Spider Star
The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
Read More.Praise for Star Dragon
"Seldom does a storytelling talent come along as potent and fully mature as Mike Brotherton. His complex characters take you on a voyage that is both fiercely credible and astonishingly imaginative. This is Science Fiction."
-- David Brin"Star Dragon is terrific fare, offering readers a fusion of hard science and grand adventure."
-- Locus Magazine"Star Dragon is steeped in cosmology, the physics of interstellar travel, exobiology, artificial intelligence, bioscience. Brotherton, author of many scientific articles in refereed journals, has written a dramatic, provocative, utterly convincing hard science sf novel that includes an ironic twist that fans will love."
-- Booklist starred review"Readers hungry for the thought-provoking extrapolation and rigorous technical detail of old-fashioned hard SF are sure to enjoy astronomer Brotherton's first novel."
-- Publishers Weekly"Mike Brotherton, himself a trained astrophysicist, combines the technical acuity and ingenuity of Robert Forward with the ironic, postmodern stance and style of M. John Harrison. In this, his debut novel, those twin talents unite to produce a work that is involving on any number of levels. It's just about all you could ask for in a hardcore SF adventure."
-- Paul di Fillippo, SCI-FI.COM
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Saturday/Sunday Starlinks
January 8th, 2012
I’ve let these pile up too high, given the holidays, and some personal issues that have taken a lot of time and induced too much stress (I love my wife, but I don’t love the immigration process!).
Let’s start with Phil Plait and Six Reasons Aliens would never Invade Earth.
Still, some scientists say we should search the moon for evidence of aliens.
And, prior visions of space flight.
Fellow quasar astronomer and acquaintance Meg Urry has an article at CNN on new Earths. Check it out.
A catalog of astronomy apps. I have several. Maybe I need more.
Hawking says women are greatest mystery. This is both profound and stupid, unfortunately, from different perspectives. This is potentially very sad if the accusations that he was abused by his wife are true. Hawking got a response, which is unfortunately sort of offensive if taken as a personal reply to Hawking whose experience in life is unique. Cheap bitching at his expense, with a mix of insight and useless generalizations about how he shouldn’t generalize.
Obama says he is not “Spock-Like.” Duh. Tuvok! Actually I see the last three democratic presidents as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. The Republicans all look like Ferengi to me.
Who is more anti-science, Republicans or Democrats? Duh! Even a conservatively biased magazine agrees it’s no contest in the end.
And then bullshit article number one: Scientists say Shroud of Turin Supernatural. What crap “research” is this? The article does not read like science at all to me. Religious people who look to science for support of the supernatural are fools, and “scientists” who claim supernatural explanations are not scientists. Scientists look for natural explanations, and when they don’t find them, they leave it as “yet to be explained” rather than saying “God did it.” Science has a great track record explaining things previously attributed to gods, and the medieval Turin hoax is not going to overturn that.
Yeti finger flunks DNA test. Not surprising, unfortunately.
Thinking about book covers recently, and here’s a list (with images) of 36 retro science fiction book covers. I love some of these. Some are…odd. And speaking of odd…
Everything you wanted to know about neutrinos in two minutes. Well, maybe not me, but most people…
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s list of Eight Free Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read. I’m not sure I agree. I think we’d be better off in a few cases if NO ONE read some of those books. Also, most of them are old and outdated in some important ways and would need some guidelines to read. Similarly, some are simply ugly slogs given that the writers are not brilliant at writing the way they are at thinking about their topics. I guess some modern takes (e.g. Dawkins on Evolution) aren’t free, so you mostly get old things out of copyright.
And speaking of free educational materials, MIT will have free online courses. Sometimes I feel like I have the ultimate job security, and sometimes I feel like the concept of job security is obsolete. The future will be interesting.
Then again, free online lectures mean little if the future of physics is not lecture based.
Top five science marketing hits of 2011. I blogged about some of these already. Worth a look.
22 Best Infographics of 2011…including some science fiction.
Ten tech items you won’t be needing anymore. Agree with most of this. A couple of them will continue to have their niche uses for some of us. Related to this, perhaps…Five things that show up in futuristic science fiction that are not realistic. It’s a bit soft, but fun and worth a few minutes.
Something we will have in the future that is realistic…a science fiction themed brothel in Nevada. The Area 51 Cathouse. I kid you not. Reminded me of that scene from Sixteen Candles. You know the one.
More information about Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. I have mixed feelings. It could be cool, and it could be Ancient Alien Astronaut woo.
Science fiction movies can be huge hits…and huge flops. Green Lantern and Cowboys vs. Aliens are on the flop list. Along with Mars Needs Moms. Duh!!! I can’t believe the money spent on that one!
Real-life superheroes on the cover of the New York Times. Also operating in Beijing (stereotypically hot and stacked, see pics).
Justice League, anime style. Cool!
Darth Vader burger. I’m thinking it comes dark and burned.
Velociraptors inspiring robots. I actually had a story idea about this some 15 years ago, which would be “The Last Dinosaur,” a solar-powered rover based on a velociraptor still operating on Mars a century from now.
Let’s end with three interesting videos covering science, science fiction, and superheroes:
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Thanks for including my video in your roundup
No thanks needed. I just link to stuff I like that I find interesting!
Astronomy Apps?
Be sure to check this one (if you have a good computer)
http://en.spaceengine.org/
you can land on any planet and travel to any star or galaxy in the universe. Every known star, galaxy and exoplanet is catalogued and of course, many that are only fictional. You can also land on them.
be sure to check the entire video, they even have black wholes (that distort light around them)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqEnCkLPyDQ
I love these lists of links you post. When I have a bit of free time I love to explore the things you find interesting.
Don’t know if you thought out your responses to Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s book list. It seems to me that in America, nothing would help so-called “religious” people develop a more healthy skepticism and distance from unthinking literalism than actually reading the Bible- the whole thing.
Darwin had impressive literary skills. His books are entertaining, including Origin of Species, and although the work is dated (especially his references to the Irish), I’d still recommend it, but probably not in a top list for all people to read. Gulliver’s travels I haven’t returned to since we were in high school and had to read it in 9th grade English. As I remember, it’s pretty sharp in its criticisms of human weaknesses, and again, encourages a healthy skepticism about fundamentalism or jingoism of any kind. I’ve read two Thomas Paine works, but not Age of Reason. His “Rights of Man” and “Common Sense” are both excellent, and I assign my students in one of my classes (on struggles for liberty) to read extensively from these. “The Wealth of Nations” is another book that, when you actually start reading it, turns out to be well-written and engaging (if you’re interested in the topic, I suppose). Smith was so much more of an intellectual than most modern economists, and his writing was better as well.
Well, like you, I’m not sure how many of these books I’d include on a “must read” list for everyone, but for the four I’ve read and the fifth one where I’m familiar with the author’s other works, I’d say they look like fair choices. I haven’t read the Art of War (well, the comic-book adaptation I read doesn’t count, does it?), or The Prince (well, come to think of it, I’ve read portions of that). Those, I don’t think I’d include. The only Isaac Newton I’ve attempted was “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,” but that put me to sleep pretty quickly. Maybe I should give “Optics” a try.
Yeah, Eric, a lot of it comes down to is this really a “must read?” And while Newton and Darwin have some historical interest in addition to their ground-breaking science, I think they’re better swallowed from a modern perspective with modern sensibilities. And if Newton puts you to sleep, well, parts of the bible are much more boring. Tyson’s list is for “intelligent people,” which is kind of a weird group to target for only the free books when they’re likely the ones who know how to use a library to score free books anyway!