BRAIN BLOG: Laser vs. Plasma, Sword Battle of Doom!

Posted on November 17, 2015 by IcarusArts

Original Star Wars concept art by Ralph McQuarrie

1 STARKILLER AND HIS TRUSTY LAZERSWORD

Stories abound on the internet these days about early drafts of the original Star Wars trilogy. Lucas made the move from Starkiller to Skywalker, from Bogan to The Dark Side, and since when is Biggs Luke’s brother? But most importantly for this essay, he went from Lazersword to Lightsaber, (check out starwarz.com for more). Both of which are terrible misnomers, even though the latter is far cooler sounding. Unfortunately both regular light and light amplified by the stimulated emission of radiation are completely useless as a weapon, or a tool, or anything beyond a fancy colored flashlight for finding your way through a dense jungle cavern. So let’s do this . . .
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BRAIN BLOG: Time Travel and Thermodynamics

Posted on September 24, 2015 by IcarusArts

1 WHERE WE’RE GOING, WE DON’T NEED ROADS . . .

Hollywood seems to be a huge fan of veering off into no-man’s land when time travel is involved. From flux capacitors to spinning egg timers on a string they would have you believe that “All of the silly details to time travel have already been accounted for, surely then you need only believe the premise of the story!” Perhaps that is indeed the case. Maybe we should believe in the science of a flux capacitor, an ancient staff, a metal box with washers glued to it, or a giant spinning EM quantum field generator. They sound science-y don’t they? I mean, the writers must have had the decency to look into these theories before taking the leap onto the silver screen. . . right?
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BRAIN BLOG: The Physics of Ant-Man or The Science of Small

Posted on August 12, 2015 by IcarusArts

Artwork by the very talented Rodolfo Reyes via the Poster Posse

1 THE SCIENCE OF SMALL

Shrinking ourselves down to the size of an ant has long been a popular theme in science fiction. Movies such as Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Innerspace, Fantastic Voyage, The Incredible Shrinking Woman, and many more have depicted shrinking in various forms or another, all culminating in the same result; I was big, now I’m small. But how realistic is this? Have these movies portrayed the science of small correctly, or are there scientific issues far beyond what is portrayed on the silver screen?

To address these questions and more, we will take a look at the 2015 release of Marvel’s Ant-Man and the modern physical laws that come into play in the movie.
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TSFP Affiliate News!

Posted on August 7, 2015 by SciFiHost

– I AM YOUR PORTAL TO AWESOMENESS … CLICK ME –

Whoa, what’s that? Click on it and find out, duh. But seriously, we are honored and excited to announce our affiliate partnership with TeePublic (aka BustedTees)!

Everyone loves cool shirts, especially graphic tees, and many of us sci-fi geeks own and wear a bunch of them. Now is your chance to find great shirts, great deals and support your favorite science fiction podcast, simply by doing your regular t-shirt shopping at our affiliate store.

Every shirt you order allows us to continue doing what we love to do–and keep The SciFi Podcast free for you–by helping to pay for hosting, admin and other expenses. In exchange for your support you also get some seriously excellent shirts.

More info on custom TSFP designs to come soon, but for now, please check out the site and tell your friends to do the same. Connect to our store front and see what we have selected as our favorite TSFP-relevant shirts. You can also find a banner ad on the side of our site that links to the store as well.

Stay tuned for other spaced-out ideas from yours truly at The SciFi Podcast.

Get Mattroid approved shirts at Station approved prices! You’ll never be Solo again if you were these nifty prints. (Sorry, had to bust out my inner 1995 infomercial persona.)

Questions, comments or concerns? Fire away.

-Mattroid