Herb Masters
22 September 2025
Greetings Science Fans, Critical Thinkers, and Skeptics,
I hope that you managed to get in a bit of Sun Day. It is/was September 21st for two big reasons. First, because it’s the solar equinox – one of the two days of the year when all of the world gets an equal amount of sunlight, showing how the sun unites us. Second, September 21st is right before the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting, which means we have an opportunity to send a message to US and world leaders on the urgent need to accelerate and scale-up the just transition to clean energy. (Sorry I didn’t let you know last week!) September has been a big month for Saturn too. Night sky, September 2025: What you can see tonight, Saturn, sunrise conjunction and autumnal equinox in Sept. 2025, The autumnal equinox will occur on 22 September at 11:20 AM
As long as we’re talking about sky stuff, It’s Official: NASA Is Giving Up on Climate Change Science. Why a NASA satellite that scientists and farmers rely on may be destroyed on purpose I was talking with Alex, a friend mine who knows an immense about space, yesterday. We were talking about science, here on earth and science about things that are literally light years away from us as well as some of our closer neighbors. He reminded me of discussions I have had in the past with people who argue that we should focus on what goes on here on Earth not out in space that has no benefit to us. You may have heard that or even think so yourself. He reminded me of something I grew up with and put it in a different perspective. I was born as the “space race” was starting. I totally loved and was excited about space stuff. Well kids and a lot of less young folks get excited about science thanks to space science and dare I say, science fiction. They are the gateways to the appreciation of science for many people. Getting people to appreciate or be excited is the best way to get them involved.
There’s a second reason that can be explored in Spinoff. This should impress a bunch of doubters. You can’t hardly go through the day without multiple times needing and using technologies and science that were developed or inspired by what NASA does so incredibly well. For another bit of insight to what space and astronomy have to do with education consider this… The Controversial Exam Carl Sagan Gave His Students Now that school is back in session we can expect science museums to be full of kids on field trips in the mornings. I’m not much of a kid person but I do love to watch kids that are excited and enthralled in a hands-on-science museum!
Here’s a bit more War on Science stuff to consider…
The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism
The Facts Behind Claims on Autism, Tylenol and Folate
Range Rover: The Conservative War on Science
Watch Shot in the Arm and Talk Vaccine and Public Health History
Trump 2.0 And Science Denial — Alice In Wonderland For The 21st Century
Scientists Must Rise in Defense of Democracy
As always, there are more opportunities than time to learn cool new stuff here in the SF Bay Area than even a superhuman could take in. Here are a few that I think warrant your consideration!!!
The State Water Project’s California Aqueduct: Coping With Subsidence – 09/22/2025 12:30 PM
California Natural Resources in the age of Trump – 09/23/2025 07:30 PM
Homeschool Days at The Tech Interactive – 09/24/2025 10:00 AM
The Everyday Walls of American Life, and How to Take Them Down – 09/24/2025 03:30 PM
Just to prod you a little bit. Many institutions of science and education are, for all intents and purposes, under attack by reduction in government support and funding. Please think of them and give them your support. It takes all of us to make a difference. Send them praise and $$$. Go visit them. Let them know that you support and defend them.
Here are some other items I have come across that might interest you and actually complement some of the presentations…
The Secret Life of Online Emotions: How Specific Feelings Shape What Goes Viral
Impossible Worms: The Deep Ocean Discovery that Altered Our Notion of Life | Odd Salon DISCOVERY
Exploration & Epiphany | Guest video by Paul Dancstep
Watch Shot in the Arm and Talk Vaccine and Public Health History
Few Mass Shooters Have Been Transgender
So about that picture… I have yet to make it to the award ceremony but I do hope to some year. The 35th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, Meet the 2025 Ig Nobel Prize winners, 2025 Ig Nobel Prizes Chemical Engineering News
Have a great week learning something new and cool or scary that makes you think and act!!!
herb masters
So… hot off the web… This just in… A Course Via Zoom on Atomic Science for Everyone (Oct. 7 – Nov. 11, 2025)
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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