There isn’t enough fuel to revisit Pluto. It isn’t even close. New Horizon is heading out of the solar system, and it is only a question of what direction.

Vacuum tubes are highly resistant to the effects of EMP. Transistors are not.

I read that story as a nerdy si-fi reading teenager back in the 1980’s (I’ve read just about everything that Clark wrote). I never forgot it and it is always in the back of my mind. When I went to engineering school (one of the best in the world), it was NOT required reading. However the lessons are still with me. It…

The article is wrong. Interestingly, if you look at Iran’s nuclear program (and rocketry program), it looks like they want to build an EMP device, put it on one of their rockets and detonate it over the US East coast.

Nuclear blasts that create EMP are detonated above the atmosphere. They do not cause any blast damage on the ground. Also, shielding against EMP for a single building would be as easy as wrapping the building in aluminum foil. Countermeasures would cost a fraction of the cost associated with implementing the weapon.

Apparently, you don’t think that Han shot first.

“as” not “and” sorry.

The down side of all of this is that you have written a paper that will be quoted and legitimate for the next thousand years.

There is a maximum size. This telescope will have many smaller mirrors that work together like one. Each one is supported separately and can be manipulated (warped or bent) to compensate for atmospheric disturbances. A laser is used to illuminate a section of the upper atmosphere (sodium ions I think) and the mirrors…

It's brown.

Wow. Thanks for the context of that quote. It puts it in an entirely different light!!!!

Is that from "The Princess Bride"?

Curie didn't work with microwaves. She worked with radioactive isotopes.

Ah, yes. I was wondering when somebody was going to mention the Newton-Leibniz thing. The sorts of rivalries we have today seem calm compared to what was going on in the past. Who says science and history are boring?

The longer and harder we look (and find nothing), the more that it looks like life is to fragile and space is too large for life to spread. And yes, that is depressing.

Or you could argue the opposite. The mice are the poor people in our society. Universe 25 represents inner cities: few ways to get in or out and lots of free food and housing. It represents the inevitable collapse of a welfare state. If those mice were out in the country working and compete for survival, they…

Actually it is. Forests raise the ground at a level of about 1 inch per year (at least that's what I once read — it sounds like a lot, but it does explain why all those cities of the ancient world are burried under all that dirt). The "surface" of 1986 is now about 2.5 feet underground. However, the roots of trees…

I think that the article did a pretty good job of saying that the numbers are not dangerous, but at the same time it also was pushing for fear-mongering. Boo. . . radiation.

What are the details of the FAA regulation? Due to international treaties (signed by the US), there is no lunar ownership by countries (including the US). What can the FAA be regulating? Travel to the moon? Only if it is from the US.

I find that most people are assholes, independent of their religious beliefs or lack there of. Just read the comments here.