Archive for March, 2008

Synergies in Storytelling and Science

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

It’s one of the proposal seasons in astronomy this month.   There have been deadlines for applications to use the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and a dozen other ground-based telescopes (e.g., NASA’s IRTF, NOAO’s telescopes at Kitt Peak and Cerro Tololo, etc.).   I also just got my CD filled with Hubble Space Telescope […]

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Alien Sociology

Thursday, March 27th, 2008

Seth Shostak over at space.com has a nice article today mostly about why aliens won’t visit the Earth.   I agree with the vast majority of his assessments, and the one reason he proposes that they would.   As he points out, most “aliens coming to Earth” stories (at least on TV and in the movies) are […]

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The Hard SF Writer’s Bookshelf

Wednesday, March 26th, 2008

  Last summer at the Launch Pad workshop, I brougt in my main reference bookshelf for writing space-based hard science fiction.   This list is by no means complete (I have books stashed everywhere and loaned out and whatever…who knows where they all end up?) .   Here are the results: Bennett, Jeffrey O., and G. Seth Shostak. […]

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What do (Astronomy) Professors Do?

Sunday, March 23rd, 2008

As a professional astronomer with a faculty job as a professor at the University of Wyoming, I find it very common that people outside of academia don’t really understand what it is I “do.”   A lot of misconceptions floating around there, so let me knock some down first before building something in their place. First […]

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The Unique Strength of Science Fiction

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

Why do people read science fiction, and why do people write it? And in a related question, why do some look down on it or feel ashamed to admit to loving it? The answers I feel lie in what science fiction does that other forms of fiction don’t do as well. Here’s what I think […]

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The Science of Spider Star

Friday, March 7th, 2008

“A dark-matter world holds the key to a weapon from the heart of a sun.” That’s the tagline on the cover.   My new hard science fiction novel, Spider Star, was published by Tor this week. I’m pretty happy to finally have the book out, the current expression of my attempts to make my career in […]

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A Brief History of the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers

Friday, March 7th, 2008

I’m the founder of the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers, which I run annually each summer in Laramie, Wyoming.   This year the workshop will run from July 30 to August 5th, the week immediately prior to Denver Worldcon.   Denver is only a two-hour drive from Laramie, and this will allow interested participants to attend […]

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