I like meat, but I know there are problems with the way we produce, package and consume it. Wouldn’t it be great if we could enjoy meat without having to grow and butcher animals to get it? Well, maybe we can. The first peer-reviewed discussion of the prospects for creating “cultured meat” on an industrial …
Category: Blog
A breakthrough in understand degenerative diseases…
…and, selfishly, all I can think of is that my book on Alzheimer’s Disease is becoming progressively more out of date. Hmmm. Or should that be “regressively” more out of date? English is such a peculiar language…
A better way to make hydrogen?
Apropos of my previous discussions of future energy sources, here’s an interesting new approach to the production of hydrogen…with some appropriate “maybe-hydrogen-isn’t-the-fuel-of-the-future-after-all” skepticism along the way.
Photographing abandoned spaceships
It’s not the reason it’s going, but in 2008 NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will photograph old Apollo landing sites. Which, of course, will prove nothing to wacked-out conspiracy theorists, but who cares?
My take on The War of the Worlds…
So we (my wife and I) went to see the Spielberg-butchers-H.G. Wells epic The War of the Worlds on Friday. The acting was OK, although I find it hard to watch Tom Cruise without being aware of the fact that the man seems to be, based on recent outbursts, seriously nuts. (Still, if I let …
A new class of time machine
Presented without comment, except the comment that I know when I don’t know enough to comment: “A physicist at the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa has proposed a new class of time machines that seems to avoid some of the difficulties inherent in other theoretical time machines. Like many time machine models, the new …
Bad news for biomass
This story describing a study with bad news for biomass caught my eye because of the Future Energy panel I was on at Westercon. They don’t mention wheat, which is what they turn into ethanol in Saskatchewan, but I’d be surprised if the results were any different.
The quest for a Stradivarius equivalent
Scientists are close to figuring out what makes a Stradivarius violin so special…and how to duplicate it in a modern instrument. I confess this is one of the few times I may be sad if scientists actually succeed in their quest for new knowledge.
Return of Legion?
Doesn’t this remind you of the Gadarene Swine (Luke 8:26-39)? Assuming you were paying attention in Sunday School, that is. And except for the absence of Jesus. Although, in a Hollywood here-comes-Satan spectacular, this would be one of those little mostly unnoticed news stories that heralds the beginning of the Apocalypse…remember, you heard it here …
Now I’m cooking!
Back home at last, and waiting for me was something I’d hoped to have with me in Calgary: a Stowaway Bluetooth folding keyboard for my Audiovox Harrier. This is just amazingly cool. It’s a full-size keyboard (minus the row of number buttons) with a good solid feel and a nice brace that makes it stiff …
Westercon: The Science Column
The phrase “science fiction convention” conjures in many people’s minds images of strange people in strange costumes doing strange things. Well, last Sunday at Westercon, a major North American science fiction convention held this year in Calgary, I saw a blue-skinned woman, a green-skinned Medusa (complete with snaky hair), and (most frightening of all) a …
Blogging Westercon – Monday (the wrap-up)
Another 10 a.m. panel Monday morning, this one on the Future of Energy (ironic, considering the distinct lack of energy to be had at 10 a.m. on the fourth day of a four-day SF convention). It actually went very well. My fellow panelists were Karl Johanson, Blair Petterson, A. M. Arruin and Hayden Trenholm. After …
My latest live walk and vlog
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