Alex R. Howe
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My blog of science, science fiction, and more.
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Author Archives: Alex R. Howe
Day 2 at the #AAS230: Warm Jupiters, Human Spaceflight, and Other Stories
Artist’s rendition of the mysterious Planet Nine. The second day of the AAS Conference has concluded with still more fascinating tales from the world of astronomy. We begin with the tale of the Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which concluded … Continue reading
Posted in astronomy, Science
Tagged #aas230, black holes, exoplanets, human spaceflight, Planet Nine
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Day 1 at the #AAS230: Dark Matter, Colliding Planets, and More
The famous Bullet Cluster, the first clear proof of dark matter. The AAS Conference is underway today with the first round of talks from all branches of astronomy. For us astronomers, the biggest events are probably the plenary sessions, where … Continue reading
Posted in astronomy, Science
Tagged #aas230, dark matter, planets
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Blogging the #AAS230
As you may already know, I’m a professional astrophysicist, and for astrophysicists, the biggest event of the year is the biannual conference of the American Astronomical Society, usually known as the AAS (that’s “Double-A-S” for you non-astronomers). Now, the winter … Continue reading
Movie Review: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Well, I’m back. I took a long hiatus from blogging after an even longer spotty record due to some personal stuff I’ve been dealing with. I may or may not eventually talk about that, but I’m going to try to … Continue reading
Movie Review: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the Rebel Alliance stole the plans to the Death Star and discovered its One Weakness. Rogue One is the story of how that happened and why the Death Star’s engineers … Continue reading
Posted in Movie Reviews
Tagged Rogue One, Star Wars
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Movie Review: Arrival
Arrival is a unique new science fiction film about alien contact based on the 1998 Novella “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. Highly critically acclaimed, Arrival differs from most other movies of its type in that this is a … Continue reading
Movie Review: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the first spin-off film in the Harry Potter series, and the first screenplay written by J. K. Rowling directly. It is the first of five films that will apparently lead up to … Continue reading
Posted in Movie Reviews
Tagged David Yates, Fantastic Beasts, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Harry Potter, J. K. Rowling
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What If? Rejects #6.2: Chainsaws
Previous post in this series: A Well-Balanced Meal What If? bonus: How Many Seconds in Eternity Next post in this series: Thor’s Hammer Q: What temperature would a chainsaw (or other cutting implement) need to be at to instantly cauterize … Continue reading
Posted in Medicine, What If? Rejects
Tagged cauterization, chainsaw, lightsaber
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What If? Rejects #6.1: A Well-Balanced Meal, Part 4
Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Next post in this series: Chainsaws. I want to finish up my discussion of the nutritional content of the human body, as per Randall Munroe’s What If? This post doesn’t really have … Continue reading
Posted in What If? Rejects
Tagged human body, nutrition
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What If? Rejects #6.1: A Well-Balanced Meal, Part 3
Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Two years ago, I began a series of posts based on Randall Munroe’s book, What If? The What If? book and website are described as “serious scientific answers to absurd hypothetical questions.” … Continue reading
Posted in Biology, Medicine, What If? Rejects
Tagged biochemistry, human body, nutrition
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Science Meets Fiction 