Edward M. Lerner's Blog: SF and Nonsense, page 36

Of not-so-tiny bubbles, infinities, and other news

Catching up with items of fascinating physics ...
Click here to enlarge"Despite extensive analysis, Fermi bubbles defy explanation." Fermi bubbles (named for the Fermi gamma-ray observatory that first spotted them) are structures 30 thousand light-years across lying both above and below our galaxy. They emit incredible amounts of gamma-ray energy. (Gamma rays are extremely high-energy photons, more energetic even than hard X-ray photons.) Why are the bubbles there? How did they come to be? The...

Reader-survey summary

Five weeks ago I posted to announce a survey of SF and Nonsense readers. Briefly, I asked about subjects that bring visitors, their familiarity with aspects of my published writing, and their specific interests among science and tech topics.

Readers have spokenThat survey recently closed, and today I'm posting about the results. (There are results. We will get to them. First, though, let's get the caveats out of the way. If caveats don't interest you, that's what the scroll wheel is for.)

How m...

Knowing what we don't know -- then continuing to learn

While crummy winter weather across much of the country discourages us from leaving our warm, cozy homes, here's another form of physical exercise ...

RecommendedI recently read (and I recommend)  Neutrino Hunters: The Thrilling Chase for a Ghostly Particle to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe , by physicist Ray Jayawardhana. Neutrinos are fascinating subatomic particles. They are so tiny and elusive that experimentalist physicists did not succeed in confirming their existence until decades...

Science (and "science") news

"On 20 December 2013, The United Nations (UN) General Assembly 68th Session proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies (IYL 2015)." (That's from the IYL home page.)

What could be more appropriate than a moment of respectful reflection (no pun intended) on the recent passing of a major pioneer of light technology? See "Charles Townes, who helped invent now-ubiquitous laser, dies." Lasers are essential -- to name only a handful of their applications -- to pre...

An SF (& bit of F) assortment

Few ideas are as well-represented in SF as space travel. More and more, as we learn how inhospitable Earth's solar-system neighbors are, space-centric storytelling turns to interstellar settings. So: an award specific to interstellar travel seems like it would be a Good Idea. Now, thanks to 100 Year Starship, there is such an award.

"The 100YSS Canopus Award for Interstellar Fiction will be given for the best work of science fiction published between 2011 to 2014 that focuses on the challenge...

Say, kids, what time is it?

What with winter blahs and post-holiday letdown, what better moment could there be for some diversion? And so, drawing upon classical SF and Nonsense subject areas, herewith an assortment of thought-provoking items (well, they provoked my thoughts):

They're bot-tastic"Robotic Micro-Scallops Can Swim Through Your Eyeballs." And why would you want that? As a medical-delivery system. Eyeballs are attention-getting, of course, but the larger point is that blood, like eyeball fluid, doesn't act lik...

SF and Nonsense reader survey

People read blogs for many reasons. To keep SF and Nonsense fresh and useful to visitors, I'd like to better understand their -- your -- interests. Please help by taking this brief (three multiple-choice questions) anonymous survey.

And if you'd rather not be surveyed? That's fine! There's plenty of content here (almost 400 posts, as I type) on the blog to divert you.

Ready? Then it's on to the SF and Nonsense survey! I'll be collecting data through Monday, February 16, 2015.

The big picture ;-)...

The science behind the fiction

Analog magazine is, using its full title, Analog Science Fiction and Fact. In that fact category, I've written a dozen articles for the magazine. (Should you be counting, #12 is queued up and should run sometime this year.) Most of my articles have been in a series that -- in my mind, anyway -- is called The Science Behind the Fiction.

Breaking light speed, Star Wars (1977)In other words, the articles cover common genre tropes: assumptions -- like faster-than-light travel -- that underpin lots...

Brave new world(s)

I'll be ending the year on an introspective note. We'll start with the state of cyber-vandalism (or -terrorism, or -warfare -- people's descriptor of choice seems to vary), which, better late than never, has finally reached mainstream awareness. But there's upbeat material, too: some truly awesome physics/space/astronomy highlights. I'll conclude 2014's posts with a personal item.

The recent Sony hack, attributed by the FBI to the North Koreans, and the associated (temporary) coerced pulling b...

Happy holidays!

Next week is soon enough for opining :-)


Happy holidays, all.======================
from Edward M. Lerner's "SF and Nonsense"