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Pulitzer Prize-Winning Writer Elizabeth Kolbert Is Cataloging the Climate Crisis – State of the Planet

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Science

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Writer Elizabeth Kolbert Is Cataloging the Climate Crisis – State of the Planet

As a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1999, Elizabeth Kolbert has spent decades informing the reading public about the science of our changing planet, the complicated part humans have played in climate change and the possible solutions for our future. Kolbert has traveled the world in pursuit of these stories, written countless essays and articles, and published several celebrated books, including “The Sixth Extinction,” which won a Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. The Washington Post named her 2021 book, “Under a White Sky,” one of the 10 best books of the year. Kolbert has also won two National Magazine Awards, one National Academies award and the BBVA Biophilia Award for Environmental Communication. On Monday, February 24 , Kolbert will come to the Columbia Climate Scho...

NASA — 5 Unpredictable Things Swift Has Studied (and 1…

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NASA

NASA — 5 Unpredictable Things Swift Has Studied (and 1…

This second, as you’re reading these words, trillions of tiny particles are hurtling toward you! No, you don’t need to brace yourself. They’re passing through you right now. And now. And now. These particles are called neutrinos, and they’re both everywhere in the cosmos and also extremely hard to find.Neutrinos are fundamental particles, like electrons, so they can’t be broken down into smaller parts. They also outnumber all the atoms in the universe. (Atoms are made up of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are made of quarks … which maybe we’ll talk about another time.) The only thing that outnumbers neutrinos are all the light waves left over from the birth of the universe! Credit: Photo courtesy of the Pauli Archive, CERNPhysicist Wolfgang Pauli proposed the existen...

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Astronomy

The chances of this asteroid hitting Earth keep rising. But there are four reasons I’m not worried yet | Carrie Nugent

Two days after Christmas, the Atlas sky survey team discovered a new rocky object in Earth’s astronomical neighbourhood. Atlas discovers near-Earth objects all the time: in 2024, the team discovered 167 of them. They also codiscovered comet Tsuchinshan–Atlas, which dazzled sky gazers last autumn. But this discovery was special: there’s a chance the 40-90 metre object, known as 2024 YR4, will hit Earth in 2032.In January, the impact probability was estimated to be just over 1%, then it was raised to 2.3% in early February. As of this week, the Nasa JPL Center for Near Earth Object Studies has raised that to 3.1% – or about 1-in-32 chance of impact.There are four reasons I’m not worried just yet. First, the possible impact would be in December 2032, so we’ve got time to prepare. Second, the ...

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UFOs

Cash-Landrum UFO Questions

Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Colby Landrum The Cash-Landrum case of December 29, 1980, has launched as much controversy, rumors, and myths as any other UFO episode in history. The three witnesses: Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Colby Landrum, claimed to have encountered a By Curt CollinsBlue Blurry Lines2-16-2025 terrifying massive diamond-shaped UFO hovering above a rural highway near Huffman, Texas. They said the object emitted intense heat and light, and when it finally moved away, it was pursued by a fleet of unmarked helicopters. Afterwards, the witnesses came to believe the U.S. government w...

Review: ‘Ahsoka’ #8 Is a Decent Adaption of Season Finale Let Down by Inconsistent Artwork

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Star Wars

Review: ‘Ahsoka’ #8 Is a Decent Adaption of Season Finale Let Down by Inconsistent Artwork

The eighth and final issue of the Ahsoka comic adaption covers the entirety of the season’s final episode, as you’d expect. The issue is a very competent retelling of “The Jedi, The Witch and The Warlord”‘s story, and there’s not really much more to say about it on that front. As ever, the comic doesn’t offer any extra insight into the events of the episode and there’s no extra content, which is usually the case with these adaptions. Rodney Barnes (W) • GEORGES JEANTY (A) • Cover by DAVID NAKAYAMA If you somehow missed the Disney Plus series and are reading the story for the first time, then all the story beats are well laid out and easy to follow. There are times when certain dramatic beats are lost — the moment that Morgan is given the Blade of Talzin gets glossed over and Sabine’s b...