Compost Bin West

A year after constructing a compost bin for our Missouri property, I have begun to build a larger one for our Littleton, Colorado, farm.  Wh...

The Unseen

On a visit to the Great Lakes Science Center, in Cleveland, we watched an Omni-Max production of National Geographic's Mysteries of the ...

A Belated Thanks to Jack Gottschang

We humans tend to look back on our lives, identifying individuals who, for better or for worse, had a significant influence on the career ch...

Politics & Science

Conservative politicians profess their support for economic growth, entrepreneurship and innovation.  Over the past few decades, most of tha...

Exporting Death

While we fret about the growing problem of heroin addiction in the U.S. and spend millions to disrupt its illegal importation and distributi...

Faith, Science and Education

Last week, an Op-Ed in the New York Times reported on a Pew Center study regarding the acceptance of evolution among various political and r...

Fifty Years of Doubt

On the morning of Friday, November 22, 1963, I was living in a black and white world.  Any questions that arose were answered by my parents ...

Kudos to the Weather Channel

In a number of past blog posts I have chastised the Weather Channel and their superstar meteorologists for making longterm hurricane forecas...

The Tea Party Agenda

Having closed the U.S. government with the expressed purpose of dismantling the Affordable Care Act, Tea Party Republicans lost that battle ...

Voyager 1 & Politics

Though not officially acknowledged by NASA until yesterday, Voyager 1, launched in September of 1977, likely reached interstellar space late...

Guest Nature Photos

Take only photos and leave only footprints .  That motto of the conservation movement expresses the sentiment that we can enjoy nature witho...

A Message from Birds

Birdwatchers take up their hobby for a variety of reasons.  First and foremost, birds are colorful and interesting creatures that are repres...

Hunting Rocks

Having become enthused with agate collecting during our recent trips to Lake Superior, my wife and I have taken up the broader hobby of rock...

Birth Control, Human Welfare & Conservation

A recent article in the New York Times reported that unwed mothers are the new face of poverty, often attempting to raise children on one me...

Unnatural Programs

What little television I used to watch was primarily devoted to science and nature, with a bit of news and sports on the side. Unfortunatel...

The Nature of Education

During this era of budget cuts, rising tuition and widespread unemployment, there is increasing discussion regarding the necessity of a coll...

Vulture Traffic

The turkey vultures of Columbia, Missouri, have established a large colonial roost near the south edge of the MU campus. From our back deck...

Children and Conservation

Children are the hope of mankind. They are the most compelling reason to end war, combat discrimination, eliminate suffering and foster fre...