Category: Uncategorized

Episode 97 of Stories from Space is Now Live!

Episode 97 of Stories from Space is Now Live!

For this week’s episode, I had a very special guest: Dr. Moriba Jah, a man with more titles, credentials, and honors than I could possibly fit into a single paragraph. Check out his website if you doubt me or just want to know what they all are. But to give you the TL: DR version, Moriba Jah is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin. He’s a major advocate for the “stewardship” of Earth and space and a promoter of sustainable living in both.

He has worked extensively with NASA, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and several premier academic institutions. He is also well-traveled and has earned a wide following for his advocacy for sustainability and humanity’s future in space. If we are to live beyond Earth, he states, humanity must either evolve by means of augmentation (homo machina), or we will need to take Earth’s systems with us – meaning bioregenerative life support systems and living, or Terraforming.

He’s been interviewed and featured by so many outlets and in so many forums that I consider myself the luckiest podcaster to actually secure an interview with him. Follow the links to learn more and hear some truly quotable quotes!

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Episode 96 of Stories from Space is now Live!

Episode 96 of Stories from Space is now Live!

Forgive me for the late announcement, folks, but life has been rather busy lately. In any case, the latest episode of SfS is out, and the subject is, “What discoveries has the James Webb Space Telescope made so far?” This is a subject that I’m rather fond of, given the many scientific breakthroughs that have come from Webb’s three General Observations cycles. They are now into number four, which I am covering for Universe Today. And this has made me want to take stock of everything this next-generation observatory has revealed about the Universe until now.

The breakthroughs it has allowed for can be broken down into three categories: galaxies that existed in the very early Universe, the first supermassive black holes (SMBHs), and exoplanet characterization. Check the links below to hear more!

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Episode 95 – WTF is Happening at NASA? (Part II) – is Now Live!

Episode 95 – WTF is Happening at NASA? (Part II) – is Now Live!

In this two-part episode, I interviewed former NASA scientist and astrobiologist Keith Cowing, the creator and editor of NASA Watch and Astrobiology.com. In part I, we discussed the current state of things at NASA amid the DOGE shakeup (somewhere between uncertainty and total chaos). In this installment, we followed this up with a look at how NASA’s long-term plans, which have changed many times in the past twenty years. Follow the links below to learn more.

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Episode 93 of Stories from Space is now Live!

Episode 93 of Stories from Space is now Live!

This week, I sat down with Dr. Will Grundy, an astronomer and planetary scientist with the Lowell Observatory—the place where Dr. Tombaugh discovered Pluto in 1930! Who better to speak to about Pluto and the “Great Planet Debate”? The debate began in the early 2000s with the discovery of many new objects orbiting beyond Pluto. It was “resolved” with the IAU decision of 2006 that defined a planet as a celestial body that:

“(a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.”

As you’ll see in this episode, the debate is far from over and can get pretty contentious. Planetary scientists, astrogeologists, and people from other disciplines have criticized the IAU’s rather narrow definition and believe that planethood should be extended to all the major bodies of our Solar System. Follow the links below to learn why…

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“But he’s Always Nice to ME” — The Problem with MAGA and America

“But he’s Always Nice to ME” — The Problem with MAGA and America

When ignorance, complacency, and selfishness come together, you have the death of empathy. A lack of empathy is how mass atrocities are able to happen.

The past few weeks have been a nightmare for many people in the U.S., not to mention those of us who live in the countries immediately bordering it. Naturally, at times like this, I worry about my family, friends, and colleagues who live in the U.S. and are forced to live through another Trump administration and the dumpster fire that follows him. They are horrified by what’s happening right now and asking how it could have possibly happened again.

Continue reading ““But he’s Always Nice to ME” — The Problem with MAGA and America” →

Protocol: Succession

Protocol: Succession

The following is a piece of flash fiction inspired by a conversation between science communicator and cosmobiologist Graham Lau, myself, and others via Twitter. Everything and everyone depicted within is pure fiction, though they may allude to famous people living or dead.

It hovered before him. The mass of entangled particles, shining, black, blue, and chrome, whirling around a common center like a hive of frighteningly synchronized insects. Abu knew better, but the image was unshakable. So many tiny machines coordinated by a common intelligence. And they were emitting a loud humming noise that sounded distinctly like a high-pitched buzz.

Continue reading “Protocol: Succession” →

Boltzmann’s Brainchild

Boltzmann’s Brainchild

His head was hurting. His mouth was dry. His entire body felt uninspired and feeble. He felt much the same a short while ago when he left the dinner table. How long ago was that? What time was it?

He’d left his watch upstairs and hadn’t the capacity to find a clock right now. But a quick pass by the hall window confirmed that the Sun was coming up. They were firmly in the AM, and he was forced to accept that it was no longer the previous evening.

No appreciation for time! Why was that?

Continue reading “Boltzmann’s Brainchild” →

A Sneak Peak at Exogenisis!

A Sneak Peak at Exogenisis!

Hello again! I am going to do something I haven’t done in a long time here and share some creative writing I’ve been working on. In truth, I have done a lot of creative writing these past few years that I have failed to share here. I decided it was time to rectify this, and what better way to start than to share the first chapter of one of my current WIPs? It is titled Exogenesis, and it is a story that has taken a long time for me to realize!

I described this idea a short while ago in another post (“A Visit to the Ideas Folder“). In fact, I described two ideas, one titled Pilgrimage and the other titled Exogenesis. As I wrote at the time, Pilgrimage is a short story about distant origins and how future humans may come to trace their ancestry back to Earth. It is also the first chapter in the full-length version set in the same universe, titled Exogenesis. I am told that this is how many of the greats realized their first novels, so I decided to give it a try.

In any case, here’s the first chapter in full! A word of warning: there’s a lot of linguistics and semantic evolution in here, so some words won’t make a lot of sense at first sight. But I’m hoping the context will help resolve all that. Enjoy!

Continue reading “A Sneak Peak at Exogenisis!” →

Episode 89 of Stories from Space is now Live!

Episode 89 of Stories from Space is now Live!

The dream of interstellar travel, of reaching another star system and setting foot on another world, has been with us for centuries. However, with the dawn of the Space Age, this dream began to materialize as multiple scientific proposals were made. These included iconic studies like Project Orion, Project Daedalus, Project Icarus, and the Enzmann Starship, concepts that either prioritized speed or settling in for a long journey!

As we enter a new era of space exploration, many of these concepts are being reconsidered while new ones are being researched. These include antimatter propulsion, the HALO Drive, the fabled Alcubierre Warp Drive, and directed energy propulsion (DEP). The question is, which of these methods are feasible within our lifetimes? More to the point, how long before we can start sending crewed missions to other stars?

Follow the links below to learn more…

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Episode 87 of SfS is now Live! “The Space Race: Part II”

Episode 87 of SfS is now Live! “The Space Race: Part II”

This week’s episode is the second installment in the Space Race. In the previous installment, we examined how the American and Soviet space programs were locked in a competition to “get there first.” This included sending the first satellites, animals, and astronauts/cosmonauts to space, in which the Soviets obtained an early lead. By the mid-60s, with the Gemini program, NASA surpassed its Soviet counterparts and was poised to make the Moonshot!

From 1966 onward, both NASA and the Soviets pursued the same goal: sending crewed missions to the Moon. While NASA’s efforts were bold and public, the Soviets developed their own plans in secret. In 1969, history was made when Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first humans to set foot on the lunar surface. They would be followed by no less than six more Apollo missions and twelve astronauts.

With the Space Race officially over, both NASA and the Soviet space program began to set their sights on more long-term goals. They also entered into a new era of cooperation in space, which was demonstrated in the famous “handshake in space” and would eventually lead to the International Space Station (ISS).

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