Biosphere 2's Discovery Nights offers five family-friendly nights where the public can learn about science from researchers. The weekly event, which ends on Oct. 26, 2013, gives the public a chance to do in science, roam the Biosphere 2 and stargaze on the lawn. Previous events have featured a science fiction theme with a movie screening of Silent Running, and a night dedicated to teachers.

Listen to Robert Alcaraz's report from this weekend's Scifi Night.

• Photograph by Paul Ingram
• Discovery Nights at Biosphere 2 offers science and exploration to families at the storied and scientific icon.

Popular Science, the long-running magazine and gateway to hard-science discussion, recently made a drastic change to their website: The editors are cutting out the discussion.

This week, PopSci.com decided to close the comments for their publication, save for selected stories "that lend themselves to vigorous and intelligent discussion," say the site's powers that be.

Now, why on Earth would they choose to do that? Well, partially because of this March op-ed from the New York Times, containing information from a survey noting that the content of comments on a story can change how a reader perceives the story they just read:

In the civil group, those who initially did or did not support the technology — whom we identified with preliminary survey questions — continued to feel the same way after reading the comments. Those exposed to rude comments, however, ended up with a much more polarized understanding of the risks connected with the technology.

Simply including an ad hominem attack in a reader comment was enough to make study participants think the downside of the reported technology was greater than they’d previously thought.

PopSci found the study to be fairly accurate, noting the discussions found beneath articles on climate change and abortion studies to be cesspools of spam, climate change deniers and slut-shamers. Keep in mind, this is a website focusing on things that can actually be tested and proven. Using science.

From Suzanne LaBarre, the online content director for PopSci.com:

A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to "debate" on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science.

The Retro Report, a journalism site that reexamines science reporting in hindsight, takes a look back at Biosphere 2.

You'll have to move relatively quickly, but Red Bull is hosting a free show at O'Malley's (ok, sure) for the 21+ crowd on the 24th featuring Electric Guest, Hands and Strange Names. You have to sign up for something via Facebook and probably swear off drinking beverages by any of their competitors, but a no-cost concert by three remarkably enjoyable bands is a solid deal.

• NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog flags a photo from the UA's HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to note that it may have rained on Mars a long time ago:

This fan is on the inside of the rim of Mojave Crater, a 60-kilometer-wide (40-mile-wide) impact crater near the equator of Mars. The structure matches an Earthly alluvial fan almost perfectly. Larger boulders are heavier and can’t be carried as easily by floodwaters, so they tend to stop soon after the terrain levels out. Smaller rocks can travel farther, which appears to be the case here. The branches, the shape, the direction: Everything indicates a flash flood on Mars.

What could have caused it? This part surprised me: It may have been due to rain, water rain, that could occur after an asteroid or comet impact. For example, ice under the surface could be melted by the impact, which would then rain down over a large area. This would be a temporary and local event, but could spark flash floods something like rainstorms do here on Earth.

But after that, gravity and terrain did the rest, on Mars as it is on Earth. That’s actually rather astonishing: Given some basic and fundamental principles, you can actually figure out how weather and erosion processes work on another planet. And when you look at it, it actually kinda reminds you of home.

• Adam Block/UA SkyCenter
• A close-up of the central region of the Orion nebula, taken with the Schulman Telescope at the UA's Mount Lemmon SkyCenter.

UA astronomers were part of a team that developed a new camera capable of taking the sharpest images ever of the night sky. From the UA News Service:

Astronomers at the University of Arizona, the Arcetri Observatory near Florence, Italy and the Carnegie Observatory have developed a new type of camera that allows scientists to take sharper images of the night sky than ever before. The team has been developing this technology for more than 20 years at observatories in Arizona, most recently at the Large Binocular Telescope, or LBT, and has now deployed the latest version of these cameras in the high desert of Chile at the Magellan 6.5-meter telescope.

"It was very exciting to see this new camera make the night sky look sharper than has ever before been possible," said UA astronomy professor Laird Close, the project's principal scientist. "We can, for the first time, make long-exposure images that resolve objects just 0.02 arcseconds across — the equivalent of a dime viewed from more than a hundred miles away. At that resolution, you could see a baseball diamond on the moon."

The twofold improvement over past efforts rests on the fact that for the first time, a telescope with a large diameter primary mirror is being used for digital photography at its theoretical resolution limit in visible wavelengths — light that the human eye can see.

"As we move towards shorter wavelengths, image sharpness improves," said Jared Males, a NASA Sagan Fellow at the UA's department of astronomy. "Until now, large telescopes could make the theoretically sharpest photos only in infrared — or long wavelength — light, but our new camera can take photos that are twice as sharp in the visible light spectrum."

It's been a year since Curiosity landed on Mars and NASA has put together a time-lapse video that shows what the plucky robot has been up to. Learn more about Mars Science Lander here.

If you went to Phoenix Comicon, you might already be familiar with Lauren Ard— or, as she hopes to be known around town, the planetarium lady.

Ard is a former middle school science teacher who wanted to bring the night sky into her classroom. Field trips were too expensive for the school and the students, so she started looking into other options. She came across portable planetariums— inflatable domes with the night sky projected on the celling. Renting a planetarium runs about $1,000 a day, and there weren't any in Tucson. So, Ard sewed together a portable planetarium for herself.

"It’s kind of like putting together half of a giant beach ball."

That was five years ago. Now, she is doing a Kickstarter campaign to fund a larger, more durable planetarium.

The campaign his currently sitting around $5,000, $500 over the initial goal. She had been a anxious about making her goal when a woman from Texas started asking about the $1,000 pledge level, the reward for which is having Ard make and ship an extra planetarium.

“I had no idea that she would actually go forward and stick a thousand dollars in there,” Ard said. “Suddenly I had it.”

Ard has all of the bonus money she has already raised bookmarked for making the planetarium out of higher quality materials, which will make it last longer. But, if donations keep coming, she has bigger plans.

"Right now, I've been using a toy projector from Japan. It works... but it's not meant for professional projection."

She read about an alternative. It involves a curved security mirror— think something you would see high up on a wall to look around corners— and a computer projector. The trick is, it can't just be a mirror she picks up at Target. For quality projection, the mirror has to be on the outside, not covered by glass like most mirrors. Getting the right mirror and projector would cost her about $2,000.

Ard has already done a few presentations at local schools, but she is hoping to expand her impact.

"I want to do presentations that are customized to each grade level," Ard said, adding that her planetarium presentations can help students with more than just astronomy knowledge. "I want to work in state standards for science, English, social studies."

She's big on customized presentations. For Phoenix Comicon she did themed presentations, talking about pop culture references to astronomy including Harry Potter, Dr. Who and Marvel Comics.

You can see her Harry Potter presentation at the "Magic Mania" event at the Martha Cooper Branch Library, 1377 N Catalina Ave, on Saturday, June 15 from 6-8 p.m.

"I want to become part of the community. I want people to say 'oh, the planetarium lady is going to be there.' I want to be an educational staple."

There are 11 days left in her Kickstarter campaign, so head over soon if you want to give the planetarium lady some love.

The Arbor Day Foundation recently announced a new booklet to help "nature lovers and professional botanists alike" identify trees in Arizona and the Western Region.

I know what you're thinking: "Why would anyone want to learn how to identify trees?" Listen, tree identification is important, and no, Saguaros don't count.

For some, tree identification may be just a hobby. For others, learning to properly identify trees could be extremely beneficial to maintaining a backyard.

Who knows, maybe you have more types of trees than you realized, and maybe they need more care than you thought — or maybe you even have an invasive or non-native species.

Arbor Day Foundation, a nonprofit conservation and education organization, aims to inspire people to plant, nurture and celebrate trees, according to its website.

Stated in the press release, the booklet uses a 'unique step-by-step approach for identifying the species of each tree, explaining what to look for in the shape of the leaves, differences in the leaf stems and twig structures and specific characteristics of fruits, flowers, buds and bark.'

The new pocket brochure is available for a $5 donation to the Arbor Day Foundation. Simply send the donation to What Tree Is That?, Arbor Day Foundation, Nebraska City, NE 68410.

With summer and monsoon season fast-approaching, the familiar buzzing of pesky mosquitoes will only get louder...and if you're like me, you've already been dealing with annoying bites for the last month.

What's even worse than waking up with chomped-on toes and itchy ankles — especially when someone in the same household as you never gets bitten.

So why do mosquitoes love munching on some people more than others?

Studies have shown that it is not our smell or sweetness that attract the little critters, but certain characteristics such as blood type, chemical markers emitted from our skin, pregnancy, alcohol and the amount of carbon dioxide emitted from your breath.

According to one study, people with Blood Type O are significantly more likely to be bitten.

Alcohol can also play a major role according to this study, which says that mosquitoes are significantly more likely to bite those who have ingested alcohol compared with those who have not — and those are just a few examples.

Not only are mosquito bites downright nasty, they're a big health concern. The more bites a person receives, the more likely they will contract a mosquito-borne illness, in which case it is crucial to exercise proper precaution and care — including using the right bug spray and mosquito-proofing your yard.