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Science and Science Fiction: Star Dragon

Thursday, July 30th, 2009

The other day someone emailed me with a question about a passage in my novel Star Dragon that bothered them.   They were right to be bothered and I’m going to just say that we all goof from time to time, even over things we know pretty well, and in the spirit of Obama I’m going […]

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Brotherton Lectures on Stars (Launch Pad Video)

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Enjoy! Share/Bookmark

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Video of Mike Brotherton Speaking About Light (Launch Pad)

Friday, July 17th, 2009

I do about 10-12 hours of lecture during Launch Pad. Here’s one of them. Enjoy! Share/Bookmark

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The Path to Science Fiction

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

My parents set up my first science fiction experience.   They called me into the living room when I was about six (1974 give or take) and told me that they had a surprise for me.   They then turned on the TV and there was Star Trek. Little did my parents, or myself, realize what happened […]

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On Science Fiction and Novelty Seeking

Monday, June 15th, 2009

One of the reasons I love science fiction is that, frankly, I am easily bored and depressed by normal everyday life.   I mean, TV commercials, ick!   Pumping gas.   Going to the bathroom.   Showering.   Shaving.   Driving.   Cleaning.   Grocery shopping. Hours every day filled with so many things of little intrinsic interest, pretty much destined to never […]

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What’s Wrong With Debate? A Scientist’s View

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Let me go on   the record for finally appreciating that my super elite college prep high school didn’t have debate.   I heard a rumor that it was because the headmaster didn’t think it appropriate for students to argue positions they didn’t believe in. Let me state this clearly for the record: Debate is a ridiculous […]

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Childhood Dreams and the Golden Age of Your Life

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

They say that the golden years are your last ones in life, the gold age of comic books was the 1940s, and while there was a similar boom in pulp sf, that the golden age of science fiction is when you were twelve. You’ve probably already seen this, or heard of it, but for those […]

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Free Audio Short Story in MP3 Format: The Point

Friday, July 25th, 2008

I’m ahead of the curve on science topics, usually, a bit behind on technology. At least compared to some of my very tech-savvy friends whom I talk with. I’m starting to catch up, a little. As an experiment, I have made an MP3 format recording of myself reading one of my shorter short stories, “The […]

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The Red Light District Part 2: The Light Bulb Paradox

Monday, June 9th, 2008

I had a post over the weekend where I claimed that life on a planet around a type M star (see classifications here) would be like living in a red light district. Not the sex part, just the red light part. M stars are cool as stars go, around 3000 Kelvin or a bit less, […]

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Living Around an M-Star: the Red Light District

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

NOTE: I’m keeping the below post as originally written. It will be superseded by a post to come as the issue is more complicated than I appreciated. A friend of mine has a story coming out and wanted to doublecheck some issues of colors on a planet orbiting an M-star. My friend supplied me with […]

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Post-Starburst Galaxies

Friday, June 6th, 2008

Here’s a good write-up of some work related to mine that was also presented this week in St. Louis at the AAS meeting.   It involves post-starburst galaxies, whose relationship to post-starburst quasars isn’t entirely clear to me just yet (I’m planning a project that should help answer that question to my own satisfaction next year).   […]

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The Importance of Science in our Lives

Friday, June 6th, 2008

Brian Green has an op-ed in the New York Times speaking about the personal importance of science in our lives.   It is a good article, and meaningful, in my opinion.   Science has enabled you to read this post, but it has also done so much more.   Reflect on that. Sometimes I feel like I’m a […]

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