I'm starting something new today: a weekly collection of interesting articles and blog entries I see during the week but don't blog on myself. First, to give credit where it is due, I got the idea from astronomer Pamela Gay's Star Stryder blog. Every week, she posts a "best of the blogs" feature called Space Carnival. Here are a few of my recent picks:
Would your head explode in total vacuum? If you watch science fiction on film you might get that impression. But, actually, no, your head would not explode in a vacuum. Want to know what would actually kill you? Read this post on the Damn Interesting Facts and Ideas site.
In this article, commentator Katherine Mangu-Ward contrasts the recent explosion at Scaled Composites (home of Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two) and the gouge in the space shuttle's belly. She argues that risk is healthy for the aerospace industry, even if it occasionally comes with loss of life and business failure. This article appeared originally in Reason magazine.
On the On Philosophy blog, a writer named Peter ruminates on the colonization of space. The first few sentences says it all: "Science fiction often contains the idea that the human race will expand until we inhabit many star systems. This of course makes for very interesting stories. But why would we really want to colonize other star systems? We are not cockroaches; there is no need for the human race to use all available space." Peter's essay and the online discussion that follows it are thought-provoking and interesting.