My colleague, the Tortoise Cat, always attempts to alert me whenever a lone wild rabbit prances by our back steps in the wee-most moments of the dawn. But I have been too slow, so far, to catch even a fleeting glimpse of that cottontail bouncing away, into the shadows.

Later, in broad daylight, the tale-tale snow-prints of a fleeing cottontail rabbit jump out at me. I ponder what this bunny neighbor might have been zig-zagging away from in such a rush.

The large prints of the rabbit's long rear paws landed way ahead of the tiny holes made by the dainty front pair (that were already leaping again) amid evasive maneuvers.

Yesterday a press release about a new interstellar medium map that has been published (PDF) in Astronomy and Astrophysics caught my eye. A French-American team of astronomers, combining previously published results with new data, mostly gathered through observations from the European Southern Observatory in Chile, h

The Primordial Soup theory of the origins of life on earth has been cooling for years. Probably, by now, it's too cold to reheat.

Abiogenesis, or the study of how life originated from Earth (and Universe) stuff, connects the Earth and Life sciences, for me.

A research team from the University College, London focused their new research into the origins of Earth life on deep sea vents, where geochemical gradients across microscopic caverns could have acted as catalytic cells, generating precursors of the carbon and energy metabolism found in all organisms, which the first true, free-floating living cells internalized, they conclude.

As I search the Net on freelance writing assignments, I bookmark science and technology news, tools and toys that extend my attention-span into wondering. Paying scientific attention is a distinct daily practice for me.

The return of biting arctic air to southeastern Wisconsin froze my enthusiasm for strolling the block, but activated my wondering about kinds of organisms that thrive in icy ecosystems, or arctic extremophiles.

Crustaceans, worms, diatom chains, unicellular algae, bacteria and viruses grow cozily within brine-filled crystal containers that form in the northern hemisphere's oceans, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). I find myself unable even to daydream about finding a refuge in such an ever-gelid environment.

A recent AP News story told of 16-year-old Abby Sunderland of Thousand Oaks, California, who is sailing around the world solo, intending to become the youngest to succeed. Her globe circumnavigating adventure might be thought of as an experiential course in physics and an initiatory rite of passage, in one. 

A true initiatory challenge must include real danger and at least an outside chance of facing an actual life-or-death situation. Sutherland's sailing endeavor, with many physical and physics exercises, more than meets those fundamental conditions.