links for 2009-05-09

"To get a sense of how much actual science has made its way into the science fiction universe of Star Trek, ScientificAmerican.com spoke to Lawrence Krauss, author of The Physics of Star Trek, the first edition of which appeared on bookshelves in 1995. [...]

We asked Krauss about the plausibility of crossovers from the Trek universe, including warp speed, humanoid aliens such as Klingons and, of course, whether anyone will be "beamed up" by Scotty or otherwise, anytime soon."

You can just smell the 80's...

Anybody want to come babysit so we can see this?

"The Obama administration announced Thursday that an independent panel would take a âfresh lookâ at NASAâs human spaceflight program, a step that could lead to the scuttling of next-generation rockets or an affirmation of the agencyâs direction.

The review will be led by Norman Augustine, a former chief executive of Lockheed Martin who led a major review of the space program in 1990. The panel will consist of about 10 members appointed by Christopher Scolese, the acting NASA administrator, after consultation with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy."

"A team of physicists from Austria has sent pairs of entangled photons, which can be used to encrypt messages with complete security, between telescopes spaced 144km apart in the Canary Islands. The researchers say that preserving entanglement over this distance shows the feasibility of carrying out quantum cryptography using a worldwide network of satellites. "

"After Tim Russert tragically passed away last summer much of the journalistic establishment in Washington began to speculate as to who would replace him as host and moderator on Meet The Press. Names floated included, Chuck Todd, Chris Mathews, Gwen Ifill, and the eventual host David Gregory. Unfortunately the person most deserving of that chair, Stewart, was never mentioned. Lampoon the choice if you will, but in between the profanity and the off-color remarks made on The Daily Show, Stewart manages to glean more out of interviews on a comedy channel than do most journalists working for respected news institutions."