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William Gibson Radio Interview
Says BoingBoing: Here’s a great radio interview with author William Gibson, recorded three years ago, but recently replayed on the This Week in Science radio show/podcast. The interview starts about 31:49 minutes into the MP3. Link
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“Look, You’re British, So Scale it Back a Bit.”
Eddie Izzard notwithstanding, Britain has announced that it may plan a couple of solo moon missions. Entitled, of all things, “Moonlight” and “Moonraker.”Link
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We’ll Avoid the Obvious “Out of This World Jewelry” Title
A long-standing geological mystery about the origin of black diamonds has apparently been resolved: They’re from outer space.Brookhaven National Laboratory used infrared-detection instruments to analyze the hydrogen in some black diamond samples and found that the quantity indicated that the mineral formed in a supernova explosion. It’s theorized that the diamonds–which are never found in…
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The Thing That’s Wrong
I had a sort of unpleasant “A-ha!” yesterday at work. I’m a government contractor who works on-site, and unfortunately this means that I have to attend a lot of the meetings usually reserved for federal employees or souls in the First Circle of Hell. I had to go listen to one of the new Undersecretaries…
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Alien Probe Lands! Slaughters Millions!
A new report suggests that that the probes NASA sent to Mars 30 years ago to look for life may have found it and, um, killed it. The Viking missions were looking for Earth-type life, and the experiments that they conducted would likely have been fatal to the type of hydrogen peroxide-based life scientists now…
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Chip’s Picks – Neal Stephenson
I apologize for not posting anything of substance for a few weeks; real life came running up and bit me right in the butt. Fortunately I’m better now. Anyway, the latest installment in my ongoing Chip’s Picks project, is Neal Stephenson.
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Bookplates Blog Seeking Input
I received this e-mail today, from a blogger specializing in bookplates: Dear Chip, Sometime in February I plan to do something in the bookplate blog about the bookplates used by science fiction writers and collectors for their own libraries.I have a fairly interesting group of images lined up already but any scans or input from…
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Titan Has Rivers and Lakes
Images shot last summer by the Cassini spacecraft provide the strongest evidence yet that Saturn’s moon Titan, one of the most Earth-like bodies in the solar system, is dotted with a multitude of liquid lakes, probably of methane or a similar substance.Link
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Okay, This Doesn’t Have Anything to Do with Science Fiction
…but it’s one of the most wonderful openings for a news article I’ve ever encountered. ANKARA, Turkey – Over a thousand Turks spent the first day of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha in emergency wards on Sunday after stabbing themselves or suffering other injuries while sacrificing startled animals. That’s comedy gold, baby. (The rest…
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Cows, Minus the “Mad” Part
Scientists have finally got beyond the novelty of gengineering glow-in-the-dark tropical fish, and are working on some genetic engineering that makes sense. They’ve managed to create a prototype cow that doesn’t have the ability to manufacture the deformed prions responsible for Mad Cow Disease.Link