Here at the Planetary Broadcast Network studios, we just had our annual Nobel Prize party and costume contest. Two of the top three awards in the “favorite scientist” costume category went to a duo of very convincing Oppenheimers, while third place went to a gender-bent rendition of Richard Feynman—I guess I really need to revamp…

By now, you’ve probably seen a rash of breathless headlines, inspired by the recent Nobel Prize in Physics, proclaiming that physicists have proven “The Universe Isn’t Real!” It’s an exciting idea—my mind immediately leapt to what it could mean for me personally. If the universe isn’t real, nothing I do matters. I can have that…

If you’re a fan of science or science fiction, you’re familiar with ‘techno-babble’—the word salad of terms swiped from textbooks and peer-reviewed articles that writers use to make things sound more exciting and futuristic. This kind of scientific glossolalia has become a bit of a pet peeve for me, and today the term irritating me…