The first colony on Mars is not going to be built by a private company. How are you going to make money? You're not.

America 2012: The Learning Channel has HoneyBooBoo, History Channel has PawnStars: and the Science Channel has PumpkinChunkin

FM signals and those of broadcast television...travel out to space at the speed of light. Any eavesdropping alien civilization will know all about our TV programs (probably a bad thing), will hear all our FM music (probably a good thing), and know nothing of the politics of AM talk-show hosts (probably a safe thing).

I remain unconvinced that anything other than rapid decomposition is the fate of my body and mind after death.

But to measure cause and effect... you must ensure that a simple correlation, however tempting it may be, is not mistaken for a cause. In the 1990s the stork population of Germany increased and the German at-home birth rate rose as well. Shall we credit storks for airlifting the babies?

Science is a way of equipping yourself with the tools to interpret what happens in front of you.

So what is true for life itself is no less true for the universe: knowing where you came from is no less important than knowing where you are going.