NEW! NASA postponed their next mission to Mars. (5 Dec 2008)

NEW! Check out this cool movie. (5 Dec 2008)

NEW! Layers on Mars. (5 Dec 2008)

NEW! Tycho Brahe's observations in the news. (5 Dec 2008)

NEW! Distribution of term paper scores is here. I'll have your pre-final CSF scores on Friday. (3 Dec 2008)

NEW! What does a self-propelled golf ball have to do with the Cambrian explosion? (3 Dec 2008)

NEW! Interesting story about the Universe's dark side .... (1 Dec 2008)

NEW! I will not prepare any lecture material for class on Friday, December 5. Instead, I'll answer questions. This will work best if you bring specific questions. (1 Dec 2008)

NEW! Check out the night sky tonight. (1 Dec 2008)

NEW! Interesting article about penguin species, evolution, and extinction. (24 Nov 2008)

NEW! What's up with the Mars Space Laboratory? Here's what Alan Stern has to say about it. (24 Nov 2008)

Gobble! No class on Wednesday, November 26. (24 Nov 2008)

NEW! Glaciers on Mars. (21 Nov 2008)

NEW! A new old picture of the Moon. (19 Nov 2008)

NEW! These new space-faring nations need to learn how to write a good press release. (17 Nov 2008)

NEW! I might believethis. (14 Nov 2008)

NEW! And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead. (11 Nov 2008)

NEW! Here's the article about the opals on Mars. (9 Nov 2008)

NEW! Solutions and distribution of scores for Homework #3 are now available. I'll return the homework on Wednesday in class. Also, I've updated the CSF histogram. (4 Nov 2008)

NEW! I almost forgot -- remember to VOTE tomorrow! (3 Nov 2008)

NEW! Mars Phoenix, not completely dead. (3 Nov 2008)

NEW! I'm back. See you for a regular lecture at the regular time today. (3 Nov 2008)

NEW! Tentative schedule for the next few weeks (updated 10 pm Tuesday October 28):
Mon Oct 27 -- CANCELLED! Prof. Barlow, our guest lecturer, is sick.
Wed Oct 29 -- Guest lecture by Ed Anderson (NAU) about the Drake equation (or something ...)
Fri Oct 31 -- Happy halloween. No lecture.
Mon Nov 3 -- Regular lecture from DET
Wed Nov 5 -- Regular lecture from DET
Fri Nov 7 -- Guest lecture from Dr. Henry Roe (Lowell)

NEW! If you turned in a term paper proposal and have not gotten an email from me about your topic, please email me. I have a few that came in without email addresses for me to contact you. Also, I only got 25 term paper proposals. Several other people have emailed me since, which is fine. They don't get credit for having turned it in on time, but they will at least get my feedback, which will probably be helpful. If you have a proposed topic and would still like to email it to me, that's fine. (28 Oct 2008)

NEW! No water on the Moon. (24 Oct 2008)

NEW! What??! (24 Oct 2008)

NEW! India's mission to the Moon. (22 Oct 2008)

NEW! Don't forget that your term paper topic proposal is due by October 24. (17 Oct 2008)

NEW! Homework #3 is now available. This homework is due in my hand (no email) at the beginning of class on October 24. (17 Oct 2008)

NEW! In case any of you are thinking about evolution topics for your term papers, you might be interested in this. (16 Oct 2008)

NEW! Evolution and fossils. (20 Oct 2008)

NEW! I finally made a digital version of the distribution of scores from the midterm. (20 Oct 2008)

NEW! Distribution of scores for homework #2 (17 Oct 2008)

NEW! Course grades so far (17 Oct 2008)

NEW! New results from the Miller-Urey experiment! (17 Oct 2008)

NEW! Welcome back to the second half of the course. (14 Oct 2008)

NEW! Reminder: No class on Monday, October 13. Enjoy your day off to recover from the midterm. (8 Oct 2008)

NEW! The Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year sounds pretty interesting. (8 Oct 2008)

NEW! You heard it here first! An aste roid is going to hit the Earth TONIGHT! And I said it was a slow news day .... Updates: Check out the second to last sentence of this article (beginning with "The size of 2008 TC3....").. See any problems? This is how bad science rumors get started .... (7 Oct 2008)

NEW! The term paper assignment is now posted. (3 Oct 2008)

NEW! Midterm guidelines are now posted. (3 Oct 2008)

NEW! Neat story about color, wavelength, and evolution. (2 Oct 2008)

NEW! How to prepare for a presentation, whether you are an NAU student or a vice presidential candidate. Good advice! (2 Oct 2008)

NEW! Interesting story about HIV that includes discussion of RNA and DNA and their evolution and divergence -- should be some familiar terms in there. (2 Oct 2008)

NEW! Snow on Mars! (29 Sept 2008)

NEW! I still can't decide if I believe this. (29 Sept 2008)

NEW! Homework 2 is now available. (24 Sept 2008)

NEW! New telescope on campus! (26 Sept 2008)

NEW! Awesome story about the past/future Chinese spacewalk. (25 Sept 2008)

NEW! Obama on Science (McCain didn't answer, apparently). (25 Sept 2008)

NEW! Old rocks -- really, really old rocks. (25 Sept 2008)

NEW! Homework 1 solutions and distribution of scores are now available. (24 Sept 2008)

NEW! Shocking: 13 people (almost a third of the class) didn't turn in Homework 1. What are you people thinking? Note: I do have a homework without a name, so it's really only ("only") 12 people. Come see me if you think the nameless paper is yours. (23 Sept 2008).

NEW! LHC on hold until the spring. (23 Sept 2008)

NEW! By the way, the first day of Fall was yesterday or two days ago. We'll talk about why that is next week in the Astronomy section of the course. (23 Sept 2008)

NEW! We haven't talked much about the Mars Rovers, but they are still going strong. (23 Sept 2008)

NEW! Splenda, sugar, .. and scientific research ethics. (23 Sept 2008)

NEW! What's next for the Mars Phoenix experiment? (23 Sept 2008)

NEW! Bad news for the LHC! (20 Sept 2008)

NEW! I'm extremely skeptical. (2008 Sept 18)

NEW! Here's more about the creatures who can survive in space. (17 Sept 2008)

NEW! You guys must be feeling confident about the homework, since no one came to my office hours today .... I'm looking forward to seeing what you think about those topics! (15 Sept 2008)

NEW! Which amino acids did Miller and Urey create? See here. Also, read here. (15 Sept 2008)

NEW! Homework #1 is now posted. This homework is due at the beginning of class on September 19. If you need a hardcopy, please let me know. (10 Sept 2008) A little bit of sage advice is appearing. (17 Sept 2008)

NEW! Creatures that can live in space, surviving vacuum and solar radiation. Remember NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility experiment. (15 Sept 2008)

NEW! Extinctions: A little luck can help. (15 Sept 2008)

NEW! Here's the famous LHC rap. And Brian Greene has a good Op-Ed piece in the NY Times about the LHC. (12 Sept 2008)

NEW!Another thing you can do on Friday during the time when you would ordinarily be listening to my beautiful voice clearly explaining fascinating things about the natue of the Universe is to review the notes from this week to make sure you have understood everything. That's actually a good habit to get into -- reviewing the week's notes before they get too far into the past. (11 Sept 2008)

NEW! No lecture on Friday, September 12. Work on your homework instead! (8 Sept 2008)

NEW! The Large Hadron Collider started up and the world didn't come to an end (at least, this part didn't). Here's another good article about it. The New York Times does their usual excellent job with the story too. (10 Sept 2008)

NEW! Mars Phoenix races against coming winter (I know the feeling). (10 Sept 2008)

NEW! Mars Phoenix mission is not finding water where they expect to. (9 Sept 2008)

NEW! Yesterday ESA's Rosetta spacecraftflew past an asteroid named Steins on its way to a comet. (Another story here.) (8 Sept 2008)

NEW! Everyone's talking about Spore, this new video game about evolution. (5 Sept 2008)

NEW! Why Early Earth did not Freeze. Huh? (4 Sept 2008)

NEW! Several of you have asked whether there are available spots in the lab course, Astro 184L. As of Thursday afternoon (Sept 4), there were five empty spots in the lab course. So: if you are interested in being in the lab course, this might be a good time to enroll.... I'd love to have you in the class. First, make sure that you can make the schedule, which is at the end of that course's syllabus. (29 Aug 2008, updated 4 Sept 2008)

NEW!Essay in the New York Times: Take back the dark night (3 Sept 2008)

NEW! Michael Boling sent me this link last night. Mostly not too bad, scientifically! I wonder who made it. (3 Sept 2008)

NEW! What's Mars Phoenix up to? (3 Sept 2008)

NEW! A very interesting sounding new video game. (2 Sept 2008)

NEW!What's on Mars? Life? Or just .. perchlorates? (28 Aug 2008)

NEW! Saturn's moon Enceladus is the newest exciting place to think about life in the Solar System (Liquid water and organic molecules!). (26 Aug 2008)

NEW! What's the latest with the Mars Phoenix robotic space laboratory? (21 Aug 2008)

NEW! Check out the Astronomy Picture of the Day. (21 Aug 2008)

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