I am an astrobiologist, sci-fi geek, and professor of everything groovy. I write about science, culture, math, history, space, and science fiction. Perhaps like you, I'm seeking a greater understanding of the nature of life and asking myself why all of this really matters. Come with me, and we'll ask some questions together.
Heading out to California in just a few days for MAX 2019: A Space Festival from Media Art Exploration. The festival will take place at the California Academy of the Sciences, The Exploratorium, and the Z Space theater in San Francisco from the 16th through 18th. There will be live performances, displays of artwork, panels of scientists and artists, booths from various groups sharing their art and their science, and more! We'll be running a booth for SAGANet.org at the California Academy of Sciences on Friday, the 17th. Come find our booth and we can chat about astrobiology, space exploration, and more. We'll also have stickers and comic books to give out, scifi books and our book of astrobiology classic literature for sale, and I'll also have some of my meteorites there to show off (including a little piece of the Moon!). Hoping to see you there!
This stunning gem shows a majestic pool waterfall dropping into a blue pool of what I can only imagine is some chilly water for a dip. Dig it? Check out more of Daniel Fleischhacker's photography. He's got some amazing photography skills.
If you don't know who Tyler Nordgren is, then you should definitely check out his website. He's an astronomer and artist who's made some of the coolest space-themed artwork I've seen in recent years. Nordgren is up in Alaska right now, kicking off an aurora tour, and shared the above picture to his Facebook profile today. It's definitely a stunning picture of an aurora, with a beautiful mixing of color across the sky.
The above image is now my desktop wallpaper. It's a piece of concept art from Gary Jamroz for the Dune Universe. You can find this piece and more like it at Concept Art World. For instance, here's a rather stunning piece by Jordan Lamarre-Wan:
Simon Stålenhag's artwork is beautiful, dark, and suggestive of a post-technological dystopian future where robotics and high-tech have fallen and people are putting the pieces back together. I feel like I can see a story evolving out of every image that he's created. Check out the pictures below for some more, but also visit his website for lots and lots more!
This beautiful piece of art is called "To Boldly Go". It was created by digital artist Matt Dixon and animated as a GIF by fellow artist Billy Allison. You can find this piece and more in Dixon's book of robot art, Transmissions 2.
This piece of art is called "Streaming Meditation". It was made by Blackheart6004 at DeviantArt. When I look at it I see a jumble of red block (the obvious) as well as the digitization of red blood cells flowing through the body and all primed with oxygen in their heme groups. I also see what could be the fallout from a giant red cube crashing into an immovable barrier, the cube being broken apart into many smaller fragments, each itself a red cube. Could there be a smallest cube in such a case, a single particle of "red cube"? What do you see?
Here's an awesome version of Nothing Else Matters, as played along on the sitar by Ashish J. It's fantastic throughout, but definitely stay with it for the solo, you will not be disappointed.
This beautiful image was produced by NASA to commemorate the anniversary of the Voyager spacecraft, which were launched in August and September of 1977. We'll soon be closing on 40 years since the launch of Voyagers 1 and 2. These missions have done so much for planetary science and are still alive, continuing to send data back to us about the space environment along their travels. They may last as much as another 5 or 10 years before they run so low on power that all of their instruments shut down. Even after the Voyagers have shut down their instruments and died, they will still travel; out there amongst the stars, the furthest reach of humanity, they will continue on.
We're heading off for a mini-vacation today. We're going to do some hiking and playing in Taos, New Mexico. It's definitely good to take breaks from time-to-time to re-energize and to live life a bit.
Film critic Jason Solomons has said, at the passing of Rickman, that, "He had this real gift for being sort of sneeringly, withering, if you like, in a kind of classic British villain sort of way. But he had a great warmth to him as well. He was a very intelligent actor, very keen on the prose and the words, but very keen on the poetry as well."
I absolutely loved Rickman's portrayal of The Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. He gave the Sheriff a certain educated and yet malicious attitude that made us love and yet despise the character. The Sheriff was witty and not just a little daft, but he was also evil and selfish.
Perhaps a roll for which he will be best remembered is as Professor Severus Snape. Of the Harry Potter books and the character of Severus Snape, Rickman has said, "The writer in this case is such a consummate storyteller that you let her lead you whether she's given you all the information or not. Something in there leads you in the right direction. And the number of people who followed Snape's story as also [members] of a reading audience is also a testament to Rowling's skills, I think. And frankly, every time I put that costume on something weird took over. It's the only character, and I suppose by my own instance really, [that] never changed his costume over 10 years. Everybody else grew up or had different kinds of outfits. Never Snape, and you sort of got the feeling that's the only thing he's got hanging in his wardrobe."
There are no words to express how shocked and devastated I am to hear of Alan Rickman's death. He was a magnificent actor & a wonderful man.
As a fan, I can say that we, the audience, will miss Alan Rickman and will look back fondly on his body of work, the characters he brought to life and the stories that he gave strength with his unique voice and talents as an actor. Goodbye, Alan Rickman!
Extra:
Here's a video from CineFix covering 7 things you might not have known about the film Die Hard, including the fact that Alan Rickman's surprised look when falling off the building at the end of the film was caused by him really being, well, surprised:
The interwebs have taken on a mournful and yet celebratory tone today. David Bowie's death on this day, the 10th of January, 2016 C.E., in some ways is just now bringing the life and music of Bowie back into the spotlight for some people, while for others of us his work and his impact on music, on fashion, and on art have jut been deepened as we look back at the ways in which he impacted our lives. Certainly, I heard David Bowie's songs when I was a child (I was born in 1983 and had an artist for a father, after all). However, my first memory of David Bowie, much as is the case for many people my age, was in his role as Jareth, the Goblin King, in the film Labyrinth (1986). Who could forget how an articulate David Bowie introduced us to stylized androgynism, fashionable and well-spoken villains, and child film stars in tights with bulges?! The Labyrinth song Magic Dance remains one of my favorite songs from a Henson film:
Of course, the life and music of David Bowie has become pop culture history. Those of us interested in space exploration have almost certainly heard Space Oddity. Hell, astronaut Chris Hadfield went as far as to create a music video and cover version featuring Hadfield playing Space Oddity from the International Space Station:
There are a lot of great articles passing about today to honor the best songs of Bowie's career. From The Man Who Sold the World, to Changes, Rebel Rebel, and even to Heroes, Bowie created music that most certainly would be on the soundtrack for the later half of the 20th century C.E. Generations come and go, each of us adding our own little bits to history through our music and art, our culture and our science, our technology and our social movements. David Bowie's music will most certainly live on long from this day at the passing of his life. I think it must be an honor to leave this world knowing that you have impacted the lives of so many others (hopefully in good ways). Cheers, David Bowie, and thanks!
Here's a piece of beautiful artwork by Andrew Ryan (username AndrewRyanArt at Deviant Art). This illustration shows the transformation of Leto Atreides II, the son of Paul Atreides and the God Emperor of Dune within the Dune Universe. In this fictional world, Leto II transforms from prescient human to sandworm. Ryan's artwork showing part of this transformation is a bit different than what I figured when reading the original novels (I saw the change more as a mottling of the skin in scales than in whisps that look like tribal tattoos). Nonetheless, this is still a beautiful piece of Dune artwork.
"Historians exercise great power, and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well."
-Leto II, His Voice, from Dar-es-Balat (Frank Herbert)
I have a pretty sweet collection of cards with old school fantasy and sci-fi art on them (much like these images). I've had those cards since I was a kid, though I have no idea where I got them from. One of my favorite themes is the knight slaying the dragon. Much like the modern connotation of the biblical story of David and Goliath, the knight slaying the dragon (or really any character slaying a dragon) makes us think of situations where great foe can be conquered, usually with some bravery and hopefully some intelligence. That's kind of how I feel with my current writing work. This paper that I'm writing is my dragon. I know that I must slay this dragon. It is a great foe, but I know, somewhere inside, I am greater. Write On!
I most certainly need motivation right now to continue working on a current research article, which is also going to be part of my graduate dissertation. Beyond my habitual coffee, I like to jump into my writing by first reflecting on the work ahead and by considering the thoughts and creations of others. Sometimes, writing seems to come naturally to me, while there are other times where it most certainly requires some personal taunting, teasing, inspiring, and just plain ol' "sucking-it-up-and-getting-it-done". In looking for a quick spot of motivation on my day's writing, I found this beautiful cartoon by Medi Belortaja. He titled the piece "writer s surf". "Writer s surf" brings to mind those feelings of the surge of a wave under my board as the ocean picks me up and thrusts me toward shore (a feeling I haven't experienced in reality in too many years). The piece also evokes the feeling of being sucked in to a work of writing or of reading. Some writings (be they short articles, fantastical stories, scientific research reports, or epic journeys into other worlds) really do take the author/reader on rides, much as surfing a wave. Belotaja brings forward in his cartoon the feeling of riding the page, surfing the written word, and embracing the motions of the cosmos as we engage with a moving force of nature. Write on!
Here's some awesomeness to brighten your day. All the images on this post are from an artist named Kerstin Jacobs. You can find these and more at Jacobs' website andInstagram and Twitter accounts. For instance, check out this rad piece of work:
