One of the things I absolutely adored as a child is staring at the incredibly intricate and detailed book covers for old hard science fiction novels, and their stunning depictions of what space colonies would look like in the future.…
Why We Can’t Drink Seawarter
Photo by Stephen Edgar, licensed via Creative Commons Every now and again you stumble on an explainer that walks you through a fundamental question in such great and interesting detail that it’s compelling to read. In this case, it’s all…
Astronomers Discover Habitable Exo-Earth
More news I’ve been sitting on for a while but that’s still incredible is the story of the habitable – by all indication anyway – exo-Earth orbiting a binary star system well over 40 light years away. As noted at…
ExtremeTech :: What Is The Higgs Boson and Why Is It Important to Science?
(Photo courtesy of µµ.) Over at ExtremeTech a few weeks back, I penned a column that I’m actually very proud of – essentially a layman’s guide to what the Higgs Boson is and why it’s important to scientific discovery and…
Take a 360-Degree Tour of the Space Shuttle Discovery’s Flight Deck
The fine folks at BoingBoing managed to find a link to a 360-degree tour of the flight deck of Space Shuttle Discovery, in all of her glory. The images are fantastic – so much so that you can read the…
Angry Birds Used to Teach Physics
One of the beautiful things about Angry Birds is that it’s all about basic mechanics. Parabola, arcs, gravity, force and acceleration. It’s all there. It would make for a great teaching tool if you’d let it be, and one Atlanta…
“El Cielo de Canarias†Time-Lapse Video is Stunningly Beautiful
I stumbled onto this thanks to my colleague Jenny, who posted it for Geek.com, and sure enough, it’s as beautiful as she describes. The video is actually a time-lapse shot over the course of a year by astrophotographer Daniel Lopez…
Video :: Japan’s Earthquake Prediction System
According to friends I know in Japan, this handy little app also has a mobile phone counterpart that goes off if there’s been seismic activity detected. It’s pretty remarkable when you think about the absolute dearth of similar early warning…
A Look Inside the Microsoft Home of the Future
One of the things I adore about fun and quirky little “see what the future will be like” technology expos and specials are the ones that take you into what the future home will look like. In this case, up…
Kelley Blue Book Unveils Top 10 Green Vehicles for 2011
Kelley Blue Book just released its list of top 10 Green Cars for 2011, and while most of the vehicles you would expect to make the list are on it – including the 2011 Toyota Prius (shown above) and the…