Salvaging Genesis

NASA says many, if not all, of Genesis’s science goalsshould be salvageable. Good news!

First photo of extrasolar planet?

It seems likely.

What a view!

Wouldn’t you love to spend a few hours just enjoying the view from this window?

Belated Writing Diary: September 9, 2004

A quick entry: yesterday I prepared and delivered a proposal to write a book on the history of engineering and geoscience projects in Saskatchewan, and did some work on Razor Wind. That was about it!

New ring around Saturn

Cassini discovers a new ring around Saturn and possibly two new moons–just the first of many interesting discoveries to come, I’ll bet.

Aurora Award finalists announced

The finalists for this year’s Aurora Awards, for the best Canadian science fiction and fantasy, have been announced. I am not, alas, among them, but just for interest’s sake, here they are: Best Long-Form Work in English Meilleur livre en anglais * Hidden in Sight, Julie E. Czerneda * Burndive, Karin Lowachee * Humans, Robert …

Continue reading

Writing Diary: September 8, 2004

I put Memory Jam and Threads into the mail today, and made some more progress on Razor Wind. Tomorrow: a couple of proposals to get finished, one for a writer-in-residence program, one for a history of Saskatchewan engineering. No rest for the wicked!

Solar wind capsule crashes

This is heartbreaking. It must feel like a mugging to the scientists involved.

Belated Writing Diary: September 7, 2004

Yes, I know it’s actually September 8, but I posted this last night, except, for some reason, Blogger choked on it and it never appeared. So, briefly: reworked “Threads,” the story I wrote based on the play I wrote for Globe Theatre‘s On the Line event a couple of years ago, and wrote my science …

Continue reading

Panspermia revisited

Did life originate on Earth or did it arrive here from outer space? Mainstream biologists will tell you the former. But over the years, the latter idea has always had a few supporters. This theory that life came to Earth from elsewhere is usually called panspermia (which means “seeds everywhere.”) It has a Greek name …

Continue reading

Bloomin’ reactors

Nuclear reactors that are inherently safe, cheap to build, and can be used to produce hydrogen for fuel…what’s not to like?

Reading Diary: September 5, 2004

I’ve been plugging away, without much enthusiasm, at Bedlam’s Bard by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guan. While I enjoy the book’s notion of elves in L.A., the writing itself–and the characters–haven’t really taken off for me. There’s way, way, WAY too much direct quoting of characters’ thoughts, most of it unnecessary and, to me, at …

Continue reading