We all had a good chuckle when Rick Perry couldn't spout his own bullshit to a friendly crowd of know-nothings. But think about the department that slipped Perry's tongue, the one he's drooling to shut down, the Department of Energy headed by Nobel Laureate Steven Chu. The DoE's responsibilities "include the nation's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, energy conservation, energy-related research, radioactive waste disposal, and domestic energy production. DOE also sponsors more basic and applied scientific research than any other US federal agency; most of this is funded through its system of United States Department of Energy National Laboratories." The latter agency is deeply involved in strategic and tactical nuclear security, and it supports the economic and defensive interests of the United States via science and research, some of which is classified. Getting rid of the DoE and its subsidaries in the aftermath of Fukishima, or an uncertain, proliferate global nuclear future, is dumber than disbanding Seal Team Six in the wake of 9-11.
- Using the astronomical version of night vision goggles, Hubble's mighty eye has found a young universe swarming with dynamic, junior galaxies burtsing with star formation.
- An ambitious probe to visit and return samples from Mars' enigmatic moon Phobos has gone silent in low earth orbit. Mission planners fear Russia's Phobos-Grunt is lost and could come streaking back to earth loaded with tons of toxic fuel around Thanksgiving Day.
- BYU professor and Republican delegate Barry Bickmore has an interesting video out epxlaining why he around on climate change and how it is that educated scientists avoid it for so long.
- Speaking of which, progress marches on! And the potent greenhouse gas methane is marching right alongside:
The capacity of these gases to insulate the home planet and push the rate of climate warming has increased 29 percent since 1990, and 2 percent since 2009, NOAA reports here.