So far in the series of speculations about the Fermi Paradox—why a galaxy that should be teeming with signs of intelligent life is silent—we’ve gotten a range for N, the number of detectable civilizations in the galaxy, to [5e-7 to 8e-6] * f_c * L. Today’s post will estimate the value of f_c, the fraction […]
The Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation – From Intelligence to High-Tech Civ (f_c) Read More »
I’m pleased to tell you about two new books I have coming out this summer from CV-2 Books. Coming July 17, 2014 OPERATION IAGO On July 17, 2014, return to the Confederated Worlds in the thrilling sequel to Take the Shilling The Confederated Worlds lost the war. Can Lt. Tomas Neumann win the peace? By
You may have heard that Samuel R. Delany was recently named 2013 Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA). He will receive the award at the Nebula Awards weekend in May 2014. Long time readers of this blog knew he would win the honor last September. Following up on my prediction that
SFWA Grand Master – next prediction Read More »
In our last post, where speculations about the Fermi Paradox moved from astrophysics to the life sciences, we looked at some of the many ways life could be prevented from giving rise to a pre-intelligent species–say, an animal like Proconsul, the earliest known ape, living about 25 million years ago. In doing so, we knocked
The Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation – From the Cusp, to Intelligence (f_i, part 2) Read More »
My ebook sale is entering its final weekend. Now through Sunday, every ebook edition of all my stories and novels are on sale at over 50% off list price. That’s right, for less than the price of a latte, you can buy a novel or three short stories, from most major ebook retailers in countries
Ebook Sale, Final Weekend Read More »
As I mentioned previously, now through November 11, every ebook edition of all my stories and novels are on sale at over 50% off list price. That’s right, you can buy a novel for $2.99 or a short story for less than a dollar, from most major ebook retailers in countries around the world, including
Ebook Sale, Over 50% Off! Read More »
I had a marvelous image: a synthetic planet in the Kuiper Belt–deep deep space, far beyond the orbit of Neptune–made solely from water. We let buoyant fusion reactors drift in its depths, fusing deuterium extracted from all that water to provide the light and heat needed to keep the planet liquid. (All that water makes
The Universe Doesn’t Care Read More »
Autumn is the season to sit near the fire with a good book. To help you do that, now through November 11, every ebook edition of all my stories and novels are on sale at over 50% off list price. That’s right, for less than the price of a latte, you can buy a novel
Ebooks on Sale, Over 50% Off! Read More »
Thanks to Asher Pembroke and Victoria Astley, a while ago I was on a panel with “Analog MAFIA” member Alexis Glynn Latner, and Chad Wilson of the University of Houston to the Rice Physics and Astronomy Graduate Student Association about “The Interplay of Science and Science Fiction.” There’s about an hour of great video that
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Charles Chase of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works (the folks who designed the U-2 and SR-71 reconnaisance planes and the F-22 Raptor, among other aircraft) recently gave a talk suggesting his group’s work could lead to commercially available nuclear fusion reactors within 15 years. Here are some quick thoughts: He’s talking about deuterium-tritium fusion. Deuterium is
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