Blogs / Bad Astronomy

I just heard about a movie that I’m very much looking forward to seeing: "Agora".

I was halfway through the trailer when I realized who Rachel Weisz was playing: Hypatia, one of the greatest women in all of history. It’s a story — a true one — of religious conflict in the Roman Empire as Christianity was becoming a major force, and the old multitheistic Egyptian religion was on its way out.

Hypatia was a scientist before there was modern scientist, a mathematician and great thinker who taught at the great Library of Alexandria. She was considered one of the greatest philosophers of her time, which then meant someone who studies the natural world. She was killed by a Christian mob during what was essentially an uprising. It’s one of history’s major tragedies.

I don’t know how historically accurate the movie will be — I am no expert in this field — but as a story it’s a good one, and features a very strong role model for young women. I hope it winds up playing somewhere near me.

… well, to observe astronomically, that is. It’s been found, and it’s not exactly your backyard: it’s in Antarctica, and moreover in a fairly remote spot.

Universe Today has more details. I love the idea that this spot has the best atmospheric conditions on Earth yet found, but I wonder 1) how they’re gonna build a big observatory there, and b) who will winter over to staff it?

And actually, c) will they stock a flamethrower?

My friend and fellow astronomer and astronomy evangelist Dan Durda just let me know he’ll be on tonight’s episode of Universe on The History Channel. He’ll be talking up what he does best: asteroid impacts and extinction events. Oddly, I have an affinity for those as well. So, if you have a TV check Dan out as he apocalypticizes. It’s on at 21:00 Eastern (US) time.

The latest edition of the Are We Alone program is up, where astronomer Seth Shostak and I talk (and diss) Hollywood doomsday movies (here’s the direct link to the MP3). My segment opens with A Dramatic Reading from my book, Death from the Skies!, and also has interviews with my friends and fellow astronomers David Morrison and Lynn Rothschild.

If you’ve ever watched an astronomically-based disaster movie and yelled "That can’t happen!" at the screen, then take a listen. The next time you yell at a movie, you can give it specifics.

Pardon the title, Morbo was yelling at me.

So Futurama is coming back. Yay!

Then rumors abounded that Fox wasn’t bringing back the original voice actors. Boo!

But now it looks like they are bringing back the original actors. Yay!

So what’s next? They won’t have Hypnotoad?

Listen up, Fox: YOU WILL BRING BACK HYPNOTOAD. YOU WILL…

Last week, I moderated a very cool panel at Comic Con about the Science of Science Fiction, stressing science for good or evil in fiction. IMO it was a really good discussion, and now you have a chance to see for yourself! The full video and description of the panel has been posted on the Hive Overmind blog Science Not Fiction, and I’ve embedded it here for your convenience:

[Feel free to grab the embed for your blog if you'd like.]

Watching it, I was struck by how serious the discussion was. Not "serious" as in we were all sourpusses and frowny and finger-wagging — we laughed and joked a lot — but serious in that the depth of the discussion surprised me. I had a lot of fun up there, and somehow I was remembering that as haha fun. But now, thinking back on it, I had fun talking about deep philosophical topics — life, death, torture, memory, the knowledge of self — with smart people.^*

Smart people are cool. A panel full of them is awesomely cool, and it was a privilege to stand up there with them. Go give that video a watch. I think you’ll enjoy it.

And, of course, I can’t wait until next year!

I know the movie "2012" will both be cool to watch and suck awesomely in its portrayal of reality. I know I’ll want to see it, just as I know I’ll want to destroy it without mercy in a review.

In the meantime, it may be hard to top this terrific edit of the movie’s trailer.

All I could think of while watching it was, "Mitchell!"