Elon Musk dreams of sending Starship to Mars. First he’ll need to prove it works. — At first everything looked good. The rocket lit its engines right on schedule, lifting slowly off the launch pad. Before long it gathered pace, roaring towards an altitude of ten thousand meters on a methane-blue flame. Controllers began to slow its ascent: cutting its engines one by one until, perched…

Ever since the demotion of Pluto, the orbit of Neptune has marked a boundary. On one side, facing towards the Sun, lies the realm of the planets. Shepherded by Jupiter, the eight planets here maintain their steady paths through the Solar System. …

You become what you give your attention to — Several times a day the Daily Stoic account sends a tweet. The intention, no doubt, is good. Stoicism is supposed to make us feel better, to calm our minds, to direct our energy where it can help the most. …

Astronomers are finding more planets with multiple suns. Could life thrive on them? — The Three Body Problem, a novel by Cixin Liu, imagines a world with three suns. Its inhabitants have no time to marvel at the spectacular sunsets this surely implies. Instead they face constant peril: sometimes hurled into the frigid depths of space, at others scorching under a close approach to…

After three months away, I’m back, at least for now — A few months back I cancelled my Medium membership. At the time I was, I have to admit, pretty upset with the platform. The constant changes and inconsistent results grated on me, as did the general frustrations of using Medium’s editor and tools. …

Earth survived an early extinction wave. Mars was not so lucky. — Life on Earth once came close to wiping itself out. Roughly two billion years ago, as ancient bacteria began to colonise the oceans, they pumped out vast amounts of toxic oxygen. …

Hints of massive but ancient solar flares baffle astronomers — In early October the Sun erupted. Moments later, as waves of radiation swept over the Earth, radio signals across the Americas were knocked out; a brief sign of the incoming storm. Power grids soon took action, protecting critical equipment from the wild magnetic fluctuations racing towards the Earth. …

Einstein, for once, really was wrong — This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics went to a trio of quantum physicists. …

Weak writing is bad writing. Here’s how to fix it. — Too many writers are afraid of being wrong. They fill their sentences with get-out clauses. They use words like “might” or “maybe”. They sprinkle their prose with vague words that render every sentence meaningless. Yet writing, by its very nature, is a declaration of something. By putting pen to paper…