Adam Frank
Adam Frank was a contributor to the NPR blog 13.7: Cosmos & Culture. A professor at the University of Rochester, Frank is a theoretical/computational astrophysicist and currently heads a research group developing supercomputer code to study the formation and death of stars. Frank's research has also explored the evolution of newly born planets and the structure of clouds in the interstellar medium. Recently, he has begun work in the fields of astrobiology and network theory/data science. Frank also holds a joint appointment at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, a Department of Energy fusion lab.
Frank is the author of two books: The Constant Fire, Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate (University of California Press, 2010), which was one of SEED magazine's "Best Picks of The Year," and About Time, Cosmology and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang (Free Press, 2011). He has contributed to The New York Times and magazines such as Discover, Scientific American and Tricycle.
Frank's work has also appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2009. In 1999 he was awarded an American Astronomical Society prize for his science writing.
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Some of the five mass extinctions Earth experienced in the past were driven by climate changes. Future Earth will be just fine. It's us humans we need to worry about, says astrophysicist Adam Frank.
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NPR science blogger and astrophysicist Adam Frank argues infrastructure must change in order to develop new, environmentally friendly forms of transportation.
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Through climate science, we learned to read entire worlds — and no one can take that achievement from us: We are greater for what we have built with this knowledge, says astrophysicist Adam Frank.
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A new novel doesn't take the easy way out but, instead, asks questions about the mutations of human institutions under the pressure of global warming, says commentator Adam Frank.
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If we learned we're the only ones looking into the night sky, it'd be impossibly lonely. But it might also mean there's something holding all beings from a higher state, which may spell our doom too.
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NASA, with all its heroism and accuracy, is like Superman to many Americans — and denying the agency the funding it needs because of its position on climate is wrong, says astrophysicist Adam Frank.
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The breakdown of time, the time that has been pacing your life since your birth, was born through technology. Living by the clock has changed the way we view the world, says astrophysicist Adam Frank.
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Just as the development of a biosphere can imply new evolutionary paths for a planet, maybe the development of a planetary Noosphere has its own concrete evolutionary implications, says Adam Frank.
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The fact that humans can shape ecosystems is nothing new. But new research shows that these changes are shifting the evolution of species right now — and potential feedback will happen just as fast.
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For a few hours on Christmas Eve, we let the charade and the walls drop and recognize each other for what we all are — fellow travelers on a journey no one understands, says commentator Adam Frank.