Laura Venner, a science educator and NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador in the New York area (and—full disclosure—a Volunteer for the Hayden Planetarium), has devised a timely resource for parents and educators. A product of children's questions and consternations, Laura has written a primer on how to address a child's concerns about the 2012 doomsday deception entitled The Simple Truth: Doomsday 12/21/2012 - Deception Revealed.

I was approached by a mother whose seven year old daughter was frightened about the world coming to an end in 2012, says Venner, who talks to children from the New York metropolitan area. She adds, It's always difficult to hear a young child ask if they are going to die in 2012. Over the years, she has noticed an increase in questions about, and accompanying stress related to, the 2012 doomsday deception.

Teachers and parents are not equipped to address children's concerns about the world ending in 2012, so I created an easy-to-read guide which will enable them to quell their fears, stated Venner. Her guide is designed to address the various events that some believe will contribute to the end of the world. A few of these events are scientifically valid, but will not have any effect on the world at-large, others are pure nonsense dreamt up by the latest in a long line of people who desire to see the world end (and often gain from it).

With 2012 upon us, we want to alert you of this valuable resource and we hope that, as this doomsday nonsense comes to a crescendo, you'll help spread the word so that kids (and adults) do not live in fear of the falsehood that the world will end in 2012.

Download: The Simple Truth: Doomsday 12/21/2012 - Deception Revealed

Visit: Laura Venner's Website

One year ago, we released a short video called "The Known Universe," a six-minute journey from Mt. Everest to the farthest reaches of the observable universe. Since then, the video has received almost 7 million views on YouTube, garnered over fourteen thousand comments, and is the third-most-favorited and eleventh-top-rated video in Science & Technology.

In case you missed it:

“The Known Universe” satisfies a hunger we have for the cosmos, and seeing the universe in this way often stirs emotions within us. Many, including myself, begin to feel exceptionally small—an all-too-foreign experience for our species—as we travel farther and farther away from everything that is familiar to us. Some are even compelled to reflect on our role beyond Earth, pondering the “hows” and “whys” of our existence in the universe.

All of these thoughts were conjured up from a straightforward rendering of astronomical data. For those seeing this for the first time, you may be shocked by the sheer amount of data collected from the world's observatories. For scientists, those areas that appear blank, where we have yet to point our telescopes, offer more curiosity. It is on this cosmic frontier where the answers to our questions lie, and pursuing them will enable future generations to understand how the universe formed, what ingredients are necessary for livable worlds, and perhaps even the origin of the universe itself.

What are your thoughts after viewing the "The Known Universe?" Please share them in the comments below.

Have thirty years of Space Shuttle launches made us complacent? Do we still have a full appreciation of what it takes to propel astronauts into orbit? This montage of slow-motion launch footage, along with the accompanying commentary track, show every detail of the launch sequence and gives one a new appreciation of our achievements in space.