Michael D. Lemonick

Lonni Sue Johnson suffers from what's called profound amnesia. She can't form new memories or bring up old memories. But while her brain doesn't work the way it should, it does give u...

Michael D. Lemonick summarizes what we know about the science of climate change; explains what is likely to happen to the climate in the future; and lays out in practical terms what we can and cannot do to avoid further shifts. The 60 entries in the book Global Weirdness: Severe Storms, Deadly Heat Waves, Relentless Drought, Rising Seas and the Weather of the Future broaden our understanding of how climate change affects our daily lives, provides incontrovertible facts to make informed decisions about the future of the planet and of humankind.

I'm not talking about Jews like me. When I was growing up, Christmas wasn't a time for minority outrage; it was a blissfully quiet day when we might go out for Chinese food...

A few weeks ago, a couple of astronomers made headlines when they announced that they'd found a planet orbiting a distant star. It was hardly the first: since 1995, about 500 planets have been discovered in orbit around stars beyond the Sun. What made this one extraordinary was, first of all, that it wasn't all that much bigger than Earth, where the earlier finds have been mostly giant balls of gas, like Jupiter.

Last spring, a young guy at the checkout counter was being friendly. “Who do you like,' he said, 'Boston or L.A?” It took me a minute. In order to be sociable, I didn’t tell him the truth, which is that I have zero interest in the NBA. Instead, I picked . . . um . . . one of them. With enthusiasm!