Browsing all 8 posts in science in fiction.

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About my fiction: the Beniz-Yaza solar system

The fictional Beniz-Yaza solar system plays an important role in my space opera world. It is, in short, a binary star. Beniz is larger and more white than Yaza. There are two planets in the habitable zone: the inner planet is Asto and the outer [...]

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How close are we to developing artifical minds?

How close are we to developing artifical minds?

The last few days, I’ve spent some time doing some research I’d been avoiding. It’s no secret that I am interested in astronomy, am not afraid of chemistry or physics, but I’ve rather been avoiding medical science, since I don’t feel particularly qualified to tackle [...]

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Space flight in SF: getting off this rock

Space flight in SF: getting off this rock

Image: the last Shuttle lift-off in May 2011. Image snarfed from the amazing APOD site. I’ve just finished reading a book I won’t mention, for the reason that it describes something that’s impossible and inaccurate, would never be practical in the way described, and I [...]

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What if the Earth had no moon (part 2)

What if the Earth had no moon (part 2)

In a previous post, I mused about what the earth would be like with no moon. You may hear the Moon blamed for things as diverse as reproductive cycles and people’s moods, but in that post, I argued that if all of a sudden, we’d [...]

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Packing for Mars

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by Mary Roach This book is worth reading simply for the laughs. It covers all the niggle and naughty little details about space flight, backed up with details from NASA files. The books focuses on weird and whacky details. Did you know, for example, that [...]

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How much science does there need to be in Science Fiction?

How much science does there need to be in Science Fiction?

This is a question that gets asked a bit in writer’s forums, and frankly, I have some trouble with it. I mean, it’s called Science Fiction, isn’t it? Yes, I know there are many stories out there that don’t seem to have any science at [...]

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Communication in space

Communication in space

Electromagnetic waves, whether gamma ray, microwave, radio or visible light frequencies, travel through vacuum at the speed of—well, uhm—light. When on Earth, this means communication is pretty much instant. If the distance travelled in one second by a photon, a light particle, were a string, [...]

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Take a scientist…

Here’s a blog about a topic that has annoyed me for a long time: the portrayal of scientists and science in fiction. Some background info: I lived and worked with science types for many years. I married one (until he decided to go into IT). [...]

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