Saturday Space Stories!  Ordered from least to most probable: Through some excellent mechanical design, you can now imagine that you’re in a Battlestar Galactica space battle with your stomach as well as your brain. Verdict: while the simulator is a very cool real thing, close quarters space combat with robots-that-have-evolved-into-people... [Read More]

Today holds a special place in my heart: it's the long standing Caltech tradition known as Ditch Day! While it started off as a normal senior ditch day, Caltech undergrad culture being what it is, it didn't stay normal for long. The original Ditch Day "stacks"-a Caltech euphemism for locks-were... [Read More]

And now for something completely different! Listen close, and you will hear a tale of an intriguing interplay between consumer choice, government regulation and market competition, the likes of which happen all around us but for the most part go unseen. There are two brands of unsweetened almond milk  - let's call... [Read More]

I’m a little confused. Maybe there’s something I’m missing, but I’m not sure why having the single common trait of being good at winning elections makes a group of accountants, lawyers, economists, MDs, real estate agents, jet pilots, and reporters suddenly qualified to determine the validity of space missions. Sarcasm aside,... [Read More]

For those of you interested in a broad overview of the cutting edge of space exploration, or just in need of a space excitement boost: Mason Peck, the NASA Chief Technologist (who also happens to be my PhD advisor) did an AMA on Reddit yesterday.  He answers a swath of... [Read More]