By Michael Johnson Plants grow just about everywhere on Earth, and are able to adapt to extreme conditions ranging from drought to disease. Spaceflight, however, exposes plants to stresses not found anywhere on their home planet. Growing plants aboard the International Space Station provides a unique opportunity to study how plants adapt to microgravity, and a team […]
Read More Putting Down Roots in SpaceI have an interest in the mining of asteroids, which features as a central driver of the plot in my upcoming novel The Cloud. By Philip Metzger Mining asteroids might seem like the stuff of science fiction, but there are companies and a few governments already working hard to make it real. This should not be surprising: […]
Read More Want Faster Data and a Cleaner Planet? Start Mining AsteroidsSomebody cut the cake – new documents reveal that American oil writ large was warned of global warming at its 100th birthday party. By Benjamin Franta It was a typical November day in New York City. The year: 1959. Robert Dunlop, 50 years old and photographed later as clean-shaven, hair carefully parted, his earnest face donning […]
Read More Big Oil Has Known About Climate Change Since the 50sBy Mara Johnson-Groh The space high above Earth may seem empty, but it’s a carnival packed with magnetic field lines and high-energy particles. This region is known as the magnetosphere and, every day, charged particles put on a show as they dart and dive through it. Like tiny tightrope walkers, the high-energy electrons follow the […]
Read More NASA Studies the MagnetosphereRoads of the future could be lit by glowing trees instead of streetlamps, thanks to a breakthrough in creating bioluminescent plants. Experts injected specialized nanoparticles into the leaves of a watercress plant, which caused it to give off a dim light for nearly four hours. This could solve lots of problems. The chemical involved, which […]
Read More Living Plant LightsBy Doris Elin Salazar If you’ve ever wondered what kind of weather Jon Snow faces as he fights against White Walkers in the hit television fantasy series “Game of Thrones,” the conditions are about the same as they are in Fairbanks, Alaska, according to a new climate simulation of the fictitious realm. Plus, dragons scorching up Westeros […]
Read More ‘Game of Thrones’ Climate Simulator Explains Crazy Weather of WesterosTimescape by Gregory Benford My rating: 5 of 5 stars Read for the 12 Awards in 12 Months Reading Challenge, the Apocalypse Now! Reading Challenge, the Hard Core Sci-fi Reading Challenge, and the SF Masterworks Reading Challenge and the Science Fiction Masterworks Book Club. Method of the world’s destruction: A major failure of chemical balance […]
Read More Book Review: Timescape by Gregory BenfordI recently wrote a story centered in part around a building that had a lot in common with this. Very excited to see it becoming a reality! An apartment, retail, and office complex with an abundance of greenery is going up in Cairo, Egypt. Designed by Vincent Callebaut Architectures, the complex will feature nine cylindrical structures covered in plants, […]
Read More The Gate: Apartment Complex of the FutureBy Megan Hunter I can chart the progress of my life through the types of apocalypse I have feared. As a child, the endings I imagined were natural, even cosmic: the land swallowed by the sea, the sun swallowing the earth. When I was an adolescent the man-made came to the fore, as I searched […]
Read More The Hopeful Side of Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
