[cue awesome, operatic Christopher Franke theme]

Maybe Mika means touted as a nutritional supplement? Either way, yeah, no big deal—I can see how floated, flaunted, touted, flouted could jumble together. Now I wish panjandrum parties were a thing!

Yes, Sirocco is awesome, a real boss when it comes to being a "spokesperson" for conservation! Link to his Facebook for those interested: https://www.facebook.com/siroccokakapo

The most heartbreaking moment for me during the Life of Birds was when what was believed to be the last kakapo, a male flightless parrot, climbed the hills and called for a mate...but there was no female, and year after year his tuba-like call would echo for miles—until finally it stopped.

Yeah, he mentions this in the article, and in the io9 Q&A, I asked how he was able to create such an immersive environment in Annihilation, eerie yet organically developed, never forced. Here's his reply in full:

Cool stuff. One has to wonder whether nuthatches exhibit similar but less pronounced adaptations. They skip up and down (headfirst) on tree trunks and stab their beaks into the bark—yet with seemingly less force than woodpeckers with massive beaks, and at more acute angles. So this could illustrate how birds can…

Yeah, all of a sudden I have this image in my head of a sort of communal car wash, rowdy NASA engineers washing Curiosity in a Martian driveway, people milling around strumming a guitar and exchanging weed, craft beers resting on top of a boom box blasting Rush or something like that, lots of flirting, wet T-shirt…

That's a good point—and I think a lot of SF explores the issue you bring up, one of how technology can potentially detract from authentic interaction or nurture illusion. It's definitely something we're going to have to negotiate, and in some ways we already do—Facebook profiles that exaggerate who we are; the pros…

That's interesting—and I wonder if that's because a lot of AC Clarke books are allegorical, where the characters stand in for big, abstract ideas. They tend to be short(er), simple tales, similar I guess to Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, Heart of Darkness, etc.—but he writes with such...authority...that to me they had…

Sounds like a cool SF thought exercise. I think JPL's facility is called SAF, Spacecraft Assembly Facility, so perhaps as a nod to the love of acronyms in space science I could see surnames beginning with Saf-. Safson, Safwright, Saffer. And I guess it would not be inconceivable for people to take the names of the…

Totally! As a bird lover, I look forward to the day when children (and adults) can identify with an animated story that depicts the quick darting and flitting characteristic of avian movement. Sort of like this commercial:

Oh man, for anyone who would like to read this, I encourage you wholeheartedly. While some folks might find the first half dull, keep at it; the end of the second part (about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way in overall) kept me on the edge of my seat. If you find the action dies down in the beginning of the third part, just…

Thank you for your encouragement! Going to Montana has always been in the back of my head, a yearning, a lifelong dream deferred, as it were...one of those things for which some condition precedes it, "When x happens, then..." That said, I am making serious plans to move to Seattle or Portland...on one hand it is…

For any folks interested, according to the YT comments this video was taken at Gunsight Pass in Glacier National Park, Montana.

Totally with you on Contact. Sure feels good to enjoy things without fear of admonishment, which is pretty much how it should be. Feels even better when you've got NdGT backing you up.

Needless to say, many thanks to Ria and especially to Dr. Kakoudaki for sharing her insights with us; her responses were perhaps the most thoughtful I've read in a while on these Q&As. Fascinating stuff!

I have to admit there is something refreshing about some real-life scientists expressing adoration for popular and accessible SF. For some reason, I assumed that most scientists would have been into really cerebral or difficult stuff, and were silently judging me for reading space operas with fanciful FTL or stuff…

Another question, if I may: I can think of a few examples of robots isolating themselves from humanity (e.g. wild robots in Simak's City), a sort of self-exile or secession. Yet it seems to me that many of the narratives out there involve conflict with robots of one kind of another. Can you offer us any insight as to…

Thanks for stopping by today. Now that I think about it, it strikes me as odd that a great many of our depictions of robots are gendered—despite having no biological basis for displaying male or female characteristics. By default, it seems to me that most robots present as males (in terms of voice, for example), while…

The only thing that would make this more...audacious...would be footage of an eagle grabbing a salmon in mid-flight while deflecting others to hungry bears below.