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R.I.P. Majel Barrett Roddenberry
She passed away of leukemia at age 76. Link
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I See What You’re Thinking
Researchers at ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Japan have developed technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer. The scientists showed test subjects various images and used an MRI to map the changes in their cerebral blood flow. The images and resulting blood flow patterns were plugged…
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What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
An opinion piece published online in Nature examines the illicit use of “brain-boosting” drugs like Adderall and Ritalin by college students, and concludes…that we should totally do more of that. The seven authors–at least two of whom are consultants for pharmaceutical companies–argue that we “should welcome new methods of improving our brain function,” and say…
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Forest J Ackerman (1916-2008), RIP
Forry died at 11:58 PM on December 4, 2008 http://www.sfwa.org/news/2008/fackerman.htm A major line to our SF history is gone.
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Holiday Cards for Geeks
It’s December 1, which means it’s officially time to freak out about whatever winter holiday you celebrate. (Unless you’re proactive like me; I’ve been freaking out for weeks now.) Here are a few cards to get you in the holiday mood. Holiday Cards for Geeks – Includes sentiments like, “May all your Christmases be #FFFFF,”…
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:::whew:::
Now I can exhale.
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“Naked Eye” Solar System Discovered
Astronomers have discovered a solar system around a star that’s close enough to Earth to be seen with the naked eye. At least one and possibly three planets are orbiting Epsilon Eridani, the ninth-closest star to our own. It’s much, much younger than our own system–only around 850 million years old–giving researchers a glimpse of…
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Height
xkcd has a wonderful log-scale illustration of the height of the observable universe, from 46 billion light-years clear down to brachiosaurs. (The top is pictured above.) It’s also available for pre-order as a poster.
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Happy Birthday NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began operation on October 1, 1958. The Washington Post has an article on its history which includes a photo gallery of some NASA highlights. If we could travel back to 1958 and tell the people who were founding the organization what it would accomplish in the next 50 years,…
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Hubble Discovers “Unknown” Object
There may be nothing new under the sun, but there’s apparently something brand-new and unexplained out beyond it. In a paper published last week in the Astrophysical Journal, researchers described a new and completely unknown object with behavior so unusual that it may be a new class of phenomena. The object also appeared out of…