Excerpts from: Physics-art.com

“The Wick” by Julianna Baggott is a look into the future of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Genetic Engineering that is both engrossing and disturbing. The narrative structure itself tells the reader right away that something unusual is going on here. The story is told from the first person point of view of a being we later come to know as Bukef. Bukef is a genetically engineered AI know as a…

Book Review of The Star That Always Stays

Anna Rose Johnson’s THE STAR THAT ALWAYS STAYS is middle-grade fiction that so engrossed this old guy that I forgot it was supposed to be for young people. Johnson’s prose are very immersive and she keeps such a tight POV on the main character, Norvia, that the reader lives the story from the inside. I can certainly see why this book was recommended on ABC’s The Book Case podcast (discussed at…

An article in Science relates a study of earthquake activity near volcanoes being used to warn of impending eruptions. The study was based on the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands chain that erupted last September. Data from the article is shown to the left. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen articles concerning this effort to develop reliable ways to predict…

Midnight at the Well of Souls

Midnight at the Well of Souls by Jack Chalker has been re-released as a CAEZIK Notable book. From the publisher: “CAEZIK Notables is a series of speculative-fiction books marking important milestones in science fiction or fantasy. Each book published in the series has a new introduction highlighting the book’s significance within the genre.” This gives me a more durable trade paperback format to…

Where’s my robot?

As a kid who grew up obsessed with robots, I have to wonder why I’m still mowing my lawn or grocery shopping. Where’s my personal robot? Perhaps the same place my flying car got lost. Oh well.

More seriously, we are on the verge of some very cool robotic things. I had the opportunity to look into robotics as part of my company’s Advanced Concepts Teama few years back and was amazed by products…

No, I’m not talking about Orson Welles invading homes with his War of the Worlds radio broadcast (something I imagine would spread on social media today). I’m talking about radio signals from space finally resolving the Fermi Paradox: Where are all the aliens? Radio signals abound in space from natural phenomena, so an alien signal must be sorted out from all the background noise. Such signals…

Ad Astra’s Inspirational Message

I was stunned to discover an inspirational message within the movie Ad Astra. I’d read about the dramatic cinematography and went into the theatre expecting an entertaining but essentially “light” experience. In all honesty, I’d avoided reading much about it, because I didn’t want to read any spoilers. The only thing that might have given me a hint was a blurb somewhere comparing it to the movie…

BOOK REVIEW OF The Girl in Red

I was conflicted about The Girl in Red. On the one hand, I’d read (and reviewed) Christina Henry’s work before, and knew her to be an excellent writer; on the other, the idea of a “Red Riding-hood” themed novel seemed a recipe for silly cliché. As it turns out, The Girl in Red is hard-core dystopian science fiction.

Red, a young lady of mixed-race with a partial-prosthetic leg, is thrown into a…

“The Road Not Taken” Published!

The Road Not Taken in the April 2019 Bards and Sages Quarterly

William Tobias found a way to loop around space-time and meet a young version of himself. Can he change the destiny of his younger self?

My story “The Road Not Taken” is now published in the April 2019 issue of Bards and Sages Quarterly. I am so happy my story found a home in this fantastic magazine. So many great stories have…

“A Matter of Nurture” Published!

A Matter of Nurture in Neo-opsis 29

Dani Díaz is a virtuoso in a dark but necessary profession. Or is she? A job gone horribly wrong makes her doubt everything she thought she knew, including her own identity.

My story “A Matter of Nurture” is now published in issue 29 of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine. I am honored to have my tale in this award winning magazine. So many great stories have…

Why Scientists are Allergic to Statistics

This article in Medical Xpressaddresses a huge pet peeve of mine. Scientists largely suck at statistics! Especially for experimental scientists, this is insane. Yet I cannot express how frustrating it has been to me throughout my career as an experimental scientist to see study after study proven invalid because the statistics were botched. And I’m not just talking about bad scientists; even the…