Space Archives - Agents of Reason

Technology, Science, Medicine,

By Bill Clontz December 16, 2024 December 17, 2024 Leave a Comment

While We Focus on Ordinary Life Today, Impressive Changes are All Around Us

Hey, How About That?!

Turns out that yes, there are things to think about besides politics (although even the matters we will discuss today can be affected by politics, good or bad). But today, let’s just look at the tools, people, and research working hard to make us better, smarter, and safer. Here are a few that caught my eye recently.

Quantum Computers

I would not even try to explain quantum computing to the uninitiated (partly because there is so much about it that I do not know myself).

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Watch for Big Stuff Coming Soon

By Bill Clontz February 27, 2023 February 28, 2023 1 Comment

Be on the Lookout for Major Outcomes

What’s Up?

As always, a lot is on the horizon, much of it important. What follows is not the definitive list by any means, but the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I think about the following issues and potential outcomes. I would be major outcomes on the following items in the next 4-6 months, for better or worse.

International

Ukraine: The war is, unfortunately, not likely to end in this short time frame, but my sensing is that the expected Russian Spring offensive is not going to amount to much.

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What Would You Put in a Time Capsule?

By Bill Clontz January 4, 2022 January 4, 2022 1 Comment

The History of These is Fascinating

Why Do These Things?

They seem to have some popularity throughout the ages. One could even say they are… timeless.

Time capsules have been in the news lately. Not one, but two were found under a statue of Robert E. Lee that was recently removed in Virginia. Here in my hometown, one was unearthed a few months ago, also from a site that once hosted a statue of a civil war figure.

It is not hard to find news items and historical write ups around the world and through the ages of such capsules being implanted,

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Let Us Reflect in Wonder & Hope for the James Webb Space Telescope

By Bill Clontz December 23, 2021 December 31, 2021 4 Comments

“We’ve Never Done Anything Like Any of This” – A Project Engineer

Son of Hubble

The Hubble Telescope has been the most amazing, gratifying, useful thing of modern science. Off to a rough start with lenses imprecisely ground (an error resulting in one part of the team using meters, the other using inches. Imagine that.). But all was well once an equally amazing rescue mission was launched, installing “contact lenses” on the telescope, with perfect results as an outcome.

I hit the Hubble web site and similar sites regularly, still amazed at the science and the beauty just waiting for you almost every day.

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It’s Time for a Favorite Holiday

By Bill Clontz December 21, 2021 December 21, 2021 1 Comment

No, Not That One Next Saturday. The One Today.

Tis the Season – For All Kinds of Celebrations

As has been noted earlier in this space, this seems to be the time of year that people and cultures all over the world choose to celebrate some larger-than-life theme. From Thanksgiving to Christmas to Hannukah to Eid to Kwanza to Diwali, to New Year’s Day, and more.

Something like 19 major holidays are celebrated world-wide in the late NOV-early JAN time frame, and countless more withing individual societies. And that does not even count those like National Doughnut Day or Stout Day!

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Hope, Promise, and Fun from Science and Technology

By Bill Clontz September 6, 2020 September 11, 2020 2 Comments

It Will be Hard to Avoid Politics for the Next Couple of Months. Let’s Take a Brain Break

Part of our Hey! Look at That! Series

We are in a time of challenge, tension, and reasons to worry. We have been here before in many ways, I note, on this the anniversary of the terrorism of 9/11. Still, even in times of risk and fear, there is also hope and good news. I thought we might take a one day break today to look at some of those things, take a deep breath,

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The Doppelgänger Effect – You, Meet You

By Bill Clontz July 17, 2020 July 17, 2020 2 Comments

Is That Me, You?

The idea of a doppelganger is an ancient concept that literature loves to this day. The term originated in German folklore. It meant a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon, usually as a harbinger of bad luck. Today it is more broadly defined to include a non-biologically related look-alike or double of a living person.

It is a concept fiction writers have loved since its earliest days. I am not much of a fiction reader (unless you count anything Trump says). But I do feast often on science fiction and here, too, the doppelganger often finds a home.

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In Praise of the Johnny Appleseeds of Science

By Bill Clontz March 10, 2020 March 10, 2020 2 Comments

A Handful of People Have Made Science Understandable, Yet Wonderous, to Us All

Spreading the Good News

Everyone reading this is likely familiar with the legend of Johnny Appleseed. Johnny was a real person, John Chapman, who lived in America’s early days. Chapman was an American pioneer nurseryman. He introduced apples into Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and present-day West Virginia.

He became famous due to his generous ways and his leadership in conservation. He planted apple seeds everywhere, making the trees and their valued fruit ubiquitous. You can actually still see one of his trees.

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