SciSchmooze

Hello again Science Fans!

I’ve been thinking about the Artemis missions for a while. I’ve been wondering why we’re going back to the moon, somewhere we already visited several times, instead of going somewhere more challenging and uncharted, like Mars. If you think about it, the challenges of the Apollo program were greater than those today, given the technology limits of the time. The flight computers were rather basic back then, requiring programming at a machine language level. They we

Greetings again, friends of science,
科学を愛する皆さん、改めてご挨拶申し上げます。

Tidbit: The population of the Tokyo Metropolitan Area is about the same as California’s.

“They lie.”

That was the Australian’s response when i mentioned that nearly all meteorologists concur that global warming is happening. Rather than dispute this, i merely pointed out that scientists are focussed mostly on understanding how things ‘work’, not on picking sides. Then i quickly changed the subject and we enjoyed a good long conversation.

This exchange occurred during our ongoing tour of Japan and South Korea. Besides drinking in art, history

Hello again Science Fans!

The vernal equinox occurred Friday morning, ushering in the astronomical start to spring in the northern hemisphere. However, if felt more like we skipped spring and went straight to summer in the western US, what with highs in the 90s this past week. The heat wave is an example of extreme weather pushed by climate change, according to climate scientists. The temperature reached 110 F in the Arizona desert on Thursday, marking the highest March temperature ever recorded in the US!

To add to the situation, La Nina is finishing and forecasters predict not only 

The SciSchmooze

Kishore Hare
16 March 2026

Greetings science fans!

It has been quite a week for Bay Area creativity. Last Thursday, thousands packed Frank Ogawa Plaza to welcome home Oakland’s own Alysa Liu, who took two gold medals to Milan and brought them right back to the city that raised her. At her request, she skipped the parade in favor of a celebration that would shine a light on Oakland’s artists and community.

Then tonight, at the 98th Academy Awards, Richmond-raised Ryan Coogler took home his first Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Sinners, making him only the second Black American filmmaker ever to receive that award. Two Bay Area artists, two very different stages, one very loud reminder that this region does not lack fo

The SciSchmooze

Lili Galilean
9 March 2025

Greeting science fans!

The international table tennis circuit is currently witnessing a “French Renaissance” at the table. Brothers Félix and Alexis Lebrun—the world’s most exciting duo—have disrupted the global rankings, becoming the first Europeans in years to truly challenge the long-standing dominance of the Chinese national team (Felix Lebrun vs Lin Shidong: spin highlights).

At 19 and 22, the Lebrun br

The SciSchmooze

Dave Almandsmith
2 March 2026

Greetings again, friends of science,
Kwaziwai zvakare, shamwari dzesainzi,
[15 million people speak Shona, one of 16 official languages of Zimbabwe.]

When the Environmental Protection Agency repealed the ‘2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding’ in February, it was abundantly clear it was done to favor the fossil fuel industry. That’s hardly surprising since 85% of oil and gas PAC money went to

Bob Siederer
23 February 2026

Hello again Science Fans!

Let’s start with a little biological history. On this date in 1997, scientists in Scotland announced that they had successfully cloned a mammal for the first time. The animal was a sheep named Dolly, shown above with the embryologist who led the cloning research. Dolly was born on July 5, 1996, but public announcement wasn’t made until February 22, 1997. Dolly was cloned using a cell taken from a mammary gland of an adult sheep, and was named after country music singer Dolly Parton, proving the Scotts have a sense of humor. She went on to give birth to six normal lambs and was euthanized at the age of six due to lung disease unrelated to her cloning. Dolly’s preserved body is on exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland since 2003, the year of he

SciSchmooze
Kishore Hari
16 February 202

Hello again, friends of science!

Valentine’s Day was yesterday, but the science of love doesn’t take a day off.

Just in time for the season, UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center launched a wonderful new podcast series: The Science of Love, hosted by Geena Davis. Over three episodes, the series explores how love is expressed through caregiving, friendship, romantic attachment, and shared experience, and how these connections leave measurable effects on the brain, body, and even the microbiome. It’s a beautiful reminder that love is far bigger than romance.

SciSchmooze
Lili Galilean
9 February 2026

I am writing to you today with a mix of excitement and big shoes to fill. I am officially joining the SciSchmooze team, and my first order of business is to say a massive thank you to Herb Masters.

If you know Herb, you know he is the gravitational center of this community. Whether he was engaging the public as a long-time volunteer at the Exploratorium or advocating for critical thinking as a Board Member of the Bay Area Skeptics, Herb has always championed the idea that science should be accessible, rigorous, and—crucially—fun.

In fact, that is exactly how we met. It wasn’t at a stuffy lecture or a

Dave Almandsmith
2 February 2026

Welcome, glad you are reading this.
Mwaniriziddwa, musanyufu nti osoma bino.
[Over 10 million people speak Luganda in Uganda.]

Subscribe to the SciSchmooze at Bay Area Science. Heck, sign up your friends too. It’s free. 

Reid, Christina, Jeremy, and Victor are leaving for the Moon next Sunday. Their spacecraft will loop around the Moon twice and return to Earth on or about February 19th. However, those dates could be pushed back out of an abundance of caution.

Here is a