I examine the life and science of English astronomer Thomas Harriot – sometimes called "England's Galileo" – in the new (April 2010) issue of Astronomy magazine. The article, titled "Who was Thomas Harriot?", can be found on page 44 of the magazine's print edition.

I'm thrilled to have won the 2009 American Institute of Physics Science Communication Award, in the Science Writing category, for my feature article "End of Days – A Universe in Ruins". The article, which was published in COSMOS magazine in 2008, examined the long-term fate of our solar system, the universe, and life itself.

To mark the New Year as well as a new decade, I've made this short video on the nature of time. Enjoy!

I'm very pleased to be moderating The Great Time Debate, featuring cosmologist Dick Bond, physicist Lee Smolin, and philosopher James Robert Brown. This lively panel discussion, to be held Jan. 26 in the OISE auditorium in Toronto, will explore one of the most intriguing subjects in all of science: the nature of time. The event is sponsored by the Centre for Inquiry and the University of Toronto Secular Alliance.

The shortest day of the year is known as the winter solstice, and it falls on (or very close to) December 21. (For those in the southern hemisphere, the shortest day comes on or near June 21.)

But anyone who keeps a close eye on the time at which the sun rises and sets will notice something a bit perplexing: Neither the earliest sunset nor the latest sunrise falls on the day of the winter solstice. In fact, the earliest sunset can fall more than a week before the solstice, and the latest sunrise can fall more than a week after the solstice.