How to cloak a Fisher space pen...or a satellite

There's an apocryphal story that, faced with the fact that ballpoint pens don't work in zero gravity, NASA paid a lot of money to develop the Fisher space pen. Meanwhile, the Russians used pencils.

These are a few of my favorite sciences.

What's your favorite thing about the natural world? There are lots of things to choose from. The profound tension between natural selection and biological diversity. The fact that no matter how fast you're going, you'll never catch up with a beam of light. The way snowflakes form.

How Gravity Works

Some time ago, I promised an explanation of how gravity works — in particular, how general relativity, Einstein's theory of gravity, works. Today I'm going to deliver. This one's a little mind bending, so definitely ask questions if you're confused. I like questions. Questions are cool.

Black Holes and Extra Dimensions

Cool (and wacky) new story on using Sgr A*—the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, rather than the one in that Muse song—and gravitational lensing to search for extra dimensions.

Fun fact: I did final edits on this story over the phone this morning while we were driving north on the Grapevine section of I-5.

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