First I would like to say that Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the best spokespersons this country has for science and science education. He is an astrophysicist and he is passionate about his chosen field of study and work. He is also a highly entertaining orator.

Tyson writes in a column for Wired about a need for an early warning system for asteroid threats and to develop a plan for how to avoid collisions with Earth. The real word solutions will likely deviate from what was depicted in the 1998 action movie ‘Armageddon‘. And besides, Bruce Willis is currently shooting Die Hard 13: Only The Good Die Hard, and Steve Buscemi is busy in his role as historical consultant to the Republican National Committee on issues such as gun rights and liquor laws.

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A new study by the University of Notre Dame shows that people who are holding a gun have an increased chance of believing someone else is also holding a gun. The study was conducted by Associate Professor of Psychology James Brockmole, who studies human cognition.

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Scientific American reports a new study about caffeine and sleep shows that morning people are more likely to experience sleep disruption from caffeine intake during the day.

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Kenneth R. Miller, biology professor at Brown University, says, “America’s got a Darwin problem“ in an excellent article on The Huffington Post. He explains many Americans view scientists and the scientific community as suspect and this enables the denialism of important science on evolution and climate change.

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Inspired by similar projects, two teens from Toronto, Canada – Mathew Ho and Asad Muhammad – launched a Lego figurine complete with Canadian flag into near space. They used a weather balloon, several cameras and GPS equipment for the successful launch.

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There are prominent Republicans running for President that think opinions have as much weight as evidence and peer review. Rick Perry is the latest on the right to state that there are “gaps” in the theory of evolution. Another common attack from the right is on climate change. Do these people understand that science is nonpartisan? Sure, any individual is corruptible, but the field of science is the best system we have as humans for finding the truth. Opinion does not hold more weight than years and decades of evidence and peer review.

Something this anti-science crowd forgets is that science is responsible for just about everything we value in our modern society. Without science – and by the way, government too – there would be no internet. Without science we would not have the medical advances that have increased the average life expectancy by a couple of decades.

We don’t question the science behind the medical procedure we need to have done. We don’t question the science behind the technology that brings TV into our homes and the internet at our fingertips. It is because climate change is much less tangible in our every day lives that this anti-science crowd is able to continue to deny the science and preach it to their flocks.

People are who they are, and behave as they do because of unique combinations of personal life experiences. The memories we create from these experiences are then used to formulate assumptions, opinions and beliefs. But assumptions, opinions and beliefs also play a role in the very formation of these memories.

A topic I find interesting is perception and eyewitness accounts of events, particularly extreme events like 9/11. To use that tragic event as an example, many people interviewed on camera that day described the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Center as a small plane rather than a jumbo jet. Why did numerous people witness the same or similar inaccuracy? The answer isn’t simple as this is an area of varied and complex scientific research. There isn’t any one reason or simple answer. But what we do know is that our past experiences and our expectations play a large role in the formation of our memories. We like to think of our brains as capturing devices, preserving details scene by scene for later retrieval. The truth is that our brains simply do not work that way. Our memory retrieval has as much to do with assumptions and longstanding beliefs as it does with the actual world around us. And in fact, our memory retrieval can change over time as our own assumptions and beliefs change. With this understanding, it does give one pause when thinking about how much we rely on eyewitness accounts in our judicial system.

4 Things Most People Get Wrong About Memory by Katherine Harmon at Scientific American expands on this topic and is a real eye opener into how our brains work and how our memories are formed.

Last night I braved the cold and the early morning hours to witness the first lunar eclipse that coincides with the winter solstice since December 21, 1638.  If you missed it, you will have to wait until 2094 for the next time it will happen on the winter solstice.  So, basically if you missed it last night you missed it for good!  Given that I fancy myself a photographer you would think that I would have had this all planned out but I actually didn’t even intend to take photos until I was outside looking at it and made a last minute decision to grab the tripod, camera and long lens.  And the resulting photos are a product of that last minute decision.  They aren’t horrible but they could have been much better.

So did you check out the eclipse last night?  If so, please share your experience with a comment.  If not, you can see what you missed with the photos above.  Some more information:  The next lunar eclipse viewable within the continental U.S. will be April 15, 2014. The total time for the eclipse last night was 3 1/2 hours.  Some observers last night had a better glimpse at the Ursid meteor shower due to the darkened moon.