Calli Arcale
Joined: Nov 21, 2012
Calli Arcale is a software engineer, dedicated Whovian, and certified space nut. She lives in Minnesota with her husband and two children, a four-nerd family. She might also be a 420 year old Time Lady from the planet Gallifrey, but it's tough to get her to admit it.
What the Weather Is Like on Other Moons and Planets
11 Moons You Should Get to Know
11 Planets You Never Had to Memorize
Collision Course: A Brief Guide to Earth's Most Interesting Impact Craters
A Norwegian family arrived at their cabin to open it up for the spring and found a surprise: a large rock had smashed through the roof. It was identified as a 1.3 pound breccia meteorite. It didn't hurt anybody, and its sale price should easily cover the
The Expanding Universe: How the Universe Got Bigger As We Measured It
Since before history began, we have tried to understand our world and our place in it. To the earliest hunter-gatherer tribes, this meant little more than knowing the tribe's territory. But as people began to settle and trade, knowing the wider world beca
Doctor Who: Mangling History
Doctor Who has a long and noble history of attempting to convey history to its young viewers. It has not always been completely successful, however. Here are a few stories where they dipped into history -- but didn't get the history quite right. The Gunf
12 Diseases and the Lucky Places They’re Named For
Map image via Shutterstock This isn't exactly what tourism bureaus want you to picture when you hear a town or region's name. 1. Guinea Worm A parasitic nematode several feet long, European explorers named it for the Guinea coast of West Africa in the 1
The Other Doctors of Doctor Who
There are eleven Doctors on Doctor Who, right? Well, yes, but not exactly. Those are the "canonical eleven" — the official Doctors. But are you familiar with some of the others? 1. The Dalek Movie Doctor In the mid-60s, Dalek Fever was sweeping England.
It Came From Space! Man-Made Objects That Crashed Back to Earth
Most orbital debris is in low Earth orbit, where "what goes up must come down" — derelict satellites, spent rocket boosters, explosive bolt shrapnel, payload fairings, interstage structures, payload adapters, spin-up counterweights, and more. Most reenter
The Blue Marble: Views of Earth From Far Away
In January 2012, the newly launched weather satellite NPP Suomi had gathered enough swaths of data to cover the entire Earth. To commemorate this, the mission team assembled this into a map and projected it over the
4 More 'Doctor Who' Stories Ripped From the History Books
We barely scratched the surface of historical Doctor Who in our previous post. Today, we'll look at a few of the historical adventures transmitted in the 1960s. 1. The Aztec Empire In History: The Aztecs were a group of Mesoamericans who dominated much o
The Time We Found Pyramids on Mars
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Mars has long fascinated people. One of the few objects in the night sky to show a visible color and the only one that wandered, it was a natural draw. As astronomy blossomed and scientists realized that it was another wo
4 Doctor Who Stories Ripped From History Books
Earlier this week, we looked at Doctor Who stories inspired by the headlines. But far more stories were ripped from the history books. In fact, the original series concept back in 1963 was to alternate science fiction stories (which could be used to intr
5 Doctor Who Stories Ripped From the Headlines
From its start in 1963, Doctor Who has heavily featured the future and the past -- but stories based on current events have also been part of the series. While it isn't quite Law & Order, sometimes we do get to see Doctor Who: Ripped from the Headlines!