From The Global Spiral, an essay on the majesty and misery of string theory. A review of Why Beauty is Truth: The History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart. From Wired, a look at how super-precise atomic clocks will change the world in a decade. Messages sent into space directed at extraterrestrials may have been too boring to earn a reply, say two astrophysicists trying to improve on their previous alien chat lines. Research suggests the Moon is actually 30 million years younger than anyone had thought, and that it is merely a "chip off the old block" of Earth. A review of Astronautics: Book 1 – Dawn of the Space Age and Astronautics: Book 2 – To the Moon and Towards the Future by Ted Spitzmiller. From Geotimes, danger lurks deep: An article on the human impact of volcanoes and when volcanoes threaten, scientists warn. About 250 million years from now, continental plates are projected to reposition themselves again so that a single landmass dominates: Pangea Ultima. At 71, physics professor Walter H. G. Lewin is a Web star with his online lectures.
