Elon Musk Warns that the Race for AI Might Trigger WWIII

September 8, 2017
Automotive and spaceflight entrepreneur Elon Musk issued a series of tweets on September 4th that downplayed the threat posed by the nuclear ambitions of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying that the race to develop more powerful artificial intelligence... continued

Biggest X-Class Solar Flare in 10 Years Explodes from Sun

September 7, 2017
An X-9.3 solar flare exploded from sunspot AR 2673 at 1202 UT today, blacking out shortwave over Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean as X-rays and UV radiation ionized Earth's upper atmosphere. The explosion also generated a coronal mass ejection.... continued

Irma Aims at Florida as 3rd Storm Katia Strengthens in Gulf and Atlantic Storm Jose Forms

September 7, 2017
As winds in Hurricane Irma reached and exceeded 185 MPH, the storm left the island of Barbuda 90% destroyed and has caused severe destruction in the Virgin Islands. The storm is expected to strike Puerto Rico as the strongest hurricane... continued

3-Mile Asteroid Florence Graced Astronomers with a Close Pass to Earth

September 7, 2017
Asteroid 3122 Florence, a 4.5 kilometer (2.8 mile) wide near-Earth object, made a close pass to Earth on September 01, 2017, treating researchers with the closest known approach to Earth of an asteroid of this size. Thankfully, unlike recent close... continued

Strongest Atlantic Hurricane Ever Recorded Aims for S. Florida

September 6, 2017
Hurricane Irma, an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 storm, is now moving toward the northern Lesser Antilles and Southern Florida. It’s already the strongest hurricane ever recorded outside the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, and its current track suggests landfall somewhere in Florida... continued

NASA has a 1,000-Year Plan to Prevent the Yellowstone Supervolcano from Erupting

September 3, 2017
NASA has unveiled a plan to prevent the eruption of supervolcanoes, such as the Yellowstone Caldera in Wyoming. The ambitious, $3.5 billion plan would involve pumping water deep into the Earth to cool the volcano to prevent it from erupting... continued

Atlantic Tropical Storm Forecast to become Hurricane as Another Depression Develops in Gulf

August 31, 2017
Tropical storm Irma, presently in the south Atlantic and on a north-northwest course that could take it up the US east coast is forecast to become a hurricane over the weekend. It is not yet known if it will make... continued

NIH Website Erases All Mention of Climate Change, and Trump’s Science Envoy Quits

August 31, 2017
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has eliminated virtually all references to climate change on its website, according to a report from the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative, published on August 20. Similar removals were made earlier this year... continued

Ancient Babylon may have Developed Trigonometry over 1,000 Years Before Pythagoras

August 30, 2017
A new analysis of a 3,700-year-old Babylonian cuneiform tablet suggests that the ancient Babylonians were using an advanced form of trigonometry roughly a millennium before ancient Greek mathematicians recorded what is known as the Pytharoean theorem. In addition to the... continued

The Why of the Texas Weather Catastrophe

August 29, 2017
Hurricane Harvey expanded from a tropical storm to a category 4 hurricane in just 48 hours, and is now stalled over eastern Texas and western Louisiana and dropping rainfall in the area at a rate never before witnessed. But why is... continued