Dave Almandsmith
4 October 2026

Hello again, fans of science,

Hallo allemaal, wetenschapsliefhebbers!
[Nearly 30 million people speak Dutch as a first or second language.]

MEDICINE / HEALTH

The ‘Barbie Peptide’ [caricatured in the above graphic] is just one of dozens of peptides being promoted as cures and enhancements, but in most cases totally lacking in vetting through clinical trials.  [One exception is semaglutide (Wegovy / Ozempic).]  Many of the commercial peptides come from China with no assurances as to safety or whether any peptides are even present in the package.

¿And what is a peptide?  They are ‘short’ chains of amino acids.  Proteins are long chains of typically 300 to 400 amino acids that must fo…

Bob Siederer
27 September 2026

Hello again Science Fans!

Despite the temperatures forecast for this week, we’re now officially in Autumn. I was in Lowes two weeks ago and Christmas decorations were already on sale!

Before we get into the news, a reminder that Andrew Fraknoi’s six-session class on Aliens in Science and Science Fiction starts this Wednesday. Look at our listing for the first session for instructions on how to register, if this intrigues you. This is a hybrid course, with in-person or online options.

Weather, Climate, and Energy

Historically, September is the peak month for hurricanes. The season has been quite prolific over the Pacific Ocean whereas the Atlantic hasn’t seen a single storm. Yes, El Nino has a lot to do wi…

On the dismantling of peer review and the U.S science grant process

The SciSchmooze

Kishore Hari
21 September 2026

Greetings, science fans!

President Trump has directed the Office of Management and Budget to draft an executive order creating a new board to decide which NIH grants get funded. The proposed board would include OMB Director Russ Vought and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, with unanimous approval required for each award. That means White House political appointees would have direct control over which science gets done with NIH’s $48 billion budget.

The NIH peer review system was built on the idea that scientists outside the government would review grant application…

The SciSchmooze

Lili Galillean
14 September 2026

Greetings, fellow carbon-based stargazers!

In introductory astronomy, we are taught a tidy, comforting binary about the debris circling our Sun:

• Asteroids are dry, rocky, metallic rubble forged in the warm inner solar system inside the “frost line.”
• Comets are dirty snowballs—fragile agglomerations of volatile water ice, frozen gases, and dust preserved in the deep freeze of the outer Solar System.

It’s an elegant classification scheme. It is also an oversimplification that modern planetary science is actively dismantling.

When you look closely at the architecture of our Solar System, the line separating asteroid from comet isn’t a hard boundary; it is an active spectrum of volatile depletion, thermal bak…

WHY NOT?

Dave Almandsmith
7 September 2026

Hello again, fans of science,

Kia ora anō, e ngā kaiwhaiwhai pūtaiao,
[About 210,000 New Zealanders can speak Maori.]

GOOD NEWS

For the first time in 75 years, the population of the flightless New Zealand Kakapo (Maori: parrot of the night) is up to 325 birds thanks to huge conservation efforts and fruiting rimu trees. These 4 kg birds only mate during years when rimu berries are abundant.

The U.S. is currently experiencing “Very Low” incidences of acute respiratory illnesses.

21 minute video of Good News: Africa electrification, Amazon rain forest preservation, Ear…

Hello again, fans of science,

फेरि नमस्कार, विज्ञानका प्रशंसकहरू,
[In Nepal, 90% of the population speak Nepali as a first or second language. It is also spoken by many in India and Bhutan.]

SPACE

A hand-me-down went to space Sunday morning.  The Nancy Grace Roman Telescope with a decades-old mirror donated by The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is on its way to Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 2.  The mirror is basically the same as the one in the Hubble Space Telescope, which also came from the NRO.  Those two mirrors were intended to be used in spy satellites developed by Boeing (with insane cost overruns, of course). Fittingly, Ms. Roman initiated the program to create the Large Space Telescope…

Bob Siederer
24 August 2026

Hello again Science fans!

August has been a month full of astronomical events, what with the total eclipse of the sun over much of Europe coinciding with the Persied meteor shower earlier this month. The fun continues with an almost total eclipse of the moon (96%) on Thursday evening, August 27 that will be visible here.

Eclipses occur when one astronomical body crosses in front of the sun with an alignment that blocks light to another body. For a solar eclipse, the Moon passes between us and the Sun at just the right distance to totally block sunlight from view, if you happen to be in the path of totality anyway.

For a lunar eclipse, Earth gets between the sun and moon su…

The SciSchmooze

Kishore Hari
17 August 2026

A love letter to the wildest place in the Bay Area, written from inside a fog bank.

Greetings, science fans!

It is Fogust in San Francisco, and I have not seen the sun in what feels like several geological epochs. Karl has taken up permanent residence. Gray has been replaced by different shades of gray.

This weekend, I took a walk out by Ocean Beach, squinting through the mist, knowing that somewhere out there, the Farallon Islands are doing extraordinary things without me.

I have never been. Most people haven’t. The islands are closed to the public and accessible only to the small crew of researchers from Point Blue Conservation Science who have maintained a …

Bob Siederer
10 August 2026

We generally don’t send out more than one newsletter a week, but occasionally omit something important and timely. So here’s a quick SciSchmooze extra to cover two astronomical happenings this week.

This Wednesday evening and Thursday morning one of the better meteor showers of the year, the Perseids, will be visible. The shower is caused by Earth’s passage through the debris trail of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle each August. This year, the shower will occur at the same time as a new moon, so the night sky will be darker than usual, meaning more meteors should be visible.

Andrew Fraknoi has provided details and viewing instructions for the Perseids here.

Also, on August 12 a total solar eclipse will be visible over much of Europe. We won’t see anything he…

The SciSchmooze
Lili Galilean
10 August 2026

Greetings, fellow carbon-based computing units!

“The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.”
— Leonardo da Vinci

With another San Francisco Marathon officially in the books, thousands of runners are currently nursing sore calves, proudly displaying their finisher medals, and slowly regaining normal metabolic baseline. Winding through 26.2 miles of foggy coastlines, steep city gradients, and an iconic sunrise crossing over the Golden Gate Bridge, the SF Marathon is widely considered one of the most scenic—and biomechanically demanding—urban races in North America.

First run in 1977 with a humble field of fewer than 1,000 entrants, the event has expanded into a global spectacle drawing over 30,000 runners. And …