CAN A HUMAN BEING REALLY EXIST ON MARS?

(James A. Lewis is from the Village of Maine and is a member of “Stars Are US” Astronomy Club) There has been a lot of discussion recently on TV about sending astronauts to Mars in the future. This seems exciting, but I am very much opposed to the idea. Why? The dangers pose huge risks to the astronauts. The cost of this trip is more than excessive. Regarding the dangers, the voyage to Mars and return will take about 22 months. The trip one-way takes nine months. The time spent on Mars will be about 4 months. Mars and the Earth must be ...

STAND UP FOR SCIENCE, OUR DEMOCRACY, AND OUR PLANET

It was bad enough when we recently discovered our state DNR had stripped the words “climate change” from its website and added wording that led readers to believe there is controversy in the climate research world about its cause - the only real controversy is political, not scientific. A little later we learned that our Public Service Commission had done the same. Now, we find the new Trump administration erased climate change from the Environmental Protection Agency's website and has silenced EPA staff. Perhaps Orwell should have titled his book “2016” instead of ...

Science Illiteracy and Public Policy

“Every shortcoming of American governance is related in some fashion to the knowledge deficit of the public...” Susan Jacoby, author of “The Age of American Unreason” Americans have a long tradition of anti-intellectualism. In today's politics this is expressed as denial of facts and scientific research in favor of opinion, self-righteousness, and prideful ignorance. We seem to be unable to distinguish documented knowledge from unsubstantiated opinion. Unfortunately for our public affairs, as Susan Jacoby says, our elected officials “suffer from the same ...