Cosmic Beauty -- Astronomy Pictures are Beautiful, But Do They Reflect Reality?

I'm very excited right now because Space.com recently published one of my articles; you can read it here. The general idea is that, perhaps unbeknownst to lots of people, astronomy pictures -- like the beautiful images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope -- are usually manipulated by astronomers. And there are continuing debates about how far those manipulations should go. For instance, the color blue is astronomy images signifies the hottest of heat, while red signifies a cooler temperature. But in our everyday lives, the meanings of the colors are reversed. Should those common understandings prevail in astronomy? It's hard to say. I'll leave it to you to make up your own mind.

Science and Blowing Glass

I was browsing the web tonight, looking for something cool to write about, and I was lucky to come across the "Science and the Arts" section of the Science Friday website.  I was especially drawn to an article about people who blow glass instruments for scientific use: think beakers, flasks, and various other thingamajigs used in labs.  I love the notion that scientists can work with these glass artists to create a custom piece, just right for that scientist's individual research, and I like the creativity involved.  Watch below to see footage of a scientific glass blower in action: