Word: interstellar
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...dissolve and react with one another in myriad ways. Why carbon, necessarily? Because, says Des Marais, "it is such a versatile chemical. It makes so many different and complex compounds. And it's the fourth most abundant element in the universe." Carbon compounds literally litter the cosmos, drifting through interstellar space in giant molecular clouds and making up a significant percentage, by mass, of comets and asteroids. Some scientists are convinced that the basic building blocks of life fell to Earth from space and that the same could easily happen anywhere...
...anybody's imagination. These are rare glimpses of the outer boundaries of physical reality, and of the fiery cataclysms in which nature perpetually regenerates itself. Even astronomers have trouble keeping their professional cool when pictures like the new one--showing a section of the Eagle Nebula, a knot of interstellar gas and dust in the constellation Serpens--come beaming in from space. "When I saw it, I was just blown away," says NASA's Ed Weiler, the Hubble's chief scientist. The image has such visual impact, in fact, that some researchers tend to overlook its scientific importance...
Stargazers in the 17th century named them nebulae, the Latin word for clouds, but modern astronomers have become convinced that many of the faint, fuzzy patches of light that dot the night sky are really huge clumps of interstellar gas that act as cosmic nurseries -- the places where new stars are born. The glow comes from infant suns lighting up the clouds, like fireworks illuminating their surrounding pall of smoke. "Fireworks" is an apt description, since the prevailing theory among astronomers is that star birth must be a cataclysmically violent process. But without detailed pictures of what's going...
People like pop culture -- that's what makes it popular. Movies drenched in sex and gore, gangsta rap, even outright pornography are not some sort of alien interstellar dust malevolently drifting down on us, but products actively sought out and beloved by millions. When fighting to abolish the NEA and other government support for the arts, conservatives are quick to condemn "cultural alitism" and exalt the majority tastes served by the marketplace. So how can they turn around and blame entertainment corporations for following the money and giving mass audiences what they want? Talk about alitism...
...another prime example of the gleeful nature of ska. Dedicated to the actor of Star Trek fame, the few words of the song not suprisingly treat William Shatner as a mere synonym for Captain Kirk: "He's got a fine tan shirt with an emblem on the chest/ The interstellar girls all like him the best." MU330 from St. Louis also show their wackiness with the song "Stuff." Described playfully in the liner notes as being "a hopeless romantic sort of thing, really," this tune contains such memorable lines as "I'm just so tired of romance/ I just want...