NASA throws money at origin-of-life (OOL) studies that are doomed to failure, and at education programs to tell students that futility is good science.
Geophysicists are still puzzling over how the earth's magnetic field and Van Allen radiation belts protect the surface from deadly particles in the solar wind.
The new Mars InSight lander that launched this morning will be digging for geology, not life. Most likely, as before, it will find lifeless dirt and rock.
Old-earth belief tries to paper over a disturbing fact with speculative models, but 160 years of measurements show the strength of our planet's magnetic field is dropping fast.