Results tagged “sciam” from 60 Second Science

War is bad and all, but recent news of an errant satellite and our military's plans to blow it out of the sky has stoked the fires of our Millennium Falcon-loving youth. Luckily, our thoughtful, do-gooder big brother spent less time breaking out the action figures and actually investigated the possibility of the U.S. and China engaging in a protracted arms race in outer space. Basically, the Pentagon is already thinking about it seriously, but astronomical (heh) costs and mitigating factors (debris in orbit from space battles could interfere with essential communications satellites) might hold us or the Chinese back from building a Death Star anytime soon.

Even cooler than the article, though, is the space weapons slideshow our sibling provided at no extra charge. It covers possible space weapons, connected technology, and the feasibility and costs of getting said super-weapons off the ground. Badass entries include: a ground-based antisatellite laser, kinetic-energy interceptors, offensive satellites, and space-based hypersonic bombers (pictured left). Yes! Way to go, bro!

Continue reading 'Pew! Pew! Is an arms race in space on the horizon?' >

(See the full gallery here.)

When most people think of aliens, they think of little green men with almond eyes.

But when physicist, cosmologist and astrobiologist Paul Davies sat down to imagine what they might actually look like, he turned to the world of the very small.

Artist and illustrator Jean-Francois Podevin took Davies' ideas about improbably tiny alien bacteria, silicon based life-forms, and the potential that life arose more than once, and turned them into some of the most stunning illustrations ever seen in Scientific American.

Related: November cover story, Are Aliens Among Us?

As they say on the mean streets of Coral Gables where I'm currently blogging from, every now and then you gots to pimp one of our own. Big ups, then, to Paul Davies cover story looking into the possibilities surrounding the origin of all life of in the pages of our own benevolent paterfamilias, Sciam.

It's well-written and researched, sure -- but Davies had me at hello for one reason and one reason only: Aliens.

Continue reading 'They Live: 'Aliens Among Us'' >