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As others have pointed out, it is not *linux* powered. But now thanks to Ashcroft and his straight man, bin Laden - anyone using model rocket fuel is considered a terrorist threat. So, not only is not linux powered, it probably won't be powered at all.

Silica is the primary component of the Moon's surface (and Earth's too) - this technique could greatly reduce the cost to produce useful things (like oxygen as a fuel component and for life in space, and silicon for solar cells) out of bulk lunar material.

Large-scale space construction is coming, and will provide one of the major markets for lunar materials. Martin Rees has a new book out that is pretty clear on why we need to develop space resources. Here's another enabling technology - now let's go do it!

By the way, anybody in the SF bay area this coming weekend should check out the International Space Development Conference in San Jose, where we'll be discussing a lot of these ideas, and more!

Just found this site (I'm not the owner by the way). It was referenced on Kuro5hin.

Sci-Fi Today!

I remember reading one of the Dilbert books, Is your computer safe from hackers? where it said that marketing will continue to become more and more manipulative Make money with your website! as it builds upon the shoulders of already tried marketing schemes.

I just wonder how long before Specials on Ink Jet refill kits! they start putting ads Long Distance for just 1c per minute! in the middle Spy on your neighbors! of all web content?

...can evelve faster by checking out our earlier version of this story over on Sci-Fi Today (and even leaving a comment or hello there!) and also by signing up for SFT headlines on their Slashdot home pages here.

See that last sentence in the story? Who made the mistake? Paul Allen, or the Times's writer?

Sci-Fi Today, the Seattle PI, and The Seattle Times all got it right.

Only the Times and The Tacoma News Tribune have it wrong.

The Tacoma paper deserves special recognition for combining the Times story and AP wire reports, then getting the error into their lead sentence.

SciFi Today ran this story a couple of days ago with LOTS of interesting extra links here.

The "guest of honor" at Robodex 2003 was Astroboy, 1960s Japanese anime icon, who according to the storyline was "born" TODAY on April 7, 2003. Check out lots of fun links on this sidebar story here.

Not only did it happen 2 billion years ago, SciFi Today wrote a story on it yesterday with lots of great links here! Check it out!

That's why I created Sci-Fi Today last November. Since Slashdot focuses mainly on computer science & technology, they can't post all the worthy science stories. SFT focuses solely on science/technology and science fiction, so we can post more of them and we can hopefully reach a wider audience. So you'll always have a good chance of getting your stories posted on SFT. Of course, we're a bit like kuro5hin in that our stories tend to have more meat on them, typically summarizing from many different sources, providing lots of useful links and often a touch of personal opinion or speculation.

Check out this article about the half-ounce robots we ran over on SciFiToday. Hey, add our headlines to your Slashdot home page with a strategic click here!

We ran this story with lots of extra URLs earlier this morning here. Get Sci-Fi Today headlines on your Slashdot page by clicking here .

Another article on this (with a ton of links) can be found here.

We ran this story (with the correct link and lots of great secondary ones!) yesterday over on Sci-Fi Today. Check us out and get our headlines on your Slashdot home page here.

We ran this story yesterday over on Sci-Fi Today with lots of extra info links. You can get SciFi Today headlines added to your Slashdot homepage here.

We try to be interesting in our ongoing science coverage over on Sci-Fi Today. See for yourself how we're doing...put our SFT headlines on your Slashdot homepage here...

...because that's what we're trying to do over on Sci-Fi Today. See if we are succeeding...put our headline box on your Slashdot home page here...

Just wrote an article on this at SFT, with links to video clips of the launch and Carl Sagan discussing the significance of the gold plaque.

I wrote a detailed article about this on Sci-Fi Today Sunday night. I then submitted the story to Slashdot Monday morning but it was promptly rejected. Perhaps they don't accept links to other weblogs? Anyway, enjoy.

Maybe he should switch over to a candle-wax-fueled rocket, which we covered here last week on SciFiToday. You can get our headlines on your Slashdot home page by clicking here and checking the SciFiToday box. Check us out!!!

Despite carbon nanotubes suddenly making the space elevator more than a pipe dream, many still feel that it's still at least 50 years away. Not everyone though. In this article, physicist Bradley C. Edwards, who left the Los Alamos (N.M.) National Laboratory to work on the elevator design for a private company, Eureka Scientific, says that the elevator could be a reality in just 15 years. And once it's been running for a few years, a round ticket might cost as little as $20,000, thus enabling space tourism.

More importantly though, it would totally change the face of space exploration. Not only would it be cheaper to get vehicles into space (as well as not harming our upper atmosphere) but it would allow for the assembly of much larger space stations and spacecraft. And the huge centrifugal force at the end of the ribbon could be use to inexpensively fling spacecraft to planets such as Venus and Mars. And then we could build an elevator on Mars.

I find this endeavour to be incredibly exciting. It just feels achievable. And according to Edwards' estimates, it could be done for under $10 billion. Considering the potential return on investment for this project, and how feasible it's become, I'm very surprised that they've found it so difficult to find the funding. I expect that in the wake of the Columbia tragedy, that won't be the case.

More info on space elevators can be found here.

Drog

Some past articles discussing the progress of a space elevator can also be found over at Sci-Fi Today:

The Aftermath of Another Shuttle Tragedy
The Business of Building a Space Elevator

Drog

Some past articles discussing the progress of a space elevator can also be found over at Sci-Fi Today:

The Aftermath of Another Shuttle Tragedy
The Business of Building a Space Elevator

Drog

Check out this story we ran over on Sci-Fi Today which included some relevant links. You can get Sci-Fi Today daily headlines on your Slashdot home page by clicking here and putting a checkmark in the Sci-Fi Today box. Or heck, just join us as a member and help us build a science-oriented discussion community!

Check out this story we ran over on Sci-Fi Today which included some relevant links. You can get Sci-Fi Today daily headlines on your Slashdot home page by clicking here and putting a checkmark in the Sci-Fi Today box. Or heck, just join us as a member and help us build a science-oriented discussion community!

We ran a story on this topic yesterday over on SciFi Today with quite a few additional information links. A list of ALL of our recent stories is here. You can put SciFi Today Headlines on your Slashdot frontpage by clicking here and putting a checkmark in the SciFi Today box. Check us out!!!

We ran a story on this topic yesterday over on SciFi Today with quite a few additional information links. A list of ALL of our recent stories is here. You can put SciFi Today Headlines on your Slashdot frontpage by clicking here and putting a checkmark in the SciFi Today box. Check us out!!!

We ran a story on this topic yesterday over on SciFi Today with some additional information links. A list of ALL of our recent stories (including the one about the deadly black hole in Minnesota where no spaceship has been found, really!) is here. You can put SciFi Today Headlines on your Slashdot frontpage by clicking here and putting a checkmark in the SciFi Today box. Check us out!!!

We ran a story on this topic yesterday over on SciFi Today with some additional information links. A list of ALL of our recent stories (including the one about the deadly black hole in Minnesota where no spaceship has been found, really!) is here. You can put SciFi Today Headlines on your Slashdot frontpage by clicking here and putting a checkmark in the SciFi Today box. Check us out!!!

Sci-Fi Todayran something I wrote on this story a week ago. FYI, you can get daily Sci-Fi Today news headlines on your Slashdot Home Page...

Sci-Fi Todayran something I wrote on this story a week ago. FYI, you can get daily Sci-Fi Today news headlines on your Slashdot Home Page...

Science fiction has a long and distinguished history of anticipating the future and inspiring generations of scientists, who have in turn inspired sci-fi writers to extrapolate upon their research--the two professions enjoy a wonderfully symbiotic relationship, each having a profound respect for the other. In the area of space exploration, Jules Verne described the effects of weightlessness during mankind's first voyage to the moon in his 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon". Russian schoolteacher Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the first to describe a true space station, complete with a greenhouse, a laboratory, living quarters, a docking port for spacecraft and an international crew of six, in his 1920 novel "Beyond the Planet Earth". In 1895, Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky suggested a fanciful Celestial Castle in geosynchronous Earth orbit attached to a tower on the ground. The idea was picked up by Russian engineer Yuri Artsutanov in 1960, American oceanographer John Isaacs in 1966, and Jerome Pearson of the Air Force Research Laboratory in 1975, before the space elevator was used in Arthur C. Clarke's 1976 novel "The Fountains of Paradise".

Science fiction has a long and distinguished history of anticipating the future and inspiring generations of scientists, who have in turn inspired sci-fi writers to extrapolate upon their research--the two professions enjoy a wonderfully symbiotic relationship, each having a profound respect for the other. In the area of space exploration, Jules Verne described the effects of weightlessness during mankind's first voyage to the moon in his 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon". Russian schoolteacher Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the first to describe a true space station, complete with a greenhouse, a laboratory, living quarters, a docking port for spacecraft and an international crew of six, in his 1920 novel "Beyond the Planet Earth". In 1895, Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky suggested a fanciful Celestial Castle in geosynchronous Earth orbit attached to a tower on the ground. The idea was picked up by Russian engineer Yuri Artsutanov in 1960, American oceanographer John Isaacs in 1966, and Jerome Pearson of the Air Force Research Laboratory in 1975, before the space elevator was used in Arthur C. Clarke's 1976 novel "The Fountains of Paradise".

As outlined here, they've spent $42 billion and just brought back 42 soybena seed pods. YOu do the math.

So last month, the American Physical Society, representing some 40,000 physicists, expanded the ethical guidelines for researchers, in their Statements on Profession Conducts document. The new guidelines call for more ethics training in science and urge all research institutions to adopt the same set of misconduct procedures. The guidelines also clarify co-authors' roles and duties, making it clear that when you put your name on a paper, your reputation is on the line.

Biologists faced similar scandals during the Gallo and Imanishi-Kari cases in the 90's. Unlike Robert Gallo and David Baltimore, who survived the scandal virtually unscathed, the physicists involved in today's scandals are actually being held accountable.

The above info was compiled from an article that originally appeared here.

For anyone interested in more details, this story appeared here a week ago. An interesting comment pointed out that this theory has major implications in understanding the hundred or so "hot Jupiters" that have been found around other stars. Most have orbital periods of only a few days and orbit their star at a distance less than Mercury's. This new theory may suggest that hot Jupiters are actually newly-formed gas planets and perhaps even a transient phenomena.

I think that's about all the time I have to research this.

On the same day that Stanford announced their intention to clone human embryos for stem cell research, researchers in France announced that they can essentially cure sickle cell disease via stem cells. A great story was written about this here yesterday. Sickle cell disease is a genetic disease that affects people of African, Mediterranean, Indian, and Middle Eastern heritage. In the United States, these disorders are most commonly observed in African Americans and Hispanics from the Caribbean, Central America, and parts of South America. To my knowledge, this is the first case in which researchers actually believe that a disease can be "cured" via stem cells. This should definitely put the pressure on governments to open the doors to stem cell research.

what is your handle that you go by on SciFiToday??

I also enjoyed your review. Very refreshingly entertaining. Made me want to buy the book. :)

Thanks! Check out more of my stuff at SciFiToday.