In the mid 1800s, European and American explorers found great ruins overrun by vegetation in the rainforests of Central America.
Our Planetarium program in November is “Sky Exploring with Telescopes” shown today, Nov. 8, Nov. 15 and Nov. 29 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Two weeks ago I wrote a column on the majesty of our clouds that often show a great variety of shapes and forms over a few days.
Our October Planetarium program deals what you can learn about the heavens with your eye alone.
There are some wonderful books in the libraries and book stores showing fantastic pictures of the natural beauty of our parks, splendors around the world and entrancing pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope
his year is the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s remarkable telescopic discoveries.
As I write this column, it seems apparent that changes in U.S. health care by the Congress will be small and not make much of an impact to the key problems of increasing cost and the millions of people who can’t afford minimal health care.
Each American consumes about 1 million kilocalories or diet calories per year.
Most telescope guides describe how the bright planets appear in our skies, both by eye and through a telescope.
The author of this column will be visiting Allegany County schools starting this coming Friday.
If any objective observer were to make out a list of things that causes the most aggravation, drives people to write hostile letters, make angry comments to others and raises their blood pressure, what would be near the top?
In my last Sunday’s column, there were some suggestions offered on how students could practice note taking (of television news shows), do more writing on a regular basis and slowly increase the amount of reading they do each day.
Through the vacation months, most varsity and want-to-be varsity athletes have been running, lifting and using exercise machines.
When stopped at a red light in my car, I often look around to see the other drivers
As I am writing this column, getting some kind of new health care bill through Congress seems uncertain, despite popular support.
Here are some stubborn realities that we must accept and work around.
This column is a reaction to an article in Scientific American Earth 3.0, a quarterly magazine devoted to the environment and humanity's future prospects.
This column is a reaction to an article in Scientific American Earth 3.0, a quarterly magazine devoted to the environment and humanity's future prospects.
Some Americans eat out almost every day while for others it is a rare occurrence. A recent survey reports that Americans spend half of their food money eating away from home.
Forty years ago, when I was in graduate school, a big goal in astronomy was to discover a planet or a planetary system about another star.
The author has prepared a light half hour planetarium program entitled “Everything You Wanted To Know About the Summer Skies: But Were Afraid to Ask.”
The author of this column is in his 34th year of writing a weekly column for the Cumberland Times-News.
A number of fine books on nutrition have appeared in the past few years, several by New York Times Columnist Michael Pollan.
In my columns over an array of topics (energy, the environment, education, transportation, food), I always mention something positive that would help to alleviate the problem.
The most precious legacies we can pass on to future generations are good air, clean water and healthy vegetation.
This column is in response to a reader’s question about the ways the moon may have been used to tell time by early people
Most of my semesters, my classes include a good fraction of first-year students.
Most of us make decisions about major purchases (cars, furniture, appliances) for convenience, style or to please ourselves.
Today, Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, an event that reminds them of the desired ascent of their souls (following death) into heaven.
One of my biggest concerns about our society is the growing alienation from numbers. With few exceptions, most of us rarely focus on numbers.
A different view of tests
In recent decades, riders on city and county buses have dropped to where a typical load factor or fraction of occupied seats is about 20 percent.
All three of our U.S. car manufacturers are facing dropping car sales and the crushing burden of their many retirees, pensions and health care
At this time in most U.S. colleges, students have had their first tests in most of their courses.
With the decoding of the human genome in 2003, scientists are now using special genetic analysis to determine the approximate times of key events and developments in human prehistory (prior to 3,000 BCE).
Among the many diet books published each year, there are a few nutrition books that step back and offer an explanation of the tangled web between Americans and their eating habits.
Twofold rise and fall of the Appalachians
As an example, consider the Dan’s Mountain Wind Farm Project where likely 25 large wind turbines will be erected to convert wind energy into electrical energy for the electrical grid.
In looking at the night sky, sky gazers become acquainted with angles to describe the width of star groups, apparent distance between two bright stars, how far the moon appears above the horizon, how far Venus moves lower each hour.
During the colder months, our Sunday attendance drops so I would like to reacquaint our readers about the opportunities at our Planetarium (Tawes Hall) and Science Discovery Center (Compton Building) each Sunday
The United States in 2007 (last year for which figures available) used 102 quadrillion British Thermal Units of energy (source: World Almanac 2009). A quadrillion is 1 followed by 15 zeroes.
Despite many years of research, human vision is still not completely understood. For a broad look at the intriguing history of eye research, the British writer Simon Ings has written “A Natural History of Seeing,” published by W.W. Norton in 2007.
For those readers who have recently obtained binoculars or a telescope, here are some suggested sky sights for the coming year. I will code these sights as E (seen well by eye), B (seen best with binoculars) and T (seen only with optical aid, particularly with a low power telescope).
Each month, I mention the half full evening (shaped like a “D”), the best moon shape to view the craters and lunar mountains through binoculars or telescope.
Telescopes go back 400 years. In the first two centuries, most of the major types of telescopes were developed.
The number of dwarf planets orbiting our sun recently increased from three to five.
Threats to our existence with humor
I have received several requests recently for advice on buying a modestly priced telescope for a young student or an adult beginner.
Precious, yet taken for granted
Primer for the new president
Through my Frostburg State University classes (Energy, Future Dilemmas) and preparing several new classes for next year (Global Environment, Sustainability), I think I can offer some perspectives different from the partisan pundits and columnists prominent in the media.
In about 10 days, we will select our next president and the 2009 Congress. There will be some changes in our laws and new programs to confront our energy and financial situations and difficulties overseas.
Gently offsetting carbon from cars
In most developed countries, particularly the U.S. and China, fossil fuels are being consumed at a rapid rate.
Your space or sky unit
Math helpful, not a hindrance
As an educator and a consumer, I notice that a shrinking percentage of Americans can handle numbers, money and reason quantitatively (using numerical information).
Are we close to the limit?
Starry programs for September
The bottom line
Tips for parents and guardians
Energy is arguably the biggest problem facing our country.
Advantages of height
Changes ahead
My last column mentioned the energy of our bodies, gasoline and coal burning power plants.
Your body, gasoline, coal and sun
Judging from recent letters to the editor, some writers feel that science studies are similar to religious beliefs that one can either believe or reject. In particular, if one finds a scientist or group who doesn’t hold to a particular scientific consensus, then that scientific explanation is open to question.
Of all our native mammals, we (humans) have the most in common with bears. While our human population is surging towards 7 billion, the global bear population may be only a million and falling.
Strategies to ensure learning
Understanding and adapting to gasoline prices
Grass blades and raindrops
Every day you can read when the sun rises and sets in the Cumberland Times-News weather page. For example, if the local sunrise is at 6 a.m. and sunset is 8:22 p.m., then the sun is above the horizon for 14 hours and 22 minutes.
This is the time that I think about what new ideas I have tried in my classes this spring term. Which ones have failed or fizzled? Which ones have shown some promise? The latter will be continued in my summer and fall classes.
Our new public planetarium for May at Frostburg State Planetarium is “Report on Planet Earth,” starting today at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.. Lately, there have been a number of documentaries on the future of our Earth’s environment, especially in regard to our consumption of energy and resources.
More so than any other country, Americans love to travel in their personal vehicles. We own 30 percent of the world’s vehicles while we have 4.5 percent of the world’s population. Our country uses 25 percent of the world’s petroleum, of which two-thirds is imported.
We are now a month into spring with much nicer conditions for walking and being outside. What causes our seasons? Two things are key, our orbiting the sun and the tilt of Earth’s axis.
Humans are among nearly 5,000 species of mammals, the class of the animal kingdom whose members have a remarkable ability to adapt to their environment. Mammals are warm blooded, enabling them to live over a greater variety of habitats than the other classes.
A decade ago, the people you saw with headphones were primarily runners or joggers, listening to their favorite music.
With the price of a barrel of crude petroleum higher than ever and retail gas prices near an all time, it seems strange that most of new vehicles being reviewed are ‘muscle cars or power SUVs’ that get less miles per gallon than the average car or truck on the road.
Earlier in the year, I presented the factors that ensure learning in a class or course; now it’s time to face the other side, why some students learn far below their capabilities
There is another interesting book on eating called “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” by Michael Pollan.
Mercury has new close up images from the Messenger space probe early this year. In 2011, Messenger will begin to orbit Mercury, allowing a complete mapping of this sun baked world for the first time. (Space probes have completely mapped the surfaces of Venus, Earth, Mars, our moon and the big moons of Jupiter and Saturn.)
The crispest shadows are those made by the sun. The higher the sun is in the sky, the shorter are the shadows produced.
Dawn and dusk, the hour of twilight that begin and end the day are the great times to see sky beauty. It’s then that the sunlight is striking the air and clouds high over our heads, resulting in some delicate tints that you are not likely to see any other time.