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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
A Few Belated Starlinks
October 26th, 2009
I was very busy and tired over the weekend attending Mile Hi Con down in Denver. There was some bad weather on the way back, some accidents on the highway, and some bad drivers. If you’re waiting to hear back from me, between the convention, house remodeling, preparing for the Halloweek party, and normal professorial things, well, I’m a little behind. Be patient.
So here are a few things I flubbed last week, and a few new others.
Every Space Mission Every Flown all on One Map. Way cool. Too cool not to share.
Tattooed Mars. Cool, too.
Seven Questions That Keep Physicists Up At Night. They’re serious questions, but not the real ones. The real ones are things like: Am I Going to Get a Job? How About Tenure? Where Is My Group’s Funding Coming from Next Year? Etc.
When You Marry, a 1962 text book. Now, I know people back then were of the same average intelligence as today, but come on! American culture was totally ridiculous and horrible, and I think that’s defensible on absolute not just relative scales. I mean, there were already things like the Tuskegee Airmen syphilis experiments, institutionalized racism, sexism, etc., and fear of Rock and Roll, but these all pale compared to the horror that is When You Marry. (I exaggerate a tad, but not much more than a tad.)
U.S. Belief in Global Warming is Cooling. I think I posted a similar link in the recent past, but I liked the headline. The truth is that the average person is not a deep thinker or very aware of nuanced reasoning or apt to use it. The past year or two seems a bit cooler than earlier years (but not earlier decades) and you have oil companies and Republicans feeding lies and half-truths through every avenue they can sniff out and I am not surprised. It’s a real problem on some level and some timescale, and some natural factors offseting the general trend for a few years is not the end of global warming. Unfortunately.
Observational cosmology result suggests that time may be out of joint. This sounds really interesting to me, but it is a hint, not yet indisputable. I need to read the paper and share it with my cosmology class. And if you don’t understand, let’s let Worf help:
OK, he’s talking about something else, but isn’t it cool??? 
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October 26th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Hey Mike,
How are you?
I laughed a lot with the video… just to let you know: in my spare time i have watched the whole Star Trek sequence of movies… is this a scene from anyone of them? or from the series?
Cheers,
Tibério
October 26th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
oh, I forgot to say that at end I also recognized the scenes from “Matrix” and “Man in black”…
October 26th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
oops, “mEn in black” hehehe
October 26th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
The video is an edited scene from one of the TV episodes. The sound file was originally by a group called Orbital who turned Worf’s line into a loop, which I always enjoyed.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
about Global Warming… thats not only “average” people… for example, in the talk.polywell forums (polywell is the fusion concept developed by Dr. Bussard), there are several physicists and other people with deep understanding of physics and such, and they dont believe in global warming. Nor in Obama or democrats.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
That’s the thing Rogerio — science shouldn’t be tied to a political position. The democrats picked the side of science, so a bunch of conservatives assume the science is bad without actually understanding it too well. Deep understanding of physics or now — simple physics is clear, and to go beyond that is climatology.
But essentially no climatologists think it’s not happening. They may disagree about details, of course. I’d be offended if a bunch of climatologists thought black holes didn’t exist because of the similarity in the Portuguese phrase (buraco negro) to the name Barack Obama.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
unfortunatelly, while I tend to believe in global warming (even if it doesnt really exists, STILL I dont see why we shouldnt push for cleaner energy!! There are many reasons for that besides avoiding climate change!), I dont have good arguments nor statistics about how many scientists and how qualified they are, to discuss with that people. And they always know some scientist who disagrees about global warming… and unlike in arguments against creationists, those scientists are usually real scientists.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
That’s true, Rogerio, but they don’t point at the 1000 experts in the field that all agree for every lone voice, and often the lone voices aren’t in the field or are paid by someone with a political interest in the answer.
October 26th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I agree, but I dont feel qualified to argue the issue with them.
I find more rewarding to discuss (bash) creationism and moon landing hoax theories