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Science Faction: This Week’s Coolest Science News (2021 Week 3)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Fri, 22 Jan 2021 16:15:54 +0000

Welcome to Sci-Friday! Every week, we’ll help you head into the weekend by collecting some links from the best real-life science news that happened throughout the week, so you can mix a little reality into your fantasy. The International Space Station Captures Footage of Rare Upside-Down “Blue Jet” Lightning Most of us have been outside at some point in our lives and seen a lightning strike; it’s a certain kind of exhilaration to see the super-charged electricity come down from the clouds and strike the air and ground in a crackle of tendrils. But did you know there is a super-rare kind of blue lightning that shoots up from the clouds into the stratosphere? “Blue jets” are exceedingly rare, and that rarity has made the phenomenon incredibly hard to study – but scientists have recently caught a break, as the International Space Station captured a blue jet on their sensors last year. The unique “upside down lightning” was over 22 miles in length and occurred in only a 10-microsecond flash. Electric! (via Science News) Large Collections of Items from the Bronze Age May Have Served a Very Specific (and Modern-Sounding) Purpose The further we look back into history, the […]

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Science Faction: This Week’s Coolest Science News (2020 Week 45)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 18:12:32 +0000

Welcome to Sci-Friday! Every week, we’ll help you head into the weekend by collecting some links from the best real-life science news that happened throughout the week, so you can mix a little reality into your fantasy. 43 Years Later, Voyager 2 is in Deep Space and Still Answering NASA’s Calls If you get honked off when your phone that’s only a year old slows down and maybe even some of its basic functions stops working, then you’re really going to be frustrated with this story about one of the hardest-working pieces of technology ever made. Launched in 1977, the Voyager 2 space probe was designed to study the solar system during its initial fly-through, and then head on out to deep space to keep relaying information as long as it could. Its course has taken it so far askew of Earth’s plane that only one antenna on the planet can still communicate with it; after 8 months of planned maintenance on the antenna, it came back online recently and picked up chatting with the deep-space probe right where it left off earlier this year. (via Ars Technica) Ginormous Spider Thought Extinct Spotted in England for the First Time […]

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Science Faction: This Week’s Coolest Science News (2020 Week 44)

Tony Schaab - Senior Editor — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 15:31:41 +0000

Welcome to Sci-Friday! Every week, we’ll help you head into the weekend by collecting some links from the best real-life science news that happened throughout the week, so you can mix a little reality into your fantasy. Multiple Studies Confirm There is Water on the Moon Well, this is certainly where reality meets a long-time science fiction premise in a head-on collision! The scientific journal Nature Astronomy has published not one but two different studies that found evidence of water molecules and likely water ice on the shadowed side of the Moon. (from The Washington Post) A Mind-Bogglingly Tiny 3D-Printed USS Voyager That Moves Under its Own Power Okay, this is just downright geeky cool – a team at Leiden University in The Netherlands have 3D-printed the smallest microscopic self-propelled objects ever, and one of the objects they created was the USS Voyager (well, an unmarked Intrepid-class starship, anyhow). With the ability to move provided by chemical reaction, the starship measures in at 15 micrometers, so small that it could remain comfortably balanced on a single piece of human hair. (from PCGamer) Escaped Cloned Female Mutant Crayfish Take Over Belgian Cemetery I couldn’t write that headline any better […]

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Tom Cruise’s Movie In Space Reportedly Lands A $200 Million Budget

Jax Motes — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 12:00:18 +0000

Remember when Tom Cruise jumped on Oprah’s couch? I guess he gets excited like that a lot. Universal Pictures has ponied up a $200 million budget so that Cruise can make his movie in outer space, after an “exuberant” Zoom meeting between the studio, Cruise, director Doug Liman, and producers Christopher McQuarrie and PJ van Sandwijk. It appears the $200 million is a ballpark figure, as the script isn’t completed yet. It can easily cost $200 million to make a movie in PRETEND space, so who knows what this budget could blast off to? Liman is working on the screenplay and McQuarrie is reportedly serving as a story consultant. Cruise will also act as producer, and Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX, is involved as well. SpaceX recently had the first civilian space launch with the Crew Dragon shuttle, propelled by the Falcon 9 rocket, which successfully delivered astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, and it just so happens that most of Cruise’s movie is expected to film aboard the ISS. It should come as no surprise that on this risky venture, Cruise is working with people he has an established relationship with. He and McQuarrie […]

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Watch The SpaceX Crew Dragon’s Return To Earth LIVE This Sunday On ‘Space Launch Live: Splashdown’

Jax Motes — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 18:59:21 +0000

Following the record ratings of their coverage of the SpaceX Crew Dragon launch in May, Discovery and Science are teaming up again to cover the craft’s return next weekend. The telecast will be called ‘Space Launch Live: Splashdown.” The astronauts plan to land at sea, something that hasn’t been done since 1975. This was the first US crew to voyage to outer space in a privately built craft. The SpaceX Crew Dragon was propelled by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The destination was the International Space Station. Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley were the astronauts aboard and they will also be the two-man crew of the return journey. Walton Goggins narrated the first two-hour special. This special will be made in partnership with the Washington Post and its staff writer Christian Davenport, one of the country’s leading chroniclers of the space industry. Davenport will co-host the special, which will also include commentary from “current and former astronauts including Mike Massimino and Garrett Reisman, top engineers and other special guests, including adventurer and avid explorer Josh Gates. TV personality Chris Jacobs will pick up where he left off as host of the live return, and Emmy-winning journalist David Kerley will also […]

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Disney+ Goes Retro In The First Clip From ‘The Right Stuff’

Jax Motes — Sun, 26 Jul 2020 12:00:04 +0000

Get ready to blast back in time to the days of the space race, when the US was struggling to play catch-up to the Russians when it came to putting men in space. ‘The Right Stuff’ is the first scripted series that will be offered on Disney+ as part of its collaboration with National Geographic. (It was originally supposed to air on NatGeo.) The series stars Patrick J. Adams as John Glenn, James Lafferty as Scott Carpenter, Jake McDorman as Alan Shepard, Colin O’Donoghue as Gordon Cooper, Aaron Staton as Wally Schirra, Micah Stock as Deke Slayton, and Michael Trotter as Gus Grissom, plus Laura Ault, David Bolinger, Jordan Blair Brown, Avery Burns, Taegan Burns, Rachel Burttram, Lucy Capri, Christopher Cassarino, Josh Cooke, Patrick Fischler, Mamie Gummer, Chandler Head, Travis Herald, Kyra Johnson, Eric Ladin, Shannon Lucio, Eloise Mumford, Jade Albany Pietrantonio, Jackson Pace, Kaley Ronayne, Sacha Seberg, Danny Strong, Victoria White, Jordan Woods-Robinson, and Nora Zehetner. McDorman’s Alan Shepard is the focus of this first clip from ‘The Right Stuff’. The scene is light, as Shepard realizes he might be too late for the opportunity of a lifetime. At the very least, the show looks great, in a ‘Mad Men’ kind of […]

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‘Tesla’: Ethan Hawke Harnesses Lightning As Legendary Inventor In New Film Trailer

Jax Motes — Sun, 12 Jul 2020 12:00:43 +0000

Ethan Hawke is set to bring to life the turn of the century electrical innovator Niloka Tesla in ‘Tesla’ from IFC Films and writer/director Michael Almereyda (‘Marjorie Prime’). Kyle MacLachlan stars opposite Hawke as Tesla’s greatest rival, Thomas Edison. In addition, Jim Gaffigan appears as fellow electrical engineer George Westinghouse, and Donnie Keshawarz portrays inventor/financier John Pierpont (J.P.) Morgan. Eve Hewson co-stars as J.P.’s daughter, Anne Morgan, who looks to be the story’s narrator who inexplicably appears in the present, typing away on a laptop. “If you Google Nikola Tesla you get 34 million results. It’s basically just four pictures. Beyond that, things get murky.” At another point, she states: “The world we are living in is a dream that Tesla dreamed first.” It seems that the film depicts a romance between Tesla and Anne, but I’m not sure that that’s historically accurate, as Tesla was a well-known eccentric and never married. Check out the trailer below: Perhaps the most well-known film depiction of Tesla was David Bowie’s performance in the 2006 Christopher Nolan picture ‘The Prestige’. More recently, Nicholas Hoult played him in ‘The Current War’ in 2017. Earlier this year, Goran Višnjić portrayed Tesla opposite Robert Glenister‘s Thomas […]

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NASA Confirms Tom Cruise Is Filming A Movie In Space!

Jax Motes — Mon, 11 May 2020 19:27:41 +0000

Tom Cruise may be pushing 60, but he isn’t letting that slow him down. After performing a large portion of his own stunts in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies, he’s boldly going where no actor has before. Reportedly, Cruise is teaming up with billionaire Elon Musk and his Space X agency as well as NASA to film an action-adventure movie… IN SPACE! This project is in the earliest stages of development, so almost nothing is known, beyond the fact that this is not a ‘Mission: Impossible’ movie or a documentary. This will be a scripted action-adventure movie. The head of NASA not only confirmed (to CNN) that this project was a reality, but even went so far as to explain that most of the movie would be shot aboard the International Space Station and that Cruise would live on the space station during filming. Cruise previously narrated the 2002 IMAX documentary about the ISS. Space X and Boeing have been working to devise spacecraft that can travel back and forth to the ISS for tourism reasons. Space X has constructed a transport called the Crew Dragon, which it hopes to send on its first tourist trip later this month. Individual tickets for […]

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Concourse Media To Help Shop Nichelle Nichols NASA Documentary ‘Woman In Motion’

Jax Motes — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 19:47:43 +0000

Concourse Media will help shop the feature-length documentary ‘Woman In Motion’ about ‘Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols and her pioneering work to recruit men and women of color for NASA, particularly in the 1970s and ’80s. We first reported on the development of this project last year. Among those she helped recruit were Fred Gregory, the first African American space shuttle commander, and Ron McNair, “the second African American in space who perished in the Challenger accident.” Concourse plans to market the film at the upcoming Cannes virtual event, which replaces the normally star-studded Cannes Film Festival which is just one of the many media events worldwide that have been drastically altered due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nichols was a TV trailblazer for her role as Communications Officer Lt. Uhura on the original ‘Star Trek’ and parlayed that role to a position working with NASA, during which she helped recruit “thousands, including the first African American, Asian and Latino men and women to fly in space.” (via Deadline) In addition to those she actively helped recruit, she has been cited as an influence for Mae Jemison, the first African American woman in space, and Charles Bolden, the first African American NASA […]

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10 Online Science Fiction Games to Help You Pass the Time

Celina Banuelos — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 17:16:15 +0000

Being stuck at home with nothing to do can be a drag especially when you can’t go outside or see your friends. You’ve already binge-watched your favorite shows three times and you already reorganized your closet four times. You tried cutting your own hair and baking your own bread while trying to keep yourself entertained during these times. Sometimes it seems like there is nothing to do but eat or sleep while hanging out with the same people every day. There is only so much you can do when you must stay at home and keep your distance from society. Instead of looking out the window and feeling bad for yourself, pull out your phone or go to your computer and check out this list of online games that will add a little shake-up to your day. There are a variety of genres for these sci-fi based games that you can choose form for players of all kinds. There are puzzle games, shooter games, defense games and fighting games available for you to play and keep your mind off today’s current events. Don’t worry if you’re not a professional gamer because we have games of varying difficulty and genres. Maybe […]

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Interview: ‘Cosmos: Possible Worlds’ Neil DeGrasse Tyson And Ann Druyan On Presenting Science In A Science Denial World

Janice Kay — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 19:47:41 +0000

In a time when the attack on science has become commonplace, National Geographic’s ‘Cosmos’ presents like a beacon of hope. Developed by Ann Druyan, the widow of renown scientist Carl Sagan, and hosted by astrophysicist and cult icon Neil deGrasse Tyson, the third season of ‘Cosmos,’ aptly titled “Possible Worlds,” presents viewers with a somewhat optimistic, albeit cautious, view of the world and the potential of what the future holds by not only exploring the possibilities of life outside the confines of our planet, but also scientifically exploring the possibilities of the world around us. During an interview with both Druyan and Tyson promoting the upcoming season of ‘Cosmos’ on the Nat Geo channel, Druyan lights up as she explains, “That’s exactly what I intended with the title: not just the possible worlds of the exo-planets that we can visit, worlds of other suns, but the worlds within us. ‘Cosmos: Possible Worlds’ is a vision of the future we can still have if we have the wisdom and the will to act on what the scientists are telling us.” But how will this season translate within the current environment of science deniers? After all, a lot has changed since the […]

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Twitter May Offer Self-Deleting Posts Called “Fleets”

Mike Phalin — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 20:20:30 +0000

Looking for a new way to tweet that’s less likely to come back and bite you in the rear later? Try fleeting. Yes, it’s the temporary tattoo of social media engagement. All the fun, none of the remorse. Well, that’s what Twitter is hoping at least according to Deadline. Fleets are tweets with limited engagement options and an even more limited lifespan, 24 hours. Brazil is ground zero for testing the new feature. The country boasts the 5th largest number of Twitter users in the world. Why exactly Brazil was chosen over the UK, the US or Japan is unclear. Regardless, if this experiment turns out to be well-liked, we could see it appear in other countries. Mo Al Adham is the product manager from Twitter’s Brazilian branch. In the company’s blog he put forth this rationale for needing fleets: “Some people say they feel insecure to Tweet because Tweets are public, permanent and exhibit public engagement counts (likes and Retweets). [Fleets] are a way to have conversations initiated with your fleeting thoughts. We hope that those people who are not usually comfortable with Tweeting use Fleets to talk about the reflections that come to their head.” Fleets would allow […]

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Your Alexa Device Can Now Curse You Out With The Samuel L. Jackson Voice Package!

Jax Motes — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 08:36:04 +0000

First announced in September, Amazon’s celebrity voice program for Alexa devices is now available, and the first celebrity voice you can download is Samuel L. Jackson. And yes, he curses! (If you want him to.) He’s in the cloud baby! Hollywood legend Samuel L. Jackson is here to add some fun to your Alexa experience. Just ask and Sam will give you the weather, play your favorite music, tell jokes, and more. To get started, just say, “Alexa, introduce me to Samuel L. Jackson.” Then, choose whether you’d like Sam to use explicit language or not. If you change your mind later, simply go to the settings menu of the Alexa app to toggle between clean and explicit content. After purchasing, try saying: “Alexa, ask Samuel L. Jackson where he is from.” “Alexa, ask Sam to wake me up at 7am.” “Alexa, ask Sam Jackson to sing happy birthday.” Although he can do a lot, Sam won’t be able to help with Shopping, lists, reminders or Skills. Here is a quick promotional video: Yes, the introductory price is only 99 cents! It will later go up to $4.99, which is still a decent price to have the legendary Samuel […]

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‘Avatar’ Sequels: James Cameron Doesn’t Understand Shooting Entire Movies In High Frame Rate

Jax Motes — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 00:32:33 +0000

Ang Lee has been exploring the limits of filmmaking technology including 3D and shooting in high 120 frames-per-second (FPS) rates. He received acclaim for such innovations in ‘The Life of Pi’ in 2012. Then, Lee shot his drama ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ (2016) in 120 FPS, much to everyone’s confusion. Why bother? It turns out, Lee used ‘Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk’ as an experiment in order to get more comfortable with the process before moving on to his next movie, the major sci-fi action flick, ‘Gemini Man’. For this picture, Lee used CGI to create a 20-something Will Smith, among other digital enhancements, including the high frame rate (HFR). It didn’t help, as the movie bombed and it is speculated that ‘Gemini Man’ will lose $75 million at the box office. Most movies are shot with 24 FPS, so 48 is double that. ‘The Hobbit’ movies were shot in 48 FPS and some people found that visually disturbing. So 120 is… well, even more visually disturbing. RELATED: ‘Gemini Man’ Special Effects Are Too Advanced For Modern Theaters Another director that has heavily explored and pushed the technologies of CGI is James Cameron, who is busy crafting […]

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Hulu Adds A Downloading Option But With Limitations

Jax Motes — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 19:00:36 +0000

The streaming wars are heating up, and in response, one of the oldest services has added a feature that will hopefully keep it competitive– downloading, which allows users to view selected programming while offline. This allows users to access Hulu programming when they don’t have internet access, without using up their data, when traveling for instance. Netflix has offered this feature for a while now, and it has proven quite popular. Amazon Prime also offers downloads, but their plan has more restrictions. (Hulu’s plan will be closer to Netflix’s than Amazon’s.) Unfortunately, the feature of downloads is only available with the $11.99/month no commercials package. It isn’t available with the $5.99/month ad-supported plan. However, for current Hulu subscribers that plan to subscribe to Disney+, this won’t help, because the only version of Hulu that is being bundled with Disney+ is the cheaper ad-supported one. (That also includes ESPN+, which literally no one wants.) However, if, at the present time, you subscribe to the commercial-free version of Hulu, you can start downloading now… provided you use an iOS device. Yes, in addition to only being available with the higher-priced subscription, users must use Apple products (iPhone, iPad, etc.). Hulu states that […]

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