I absolutely love that The Stars My Destination is first on the list. I cannot count the number of people I’ve recommended it to. It is a true hidden gem of the science fiction, and to include it here as an ancestor on a list of must-read cyberpunk makes me very happy indeed.

The estimated efficiency is somewhere around 85%.

The Earth's mass is negligible in calculating its orbit around the sun. If you had a magic wand and said 'hey presto' and instantly doubled the Earth's mass, it would just move the barycenter of the Earth-Sun system by some teensy weensy nigh-undetectable bit, and people wouldn't even notice. People would, however,…

*takes off wizzard hat and bows head in respect*

"Suddenly we're not gods any more...There are gods, and now we just license their engines."

Looks like someone didn't actually read the article. Now don't you feel silly?

I remember pulling this on my entire family with my mum's help, one by one. We were dying of laughter by the end, which had only helped further the illusion...

The pizza still costs 15$, it's just that the tip for delivery is $49,985! Also, http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.ht…

I wouldn't say that SpaceX has had reliability issues per se, rather instead that it is moreso par for a (very) difficult course. NASA and Boeing + Lockheed have had their fair share of launch and/or flight mishaps - fatal, expensive, or both - and I could say the same of any other orbit-capable country's space…

There are trees with more complicated genomes than you. Or me for that matter.

I prefer Animan myself because of the adjective-noun grammar 'animal-man', but I like your thinking!

"In 2012, there were 122 000 measles deaths globally"

Eric Holder is wiping his ass with the constitution, and then claiming its not really wiping until he flushes the toilet.

On a cool side note, a specific class of neutron stars called magnetars have a magnetic field strong enough to distort an atom's electron cloud along it's axis effectively stretching the atom to a length hundreds of times longer than its width. Supposedly, the magnetic field would kill you even from 1000km away -…

Psst... Your units are swapped here:

Interesting tidbit, Harry White isn't just also working on ion thrusters- he's working on an ion thruster variant that essentially uses virtual particles as the propellant reaction mass. No need to carry fuel, just a means of generating electricity.

Also, for unambiguity's sake and clarity, I think you'll actually find me to be on the same side of the issue as you on this - I merely disagree on a very specific data point, and absolutely agree otherwise that humanity's current geopolitical leadership cannot be trusted with dangerous technology - which makes the…

This is exactly what I meant by misinformation. Although I congratulate you on your knowledge that atomic bombs and thermonuclear bombs are different, you've just supported my entire argument. I tried avoiding the weaponization of nuclear technologies explicitly because it requires a large body of knowledge that the…

In regards to the remark about fusion, I have to ask - why?

The last star died, all alone.