Warning: If you haven’t seen the first three episodes, there are going to be spoilers. After the first two episodes of Star Trek: Discovery, I was on the fence about the new series. The first two episodes were a bit too action oriented for me. I was afraid that they were going to take the…
Nebraska professor tries to develop warp travel in his garage
If you’ve never heard of the company Space Warp Dynamics don’t feel bad. The organization’s head office isn’t in Silicon Valley or in California, Florida or Texas (conveniently close to a NASA facility). Space Warp Dynamics is based in a garage in Nebraska. David Peres, a professor from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, is…
Relaxation & meditation recordings for nerds
BBC 6’s Peter Serafinowicz created the Dalek Relaxation Tape for Humans (see below) as a bit of a joke, but somehow it fits. For most of my life I’ve seen the new-agey meditation and relaxation tapes and CDs. Things like “Songs up the Humpback Whale”, “Mountain Stream”, “Bird Songs”, “Thunderstorm” etc. At one point in…
Why your daughters need more Star Trek
There has been a great deal of discussion, for many years, about the lack of women in science and technology and how to fix it. Although I haven’t been able to find any actual studies or surveys on the topic, I’d like to propose a hypothesis: The lack of women in science and technology begins…
Watch George Takei discuss his amazing life in his “It Got Better” video
If you have somehow missed the It Gets Better project it is a series designed to “communicate to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth around the world that it gets better, and to create and inspire the changes needed to make it better for them.” For George Takei things got much better on several fronts.…
Star Trek tech: Designs for warp drive ship and tricorder unveiled this week
Do you ever get the feeling that most engineers & Physicists are also Treckies? In May researchers managed to turn energy into matter, bringing us one step closer to a proper replicator and then used quantum teleportation to move data. This week designs were unveiled for a tricorder which can analyze matter by scanning it and…
Video “Lies That Sci-Fi Movies Have Taught Us About Space”
Science fiction should more properly be called ‘science based fiction’. There is no magic in science fiction. There is no ‘god’ in science fiction, no ‘light’ magic and no ‘dark’ magic. If there is a ‘dragon’ in science fiction, it likely comes from a planet where large flying reptiles evolved. The science in science fiction…
BBC’s four-part documentary The Real History of Science Fiction coming April 19
On April 19, following the return of Orphan Black, BBC America will deliver the debut of a four-part documentary chronicling the history of Science Fiction in film, television and literature. In addition to chronicling the history of the genre the series will feature interviews with some of its best known names including William Shatner, Nathan…
If “Doctor Who Had Been American”
By now you’ve probably seen the Buzzfeed post created by Jamie “Friendly Old Bum” Hooper titled What If “Doctor Who” Was American?. He has even done an amazing job of creating portraits for each of his would-be Doctors. If you haven’t seen it, you should have a look before you continue reading. Personally, I think…
Star Trek’s ‘Redshirts’ finally get their due in new TV series
According to /Film the 2013 Hugo Award winner for Best Novel Redshirts is being adapted into a limited TV series for FX. So, it’s not really about the ill fated red shirts of the original Enterprise. That would involve copyright and other such things. At the same time though, it is about those poor doomed…