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A new paper by a University of Sheffield team argues that small organisms found on a balloon sent 27 km into the stratosphere could have come from space, during the recent Perseid meteor shower.

Remember this little guy?

Remember this little guy?

July 1, 1913: Former enemies come together at Gettysburg

The white-haired men came together with the enthusiasm of young boys on a vacation, according to an account in The Pittsburgh Press. They laughed with giddy abandon, flung their arms around each other and made silly jokes.

But as the sun began to set, the men remembered they were old. They remembered how, as young men, they had tried to kill each other on the very ground on which they stood now. They remembered the dying and the suffering, the courage and cowardice. The men then grew somber and talked in whispered tones.

A century ago this week, veterans who’d fought in the greatest battle ever waged on this continent gathered to commemorate the event’s 50th anniversary. Thousands of old soldiers descended on Gettysburg. At first, they overwhelmed the small town and the government’s efforts to care for them. Stooped men exhausted by long train journeys hobbled from camp to camp, looking for places to rest, only to discover all tents were occupied. Many could find nothing to eat. The heat was merciless. During the gathering, nine died from heat exhaustion and heart ailments.

But these were men accustomed to hardship. They’d survived the battle, the war and the half century that had passed since then. Now in their final years of life, they were determined to see this thing through. They knew it would be the last great gathering of those with memories of the horrors unleashed in places such as Little Round Top, Devil’s Den, Culp’s Hill and the Wheatfield.

Over the next few days, these former enemies tottered arm-in-arm over the fighting ground, pointing out the locations of regiments and brigades, sharing stories and memories. “Brother,” they called each other. Blue and gray.

In time, death would take them all. But they would leave behind proof that men once charged with destroying each other could, years later, achieve not just forgiveness, but something close to grace.

Learn more about the Gettysburg battle in a PG special interactive presentation.

(Top picture: Survivors of Pickett’s Charge reenact the event)

“Every tiny atom in your body came from a star that exploded long before you were born.”

You Are Stardust teaches kids about the whimsy and interconnectedness of the universe in stunning illustrated dioramas.

February 22, 1943: Members of the White Rose are executed.

The White Rose (die Weiße Rose) was one of the most famous anti-Nazi resistance groups working within the borders of the Third Reich; their defiant opposition against Adolf Hitler and the atrocities and oppression of his government was and is especially remarkable when juxtaposed with the traditional image of the apathetic German citizen, oblivious to or unwilling to speak out against the crimes of their own leaders and military. The principal members of the organization were students from the University of Munich - Hans and Sophie Scholl, Alex Schmorell, Willi Graf, Lilo Berndl, Jürgen Wittenstein, Falk Harnack, Christoph Probst, Traute Lafrenz, Katharina Schueddekopf, and Marie-Luise Jahn. Several had refused to join the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls ,(membership was, at that point in the war, compulsory), and most were motivated by moral reasons; some, as medical students, had witnessed the horrors of the war on the Eastern Front, atrocities committed by Germans against civilians, and the conditions of the Jewish ghettos in Warsaw and other cities. 

The White Rose’s main activity was spreading awareness through leaflets and pamphlets heavily influenced by religious texts, ancient philosophy, and traditional German writers, while avoiding detection by the Gestapo. The second of the six eventual leaflets (and a seventh draft) read:

The German people slumber on in dull, stupid sleep and encourage the fascist criminals. Each wants to be exonerated of guilt, each one continues on his way with the most placid, calm conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!

Shortly after the total surrender of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad (and on the same day as Joseph Goebbels’ “total war” speech), a custodian at the university witnessed the Scholl siblings distributing pamphlets at the school, and the two were soon taken into custody by the Gestapo to be interrogated. Hans and Sophie Scholl, along with Christoph Probst, were tried by the People’s Court in a hasty show trial, found guilty, and executed by guillotine all on the same day - February 22,1943. More members were executed in July and October of that year, and others connected to the organization were sentenced to prison terms; however, it was the Scholls, more than any other members of the White Rose, who became symbols of selfless resistance and martyrs in postwar Germany. 

We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace

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