“Virus” is a scary word. Having just been vaccinated simultaneously with a pneumococcal vaccine and a recombitant zoster vaccine—one to prevent pneumonia and one to prevent shingles, and slowly recovering from some impressive reactogenicity symptoms, I’ve been thinking a lot … Continue reading
I try to stay a-political in my blogs, because the Internet world is a big place with a wild, wild west culture. Travel, writing, art, are all pretty safe. But today I’m going off-script a little, sharing tidbits in the … Continue reading
What does an environmental consultant, a wildlife scientist and a physicist have in common? They all have written books about animals. And good books, too, with the help of science writers and their own writing experience. I love reading about … Continue reading
The origins of this series lie in my quintessential problem: I don’t write short stories, at least not easily or often or even willingly. But when I got wind of an upcoming anthology about Were-kind, with the specific fiat that … Continue reading
(Picture from here.) Last time we talked about small endotherms– specifically small mammals. I have nothing against small endotherms. But there are significant limitations to the adaptations small animals can achieve in the realm of thermoregulation. They are small so … Continue reading
SPEARED is an acronym that stands for Single-Person Emergency Atmospheric Re-Entry Device. Cool name, huh? What we’re trying to do is to develop what is essentially an ejection seat/escape pod combo for astronauts (or cosmonauts, taikonauts, whoever wants to go into space that might have issues coming home again). We’re still in early stages yet, just very basic research and development, working on what materials we can use, and what shape things need to be in—no, I mean literally, what geometric shapes this stuff needs to have to protect the space travelers in an emergency atmospheric entry, but not either burn ‘em up or skip ‘em off into space.
Continue readingAs a writer of science fiction, I found creationist Ken Ham’s commentary on alien life and the space program absurd and thought provoking. For those of you who missed it, in response to NASA’s expectation of finding alien life in … Continue reading
Writers live for local color. There is nothing like it; it is the entire point of travel and we pursue it with passion. And oh! there is a great bar in downtown Laramie, clearly the Wyoming version of the Mos … Continue reading
One of the cool things about astronomy is the importance of the electromagnetic spectrum you use. A star viewed with an X-ray telescope looks quite different from the picture you get using infrared. This same principle applies to the rest … Continue reading
Heard while standing on the observatory roof in Wyoming: Oh my god. Holy fuck, there are stars! Wow, there are a lot of craters there. Were there fewer in the Cretaceous? Oh, wow. Like, wow! Is this the bit you … Continue reading
