I also can't say anything original about Star Trek's science, but I've been having a lot of fun educating myself about it and other popular science topics at Bad Astronomy Blog and Cocktail Party Physics.
Astronomer Phil Plait writes Bad Astronomy.
Cocktail Party is science writer Jennifer Ouellette, author of The Physics of the Buffyverse. (There's a bit of popular culture I missed being TV-free: I never watched Buffy. These days it's easy to catch up on TV, though, on DVD.)
Of course, I owe everything I know about the weather to Matt's Long Burn. To show you how little I knew, I asked him a couple years ago what the main determinant of Earth's weather was. He answered, the Sun. Oh, right. Seems I should have known that...
Cocktail Party has a fabulous post about becoming a science writer, with great advice for any developing writer: The Write Stuff.
One of her bits of advice is, "Don't do it like I did," which is to stumble into it. But I've noticed that a lot of successful people arrive where they never thought they were going, and that is one way of doing it.
What she says about writing could be said of life:
It "is first and foremost a craft; you get better by doing it, not by studying it ad infinitum."
My favorite advice:
"if you're going to dress unconventionally on the job, do so around PhD physicists, who are more tolerant of eccentricity."
You do write thoughtfully and well, dear friend...always interestingly put with your own brand of logic, insouciant quirkiness and well-researched voice of authority.
ReplyDeleteI've forgotten to tell you that I watched an early episode(?) of S-T on television the other night...not the whole thing but a part in which Captain Kirk's brother was killed and he rescues his sister-in-law. I did notice the feelings of intimacy that are projected (un-intentionally?) from Kirk to the Doctor. I do believe I would have felt that even if you'd never mentioned this fact.
Wow! You watched Star Trek?! I'm tickled pink!
ReplyDeleteDo you mean intimacy between Kirk and Spock? The show's doctor is McCoy, and Kirk is also quite warm with him, though in a different way.
(People sometimes say "Dr. Spock" because of Benjamin Spock, the baby doctor. Star Trek's Mr. Spock is not a doctor.)
I stand corrected. I of course meant Spock.
ReplyDelete