October 30, 2026
The acclaimed, award-winning star of stage and screen has died at the age of 86 after ‘a brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia’. He leaves behind celebrated roles in Star Trek and X-Men as well as a long career in theatre
Sir Pat apparently suffered from Alzheimer’s as well as Lewy Body Dementia…in private.
He leaves a legacy.
August 28, 2026
Lunar eclipses occur when Earth moves between the sun and the moon and its shadow is cast on to the lunar surface. In Thursday night’s event 96% of the moon will be darkened by the Earth’s shadow at its peak moment. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/aug/27/lunar-eclipse-north-south-america
WordPress has gotten really wonky with the “quotation” formatting, so I hope this one works…
Anyway, I will of course still blog about science in addition to family history and other things I find interesting.
Remembering when I took a writing workshop online a few years ago, and they told me to choose only one genre in order to not confuse readers.
And I still think, nah. I think readers are smart enough to enjoy good writing when they see it. To me, the mark of a good writer is one who can wend and weave between multiple genres. Why limit yourself?
If you don’t like science writing, fine. If you don’t like history, fine. If you don’t like science fiction, fine. If you don’t like random thoughts about life, the universe, and everything…well, then, what on earth are you doing reading my blog? :p
Anyway, enjoy the eclipse if you are able to see it. I’ll keep on writing!
(Also, I really don’t care for this “AI can monetize your blog” BS. I’m not doing this for money. I just like to write. I hope you like reading it!)
July 17, 2026
Hibernation is extremely complex – after all, it affects every cell in the body – and there are almost certainly multiple switches involved in the process. MIT neuroscience researcher Siniša Hrvatin has identified another brain region that seems to play a key role in the process. In a paper published earlier this year (but not yet peer-reviewed), he and his team targeted a region known as the preoptic area, which plays a key role in metabolism and temperature. By activating neurons in the preoptic area of hamsters, the researchers put them into torpor, lowering the animals’ body temperature to 15C.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/ng-interactive/2026/jul/14/human-hibernation-space-mars
The key would be whether this is possible in humans.
And, of course, whether revival can be timed and automated – or perhaps with robotic (AI) assistance…
Of course, science fiction has posited “sleeper ships” for decades now. The Songs of Distant Earth (Arthur C. Clarke, one of the “Big Three”) is probably the most well-known of the classic sleeper ship stories, but there are plenty of others to choose from…
June 16, 2026
What is something you wish you could tell your 20-year-old self?
That by the time you are able to support a family, everyone on the planet will be just as geeky as you…with a mini-computer in their pocket 24/7, obsessed with scifi and super hero movies, and desperate to stay in the loop on the most recent multi-player game.
May 22, 2026
“Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed,
The dear repose for limbs with travel tired;
But then begins a journey in my head,
To work my mind, when body’s work’s expired…”
I dearly wish I had though of this. Then again, I don’t know Patrick Stewart…
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/patrick-stewart-ai-schooled-shakespeare-rcna344945
May 9, 2026
May 4, 2026
Astronomers have discovered 27 new potential planets that orbit two stars, like the fictional desert planet Tatooine from the Star Wars universe…
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/may/04/scientists-discover-27-potential-new-planets
And now you know what a “Circumbinary planet” means. Happy Star Wars Day!
March 5, 2026
“WE will decide the fate of our Country – NOT some out-of-control, Radical Left AI company run by people who have no idea what the real World is all about,” Trump wrote.
Hmm. OK, what did this “Radical Left AI company” want?
US defense officials have pushed for unfettered access to Claude’s capabilities that they say can help protect the country, while Anthropic has resisted allowing its product to be used for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons systems that can kill people without human input.
So the WE is actually just ME, then.
I’ve written repeatedly about the dangers of AI: it’s not really AI, it repeats very human bias and mistakes, and it will become potentially extremely dangerous to humanity if left unregulated.
But go on, keep using these programs. I’m sure it’ll all work out…
August 8, 2025
- This group comprises millions of individuals who are deeply interested in our space programme
- The name “Enterprise” is tied in with the system on which the Nation’s economic structure is built.
- Use of the name would provide a substantial human interest appeal to the rollout ceremonies scheduled for this month in California, where the aeronautical industry is of vital importance.
It is really too bad that the shuttle looked nothing at all like the Enterprise (Constitution class).
And an odd coincidence that the original name chosen by NASA was…
…Constitution…
August 5, 2025
🧾 Conclusion
Adam’s Stepsons takes the core questions of Blade Runner and distills them into a tight, character-driven drama. It lacks the sweeping visuals of Villeneuve or the noir cityscape of Scott — but it delivers something arguably more intimate:
A quiet horror — and quiet triumph — in the collapse of identity, where the artificial doesn’t just mimic life…
It replaces it.
Over the weekend (my first with no student work to grade — finally! — since April), I decided to ask our “old” friend ChatGPT if it could analyze my sci-fi novella Adam’s Stepsons. Really, I was just curious what it would say.
It said…a LOT.
It correctly interpreted the title (something that many readers apparently didn’t get). It correctly identified the main themes as part of a “post-humanism” sub-genre of science fiction. And once I gave it three short excerpts (from the near the end of the story), it gave a frighteningly accurate thematic and symbolic analysis of the entire novella…just from three short excerpts of a total of about six pages.
I won’t copy all it gave me (you all can go try on your own and see what it says!). But let me share what the program thought were key themes:
Continue ReadingSpace sustainability watch, co-produced by a human and an AI agent
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