As we saw last week, Titan’s surface is a tapestry of abundant carbon-rich chemistry, a delicious target for curious Earthlings to explore. The challenges are immense, including temperatures that make Minnesotan winters look positively tropical, a 90-minute-long communication gap with Earth, sand-like dunes ready to bog down wheeled vehicles and surface sunlight one thousandth the […]
Dragonfly
Posted inField Notes
Saturnian Drone: Dragonfly at Titan (Part 1)
“[On early Earth] you need to have gone from simple to complex chemistry before jumping to biology, but we don’t know all the steps. Titan allows us to uncover some of them.”— Zibi Turtle, Dragonfly principal investigator “A bizarre Earth” is how one investigator describes icy Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and the target of NASA’s most […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Beats Antiques: Two-Nights at the Historic Eagle House
When Fraktal and Burningleaf Productions throw a party, you know it’s not just music — it’s a full-sensory takeover. Beats Antique’s signature fusion of electronic beats, live instrumentation and theatrical performances lands at the Historic Eagle House for two epic nights: Friday, March 7, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. and Saturday, March 8, from […]
Posted inMusic
What a World
I have a lot on my mind and no space to get to any of it with the proper clarity due, so I will instead drop a snapshot. First off, the title of this week’s column comes from my favorite Bill Frisell album Ghost Town, which I am listening to as I’m clacking at the […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Drafting Along with Whirligig Beetles
The other day I was talking on the phone with my fiance when I saw a large flying insect investigate a tree in my back yard. I made my excuses, set down the phone and got my camera. The critter in question was a Blue Eyed Darner (Rhionaeschna multicolor) dragonfly. Thankfully, they were both quite […]
Posted inArts + Scene
HumBug: Ancient Fliers
Three hundred million years ago, when the world was a hot swamp and the air carried twice as much oxygen as it does today, it is very likely a Griffinfly landed on a horsetail (the plant that was around back then, not the equine anatomy which was not). At the time they were the dominant […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Scaly Protection
The order of butterflies and moths, Lepidoptera, gets its name from Greek words meaning “scale wings.” Like a mosaic, those scales make up each species’ distinctive markings. Listed in the literature are a number of ways those minute scales contribute to the animal’s well being. As a layer of insulation on their body, they help […]
Posted inNews
HumBug: Mysteries of the Variegated Meadowhawk
Science always starts with a question. A few winters ago, walking along my favorite stretch of the Van Duzen River on a sunny day, I was surprised to see a dragonfly. Dragonflies spend most of their lives in the water as predatory larvae looking nothing like the graceful fliers everyone knows. As adults they commonly […]