I have always been in the camp of those that think that there is life elsewhere in the universe.  Statistically, the universe is too vast, practically beyond human comprehension, for there not to be some form of life elsewhere.  Those that have argued otherwise always come from the point of view that Earth and its’ biosphere is unique and have a definition of life that is completely Earth centric.

It was therefore with great interest that I read the report published last week by the National Research Council.  This report suggested that life with an alternative biochemistry to that of …

Water is necessary for life.  It has been said that a human can go weeks without food, days without water and minutes without oxygen before there is death.  I have written here before about water and the need to look more closely at how we use it.  The two prior blog posts about water were triggered by the prolonged drought in the Southwestern United States and the fact that what was thought of as a temporary drought is now thought to be the new normal.

There is now severe drought across not only the Southwest, but also the Southeastern U.S. …

People started using computers outside the corporate research lab in the 1950s.  The early computers created in garages were brought to market in the mid 1970s.  The PC came out in 1981.  The 1990s saw the early explosive growth of the laptop and the current decade is when the PDA and other wireless devices took off.  This 50 year history is punctuated by various breakthroughs in the computer human interface.  Each one of these breakthroughs changed usage, behavior and ultimately society.

Mainframe computing of the 1950s looked like a technological religion.  Well lit, air conditioned rooms housed large computers that were …