Surprising Science — July 1, 2010

Soggy Soil Seen

Imaging technology has now been used to assemble the first comprehensive map of global soil moisture that covers all land areas of the world, except for frozen soils at high latitudes and in some mountain regions.

bigthinkeditor

The first satellite-derived map of global soil moisture has been unveiled. The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission has now used imaging technology to “assemble a comprehensive map of global soil moisture that covers all land areas of the world, except for frozen soils at high latitudes and in some mountain regions.”

a computer generated image of a human brain.

Thinking

The great free will debate featuring Michio Kaku and Steven Pinker

Who — or what — really controls your mind?

Building destroyed by the Halifax Explosion. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

The Past

The largest accidental explosion of all time

More than a century ago, Halifax suffered an accidental blast one-fifth the size of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

a collage of photos of a man with a hat and a book.

High Culture

6 great books with wildly unreliable narrators

Dive into the twisted truths and concealed realities told by literature’s most unreliable narrators.

a group of five matches on a pink background.

The Well

Signs you’re burned out — and how to bounce back

If you don’t feel better after the weekend, the “burnout paradox” could explain why.

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7 min

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with

Laurie Santos

Starts With A Bang

The trick to instantly identifying JWST images

If you can identify a foreground star, the spike patterns are a dead giveaway as to whether it’s a JWST image or any other observatory.

Up Next

Culture & Religion

Looking Down on Others

Theodore Dalrymple is not sure that snobbery is actually a vice. “Everyone needs someone to look down on, and the psychological need is the more urgent the more meritocratic a society becomes,” he writes.