As long as they don’t show it in screenwriting classes, we’re fine.

I remember there being a Bill Nye episode about water being wet and how soap makes water wetter. I don’t remember any of the science. I’m very sad about this.

Space is a dangerous place, go Scalzi green! I mean like Old Man’s War.

Let’s learn how to visit before we talk about living on a planet without a viable atmosphere.

One of the best Darwin... In... Spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace novels ever.

Someone posted a recent report by NASA on which plants were best at filtering out certain impurities.

Without fungi, there would probably be no life on Earth. Fungi is the gateway species to many other life forms, especially plants. Together with microbes, it keeps the soil fertile and is a food source in its own right. It can eat radioactive isotopes and petrochemical waste, act as a fuel source, as well as offer…

They’ll just blow it up.

We need ecosystems, not just plants.

I haven’t seen it in the answers yet, so I’ll mention this one:

Although I first read it when I was ten years old, Dune was probably the most influential book I read in this regard. The Litany Against Fear was something I took to heart, and has stood me in good stead throughout my adult life.

Not sure if this counts as Fantasy but Dante’s Inferno was a huge help. The first book of the Comedy is about the necessity of travailing all the way to the bottom before one can begin to work upwards again and that rationality and confronting the bad things in life is essential to this process. Only when it is over…

Whiteboards might be cheaper than chalkboards, but chalk is MUCH cheaper than markers. A box of markers costs $30, while a box of chalk, which lasts longer than a box of markers, costs maybe $2. It doesn’t take long for the initial savings of a whiteboard to be wiped out by the increased operating cost!

Whiteboards suck, I would rather have a blackboard. The ink stinks, refilling markers is messy, and not refilling them is even worse (the waste of metal and plastic, toxins in the environment, etc.). And chalk is a natural substance, calcium carbonate. You don’t have to create toxic substances from oil to make it.

You know, you could try publishing a paper with your claim. A university will help you out, although it may take a few years of time investment on your part. Alternatively, you can see many examples of draft papers in arxiv.org and follow their general format; at least that way you would be able to point people to a…

I put forward a maybe. Generalizing it with the Yak Kittens of Glendorf III, was not my intention. It could perhaps apply to the Republicants of Louisiana VII.

Rosetta and Philae on the ocean. Rosetta and Philae at Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

While these do look like carbon copies of the American space shuttle, the Russians do have quite a bit to be proud of. The first (and only) launch of the Buran was automated, and they were able to fly, orbit and land it within meters of its intended target.