As New Horizons beamed back incredible images of Pluto and Charon over the last few weeks, many people learned for the first time that Pluto is red, and we discovered that Charon is strikingly red at the pole. The question “why is Pluto red” has been answered with a word that most people have never heard of, and perhaps even fewer people can actually define—“tholins”.

Abstract: The exponential dependence of resistivity on temperature in germanium is found to be a great big lie. My careful theoretical modeling and painstaking experimentation reveal 1) that my equipment is crap, as are all the available texts on the subject and 2) that this whole exercise was a complete waste of my time.

View the Skytopian gallery, hear intricate music at the SoundBurst Shrine, relive hidden treasures in classic gaming, learn amusing trivia about science and see every single fruit reviewed and rated!