Skeptophilia

On the whole, I'm an optimist. It seems a happier way to be.  In general, I would rather expect people to behave well and occasionally b...

If I asked you to name the deadliest single-event natural disaster to strike the western half of the United States in recorded history, what...

A couple of weeks ago I looked at the rather unsettling fact that the seeming benevolence of our home planet is something of an illusion.  A...

I always find it wryly amusing when I hear someone talk about the Strong Anthropic Principle  -- the idea that the universe was fine-tuned b...

It will come as no surprise to regular readers of Skeptophilia  that I have a peculiar fascination for things that are huge and powerful and...

Scary place, this universe of ours. I've dealt here before with some cosmic-level catastrophes -- supernovas and Wolf-Rayet stars and ...

I ran across two stories yesterday that fall squarely into the "You People Do Realize You Have Bigger Problems To Worry About, Right?...

What amazes me about so many crazy claims is that you get the impression that the people making them didn't even try to find a natural e...

What amazes me about so many crazy claims is that you get the impression that the people making them didn't even try  to find a natural ...

Astrophysicists talk about the process of accretion , where microscopic particles of dust and ice stick together (largely through electrosta...

Is there some facet of human personality that craves disaster? I ask this question because of a story sent to me by a loyal reader of Ske...