NEW! Here is the distribution of scores in the course so far. Not included here are homework #5 (I'm not done grading it yet -- worth 5% of your total grade) and of course the final (worth 25% of your total grade). (6 May 2009)

NEW Solutions for homework #4 and homework #5 are now available. (4 May 2009)

NEW! The term papers are graded. Here is the distribution of scores for the term paper. I was a pretty harsh grader on the papers. I was looking for two major things: new material that goes beyond the material we have covered in the course; and a clearly stated connection to astrobiology. If you didn't do both of those things, your grade decreased. Having said all that, a fair number of the papers were quite good, and many were well-written. (4 May 2009)

NEW! Remaining schedule:
28 Apr: Last class
28 Apr: Office hours 2-3:45 pm
29 Apr: No office hours (I'll be out of town)
30 Apr: No class
4 May: Office hours 1-4 pm
7 May: Final exam 10 am -- noon
14 May: Final grades due/available

NEW! Did you leave some earrings in my office? I've got them. (23 Apr 2009)

NEW! Course evaluations are now available -- please do this. It helps everyone. One way to start is to go here. (10 Apr 2009)

NEW! Fireballs over Flagstaff! (28 Apr 2009)

NEW! An interesting puzzle about evolution. (28 Apr 2009)

NEW! New science funding from Washington. (28 Apr 2009)

NEW! Someone in this class asked me this: "I was wondering if we can use Wikipedia as a source on our paper. Don't worry I have other sources, but Wikipedia has some really good basic points that some of my other sources don't explain." What do you think? (23 Apr 2009)

NEW! Neat foss il: Evolution strike again. (23 Apr 2009)

NEW! Exopoliti cs. Huh? (22 Apr 2009)

NEW! A new planet discovered: only 1.8 Earth masses; there's also a habitable zone involved. (21 Apr 2009)

NEW! Homework #5 -- the last of the semester -- is now available (due April 23). I updated the sage advice page for this homework. (14 Apr 2009, updated 21 Apr 2009)

NEW!Amazing picture. (21 Apr 2009)

NEW! Ever been to the Four Corners?No you haven't. (21 Apr 2009)

NEW! Article aboutthe Mars rovers. (21 Apr 2009)

NEW! Guess what? The new tuition surchages are reported to be "unpopular". (21 Apr 2009)

NEW! Microbes that live in dark anoxic seawater in Antarctica. (19 Apr 2009)

NEW! An interesting conference I just heard about. (19 Apr 2009)

NEW! Looking for a job after graduation? Try this!. (19 Apr 2009)

NEW! Strangely appealing "sport." (19 Apr 2009)

NEW! I'm an uncle! Baby Tru was born today. You all get 10 bonus points to celebrate. (17 Apr 2009)

NEW!Interesting article (and beautiful picture) in the New York Times. (16 Apr 2009)

NEW! Op-ed piece in he New York Times today by Seth Shostak. (14 Apr 2009)

NEW! Really neat article about the astronau t who keeps fixing the Hubble Space Telescope. (13 Apr 2009)

NEW! Misery loves company. (10 Apr 2009)

NEW! Case in point. (And this.) (10 Apr 2009)

NEW! Some papers that recently came to my attention -- check them out if you like. (9 Apr 2009)

NEW! And now, some sports news: UA hired a new men's basketball coach this week for about $2 million a year. NAU also renewed its contract with its men's basketball coach for $120,000 a year (a 14% raise). What recession? What furloughs? What layoffs? (9 Apr 2009)

NEW!Pla netary maps in the news. Also, what's next for NASA? (6 Apr 2009)

NEW!No office hours on Wednesday April 8 because of Passover. (5 Apr 2009)

NEW! Everyone who turned in a term paper proposal should now have gotten an email from me about their topic. If you didn't turn in a term paper proposal, it's too late to get credit for that assignment, but you still can present your topic to me if you would like. I advise that you do this -- it would be bad to wait until the papers are gradedto find out that I didn't think your topic was a good one. Also: Why do so many people care aboutterraforming? I've never seen that before. (2 Apr 2009)

NEW! Budget issues: NAU (and UA, ASU) are considering "tuition surcharges". Why? Because many of our state legislators have taken a pledge to not raise taxes. There is a minority in the state Legislature who thinks that we should try to increase our revenue stream. Hey, this is boring, arcane stuff, but it's important. (2 Apr 2009)

NEW! Homework #4 is now posted. (30 Mar 2009)

NEW! A mud volcano on Mars. And life? (30 Mar 2009)

NEW! A very old fish. (30 Mar 2009)

NEW! How do you get to Mars, anyway? (30 Mar 2009)

NEW! A month ago I showed you an article that suggested that pieces of a tracked asteroid that hit the Earth had been recovered. There were a lot of "No comments" in that story, which is weird, and made me suspect that there was more going on -- perhaps waiting fora big press release at a later time. Yesterday was the later time. Here is the scientific article. More accessible is the story of the hunt for the meteorites -- really interesting stuff! This is your homework assignment for next Tuesday -- read this story of the hunt. (26 Mar 2009)

NEW! Meteor Crater in the news. (24 Mar 2009)

NEW! What's coming up? Term paper proposal due March 31. Homework #4: Out March 31, in April 9. Homework #5: Out April 14, in April 23. Term paper due April 28. Final exam: May 7. (24 Mar 2009)

NEW! Distribution of scores in the course so far. (23 Mar 2009)

NEW! Distribution of scores on the midterm and midterm solution set are both available. (24 Mar 2009)

NEW! Here's me "celebrating" Pi Day (picture 1 and picture 2). Jake came and pitched a pie on behalf of the entire class -- pictures of that coming soon. Have a good break, and see youin a week and a half! (12 Mar 2009)

NEW! Solutions for homeworks 2 and 3 are now available. (10 Mar 2009)

NEW! Distrubion of scores for homework #3 is now available. (9 Mar 2009)

NEW! Here is the distribution of scores in the course to date. This includes all grades before the midterm (three homeworks and a quiz). (9 Mar 2009)

NEW! Tiffany and Nora, in our class, are organizing pre-midterm study sessions. Tiffany wrote: "Okay, we were hoping to have a study session at the Cline library on Sunday the 8th and Wednesday the 11th at 6pm. We'll meet in the lobby at 6. Could you please post this on the website? My name is Tiffany and my email is tad73@nau.edu if anyone asks." (6 Mar 2009)

NEW! Advice and guidelines for the midterm are now available. (4 March 2009)

NEW! Here is the distribution of scores in the course to date. I am legally not allowed to release your score by phone or email, but if you come see me I would be happy to tell your score at this point. You also will get a very approximate guess of your midterm letter grade via Louie. Please bear in mind that these grades include only a small fraction of the total points available this semester. Neither your third homework nor your midterm (of course) are included. (6 Mar 2009)

NEW! Please remember that in general I do not like to answer homework questions by email. (4 March 2009)

NEW! The Kepler spacecraft is hopefull y going to launch on Friday. (3 Mar 2009)

NEW! I will have no office hours on Tuesday because I am teaching another class at that time. If you have questions for me about anything, you can ask me after class or during Wednesday's office hours.(2 Mar 2009)

NEW! Apparently, a Chinese spacecraft crashed into the moon yesterday. (Here's the Xinhua story.) Some people are asking why. Here's more on the Chinese lunar spacecraft. (2 Mar 2009, udpated 3 Mar 2009)

NEW! Apparently, some people are skeptical about this. What do you think? (2 Mar 2009)

NEW! Interesting example of compelling evidence with no clear conclusion about causality. (26 Feb 2009)

NEW! The term paper assignment is now available. Your term paper proposal is due by March 31. Your term paper is due by April 28. Your term paper counts 20% of your total course grade. (26 Feb 2009)

NEW! Last week NASA and ESA chose Europa and not Titan as the destination for the next flagship mission. (26 Feb 2009)

NEW! The origin of sex. (26 Feb 2009)

NEW! Every Arizona state agency may face additional spending cuts, up to 20%, beyond the cuts already made. Some NAU SPEED (building) projects were approved yesterday. (26 Feb 2009)

NEW! The history of the Solar System is recorded in the asteroid belt. (26 Feb 2009)

NEW! Go see a comet Friday night! (26 Feb 2009)

NEW! Homework #3 (assigned February 24, due March 5) is now available. Remember that I don't answer questions about the homework by email. I tried that a couple of times for Homework #2 and it went very poorly, so I won't do it again. (23 Feb 2009)

NEW! Why did I give you problem #1 on homework #2? Check out this -- could be true, certainly is entertaining. (24 Feb 2009)

NEW! Comet Lulin -- a visitor from the outermost Solar System -- makes its closest approach to Earth on Tuesday night. (23 Feb 2009)

NEW! Great story about Google Earth and the lost city of Atlantis. (23 Feb 2009)

NEW! On Sunday there were some really neat lenticular clouds over and near the peaks. Did you see them? (23 Feb 2009)

NEW! Here is a complicated but important aspect of the federal stimulus package funding heading for Arizona: The state is considering not taking some of the money (true!) because they are worried about limits to how big the cuts to higher education would be allowed to be. What?! Would it really be better to keep the state in its deep recession and continue to cut funds from higher education, or to take the federal money and notcut higher education too much more .... ? (He re's another article about this process, with more details.) If you have an opinion on this, you know what to do. (23 Feb 2009)

NEW! In LA, even the fossil pits are parking garages. (19 Feb 2009)

NEW! An editorial in the New York Times this morning talks about the need for rules in space to prevent collisions. (19 Feb 2009)

NEW! Update: Homework #2 is now due on Tuesday, February 24. We'll see who reads this web page and who doesn't. (17 Feb 2009)

NEW! Here is the movie ofthe fireball over Texas that I mentioned. (17 Feb 2009)

NEW! I fixed the link to the Kepler horoscope story. (17 Feb 2009)

NEW! I have an appointment on Wednesday afternoon that will probably preclude my having office hours -- sorry. However, there is a chance that my appointment will be canceled, in which case I will have my regular office hours from 2--4. If my appointment gets canceled, I'll post that here. Sorry for the inconvenience. (18 Feb 2009)

NEW! Alien life may exist among us. (17 Feb 2009)

NEW! Competition in the world of particle physics. (17 Feb 2009)

NEW! Homework 2 is now posted. It is due on Thursday, February 19, in hardcopy at the beginning of class. (12 Feb 2009)

NEW! Homework 1 solutions and distribution of scores is now available. (12 Feb 2009)

NEW! Neat article about the tree of life (we'll talk about it today) and how to visualize it. Special mention of a tricorder! (12 Feb 2009)

NEW! Charles Darwin's 200th birthday. (12 Feb 2009)

NEW! More budget info: F urloughs at NAU next year; things are way worse at ASU. (12 Feb 2009)

NEW! I know what Joey did on Tuesday. (12 Feb 2009)

NEW! No class on Tuesday, February 10 (NAU is closed). If you're looking for me, I'll be shoveling my driveway (over and over again). See you Thursday. (10 Feb 2009)

NEW! President Haeger announced his budget plan between now and the end of June, 2009. See also here. (9 Feb 2009)

NEW! It's snowing. (9 Feb 2009)

NEW! Indy said: I hate snakes. It's really big! (4 Feb 2009)

NEW! I keep updating the sage advice page for Homework 1. (4 Feb 2009)

NEW! More on the NAU budget situation: Fro m the Arizona Daily Sun and from President Haeger. (4 Feb 2009)

NEW! You guys should be able to mostly understand this art icle. (3 Feb 2009)

NEW! I've got a meeting on Wednesday from 2:30 -- 3:15, so I'll be absent during part of my office hours. If this is a problem, you can email me (or wait, I suppose). My apologies. (3 Feb 2009)

NEW! Three astrobiologically relevant Astronomy Pictures of the Day in a row:Jan 31, Feb 1, and Feb 2. (3 Feb 2009)

NEW! Here's an ove rview of the NAU budget from Sunday's paper. (2 Feb 2009)

NEW!Some sage advice about Homework 1 is now available. (2 Feb 2009)

NEW! Marsrover, glitched. (29 Jan 2009)

NEW! The legislature has reached a tentative budget compromise. Perhaps boring, but still important reading for you if you care about university education. There are some interesting details in there. You can also read more details on President Haeger's budget info page. If you have suggestions on where cuts should and should not be made, you can make them there. (29 Jan 2009)

NEW! Homework 1 is now available and is due by Thursday, February 5, 2009,at the beginning of class. (27 Jan 2009)

NEW! Bob Burns, the president of the Arizona State Senate, said yesterday that "he doesn't care if these cuts [to the budgets of NAU and the other state universities], coming in the middle of an academic year, actually could force the universities to cancel classes...." These are classes you've already paid for, by the way. If you have an opinion about this, I suggest that you call your legislators and tell them what you think of this plan. Don't know who your state representatives and senator are? Click here. (27 Jan 2009)

NEW! No office hours today, sorry. (27 Jan 2009)

NEW! Discovery of a Neptune-like extrasolar planet. (22 Jan 2009)

NEW! How does Mars look these days? (22 Jan 2009)

NEW! President Obama (20 Jan 2009)

NEW! I'm guessing that there will be two or more spots soon to open up in the lab course, AST 184L, for those of you who are interested. This is just a guess, but there are two people enrolled in that class who didn't come to the first meeting of the course today, and I'm guessing these people may drop the class. Others may too. If you are interested in enrolling in AST 184L, keep checking LOUIE. (16 Jan 2009)

NEW! The Arizona Legislature is considering eviscerating NAU's budget. This could result in higher student fees, fewer class offerings, and larger classes. If you have an opinion about this, I suggest that you call your legislators and tell them what you think of this plan. Don't know who your state representatives and senator are? Click here. (15 Jan 2009)

NEW! "What belched?" Interesting question, strange conclusion.. (15 Jan 2009)

NEW! There are two amazing rovers driving around on Mars, and last week they celebrated their fifth anniversary. (15 Jan 2009)

NEW! Today's newsflashes are maybe more politics than science, but that's important too: Who will be the new NASA Administrator? and Nominated EPA Administrator promises to "put science first". I wonder what the impacts of these decisions will be. Also important in today's political activities is the confirmation hearing of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security. More about her confirmation hearing from the Arizona Republic, and a very flattering, more personal piece from the New York Times. (15 Jan 2009)

NEW! A brief review of results from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (9 Jan 2009)

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