Cancer Posted December 23, 2023 Report Share Posted December 23, 2023 This is a recent real-science article suggesting that one could "look inside of", e.g., the Sun, by watching what happens to gravitational waves when the Sun moves in front of a source of those, like a compact neutron star binary. The emphasis in the article is on the possibility of the technique and what you might learn from it. It had never occurred to me before to think about gravity waves being "refracted" by astronomical objects but it could happen. At the very least, it gives Star Hero GMs another kind of handwavium from which to make up detection systems. DentArthurDent, L. Marcus, Scott Ruggels and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted December 23, 2023 Report Share Posted December 23, 2023 At least it's not a**pullium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted December 23, 2023 Report Share Posted December 23, 2023 That's what you need to make a cloaking device against detection via gravitational waves. L. Marcus 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted December 27, 2023 Report Share Posted December 27, 2023 This one of Mr Arthur's explores some notions of possible aliens that are rather more alien than one usually sees in media SF... and therefore a lot more frightening. Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 2 Author Report Share Posted January 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Ruggels Posted January 6 Report Share Posted January 6 tkdguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DShomshak Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 A good, focused one from Isaac Arthur this week. He's mentioned statites in passing in several episodes. This time he describes them (and variations) in depth, and why they could be a foundational space technology. (I'm particularly reminded of the solar mirror that helps warm the planet Komarr in Bujold's "Vorkosigan" series. Turns out, it could be a considerably more sophisticated piece of technology... and not nearly as expensive as presented. Komarr alone could probably build as many of these mirrors as they wanted.) Dean Shomshak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 8 Report Share Posted January 8 1 hour ago, DShomshak said: (I'm particularly reminded of the solar mirror that helps warm the planet Komarr in Bujold's "Vorkosigan" series. Turns out, it could be a considerably more sophisticated piece of technology... and not nearly as expensive as presented. Komarr alone could probably build as many of these mirrors as they wanted.) Solar mirrors also make a prominent appearance in R. Talsorian's Planet Algol setting for the Mekton RPG, where they're vital to holding off the encroaching glaciers during an impending Ice Age. The planet's two warring superpowers have largely put things on hold until the climate stabilizes and about the only thing they can agree on is expanding, maintaining and protecting the mirror project. Somewhat predictably there are terrorist revolutionaries trying to blow them up, which is played up as much more of an immediate menace than it probably should be. Of course it was written last century, much like the Vorkosigan books, so the scifi feels a little dated sometimes. Both fun reads though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted January 18 Report Share Posted January 18 Quote My updated and expanded guide to science fiction with reasonable astronomy is now available free on line. The 23-page guide is organized by topic; so, for example, all the stories that feature reasonable depictions of black holes are in one place. Some 44 astronomy (and related physics) topics are covered, and each story is briefly described. For students (or instructors) on limited budgets, the new version includes 88 links to published stories that are available free on the Web. Find the guide at: http://bit.ly/astronomyscifi From the astronomy education mailing list I'm on. Haven't looked in that link, but the guy who sent this out is a significant name in the astro ed racket. tkdguy and Rich McGee 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 18 Report Share Posted January 18 Looking through it quickly, it's got a lot of familiar names and titles. Think I've read almost a third of the total list, maybe more - there's a fair few books duplicated between categories. Not quite sure about his selection parameters on some of the familiar ones, which seem wildly variable when it comes to the definition of "plausible" science. For ex, "Sheckley, Robert "Specialist" in Keyes, N., ed. Contact. 1963, Paperback Library. Proposes the idea that life in the universe is all specialized by function, except on Earth." I remember that one from my youth when it was still fairly new. Its core premise is that interstellar civilization runs on hyperspecialized species who've evolved so each makes up part of collective-organism living starships. One species is a biological equivalent to a reaction drive, another is a living navigation/sensor array, the hull plates are each individual nearly-sessile organisms, etc. One of these things gets damaged and lands on Earth in search of a replaced for the "Pusher" creature that served as its FTL drive. What do you know, humans are actually Pushers and Earth is some kind of lost seed world and we can all look forward to finding the real intended meaning of life by joining a multispecies psychic gestalt and being FTL drives as was intended. Oh, and Pushers are rare and much in demand, so Earthlings will be welcome with open...ah, mental assimilation tendrils, I guess? It's a cute story, but even when I was eight years old I knew sheer wish fulfillment when I read it. It ignores the fossil record entirely, and yet somehow made this list. Makes me more than a little dubious about what else is hiding in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted January 18 Report Share Posted January 18 Fraknoi's materials are pretty solid for astronomy education stuff, but some of those items will be geared toward young audiences, and sci-fi from the early '60s now seems pretty archaic, I'll agree. Rich McGee 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich McGee Posted January 19 Report Share Posted January 19 I don't mind the archaic so much - even going farther back I enjoy pulp science fiction's more serious attempts predicting science and technology - but that particular story is just bad (biological) science period. Which isn't Fraknoi's main field, so not really critiquing him, beyond noting that the description is slightly off. Humans are just as specialized (in theory) as the other species, but we act "weird" and have wasted time developing "hard" technologies because we've never had a chance to do what we evolved for (Pushing a ship in FTL - apparently some kind of psionic ability) and we've never networked with other species so we're all isolated, damaged, and unfulfilled. The POV human effectively has a personal epiphany (well, as personal as you can have when you're tied into a gestalt consciousness) the moment he discovers what he can do, and (according to Scheckley) was made to be doing all along. I take back the cute part. It's actually pretty creepy when I consider it from an adult POV in 2024. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted February 7 Author Report Share Posted February 7 The commute of the future or special gear for high-tech crimefighters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted March 29 Author Report Share Posted March 29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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tkdguy Posted April 20 Author Report Share Posted April 20 Drone defense (vortex cannon comes in at around the 14-minute mark). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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