Fantastic time-lapse video made from images shot from the International Space Station showing what auroras look like from space.

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Last night, there was a large-scale solar storm, bringing the promise of possible aurora sightings further south than is usually even imaginable. It is one of my lifetime ambitions to see the Northern Lights – but, as someone who lives not much more than 50 degrees north, I have to accept that I’m highly unlikely to fulfil it on my own doorstep.

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I was most unhappy to learn that SETI Institute has seen its Allen Telescope Array mothballed due to a lack of funding.

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Exposure (n): In photography, the amount of light allowed to fall onto the photographic medium.

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Cassiopeia: A W-shaped northern constellation representing an eponymous queen. Its members are called Cassiopeiae.

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This is the second part of a post covering the BHA’s conference on humanism, philosophy and the arts held at Conway Hall last weekend.

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And so to London last weekend for the latest in the British Humanist Association’s series of study days, events that are always well worth attending and which should definitely figure on your future list of entertainment and diversion.

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On Friday evening we looked up into the sky and saw a bright twinkly dot rising in the south – the International Space Station was overhead.

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Last weekend the British Humanist Association held one of its regular conferences at Conway Hall in Red Lion Square, London. The topic was Evolutionary theory: is this all there is? and, as usual with these events, there was a distinguished list of academics on hand to discuss questions relating to biology, psychology and philosophy. Here’s my (inevitably subjective) summary of what went on and what we got out of attending.

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While the management is in a video-embedding mood, here’s another – The Scientific Baloney Detection Kit, which arrives with us via a long and prestigious line of scientists including Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins.

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Here’s a chance to hear the renowned philosopher AC Grayling thinking out loud on the application of scientific thinking to wider areas of life.

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Sick of being threatened with eternal damnation on your daily commute? Here’s your opportunity to strike back…

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When identifying a likely place for unidentified flying objects to appear, there are certain characteristics that seem to powerfully boost the chances of an encounter. Proximity to an airbase, a flat, rural landscape and acres of pine trees laid out in extremely straight rows all seem to provide an irresistible attraction to whatever is behind these mysterious visitors from the skies.

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This was never going to end well, was it? Half-expecting something of Alien Autopsy proportions, I was quite disappointed that it fell apart so soon.

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This, from Rebecca Traister in Salon, is just the latest in a series of articles reminding us why what it was about the wonderful Dana Scully that made us all get in touch with our sceptical side. And with the X-Files movie upcoming, we’re about to get her back, even if it’s just for a brief couple of hours.

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Here’s an anniversary this blog really couldn’t ignore – Tunguska, the unexplained event a century ago that caused a massive explosion in Siberia, turned the skies dark and broke windows hundreds of miles away.

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To celebrate today’s news that the UK’s Ministry of Defence is to release its very own X-files, we bring you a sneak preview of some of the more compelling evidence.

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Here’s an old favourite that we must now assume has bitten the dust. Here’s a piece from The Independent on the fate of the last of the Romanovs.

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Here’s something to ponder in those long, quiet hours before Doctor Who is on. I’m reading an excellent book at the moment called The Many-Coloured Land by Julian May.

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It transpires that Robbie Williams has been spending the time he’s taking out from his recording career exploring a very serious interest in the paranormal. And, when he decided to go to a conference in Nevada on alien abduction, who on earth else would he call up to accompany him but Jon Ronson? Here’s Ronson’s [...]

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