• Science

    Ask an Interspecies Musicologist

    By Posted on 5.21.2008 2 Comments

    Humpback whales sing some of the most beautiful songs in the animal world. It’s not just “woo, woo, woo”—their songs last 10 to 15 minutes and have a definite form, usually consisting of five or six unique phrases. Only the males sing, which has led many scientists to theorize that they croon to attract females. The hole in this argument, though, is that no one has ever seen a female whale show any interest in a male’s song.

    5.21.2008 at 08:26pm - Comment by FrankieJ1966

    The few popular artists that have actually taken a whole 15 minutes with a composition usually manage to pack quite a few things in there to ponder... In Starfleet, cetaceans have a whole section to themselves, for the navigational and mapping purposes of the Federation. 'Cause there are none better in the known galaxy... :-)

  • Entertainment & Gaming

    The Science of Sci-Fi

    By Posted on 4.30.2008 6 Comments

    In the world of cinematic science fiction one of the most appealing themes involves a universe brimming over with intelligent life. In this imagined future (or past) humans interact with alien friend and foe because they've at last hammered down the ability to travel to distant stars and galaxies, and, yes, "to boldly go where no man has gone before. Having grown up on the original Star Trek series, observed the effect of the Star Wars movies on the zeitgeist of movie-going generations and enjoyed sci-fi soap operas like Battlestar Galactica, I have to admit I wish we could make it happen; no matter the odds.

    5.2.2008 at 07:57pm - Comment by FrankieJ1966

    Just so's ya know: Star Trek literally sidesteps the physical universe with warp drive. Warp nacelles create something called a subspace field which allows the ship to enter subspace and travel at the FTL speeds. Subspace is concurrent with and parallel to the physical universe. They also pay particular attention to the theory of relativity: "full impulse" power while in real space is limited to 0.25c to limit time dilation effect on the crew. I had no idea as a child and new Star Trek fan in the mid-Seventies that one day as an adult, I would have a wireless communication device that is eerily similar to the props they used, nor that I would have a computer that essentially has access to the cumulative knowledge, information, and history of our entire civilization... Go, JJ Abrams, "Star Trek" in theaters May 2009!!!!!!



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