I’ve found myself looking up previous read books and old videos that speak to bigger pictures and “the vision thing” as we all continue to trundle through these interesting times. One video I revisited was a lecture Carl Sagan at his 60th birthday symposium at Cornell (he regrettably died just two years later). Evidently, the lecture was unavailable to the public at large for decades, but through a course of events, was recovered from its…
I’m no stranger to warning people about the 17-year cicada, including on this blog, but alas, I never have done a video as wonderfully engaging as this one. If you are in one of the areas of the United States who has had (or is having) a surplus of cicadas, here’s something to be thankful for: they’re not this big. Probably.
I wish I could find the faux PSA from whence this title came, but even though it’s about to be Insect Spring Break where I live, the notion that nature can have healing power is being bolstered by science. Adele Peters writes about a recent U.K. study that points to the health benefits in the usually-not-arboreally-themed Fast Company. In fact, it’s not like you need to suddenly fine time to fit many a day hike…
I’d heard earlier that a particular radiation-loving fungus had been observed near Chernobyl, but this article by Stephen Johnson in Big Think explains how they’ve been testing it for SPAAACE TRAVEL. Specifically, they’ve been testing it on the International Space Station with the idea that some form of this radiotrophic fungus could help shield astronauts bound for Mars. So, in other words: really, really cool. And will I work this into some future episode of…
No, not Neptune. No, not Jupiter. Don’t make me say it. Okay, fine.
It’s Friday, so what better way to relax than to kick back and watch and incredible and incredibly relaxing time lapse film of 10 years of The Sun!
February 29th is sort of a little bonus of a day, so perhaps in line with thinking about traveling to the moon early this week, there’s more space news. In fact, we have a second moon. No, really. Our planet has a temporary second natural satellite. See the coverage from New Scientist, NBC News, and Mental Floss. Now granted it’s not big enough to land on (it’s about the size of a car) and it…
I saw Ad Astra this past weekend, which is doing its part to make sci-fi hard like vibranium not squishy like flubber Scientist James O’Donoghue decided to make an animation to demonstrate how “warp speeds” worked in Star Trek, its various incarnations known for loving science… while certainly not being beholden to rigidly adhering to known norms because writers. In any case, even though vast distances can be crossed in three days or three weeks…
Just over 240 years ago, the United States announced its separation from Britain… a separation that could be measured in many ways, but definitely in miles. And while pretty much the rest of the world has decided to “Make Mine Metric,” Americans remain unconvinced. Why? The Verge has some theories.
For many of us writing science fiction, a common decision point is how hard or soft we should make the world(s) we’re building. A perennial area is whether we allow faster-than-light travel or not (i.e., warping, folding space, entering stargates, traveling through hyperspace, etc.). Scientist and science fiction author Catherine Asaro explains her own journey in coming up with a way to have interstellar ships that can move at the speed of narrative without willfully ignoring…