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...
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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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Good Science Cartoons: SMBC and XKCD

May 22nd, 2009

One of the links I posted a few days ago was to a funny science cartoon, playing off of Newton’s lifelong virginity, but it definitely had educational value juxtaposing Newtonian and quantum concepts side by side in an entertaining way. Reaching students and audiences of all types can be aided by humor (see Brian Malow, Science Comedian, please!). Cartoons are one good way of doing this, as Brian recently blogged about in the context of his involvement with Bizarro, and having the perfect cartoon for each topic is wonderful. To that end, I am going to post links to a few online sources of such science cartoons, and would love it if you would post your favorites, too.

From Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (www.smbc-comics.com, and a special thanks to Russ for turning me on to these):

String theory and bondage.

Sex lives of scientists and their theories.

Philosophy of physics (time travel).

Science funding explained (space travel).

Movie science and reading fantasy.

Inspiration for future (male) astronomers.

A religious view of the origin of the universe.

From xkcd:

Fermi type reasoning applied to sex.

Correlation and causation.

Space elevators.