stunted her growth to keep her a more manageable and portable size. After discussions with medical ethicists at Children's Hospital in Seattle, the...
Back To The Moon
Phil Plait returned to my show today to talk about NASA's plans to put humans back on the moon by 2020 and set up a permanent base there by 2024. He explained the science that can still be done there, whether the base could be self-sufficient (rather than constantly...