Posted on Thursday, October 22, 2009 3:43 PM
A few science related links today, though they seem more like science fiction:
- I learned a new word here: postdiction, referring to causal events from the future, a temporal counterpart to prediction. Though I would use the word to describe people that only now tell us that Afghanistan will be a quagmire. Science fiction this posting brought back to mind: Gregory Benford’s Timescape (sending messages back through time) and John Varley’s Millenium (rescuers from the future), aside from the Kurt Vonnegut Sirens of Titan already mentioned.
- In view of the above, this suggests that Martians are Higgs bosons. Would have had a nicer ring to it if we could say ‘Martians are muons’, but no, they are not. Relevant science fiction would include anything with a Martian mission, but especially Stephen Baxter’s Voyage springs to mind.
- No snarky comments from me here. A lovely timeline presentation on the history of extrasolar planets. Glad they mention Star Trek.
- The funny link for today care of Matt Yglesias. I suppose this is all too real to have made it into science fiction.
Enjoy.