More like this
You all loved it when my Mom wrote two 5-part series of guest-posts. You remember the exciting reports from herpetology survey by Kevin when he was in China. My friend Heinrich wrote two guest-posts about sleep. And most recently Anne-Marie wrote a guest-post about daily rhythms in bats. As you…
Science blogger Eva of Eastern blot has news that an article she wrote on the topic of science blogs, which includes interviews with PZ and Carl (in addition to myself and others), is now online. The article is titled, "Who benefits from science blogging?", and the .pdf can be found directly here…
Last week, Steven Weinberg wrote a piece for the Guardian promoting his new book about the history of science (which seems sort of like an extended attempt to make Thony C. blow a gasket..). This included a list of recommended books for non-scientists which was, shall we say, a tiny bit problematic…
Last year I banned per/David Bell from commenting for a few days after he abused another commenter. This prompted an attack on me from ClimateAudit where commenters wrote falsehoods like this:
Lambert knows his facts are weak, as such he does not allow others to comment upon them, otherwise the…
Terrific story.
Bit puzzled though. Had they never heard of the Bostrom's Great Filter, or the Fermi Paradox? I think they would make a nice addition to the story.
You are pretty smart, for an Earthling.
“But then the last part of the cycle runs faster simply because the planet is smaller. Quasi intelligence builds technology webs sooner on smaller planets, and when the Koch Effect swings into play, smaller planets are simply more vulnerable.”
OTOH, smaller planets with weaker gravity are surely less likely to suffer bolide impacts?
Although I guess that depends on whether there’s Jovian planet relatively nearby (say 5 AU or so?) to shield it and so on.
I can think of plenty of complicating additional factors here and not sure that for example smaller world always means less water. (Enceladus, Ceres & Pluto for example are all much smaller than Earth yet have much more water in percentage of their mass terms.)
Interesting though and picturing aliens enjoying the pub after a lecture is certainly reassuringly familiar!
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Once thought to be rocky, we now believe Ceres may contain 200 million cubic kilometres of water in its mantle. This is more than the amount of fresh water on the Earth.
– Page 10, “Ceres may be a failed miniplanet” by Jeff Foust in Astronomy Now magazine, November, 2005.