Anyway, here is a bloggy overview of the past 12 months:
My most exciting project: The Free Science Fiction with Biology directory.
It's currently up to 220 free SF stories and I have at least a few dozen more to add when the dust from holidays has settled. And more free fiction appears online every week, so it's a project that thankfully never will be complete. Current entries span the entire 20th century, and include fiction originally published in Asimov's, Analog, Interzone, Fantasy & Science Fiction, the journal Nature, and many other fine publications. More than 40 of the entries you can listen to as an audiobook or podcast, which is excellent for listening to on your favorite MP3 player while jogging or commuting or cooking dinner or whatever else you might be doing.
Most Popular Posts of 2009
For some reason the 6 of the 10 posts that had the most visitors this year weren't actually new posts. Oldies but goodies!
- Vampirism as Disease? (January 2007)
- Parasites that Control Behavior (October 2006)
- What is Kara Thrace (June 2008)
- Farandolae (September 2007)
- The Depiction of Cloning in Movies (April 2008)
- Genetics of Heroes (Feburary 2007 and way out of date)
- GenPets: Bioengineered Pets Perfect for You (May 2008)
Most Popular Posts Made in 2009
At least a few of this years posts could compete with the old posts:
- Science Fiction, Race and Fandom (March)
- Kyle XY and Einstein's Brain (January)
- Alien Sex and Worlds: Philip Jose Farmer (February)
- Telomeres and Aging (October)
- Is Avatar Science Fiction? (December)
- The Next Phase of Human Evolution? (April)
Top Referrers
This list doesn't include boring referring sites like stumbleupon. I appreciate the links and hope some of you will make a return visit.
- io9.com
- rydra-wong.livejournal.com (from the "Great Race Discussion Linkspam" posts)
- sfsignal.com
- mikebrotherton.com
- blaghag.com
- almostdiamonds.blogspot.com (I'm sorry I didn't get to meet Stephanie at ScienceOnline09)
- seancraven.blogspot.com
- blog.scienceandentertainmentexchange.org
Thank you all for reading and commenting.
Also, special thanks to Cheryl Morgan who included my name here, making me smile during a very stressful and unhappy time.
Tags:science fiction, biology
Posts
Wish you a bright bio-sf blogging in year 2010 too Peggy and you have already initiated it !
ReplyDeleteThanks Arvind - and I hope 2010 is also a good year for you!
ReplyDeleteI just Googled 'Unrealistic Aliens' and came across your blog. I come from an excellent blog (IMO) called Rocketpunk Manifesto which discusses the possibilities/limitations of space colonization, orbital combat, stealth in space, etc. I posted a comment there dealing with realistic alien sapience which I will repost here, as your blog seems to be the more appropriate place (I hope I am not barking up the wrong tree!):
ReplyDeleteFloating paisley spider aliens with ten eyes and twenty tentacles that speak via rude bodily functions are fun, but are they plausible? For instance, we have seen many kinds of squid-like aliens, but on Earth cephalopods had 500 million years to evolve to sapience, but instead they have been relegated to five years of fleeting animal life, and my guess is if given another 500 million years, sapience would still not come to them (water restricting the advantage of early tool use as well as dousing the possibility of fire).
What forms of life could reasonably (by our current understanding) achieve sapience on their own? What life forms could piggyback their way to sapience, and what life forms could be uplifted to sapience?
Aliens with Brow Ridges take a lot of heat for their lack of originality, but is insect, reptile, amphibian, bird, etc. sapience even possible? (insect-like too small, reptile-like too big, amphibian-like not upright, bird-like no hands, etc.) Perhaps if an alien's environment was truly alien that may lead to non-humanoid sapience. What type of an environment would a .9/.8 or less Earth gravity build, or a 1.1/1.2 or more Earth gravity build? What types of sapience could rise in those environments. Add colder or warmer atmospheres, shorter or longer days and/or years, higher or lower abundance of various elements to the mix and what, if any, forms of sapience would rise?
Alternative biochemistries and/or extreme environments (neutron stars, etc.) are fun as well, but are they plausible? Are they plausible with a guiding hand?
FTL, Space Fighters, Stealth in Space are looked upon as Soft Sci-Fi, but is an alien that evolved out of a Jellyfish or a Plant any more hard? I am leaning towards convergent evolution: Dinosaurs had 160 million years to get their heads out of their a**es... didn't happen. Atomic Rockets says aliens won't look like Spock; I am not so sure: Leonard Nimoy just might be at the top of all of the Universe’s evolutionary trees. Of course God/Mother Nature can always throw a curve ball (pistol shrimp blow my mind). Thoughts?