[podcast]http://edwardwillett.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/gray-hair.mp3[/podcast] Look, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you’re growing older. Every second. Even worse, so am I. There are many manifestations of the aging process, most of which are far too depressing to go into, especially on a morning in late February. Still, we must all face facts …
Tag: science
The hazards of bad jokes
How often have you heard someone say, “I just can’t tell a joke?” How often have you then heard the person who made that self-deprecating claim attempt to do just that? According to recent research, if you truly believe the former, you should stick to your guns, because telling a bad joke in a social …
My recent Futurismic posts
I’ve managed to post more regularly to Futurismic in the last little while, so I thought I’d provide some links to what I’ve recently put up over there, should you be looking for more cool-tech-and-science blogging: Life-size telepresence robots make their appearance Universal Robots take over the world…on stage MIT researchers create cheap “sixth-sense” ubiquitous …
Kissing
With Valentine’s Day looming at the end of this week (well, looming for those who have not yet given sufficient thought to cards, flowers and chocolates–I’m looking at you, fellow members of my gender), it seems a good time to revisit the science of kissing. And just in time for Valentine’s, new research on the …
Five more sci-fi gadgets that may soon be real
This week, I pick up where I left off on the list of ten science-fictiony gadgets New Scientist magazine thinks may soon become real, with number six: “you power.” This is not, alas, a method of giving you yourself more energy, but rather of using your energy to power gadgets. Last year, a researcher in …
Title page of my next children’s non-fiction book
Just got the PDF of the rough layout of what will probably* be my next-published children’s non-fiction book, Disease-Hunting Scientist: Careers Hunting Deadly Diseases–that’s the title page at left. It’s part of a series from Enslow Publishers called Wild Science Careers. It’s been interesting to work on, since I got to interview several scientists who …
Ten sci-fi gadgets that may soon be real: Part 1
As I have not exactly been shy about pointing out (Buy my book! Buy my book!), I write science fiction novels as well as science fact. As a science fiction writer, I have the luxury of equipping my characters with futuristic gadgets that don’t exist yet, but might some day. Now New Scientist magazine has …
Let’s not rush into anything
In movies and TV shows, people fall in love and into bed (or the other way around) with amazing speed. In musicals, it’s even worse: all it takes is a single song. In real life, though, although one hears of whirlwind romances and sudden marriages (often followed by whirlwind separations and sudden divorces) courtship is …
The psychology of procrastination
Some people think I have good time management skills because I work at home and yet manage to crank out a lot of words of one sort or another. Some people don’t know what they’re talking about. The fact is, my usual working pattern is procrastinate, procrastinate, procrastinate, panic panic panic!, rinse and repeat. I, …
Robert J. Sawyer to be writer-in-residence at the Canadian Light Source
I’m tickled pink with the announcement that Robert J. Sawyer, a friend of mine and Canada’s most acclaimed science fiction writer, will be writer-in-residence at the Canadian Light Source in Saskatoon this June and July. If you’re an aspiring writer, book a time to talk to Rob. I twice took part in his classes on …
Children’s tastes in food
When I was a kid, my mother will confirm, I was a picky eater, the sort of kid who ordered a hamburger and fries at a Chinese restaurant, hated to have different kinds of food touching each other on the plate, and wouldn’t touch spinach, broccoli or Brussels sprouts with a ten-foot fork. My own …
The fad cycle
Here’s a fearless prediction for 2009: sometime, somewhere, something is going to become a hot new fad. It’s a cycle as old as…well, as old as me, anyway, and I suspect a good deal older. Since I was a teenager in the 1970s, I think in terms of Rubik Cubes, platform shoes, bell-bottoms and mood …
My latest live walk and vlog
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