Below The Beltway

Apparently, the world universe reality itself on a multi-dimensional level isn’t going to end later this year:
 Europe’s CERN particle-physics lab has issued its long-awaited report on safety issues surrounding the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s biggest and most expensive atom-smasher. Some have feared that when the collider reaches full power, sometime next year, it might […]

The Phoenix Lander has, apparently, found evidence of frozen water on Mars:
Now, scientists will be able to tackle the main question they hope to answer: Did the ice ever melt and turn Mars into a habitable place?
In a photograph released Thursday evening of a trench that the Phoenix Mars lander has dug into the Martian […]

Evolution, it’s not just for textbooks anymore:
A major evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front of researchers’ eyes. It’s the first time evolution has been caught in the act of making such a rare and complex new trait.
And because the species in question is a bacterium, scientists have been able to replay history to show […]

The Space Shuttle Discovery will be launched today with a very important delivery for the International Space Station:
May 30 (Bloomberg) — A scheduled NASA shuttle launch tomorrow has taken on new urgency as the crew of the International Space Station awaits delivery of a part to repair the outpost’s only toilet.
The shuttle Discovery will take […]

A celebration of the 150th anniversary of On The Origin Of Species will be held next year at The Vatican:
The Vatican is planning a special conference in 2009 to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking theory of evolution.
First printed in November 1859, Darwin’s evolutionary […]

Apparently, America’s biology students are still being used as pawns in the war on science:
One in eight U.S. high school teachers presents creationism as a valid alternative to evolution, says a poll published in the Public Library of Science Biology.
Of more than 900 teachers who responded to a poll conducted by Penn State University political […]

The Vatican talks about the issue of extraterrestrial life:
VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican’s chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.
The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, says that the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of […]

Albert Einstein, and particularly his famous quote that “God does not play dice with the universe,” has been cited many times as an example of a scientist who, on some level accepted the idea of a supernatural being.
Apparently, that wasn’t the case:
Albert Einstein described belief in God as “childish superstition” and […]

Forty-Seven years ago today, Alan Shepard became the first American in space

National Review’s John Derbyshire continues his attack on Ben Stein’s movie Expelled:
In an interview with the Trinity Broadcasting Network, Ben Stein said the following amazing thing in an interview with Paul Crouch, Jr.
Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great […]