Category: Science
Interplanetary Robots: True Stories Of Space Exploration by Rod Pyle (book review).
Rod Pyle’s latest book is, as the title shows, all about ‘Interplanetary Robots: True Stories Of Space Exploration’. The focus is on the collected unmanned space flights rather than the manned ones. Considering the length of time for these probes to reach their destinations, long-term planning is a must and expensive. What is also state-of-the-art […]
Remembering by Donald G. Mackay (book review).
Donald G. Mackay’s book, ‘Remembering’, has a longer more significant sub-title, ‘What 50 Years Of Research With Famous Amnesia Patient H.M. Can Teach Us About Memory And How It Works’. Remember the sub-title as it might come up later. The ‘H.M.’ is actually Henry Moliason (1926-2008) who had a life-threatening form of epilepsy and at […]
Lasers, Death Rays And The Long, Strange Quest For The Ultimate Weapon by Jeff Hecht (book review).
Jeff Hecht’s book, ‘Lasers, Death Rays And The Long, Strange Quest For The Ultimate Weapon’ should draw your immediate attention. After all, such weaponry is the fodder of Science Fiction or so you would think. However, military interest in such a weapon came about with the development of electricity and throwing it without a wire […]
Scientifically Thinking by Stanley A. Rice (book review).
I’m on the same page or rather book as botanist and teacher author Stanley A. Rice with his book ‘Scientifically Thinking’ because I have a scientific background. You might have noticed that over the years. It’s also rather useful as a Science Fiction writer because even when I play with scientific rules, I still apply […]
The Cosmic Dancers: Exploring The Physics Of Science Fiction by Amit Goswami with Maggie Goswami (book review).
I pulled a copy of ‘The Cosmic Dancers: Exploring The Physics Of Science Fiction’ by Amit Goswami with Maggie Goswami a couple years back and only now fitted it into my reading schedule. Considering it’s a book about physics in Science Fiction, I had to wonder what its title has to do with our genre. […]
Your Place In The Universe by Paul M. Sutter (book review).
Firstly, Paul M. Sutter’s book, ‘Your Place In The Universe’, is not a look at the house where you live or even your neighbourhood. Well, not exactly. What Sutter has done is combined science and cosmos with the history of how mankind slowly worked things out in a friendly manner that you will be surprised […]
NASA’s newly landed OSIRIS-REx probe discovers water on asteroid.
Recently analysed data from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has revealed water locked inside the clays that make up its scientific target, the asteroid Bennu. During the mission’s approach phase, between mid-August and early December, the spacecraft travelled 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km) on its journey from Earth to […]
Voyager 2 goes interstellar.
For the second time in human history, an artificial Terran object has reached the space between the stars. NASA’s Voyager 2 probe now has exited the heliosphere – the protective bubble of particles and magnetic fields created by the Sun. Comparing data from different instruments aboard the trailblazing spacecraft, mission scientists determined the probe crossed […]
OSIRIS-REx spacecraft says hello to Asteroid Bennu.
NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft completed its 1.2 billion-mile (2 billion-kilometer) journey to arrive at the asteroid Bennu Monday. The spacecraft executed a maneuver that transitioned it from flying toward Bennu to operating around the asteroid. Now, at about 11.8 miles (19 kilometers) from Bennu’s Sun-facing surface, OSIRIS-REx will begin […]
Sam Goudsmit And The Hunt For Hitler’s Atom Bomb by Martijn Van Calmthout (book review).
In some respects, Martijn Van Calmthout’s book, ‘Sam Goudsmit And The Hunt For Hitler’s Atom Bomb’ is taking the focus what this book is really about. Sam Goudmit (1902-1978) was renowned for his work in quantum mechanics and, along with George Eugene Uhlenbeck in 1925, the discovery of the spin in sub-atomic particles. As a […]
