September 19, 2026
When we think about colonizing Mars, we usually imagine advanced spacesuits, dome cities, and massive terraforming projects.
Beyond Spacesuits: How Genetic Engineering Could Make Us Martian
Wish I had seen this writing prompt this past June! I could have written…
Well, probably something very similar to this. Only without the obvious use of AI.
Just think, though…this would be the beginning of a new species of human, the first in several hundreds of thousands of years.
Homo Martis?
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!)
June 16, 2026
“In the mission’s first five years, it’s expected to unveil more than 100,000 distant worlds, hundreds of millions of stars, and billions of galaxies,” [Julie McEnery, senior project scientist] said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/nasa-roman-space-telescope-launch-fastest-ever-rcna349773
It should be ready for launch in August, to be parked at the L2 Lagrange space near James Webb ((which has been there since 2021).
Two decades in the making. Yet “under budget and ahead of schedule”? Really?
I’m all for discovering tens of thousands of possibly inhabited worlds and learning more about dark energy and dark matter. But I’d also like to see a little more practical tech from NASA. How will this help us settle the solar system and figure out how to visit other systems?
February 17, 2026
February 21, 2025
Hi, everyone. I know I haven’t posted in a while now (about three months).
Things happened. I’ll see if I can deal with that in a post this weekend before returning to regularly blogging about astronomy and etc.
Winter is still here! (In the northern hemisphere.) Going on walks and hiking in 3C windy weather only makes hot chocolate taste that much better…
☕️
June 16, 2024
This is how I’ve been feeling the past couple of weeks…
Just too hot. And too busy. And tired.
And my favorite baseball teams keep losing.
At least for Father’s Day my wife got me nice food and drink. Maybe that’ll help get my mojo back…
(The image is of my youngest daughter’s art bag from last year. She has also complained of not being able to write much lately…)
April 8, 2024
Researchers will fly rockets into the path of the eclipse, stand in zoos watching animals, send radio signals across the globe, and peer into space with massive cameras.
And you don’t need to be a scientist to take part.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-68742516
If you’re lucky enough to have no clouds or rain, that is.
Things the eclipse affects:
Things scientists can view thanks to an eclipse:
The East Coast of North America, where most of my relatives live, is currently 13 hours behind me in Japan. So the event will be long over by the time I wake up.
Hope to see video of it on the morning news show tomorrow!
March 13, 2024
Water molecules have been detected in asteroid samples returned to Earth, but this marks the first time that the molecules have been discovered on the surface of an asteroid in space. The team studied four silicate-rich asteroids using data from the now-retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy(SOFIA).
https://www.popsci.com/science/water-asteroid-space/
The asteroids in question are Iris (124 miles / 200 km in diameter) and Massalia (84 miles / 135 km). Both are in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Iris is about the size of the US state of Maryland, while Massalia is roughly the size of Connecticut.
Note that the same observatory also found water on the Moon, about a “12-ounce bottle” worth. Not nearly enough for a settlement, but where there’s surface water (albeit trapped in soil on the surface), there’s likely to be more underneath.
(See also https://www.swri.org/press-release/swri-scientists-identify-water-molecules-asteroids-the-first-time — the PopSci linked article above essentially plagiarised almost its entire text. Bad scientist, bad.)
Original article here: Arrendono et al. (2024) Detection of molecular H20 on nominally anhydrous asteroids. Planet. Sci. J. 5. 37 doi 10.3847/PSJ/ad18b8 – good luck trying to read it!
March 8, 2024
Hello, everyone, and thank you for reading!
This is a short (~8 minute) video I made to introduce the story Bringer of Light.
I’ll be posting a couple more videos in the near future about the characters, location, and science behind the story.
Check it out, and share freely!
February 21, 2024
It’s been well-known for some time now that the building blocks of life called amino acids can be found on asteroids strewn throughout the solar system.
It’s also thought that water on Earth is largely (or entirely) the result of comets and asteroids bombarding it (it remains debatable to what degree Earth already had water, but since when it formed the Earth was first molten lava and then dry as a bone, I think it far more likely that water came here from elsewhere, and science tends to agree).
I’ve already blogged about the origins of Bringer of Light, when I (finally) finished the first draft back in early September. In a sense, I’ve been constantly blogging the science behind the story.
But I haven’t discussed the characters at all. And despite what some old-fashioned writers may think (just finished a particularly badly-written snarky “why your books don’t sell” piece of trash that claimed science fiction shouldn’t have any emotions in it…say what? sorry not sorry), if the characters of a story aren’t interesting, there isn’t much point in reading a story.
So for the next couple of weeks, I’ll write a bit about the characters — the crew of the Artemis, the crew of the Sagittarius, the UN flunkies (sorry, career politicos) on Mars and Luna and so forth. There are lots of characters, and their interaction is complicated. Or is it?
I would get into my scifi influences at this point, but long blogs are slogs. So I’ll come back to that tomorrow!
Coffee time. Also to finish up at least one unrelated project and also the hardcover manuscript (which needs to be a different paper size than the paperback for some reason).
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