Antarctic Microbes Handle Mars-Like Conditions

Lab experiments with primitive microbes taken from an Antarctic lake have shown that the hardy single-celled organisms can tolerate at least the warmest of the frigid temperatures found on Mars. The findings provide more evidence for the ideas that liquid found beneath Mars’ surface could harbor microbial life and that life could exist elsewhere in the solar system and galaxy, which is generally incredibly cold.

Heroes Episode 6

Heroes Episode Six

This should be called the twist episode….Last weeks preview totally mislead me.

Yeah we knew that Niki was in for a rough time this week. We were lead to believe that her boyfriend was some maniac killer out for revenge and he was lurking in her house. Well it turns out that he is a loving partner and father that has been framed. After walking into one more ghastly murder sight, Niki is now of the opinion that she, or more to the point, her alter-ego, is responsible. But after a conversation with herself in the mirror, we find that Niki’s uber-self is far from righteous…. More like the maniacal killer we suspected that her son’s farther of. And here is another twist, seems D.L. has a talent too. Seems to be able to walk through walls. Put himself out of phase as it were and unlock doors and much to the chagrin of Niki’s killer half, ummm shall we say, touch her heart? Oh yeah, hand right in the chest, no blood, on the floor, dead as a doornail in a split second. I expected him to be broken into separate parts, but no way…..

Claire’s father continues to deal from all parts of the deck…he tells Claire that she is going to meet her “bio” parents but that all seems to be some complicated shill game. The next twist comes as he is speaking on the phone to of all people Eden! Oh she is ever so much mixed up in this and not just as a hapless girl Friday…she is every much a double dealer as Claire’s father and seems to be working for the same people as he is…

Peter finally reaches out and touches present day Hiro with the future Hiro’s message of Save the Cheerleader save the world and it would seem that even Isaac the painter is coming on board after being totally freaked by Peter finishing his painting.

This week’s episode seemed to want to spin more of the story and not so much the super powers of the characters, so much so that some characters were left out entirely. I will say though that Claire burning her hands on the cookie sheet was gratuitous…

For the most part Heroes is still smart and disturbing, however it is close to tripping itself up with its own plot convolutions. But for the most part it is staying true to itself and keeping its characters smart and capable. If the preview of next weeks episode is any indication, we will be treated to more of the same, which is ok by me.

Top five Science Fiction Novels in New England

According to book retailer Barnes & Nobel, the following five Science fiction books are the most popular in New England :

1: Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

2: The Protector’s War - S.M.Sterling

3: Dies the Fire - S.M. Sterling

4: Hunters of Dune - Brian Herbert

5: We Few - David Weber & John Ringo

Based on sales in October 15 – 21 in the New England Area

NASA approves Hubble repairs

CBS NEWS reports that NASA will send a space shuttle to repair the 16-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, agency Administrator Michael Griffin announced Tuesday, reversing his predecessor's order that had nixed the mission. The rehab mission, likely launching in May 2008 using space shuttle Discovery, would keep Hubble working until about 2013.

Key out of Time - Andre Norton now at Gutenberg!

Andre Norton's 1963 novel, Key Out of Time, has been made available for free download or reading at the Gutenberg Project site. Key Out of Time is the forth book in the Time Traders series. Other books in the series were the Time Traders II: The Defiant Agents released in 2001, Time Traders, Galactic Derelict, Echoes in Time and Atlantis Endgame. These books were part of a larger series dealing with time travel often known as the Time Wars series or Ross Murdock series.

Superman Returns sequel & Fantastic Four sequal news!

According to Julia Houston, at the Sci-fi and fantasy newsletter, Variety reports , Bryan Singer has signed up to direct and produce a sequel of Superman Returns for WB.

Vanessa Minnillo is the latest to join Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Julian McMahon, Beau Garrett and Andre Braugher in the sequel to 20th Century Fox's Fantastic Four: Rise of The Silver Surfer, directed by Tom Story. She'll play the Human Torch's girlfriend., F4x2 is set to premiere June 15, 2007.

Japanese robot suit just about production ready

Remember we talked earlier this year about the Japanese inventor who designed an exoskeleton power suit? Well believe it or not, they are going into production and plan to put upwards of 500 units a year of these bad boys on the market! Click the title for more information.

False color photo of exploding star

A false-color image taken by Spitzer. The faint blue glow surrounding Cassiopeia A is material energized by the faster-moving forward shock wave. Green, yellow and red primarily represent material that was ejected in the explosion and heated by the slower reverse shock wave. Click article title to link to the story for more information.

Pluto Time Capsule: submit your stuff for space by Nov. 1

When New Horizons arrives at Pluto in nine years, Earth will be a different place than the world the spacecraft left behind. To mark that passage of time, The Planetary Society, in conjunction with the New Horizons mission, sponsored a contest for children and adults to send a message to future Earth - a New Horizons Digital Time Capsule of photographs of the world today to the inhabitants of 2015. Participants whose photos are selected for the time capsule will be eligible to win a grand prize trip to New Horizons mission control at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland to witness the Jupiter flyby in February 2007.

Jericho episode six

Wow can Jericho go any slower? There are proving to be fewer surprises than a crackerjack box. The government tax lady seems all to willing to dispose of law and order to further her agenda. Other than that we have horse rustlers, hooligans, robbers, crops going bad, drinking and fighting and shotguns ablazin and so on…. We are finally privy to Hawkins being an absent father for four years, which is suspiciously the same time that Jake was gone…..hummm. We do find out more of what happened to make Jake leave town four years ago. The two mystery wildcards are still in play as they concern Jake and Hawkins, but it’s turning out to be a thin thread to hold the seams of Jericho together. Calling this a so so episode is being kind. Jericho is turning into a thinly disguised cowboy western.

Marvel bringing Moon Knight to TV

Marvel is partnering with No Equal Entertainment, a Canadian production company, a television show based on the comics character Moon Knight. For those of you unfamiliar with the Moon Knight, his real name is Marc Spector. Spector is chosen by an ancient Egyptian god named Khonshu to be its vessel in the modern world. Spector adopts a number of identities, from a playboy millionaire to a New York cabbie, in order to infiltrate the underworld and dons the Moon Knight garb when kicking butt is needed. There's no timeline for when the series will hit TV but this is fertile ground for a dark series dealing with a number of issues.

SciFi cuts a deal for ten movies

As any true fan of the Sci-Fi channel knows, Saturday night means "SciFi Original Movie " Original they may be but the quality of those movies is all over the map. More often than not they are cheesy, campy if you prefer, B-Movie horror pictures. However if the Saturday evening fare is just your cup of tea, you will be thrilled by the news that Sci-Fi has penned a deal for ten more of these instant...ummm classics.

Actor Arthur Hill dies

Arthur Hill — Canadian born actor who stared in many films and tv episodes, died October 22nd at the age of 84.

films of note were

The Andromeda Strain a 1971 science-fiction film, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin which causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood. Hill played Dr. Jeremy Stone

Futureworld a 1976 sequel to the 1973 science fiction film Westworld. It was written by George Schenk and Mayo Simon, and directed by Richard T. Heffron. Arthur played Dr. Duffy

In addition to his film work Mr. Hill appeared in many notable TV science fiction shows such as:

Murder in Space (1985) (TV) .... Vice President
Prototype (1983) (TV) .... Gen. Keating
Tomorrow's Child (1982) (TV) .... Dr. Glenn Gorham
Revenge of the Stepford Wives (1980) (TV) .... Dale 'Diz' Corbett
The Invaders" - The Leeches (1967) TV Episode .... Warren Doneghan
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" - Monster from the Inferno (1966) TV . Lindsay

new Heroes podcast

Can't get enough of NBC's new hit show HEROES? Well I have just the thing for you then. Submitted for your approval is the new blog from the fertile minds of Andrew and Groove calledPPodcastHeroes. Expect fast paced information and impressions sprinkled with quirky humor. From their own site I quote:

We plan to do weekly shows after each new episode of Heroes. PodcastHeroes Expect FUN LAUGHS AND SINGING :-) http://podcastheroes.podomatic.com/

Wonder Woman, Superman, Batman Go Postal

According to Fox News, the United States Postal Service will begin selling stamps with your favorite comic book hero printed on them. The new 39-cent stamps and 24-cent postal cards will be made public at a comic book show in San Diego, and will go on sale nationwide Friday. Characters featured in the stamps are:

Batman: Young Bruce Wayne He made his debut in 1939 and was joined by Robin a year later.
Wonder Woman: first appearance in 1941.

Plastic Man: debuted in 1941.
Superman: The Man of Steel first appeared in 1938
Green Lantern: First appeared in All-American Comics #16 (July 1940).
The Flash: transformed into the fastest man alive in 1956
Aquaman: first appeared in More Fun Comics # 73 (November 1941).
Hawkman: originally first appeared in Flash Comics #1 (1940)
Supergirl: first appeared in Superman #123 (1958)
Green Arrow: First appearing in 1941,

Viking Mission May Have Missed Mars Life

The Viking Mars mission may have missed signs of life when it visited the red planet 30 years ago.
NASA's Viking Mission to Mars put two landers on the red planet in 1976. Their experiments uncovered mysterious chemical activity in the Martian soil but no clear evidence of life. Now scientists suggest that telltale signs of life could have been there all along. They have found low levels of organic compounds in those soils, but can not detect them by the same technologies used by the Viking mission.

Star Trek fans ticked off by Shatner's clothes

According the the blog TV Squad, Star Trek fans are screaming bloody murder over the cloths that William Shatner is wearing in the new Direct TV commercial. Shatner reprises his role as James T. Kirk (with the assistance of a few of the original Star Trek crew) to plug the virtues of using the alternative to cable TV service. I found the send up of himself amusing and very much in style with say his discount travel ads or Boston Legal etc. Here are a few of the complaints that fans aired...

• the Starfleet badge is too small
• the collar is too small
• the belt buckle is wrong

Bob Sasone of TV Squad just says "I think his hair piece looks terrible!" ummm yeah, I will give Bob that one...

Science fiction stories in 6 words or less

Wired asked several well known science fiction authors to write a complete science fiction story using no more than six words, here is a small sample.

We kissed. She melted. Mop please! - James Patrick Kelly
The baby’s blood type? Human, mostly. - Orson Scott Card
To save humankind he died again. - Ben Bova
Easy. Just touch the match to - Ursula K. Le Guin

Heroes Episode 4

Heroes took a big leap (no pun intended) this week. Nothing gross happens to Claire the indestructible cheerleader. No sir, we went from oh man that’s gross to oh cool! And I want to tell you the CGI used for the flying stunts should make the guys at the Superman franchise go “how dey do dat?” And I mean it. When did you EVER see superman break the sound barrier and do it within say 100 feet of the ground? Well the computer geeks at Heroes must be working overtime. 0 to faster than a speeding bullet straight up with the accompanying vapor halo and sonic boom. Yeeeeeeeee haaaaa. Oh and no candy .a.. 2 point landing…going from supersonic to 0 I want to tell you this guy does some serious skidding when he touches down…You can tell they pretty much blew their CGI budget on that piece because the rest of the hour is pretty low key.. Isaac who sees the future still paints, Claire is still indestructible, Hiro can control time, Nathan flies…oh boy does he fly, Matt is reading mind like crazy…and may be going there too, Niki still doesn’t know that her alter ego seems to be a crack assassin, but the biggest surprise this week outside of Nathan leaving contrails over the Midwestern skies, is his brother Peter. See, Peter thinks he can fly and has…cool…but….when push comes to shove, he finishes Isaac’s painting of the future with the same glazed ghost eyed look and style…so Peter is deficiently the wild card for next week along with Niki. I have a feeling that someone has a serious ass kicking in the very near future served up by Niki’s alter ego. If you haven’t caught this episode yet, Look for a encore on the sci-fi channel or download the episode from NBC.COM. Save the Cheerleader Save the World….

Jane Wyatt RIP

Jane Wyatt, who played Mr. Spock's mother on Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and also played, more notably, the mother on Father Knows Best died October 20th.

A three-time Emmy Award-winner for her portrayal of the patient, understanding housewife and mother on the classic 1950s family situation comedy, died Friday in her sleep at her Bel-Air home. She was 96.

New Hellboy anamated movie coming to Cartoon Network

After working for decades for Disney, Tad Stones turns his attention to the universe of Hellboy to create a feature length animated movie. He's embracing the chance to expand his animation chops with his new feature-length film Hellboy: Sword of Storms, the first of two animated features from the mind of Hellboy creator Mike Mignola.

Hellboy: Sword of Storms premieres on the Cartoon Network during Toonami on Saturday, Oct. 28, at 9:30 p.m. Hellboy: Sword of Storms has drawn the participation of several members of the cast and crew of the 2004 live-action Guillermo del Toro-directed Hellboy feature, including Del Toro and actors Ron Perlman (Hellboy), Selma Blair (Liz Sherman) and Doug Jones (Abe Sapien).

Judas Uncained review

Judas Unchained
by Peter F. Hamilton
827 pp 2006 Ballantine Book

First off I am going to be honest. I had a difficult time getting through this book.

Don't get me wrong here because I know the first thing your going to think is that the book is crap. Ummmmmm nope.

Judas Unchained is incredibly dense in theme and action. However what I failed to notice was that it was part two of a series started with his previous work called Pandora's Star. I started out with a two page “personae dramatis” That's two pages with characters on both sides. I was introduced to so many people in the first couple hundred pages that with the constant flipping back and forth, I was just never able to get any speed up until I was comfortable that I knew everyone. And I mean everyone. There are aliens hell bent on the destruction of the human race. Yes that's aliens plural. One is overt and there seems to be a covert alien pulling strings from a distance. We have a stonewalling government, double dealing politicians, a rebel faction/alliance/religion, several “humans” that seem to be dealing from the bottom of the deck, several “I think humans are funny” aliens that seem to be hanging around for either amusement or more parasitic leanings...a space navy with full blown space battles, ftl ships and mind you worm holes, absolutely the most astounding realized weapons I have ever read about (I clearly remember thinking...”yeah, that's what I'm talking about!”)he trots out weapons like “quantum busters” and does it with a straight face!..., and for some reason gigantic trains....oh and did I mention everyone seems to be semi immortal?

Oh yes, Hamilton has taken it seems every tried and true science fiction element and produced uberspaceopera. And that is very much what Unchained is, a space opera grown larger. With over 800 pages you would think that it would be ponderous and honestly there are some very slow moments in the book (for example, there are numerous times when another completely different way to travel, much like worm holes but different, are talked about, literally one of the main characters walks home following the “paths” which left me confused....to say the least) but the last few hundred pages build to a fever pitch which if your anything like me, you will not be able to put the book down.

My recommendation? Yeah the book is worth picking up and reading...my suggestion is that you read Pandora's Star first . Hamilton hits the floor running in Judas Unchained and if your not up to speed well it will take you several hundred pages to catch up.

Painkiller Jane coming in 2007

In November, production will begin on a new hour-long drama for the SciFi Channel titled Painkiller Jane, based on the Dynamite Entertainment comic book of the same name. The new series will feature Kristanna Loken of Terminator 3 as Jane, a woman who can instantly heal and regenerate from any injury. She works for a covert agency and hunts "Neuros," powerful humans with super mental powers. The series is set to premiere next Spring. Twenty-two episodes of the series have been ordered.

New Story by Shaun Saunders

Shaun Saunders is a very talented award winning author from Australia. We will be reading some of his short fiction on BEAM ME UP in the near future. Shaun just had a story published in cosmos magazine called Apollo's Breath. Quick fun read that I would recommend. I don't want to give away too much but here is a short blurb. Check it out.

Well traveled, widely read, Pausinias was sure of man's superiority over beasts and women. He just needed a woman in a temple to confirm it for him.

Our Mushrooms, Our Selves

In a report published Oct. 19 in the journal Nature researchers outlined evidence that the ancestors of mushrooms, lichens and various other fungi may have lost their original wiggling taillike "flagellae" on several different occasions as they evolved from water to land environments while branching off from animals in the process.

Bacteria Use Radioactive Uranium To Convert Water Molecules To Useable Energy

Researchers from Indiana University Bloomington and eight collaborating institutions report a self-sustaining community of bacteria that live in rocks 2.8 kilometers below Earth's surface and rely on radioactive uranium to convert water molecules to useable
energy.

Top 10 most loved robots...

Here are the top ten favorite robots as voted on by fan of the podcast SF Signals

10 Rosie the Maid Jetsons
9 Cylons 1970 Battlestar Galactia tied for last
8 Twiki Buck Rogers
7 Robot b9 Lost in Space
6 KiTT knight Rider tied with 7
5 K9 Dr who 1960
4 Cylons 2003 BSG tied with 5
3 Tom Servo mystery Science Theater 3000
2 Data Star Trek tng

And the number one most beloved robot in TV?
1 Bender Futurama

Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

The talented folks at DaveFilms have produced a full-cast audiobook adaptation of Cory Doctorow's award-winning novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. They're transmitting it in ten parts, as a podcast -- part 1 just went live.

This is the second audio adaptation of Down and Out -- the podcaster Mark Forman read the book aloud on his podcast in August 2005.

On his blog Boing Boing, Cory wrote "I love the different adaptations of the book -- it's amazing to hear my words read by so many different people, with so many different choices about how to dramatize it. Often, the reading isn't how I heard it in my own head when I wrote it, which is cool -- it's wild to hear how your own words sound to someone else. "

Battlestar Galactica Webisode Dispute

NBC Universal, the studio behind "Battlestar," refused to pay residuals or credit the writers of these "Webisodes," claiming they're promotional materials. So "Battlestar" executive producer Ron Moore said he wouldn't deliver any more of them, including the 10 that were already in the can. In response, NBC Universal seized the Webisodes and filed charges of unfair labor practices against the Writers Guild of America, which advised Moore and producers of three other NBC Universal shows not to deliver any new Web content until they had a deal over residuals.
...
The stakes are huge: viewers streamed "Battlestar" Webisodes 5.5 million times last month, doubling traffic to SciFi.com within two days of the premiere. By comparison, 2.2 million people showed up for the show's third-season opener on Oct. 6.

Paging Dr. Robot

When a patient arrives at an emergency room with symptoms of a stroke, doctors must act fast. But often a neurologist is not available, and not every hospital has one on call. Starting next month, however, 21 Michigan hospitals will have what is being touted as the next best thing: a robot on call. The new program, will make the Pontiac hospital's specialists available around the clock to any hospital in the state that joins. The on-call specialist will use a laptop and the internet to connect to a robot in the participating hospital to join the attending physician at the patient's bedside.

Nbc's Heros episode 3

Last week in our cute indistructable cheerleader Claire was the victim in a brutal rape that ended in her "death".

This week's show opens in what is turning out to be the trade mark of NBC's Heros...she wakes up on an autopsy table after the medical examiner removes a chunk of wood from her head...oh did I mention that she had already opened her chest? Oh my yes the mysteries continue to unfold however NBC is ladeling on a heavy helping of shock value. Issac continues to paint a future that shows a catastrophic future for New York...and strangest of all a vist from Hiero...from the future.

Past episodes can be viewed online at nbc.com however the site seems to run better under
Explorer than Firefox.

Jericho episode 3

Jericho continues to feed us small bits and pieces of the plot. The mayors son Jake continues to be a mystery. He has been places and knows much more than you would expect the son of a small mid-western town father to know.

The very last moments of this weeks show, has another enigmatic character, Hawkins, the only one who it seems has a connection to the outside world through his computer, calling up information on Jake, the mayors son...who it would appear was of interest to the government before the "incident" More to the point neither Jake or Hawkins are who they claim they are.

Mysteriously the power comes back on and all the phones ring with the same message coming out of them. Then the tvs show an emergency warning message. All of which leads up to what appears to be missiles being launched by the US.

The slow pace of the plot may be a bit aggravating but it would seem that there is still no end in site as the onion that is Jericho is slowly unpeeled.

Confront nanotech health risks now, experts say

Lux Research hosted talks on environmental and health safety issues related to nanotechnology at its Lux Executive Summit. Speakers recognized that there are potential risks--some involving public perceptions--and urged business people to address them early in product development, rather than as an afterthought.

nanotechnology is the science of working with materials at the nanoscale. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. A human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide.

Nanomaterials can be used in a broad range of products, from solar panels to golf balls to medicines.

Most likely, no ice on the Moon

n 1994, radar echoes sent back in an experiment involving a United States orbiter called Clementine appeared to show that a treasure trove of frozen water lay below the dust in craters near the lunar South Pole. But a paper published in the British science journal Nature on Thursday by a US team says the Clementine data most probably was misinterpreted.

Human species 'may split in two'

Humanity may split into two sub-species in 100,000 years' time as predicted by HG Wells

Evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry of the London School of Economics expects a genetic upper class and a dim-witted underclass to emerge.

The descendants of the genetic upper class would be tall, slim, healthy, attractive, intelligent, and creative , the "underclass" humans who would have evolved into dim-witted, ugly, squat goblin-like creatures.

men will exhibit symmetrical facial features, look athletic, and have squarer jaws, deeper voices and bigger penises. Women, on the other hand, will develop lighter, smooth, hairless skin, large clear eyes, pert breasts, glossy hair, and even features.

The logical outcome would be two sub-species, "gracile" and "robust" humans similar to the Eloi and Morlocks foretold by HG Wells in his 1895 novel The Time Machine.

Saturn's new rings spark search for moons

The recent discovery of new rings around Saturn has prompted speculation that the Cassini mission will find previously unidentified moons orbiting the planet.

In mid-September, Cassini moved into Saturn's shadow and viewed the rings, backlit by the sun. As we reported, the researchers identified a new ring that shares its orbit with the moons Janus and Epimetheus, just inside the E and G rings.

NASA to test space airbags

NASA is investing $600,000 in developing giant airbags that could one day replace traditional heat-shielding for spacecraft entering the Earth's atmosphere.

In theory, the airbag would be inflated with pressurised gas just before re-entry. The design relies on the airbag allowing some of its gas to escape, providing a buffer between the atmosphere and the airbag material. As the craft plunges through the atmosphere, the escaping gas would be heated up and carry the heat away from the shield.

NASA approves construction of new infrared space telescope

Engineers are preparing to build a telescope that will find the nearest star-like objects and the brightest galaxies. NASA has approved the start of construction on a new mission called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, which will scan the entire sky in infrared light.

WISE will spend seven months collecting data.

Such extensive sky coverage means the mission will find and catalogue all sorts of celestial eccentrics. These may include brown dwarfs, or failed stars, that are closer to Earth than Proxima Centauri, the nearest star other than our sun. Brown dwarfs are balls of gas that begin life like stars but lack the mass to ignite their internal fires and light up like normal stars. They do, however, produce warm infrared glows that Wise will be able to see.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Sets first rocket launch date

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island is counting down the days to its first rocket launch.

An Air Force satellite, one of several small tactical satellites under development by the military, is scheduled for a Dec. 11 launch. It will be the first from the spaceport's 113-foot-tall rocket launcher -- known as launch pad O-B -- since it was built in 1998.

Spys that flies and are flies...well close

British military scientists are developing robot flies that can be sent in swarms to spy out enemy positions.

The idea sounds like nightmarish science fiction, but project leader Dr Rafal Zbikowski believes the first machine insects could be buzzing around his lab within seven to 10 years.

Jericho gets a full season from CBS

CBS; has decided to pick up a full season of their most popular new show, Jericho. The show has averaged 11.3 million viewers, a 48% increase from Wednesdays last year.

Stargate SG-1 Movies To Follow TV Series

From the Solar Flare blog

SciFi Wire is reporting that while the 10th Season of Stargate SG-1 is going to be the last, there will be at least two movies produced to wrap up any loose ends.

Currently the plan is for the first movie to tie up lose ends from the series finale and it's being seen as the "climax of the Ori storyline". The second movie will apparently involve time travel in some fashion.

Right now there are no deals signed with any of SG-1's stars, but apparently several of the actors are eager to continue in their roles.

New Bionic Woman Series

Solar Flare reports that NBC Universal are set to produce a remake of the 70's sci-fi show The Bionic Woman. the executive producer will be David Eick who also produces the SciFi Channel's Battlestar Galactica .

Eick has teamed with writer Laeta Kalogridis (Birds of Prey) to work on what he describes as a completely reconceptualized Bionic Woman. The new series will explore amongst other things nanontechnlogy and also the role of professional women in contemporary society.

Ursula K. Le Guin to be honored

A posting on the blog Hailing Frequencies issue 347 says that The Washington Center for the Book honors Ursula K. Le Guin for her distinguished body of work with the Maxine Cushing Gray Fellowship for Writers. The 2006 Washington State Book Award ceremony is to be held 18 October, 2006, at the Seattle Public Library.

Blade - cut

According to the ABOUT sci-fi blog -Spike TV isn't pleased with the ratings for Blade, which debuted last June with 2.5 million viewers, but then plummeted down to 896,000 for the season finale, so the show will not be renewed for a second season.

Will Battlestar Galactica make a jump to NBC?

There seems to be a rumor floating around the internet that BSG was going to move to NBC. First glance, that makes sense...NBC owns SCI-FI....Heros just started re-running on Sci-fi, so at first glance, seems possible. Well I did some digging and came up with this article...

How Teleportation Will Work

If reading some of the more recent articles concerning the research being conducted on tele-portation has you more confused than enlightened, you very well might want to read this very well written article that breaks the research and the practice and difficulties concerning matter transportation down into terms even I can understand.

NASA "Salad Bowl" project, testing possible "space" gardening

Long periods of total darkness and poor soil needn't stop an avid gardener – at least not one who's willing to go out of this world to grow plants. Lush lettuce is growing in cylinders designed by Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers to mimic conditions on the moon and Mars.

To figure out how to grow plants in space, scientists first had to toss out what is known about plant production. They also had to design, build and operate growing chambers to work under space-like conditions. That meant developing chambers that would work in low pressure and provide plants with what's needed to photosynthesize, or grow and yield adequate quantities of food.

Scientists teleport two different objects

Beaming people in "Star Trek" fashion is still in the realms of science fiction, but physicists at the Niels Bohr Institute at Copenhagen University in Denmark have made a breakthrough by using both light and matter.

The experiment involved for the first time a macroscopic atomic object containing thousands of billions of atoms. They also teleported the information a distance of half a meter but believe it can be extended further.

Hubble finds new class of extra solar planets

Astronomers have discovered a new class of planets outside the solar system that hug their parent stars so tightly they take less than a day to complete an orbit.

Using the Hubble telescope, astronomers found new planets near the center of the Milky Way that orbit their parent stars in as few as 10 hours.

The newly discovered planets are in a category called "Hot Jupiter" planets. A hot Jupiter planet is a gas giant which orbits its parent star in a very close orbit. These new planets are in this class except they move even more quickly around their parent stars, which are smaller than the sun.

Surface temperatures on those "ultra-short period planets" are about 3,000 degrees F (1,650 degrees C)

Their parent stars are so nearby they fill up one-third of the sky from the horizon to the zenith

Dr Who 'longest-running sci-fi'

Doctor Who has been named TV's longest-running sci-fi show, after 43 years and 723 episodes. The series began on 23 November, 1963, and was revived in 2005 after 16 years off the screen. Stargate SG-1, now in its 10th series, holds the world record for "longest-running science fiction show (consecutive)".

Shatner to host Game Show

William Shatner is try his hand at being a gameshow host on US TV. The Emmy-winning star is to front Show Me the Money for ABC. Shatner, 75, is best known for playing Captain James T Kirk in the original Star Trek TV series. Also, The Practice, Boston Legal and T.J. Hooker.

Life imitates 'Star Trek'

Did any of you star trek fans catch the show on the History Channel that had William Shattner doing his sthick? The theme of the show was "How Star Trek changed history" and it was very entertaining. Well, here is a story that follows the same theme, but more than conceptual, it compares the tech of Star Trek with tech of today side by side. I think todays tech is better...

Abducted by aliens? You may have a case!

A German lawyer hopes to drum up more business by pursuing state compensation claims for people who believe they were abducted by aliens.

"There's quite obviously demand for legal advice here," Jens Lorek told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. "The trouble is, people are afraid of making fools of themselves in court."

top grossing star trek movies

If box office grosses are any indication, these Star Trek movies were the most popular. However, your fave Star Trek movie may not agree with the box office.
Where does yours stand...

• "Star Trek: First Contact"-- $146 million.
• "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"--$139 million.
• "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"--$133 million.
• "Star Trek Generations"--$120 million.
• "Star Trek: Insurrection"--$118 million.
• "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan"--$97 million.
• "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country"--$96.9 million.
• "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock"--$87 million.
• "Star Trek Nemesis"--$67 million.
• "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"--$63 million.

Mine came in sixth....

Top 211 Star Wars Lines Improved By Replacing A Word With "Pants"

yep, the title says it all....

Joss Whedon comments on Serenity sequel

Joss Whedon comments to a post on Whedonesque to squash rumors of a Serenity sequel.

"There's no sequel, no secret project regarding Serenity or some such and I'm not even sure how anyone thought there was talk there." were his comments on the blog.

Blogeasy sci-fi blog is down

Since the sci-fi blog is down, I am going to post science fiction related material here on blogger until something break on the other site... I like having a seperate blog for each topic but that isnt proving to be practical at the moment. so it goes.
Paul

Is an invisible plane possible?

Can an aircraft be to be invisible? Not to radar but to visible light. The eye so to speak.

Yes says VeraTech, a high tech company based in Minnesota. Research is continuing on the Phantom Sentinel, an experimental aircraft that is expected to be Y-shaped, consisting of a single long wing attached to two short aerodynamic extensions which each end in a propeller. Combine that will an overall blue color and as many clear parts as possible and one additional feature…The drone aircraft will spin like the rotor on a helicopter with the net effect being something very similar to what happens to an aircraft propeller or the rotor of a helicopter. When something spins at a high rate, persistence of vision in the human eye renders the object virtually invisible.

Software changes Armstrong's moon quote

An Australian computer programmer says he found the missing "a" from Armstrong's famous first words from the moon in 1969, when the world heard the phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."