I hadn't revisited Dr. Faustus by Shakespeare contemporary Christopher Marlowe since I read it as a high school junior, but I often think of it when I walk down the produce aisle in winter and see fresh grapes and berries on display. After my most recent visit to Sprouts, I decided to take my first look at the play in decades to see if my memory was accurate. Turns out it was.

I remember two things from my high school reading of "Dr. Faustus," which retells the old legend of a doctor who sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for power and knowledge. I remember the first lines of a passage I had to memorize, where Dr. Faustus asks Mephistopheles to conjure up Helen of Troy. On seeing her, he says,

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium—
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.

And I remember a brief scene where Faustus is showing off, using his devilish powers to perform parlor tricks for a Duke and Duchess. The Duchess asks for a dish of grapes even though it's the dead of winter. No mortal could produce fresh grapes at that time of year, but Mephistopheles leaves and returns a moment later with the fruit, which the Duchess says are "the sweetest grapes that e’er I tasted." When the Duke asks how he did it, Faustus replies, Mephistopheles sped to the far east where it was summer and brought back the grapes.

You know technology has come a long way when astronauts can now appear on the late-night talk shows while still in space. Stephen Colbert and Scott Kelly, who is spending (nearly) a year in space, had a great chat about life in space, the dangers of space madness and much more. Be sure to pay attention to the captions.

'And the stars look very different today.' RIP David Bowie. In Honor, @Cmdr_Hadfield's version of Space Oddity: https://t.co/tVUTooNr3m

— NASA (@NASA) January 11, 2016

NASA has resurrected retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield's cover of "Space Oddity" to say farewell to the late David Bowie.

UA Associate Professor Jason Jones doesn't think light sabers are very practical:

Jones, an associate professor in the University of Arizona's College of Optical Sciences and head of the Jones Research Group, knows a thing or two about lasers. And although he is a "Star Wars" fan who received a toy lightsaber for his birthday, he says laser swords are easier said than done for a couple of reasons — battery power and light physics chief among them.

Curiously, although they emit light, the lightsabers in "Star Wars" aren't made of it. They are said to be made of plasma — a hot, gassy blend of ions — wrapped in a "force containment field," which is probably some kind of electromagnetic field, Jones says. He adds that the lightsaber might be better off if it were made of, well, light.

Light is made of photons, which "don't like to interact with each other," so sword fighting with light would be futile. The physics just aren't there. But, say, cutting off a hand with it? Tricky, but not impossible.

Jones says that battery power would also be a problem:

Astronaut Scott Kelly and the rest of the crew of the International Space Station have a message for the world leaders gathered in Paris for climate change talks: Save the planet! You can see just how fragile our atmosphere is from way up there.

Meanwhile, international correspondent, UA School of Journalism professor and recently crowned Tucson genius Mort Rosenblum expresses his skepticism that much will come of the Paris talks:

This should be the most important global gathering in history: the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) — COP 21. But, barring surprises, COPOUT 21 is closer to it.

Scientists’ repeated urgings to cap carbon emissions are not even on the table. Proposed action is nowhere near enough, even if implemented. National commitments are voluntary, subject to waffling and political opposition at home.

Last night, amid the blaze of Christmas lights on the Champs-Elysees, I watched a funky little wind turbine crank out a few kilowatts. In a small rink, some people rode bikes rigged to generate a dribble of clean energy.

Then, walking home, I stopped for an eight-car motorcade, with wailing motorcycle outriders, bringing the Korean delegation from the airport in a cloud of exhaust fumes.

For the big picture, too complex to summarize, here are some keywords: Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen COP 15, Al Gore, George W. Bush, China, India, just about any other country, corporate greed, stupidity, bullshit.

The heart of it is simple: If we do not stop spewing carbon into the air, nothing else matters. Unless those who will suffer – all of us – push governments to real action, the planet we leave behind will be uninhabitable.

My #YearInSpace saw the full #hurricane season of 2015 that ends today! Here's 4 flashback pics from @space_station. pic.twitter.com/YQzgmAbUqs

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) November 30, 2015

More fun from astronaut Scott Kelly's Twitter feed.

.@StationCDRKelly and @Astro_Kjell sent well wishes to Earth and showed what's on their #Thanksgiving menu. https://t.co/X1BNaJXzvG

— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) November 23, 2015

NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren show us what Thanksgiving dinner is like aboard the International Space Station.

Looks like #sunrise came with some enthusiasm. #GoodMorning #USA from @space_station! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/5x8tfv60Cq

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) November 19, 2015

Astronaut Scott Kelly wishes us earthlings a good morning as he continues his year in space.

#EarthArt Across the Greatest Desert- #Sahara #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/ZSKLSA9wQX

— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) October 17, 2015

With more than 383 days in orbit, astronaut Scott Kelly has now spent more time off the planet than any other American. And he'll build on that record until he heads back to Earth next March after completing his year in space aboard the International Space Station.

While he's up there, Kelly—the twin brother Tucson's own Mark Kelly, a former astronaut himself and the wife of former congresswoman Gabby Giffords—has been busy posting stunningly beautiful photos on his Twitter feed. Gizmodo rounds up the latest batch, mostly over the Sahara Desert.

Kelly is doing a year-long experiment on the impacts of spending a full year in space. NASA put together a video commemorating his record-breaking moment last week:


Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait hopes that Kelly's accomplishment becomes more commonplace:

I imagine—and I certainly hope—we’ll be seeing a lot of these records broken very soon. If things go well, in a decade or so putting humans into space will be more common. Never routine—this is a difficult and dangerous operation, be assured.

But common? With China setting to go to the Moon, India making excellent progress in space travel, and commercial companies advancing as well, I see a time not too long in the future where the ideas in books I read as a kid about exploring other worlds can be described as science, without the modifier of “fiction.”

How and why does a song get stuck in your head?

Captivated by those very questions, a research team at the UA set out to study the phenomenon of “ear worms,” seeking to understand just what happens in the brain when a certain bit of music just shows up.

The scientists—ethnomusicologist and local NPR host Dan Kruse, associate professor of speech, language and hearing sciences Andrew Lotto and associate professor of music theory Donald Traut—will present their research at a public forum Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 6 p.m. at the Playground (278 E. Congress St.).


The research is sponsored by the UA’s Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry and the public presentation is part of the center’s fall Show & Tell series.

“When we say ear worm, we mean any occasion when music is repeating in the mind involuntarily,” Kruse says. “You’re not consciously singing the song to yourself, it’s just there, in the absence of any music from the outside. The music is just going on its own.”

The project began when Kruse – who has a master’s in ethnomusicology from the UA—heard a piece on NPR about British researcher Victoria Williamson and a 2011 project studying how ear worms start.

Kruse sought out colleagues and caught the attention of Lotto and Traut, each of whom brought their own expertise to the project.