It may come as a surprise to many of us but there are people who read and research comic books for a living. While they may not have a PhD in comic books, studying comic books is a diverse field, and incorporates disciplines from sociology, media, and the visual arts. A few years ago, PhD...
Set in the year 3000, the series Futurama features one of the most interesting forms of personal travel—pneumatic tubes. These were used primarily in the late 19th to the early 20th century to transport small packages over short distances, typically within a building or city. Though it is in very limited use today, there has been renewed...
Earlier this month, scientists from the University of Cambridge published an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences titled, "Extreme positive allometry of animal adhesive pads and the size limits of adhesion-based climbing." This article said basically one thing: geckos are the largest creatures that can climb walls. Stephen Colbert lamented the study's finding on The...
The Star Wars films feature not one but three battle stations capable of destroying planets. In "A New Hope," the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station employed a super laser powered by a hypermatter reactor to destroy Alderaan. Following the "Battle of Yavin," the Empire returned with the Death Star II, an even more formidable weapons platform...
In the season 1 episode, CQB of The Expanse, the flagship of the Martian Congressional Republic Navy's Jupiter fleet, The MCRN Donnager, finds itself in a space battle with the six ships that attacked the Canterbury. Seriously outgunned, the Martian ship takes heavy damage from railgun fire; Canterbury med-tech, Shed Garvey (Paulo Costanzo) is struck...