Sherwood Rowland – a ‘Nobel’ man

It’s a hazy Thursday afternoon.  I’m sitting in my car at the Physical Sciences parking lot, impatiently waiting for my husband.  The campus is empty and quiet.  At the bus stop, an undergrad listens to his iPod. From my window, I see another soul approaching but it is not my husband.  This one, I can tell by the look, is also a scientist, but a much more seasoned one.  He carries an old leather briefcase...

Richard Alley: Earth’s Biggest Climate Control Knob

Maybe that title is a little misleading… This post is about a speech given by climate scientist Richard Alley.  There is no evidence that Richard Alley himself has any influence on climate, nor would I ever refer to him as a “knob” of any sort. Penn State Cryosphere expert and Two-Mile Time Machine author Richard Alley gave the esteemed “Bjerknes” keynote address at the December...

Richard Feynman, NASA, and the genius of humor

The Obama administration recently announced that funding will be cut for NASA manned-space exploration projects, including a return trip to the moon in 2020.  Instead, more funding will be directed towards NASA Earth-observation and monitoring missions, in hopes of better understanding our planet and its changing climate.  Thinking back over the history of manned space exploration, NASA has certainly...