-
NASA’s “40-Year Projects” May be Funded Again
NASA founded its Institute for Advanced Concepts in 1998 to fund outside research for concepts and products which had realization horizons of no fewer than 10 and no more than 40 years. It eventually lost funding, but the National Research Council has reviewed the NIAC program and concluded that a similar program could be re-launched.…
-
Conspiracy Theories
Cracked has a nice breakdown of the mindset behind “the controversy.”
-
New SF Podcast
StarShipSofa, the “audio science fiction magazine” has just launched an SF news podcast called The Sofanauts. The Sofanauts is a weekly SF news related show. Joining me each week are a variety of guests from the world of science fiction literature, SF blogs and publishing to bring you the latest news and gossip from the…
-
More Things to Worry About
I remain vaguely mystified by the media’s repeated assurances that robots are about to go all SkyNet on us any day now. This NY Times article worries that “machines may outsmart man.” Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that…
-
Enormous Prop Auction
Prop house 20th Century Props is closing its doors and selling off its gigantic collection in a Web auction that runs through August 1. When 20th Century Props decided they had enough, Great American Group was chosen to sell everything down to the bare walls. With over 40 years of collecting and buying, renting and…
-
Stem Cell Sutures
This is kind of brilliant. A team of biomedical undergrads at Johns Hopkins have built a machine which will weave a patient’s stem cells into surgical thread. When used as sutures, the thread delivers stem cells right to the injury, where they can help repair damage and reduce inflammation. They’re looking at it particularly for…
-
Follow Us on Twitter
The O*W*C has done what all the cool kids are doing and added a Twitter feed. Check it out for reminders about nightly chats, alerts when the blog is updated, and whatever else enters our fool heads: http://twitter.com/OtherWorldsCafe
-
Steampunk Giveaway
Destructoid recently released its new shooter Damnation, and to help promote it they commissioned steampunk wiz Jake of All Trades to create two amazingly large and detailed steampunk computer mods. To enter the competition to win one of these lovely ‘puters you have to either a post a picture of yourself in your best steampunk…
-
Plant Science
This isn’t science fiction or even the sort of space science that we usually mention here, but yesterday Discoblog linked to an article detailing a study which suggests that talking to your plants actually can make them grow better. Researchers recorded volunteer “plant whisperers” and played the recordings to tomato plants (via headphones attached to…
-
Alice in Wonderland Photos
Slice of SciFi has just posted several promotional photos from the upcoming Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland. (You can also see a couple of images of the sets at SciFi Wire.) I don’t believe I’ll be able to sleep tonight.