While all biocrusts perform some degree of weathering, the larger grains of the grit crust are especially suited for it. The process reveals the full potential of microbes to impact their environment. A microbial skin can glue together pebbles, break them down into soil and fertilize that soil with essential nutrients. In effect, the crust… Continue reading In a Fierce Desert, Microbe ‘Crusts’ Show How Life Tamed the Land
Woe, the Humanity: How AI Fits Into Broadly Rising Anti-Humanism
The future of humanity is becoming ever less human. The astounding capabilities of ChatGPT and other forms of artificial intelligence have triggered fears about the coming age of machines leaving little place for human creativity or employment. Even the architects of this brave new world are sounding the alarm. Sam Altman, chairman and CEO of… Continue reading Woe, the Humanity: How AI Fits Into Broadly Rising Anti-Humanism
The Mysteries of the Angelus
A year ago, one of my parish priests encouraged all parishioners to memorize The Angelus. It was a prayer he deeply loved and one to which he knew St. John Paul II had been devoted. As a convert to the Catholic faith, it is a prayer I had never prayed growing up, and no priest… Continue reading The Mysteries of the Angelus
New Tool Reveals How AI Makes Decisions
When I asked ChatGPT to name the editor in chief of Spektrum der Wissenschaft, the German-language sister publication of Scientific American, the answer was, “I have the latest information until 2021, and at that time Dr. Florian Freistetter was the editor-in-chief of Spektrum der Wissenschaft. However, it is possible that the information has changed since… Continue reading New Tool Reveals How AI Makes Decisions
Why Is PBS’s Frontline Circulating Election 2016 Conspiracy Theories?
Michael Bloomberg spent something north of $500 million on his 2020 presidential candidacy, only for the multi-billionaire to quickly drop out $500 million poorer. Bloomberg was hardly unique. He joined a long list of well-funded candidates whose war chests got them nowhere. Names like Phil Gramm, Jeb Bush, John Connally, and Tom Steyer similarly come… Continue reading Why Is PBS’s Frontline Circulating Election 2016 Conspiracy Theories?
The Devil vs. Saint John Vianney
No saint has escaped temptation. Three times was the Master of them all tempted by the evil one — in the desert, on the high mountain, on the pinnacle of the Temple. The devil was beaten then; but the devil never learns from his defeats. He keeps on in the hope that if nine hundred… Continue reading The Devil vs. Saint John Vianney
Useful Feedback, More Than Praise, Helps Students Flourish
“Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” This proverb has become a cliché, but it remains a useful shorthand for self-sufficiency. If you want someone to succeed independently, give them the tools to do so. Within the realm… Continue reading Useful Feedback, More Than Praise, Helps Students Flourish
Here’s What the Supreme Court’s Clean Water Act Ruling Means to You
If you ever drank a glass of clean water, caught a freshwater fish, swam in a lake or even maybe avoided a flood, you have directly benefited from wetlands. But those benefits are drying up, thanks to a Supreme Court decision that has overturned five decades of wetland protections. The 1972 federal Clean Water Act… Continue reading Here’s What the Supreme Court’s Clean Water Act Ruling Means to You
After Affirmative Action Rulings, Americans Are Talking
In the words of President Joe Biden, the Supreme Court has “effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions.” Affirmative action is the practice, as the Court described, that took race into account when evaluating applicants, benefiting members of certain races at the expense of others. Some have praised the Court’s decision and some have denounced it, but… Continue reading After Affirmative Action Rulings, Americans Are Talking
Exorcist Diary: Coughing Up Demons
“M” was repeatedly cursed by witches and is now demonically afflicted. A couple of nights ago, she received a threatening text from demons: “You’ll have your migraine all night for throwing me up b[expletive].” A few hours prior to the text, M was being greatly oppressed by demons so we prayed over her. Then she… Continue reading Exorcist Diary: Coughing Up Demons