Glacier dynamics are really interesting. For instance, there's a place in the Swiss alps I've been visiting since the mid seventies. 15,000 foot peaks, a couple of large glaciers leading into the valley. I've usually been there in the summer, and there were always substantial rivers of meltwater coming off the…

Recently it was discovered that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. This was somewhat unexpected.

As an old physics buddy recently said online, "if the laws of nature can't be bothered to apply themselves any more, neither can I."

I think that's very astute. At some level a lot of people think that "The Scientists" comprise a small and untrustworthy bunch of guys in a back room somewhere, who arbitrarily decide what they want to be true and reject all dissent. Certainly a lot of people I've met think that way.

Just as an aside, Special Relativity doesn't prohibit particles traveling faster than light, and tachyons have been around as a theoretical construct for a long time. People would prefer that they didn't exist, actually detecting one would be most unexpected, and this result will almost certainly go away, but…

Primer really is a fantastic film, and one preferably seen as unspoiled as possible.

Dr Goldberg, that's a very nice description of the tachyon antitelephone!

"...a single volcanic eruption releases more greenhouse gasses in to the atmosphere in one day than the burning of fossil fuels has produced in the last 50 years. That's not conservative posturing. That's absolute, scientific, quantifiable fact."

There would be significant changes in constellations due to proper motion - that's a quarter of a galactic orbit, long enough that the sky would be completely unrecognizable. The part about the Moon is right in principle but wrong in magnitude. A quick BOTE suggests that 85 million years ago the Moon would be about…

Yes, it is.

I've just seen the 2 part pilot.

"This is science. You can stick with your crackpot "science" that wants to disbelieve basic physics and chemistry. Or you can smell the roses."

That's pretty much what I recall. There's a big influx of ozone into the stratosphere from electrical storms, mainly near the equator, which moves towards the poles - and the halogen catalyzed reactions send ozone depleted air in the other direction. Of course there's not normally significant amounts of halogens in…

"The obvious explanation then is that the balance of the two forms of oxygen in the upper atmosphere is not in equilibrium...."

One of my environmental physics tutors had special pockets in his corduroy jacket to store all the ill-gotten funding cash - but it was the goatee and the evil laugh that gave away the Secret Conspiracy for World Domination.

Global ocean currents do things like transport massive amounts of heat from the equator to high latitudes. Those currents depend on salinity, water temperature, etc, and change to different states if, say, the difference between equatorial and polar water temperatures alters, or massive amounts of fresh water enter…

Lots of chlorine compounds such as HCl are emitted by volcanoes - but not chloroflurocarbons.

You are not alone!

It should be in the precredit sequence - the saucer falls to Earth just before "the Thing" logo burns into the screen.

Wow. I find that almost completely incomprehensible.