It's a Bonus Blog day! To celebrate a full FIVE YEARS of Cosmic Stories this week, I'm posting a slightly more reflective biographical piece as the first in a new occasional series on #ScienceandSF - Scientific Journeys. www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie... Comments or other responses welcome!

In case anyone missed it at the weekend...

#bbcolympics Why do the track markers in the speed skating arena keep going flying? Is this not a hazard?

New blog day! Today we're looking at uses of Lagrange Points in science and SF, featuring Forward, Baxter, Clarke, Space: Above and Beyond and many others... including a nod to @beamjockey.bsky.social and a recent story by Sean McMullen. Comments always welcome. www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie...

In case anyone missed it last week! #StarTrek #Exoplanets #Science #ScienceFiction

The UK is set to cut its budget for astronomy research by a third. Since the few high-profile projects they are likely to continue to support, like ELT, tend to be the most expensive, it means even more drastic cuts to the rest of the field. It is effectively the end. 🧪🔭 ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

Today in the #CosmicStories blog, we take a look at the #ScienceandSF of #Exoplanets through the lens of a case study: #StarTrek and its spin offs. Featuring #astronomy, #ScienceFiction, desert worlds, water planets, giants, and lots of Star Trek. Comments welcome! www.warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie...

In case anyone missed it at the weekend! Also features #DoctorWho, #StarTrek, #Stargate and Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London, as well as the _other_ E E Smith.

New blog! Today in #CosmicStories, we take a look at Clarke's Third Law: technologies indistinguishable from magic in #ScienceandSF. Featuring Arthur C Clarke, Roger Zelazny, Jack Vance, Babylon 5, Tolkien and others. Comments always welcome! www.warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie...

New blog! Today we take a look at Sailing to the Stars with solar sail ships. Featuring examples from Niven and Pournelle, Forward, Clarke, Anderson(s), Ken Liu, Star Trek and others. Comments welcome! www.warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie...

In case anyone missed it last week!

Do I know anyone in a scientific or technical role (or retired from one) who feels like writing a short (~1000-2000 word) entry for an occasional series of bonus blogs on personal relationships with science fiction?

New blog post! With Christmas looming, today in #CosmicStories, I'm taking a look at the #ScienceandSF of Holiday Worlds. Including work by Smith, Hast, Russ, Asimov, Doctor Who, Star Trek and others. www.warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstories/out_of_this/ Comments welcome!

In case anyone missed it at the weekend...

New blog! Today in #CosmicStories I'm going to take a deep dive. I'm considering Doctor Who serial "Robot" as a case study of representations of robot intelligence, science and scientists in the 1970s. www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie... (correct link!) #DoctorWho #ScienceandSF #AI

Apologies for the broken link! warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/phys... The shortcut warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie... works too. I really should learn not to post before coffee in the morning!

New blog! Today in #CosmicStories I'm going to take a deep dive. I'm considering Doctor Who serial "Robot" as a case study of representations of robot intelligence, science and scientists in the 1970s. https;//www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStories/doctor_whos_robot/ #DoctorWho #ScienceandSF #AI

I'd missed that! Must have been before I boarded the Stanway Express with other followers. Amazing that a parody written by two goofy grad students in the summer of '77, based on a rather obvious pun, has still been cited in AD 2025. And such company! Hugo Gernsback! Tom Swift, Jr! Thunderbirds!

In case anyone missed it yesterday :)

New blog! Today in #CosmicStories, I'm looking at the #ScienceandSF of think tanks and scientific hothouses i.e. intensive science research centres. Featuring Eureka, Doctor Who, Star Trek and work by Asimov, Higgins, Smith and others www.warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie... Comments always welcome

In case anyone missed it yesterday...

New #CosmicStories blog post! Today, we're looking at #SpyFi - the glorious overlap between espionage, #ScienceandSF and what it tells us about how science is perceived. Featuring The Man from UNCLE. The Avengers, James Bond and others. www.warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie... Comments always welcome!

In case anyone missed it at the weekend...

It's a new #CosmicStories #ScienceandSF blog day! I'm returning to home ground of #astronomy with a look at Habitable Exomoons. Featuring Star Trek, Star Wars, Avatar and works by Asimov and Chambers amongst others. www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie... Comments welcome!

New blog! Today in #CosmicStories, I'm looking at narratives of Earth's overpopulation in #ScienceandSF. Featuring Hershey, Harrison, Silverberg, Soylent Green, Logan's Run and others. www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie... Comments always welcome!

In case anyone missed it at the weekend...

In case anyone missed it at the weekend...

New #ScienceandSF blog post! Today in #CosmicStories, I'm taking a look at Living Starships - featuring Star Trek, Babylon 5, Farscape and works by Justina Robson, Kameron Hurley and others. www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie... Comments always welcome.

New blog post! Today in #CosmicStories I look at humanity on trial in #scienceandSF. Featuring Williamson, Haldeman, Clifton, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Stranger on Venus and #StarTrek: The Next Generation amongst others. www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie... Comments always welcome.

New blog! Today in #CosmicStories I'm taking a look at the #ScienceandSF of the intramercurial planet Vulcan. Featuring stories from Rocklynne, Brackett, Cummings, Vincent and others. Comments always welcome. www.warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie... #ScienceFiction #Astronomy

In case anyone missed it last week....

New blog! Today in #CosmicStories, I'm taking a look at the #ScienceandSF of oxygen... the deadliest gas. Featuring examples from Clarke, Thomas, Chain, Follett, Rocklynne and others. Comments always welcome! www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie...

In case anyone missed it at the weekend...

New blog day! Today in #CosmicStories I look at small time shifts in #ScienceandSF - are they really a recipe for invisibility? Including examples from Aldiss, Bayley, Rusch and others. Comments always welcome. www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStories/one_step_out/

New post! In today's Cosmic Stories blog, I take a look at the science and SF of lunar observatories, featuring Clarke, Richardson, Ley, Bova, Latner and others. Comments always welcome! www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie...

In case anyone missed it last week...

The Minor Planet Center has designated 3I/ATLAS = C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), or informally "Comet ATLAS", a new interstellar comet that is currently about 4.5 AU from the Sun and screaming through the solar system at 58 km/s (130000 mph)

Lots of excitement about a new candidate interstellar object: earthsky.org/space/new-in... I looked at interstellar objects in science and science fiction in Cosmic Stories a couple of years ago - might be time for an update! www.warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie... #astronomy #Science #ScienceFiction

New blog post day! Today I'm taking a look at reproductive technologies in science and science fiction. Featuring works by Haldane, Russell, Herbert, Sargent, Bujold and others. Comments always welcome! www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStories/one_decanted_every/

Anyone who enjoyed my recent post on Language and Linguistics may be interested by a story I've just come across in the May/June 2025 edition of @analogsf.bsky.social Isolate by language hobbyist @tomrpike.bsky.social follows a linguist assigned to evaluate the language of the planet Emepera. 1/n

In case anyone missed it at the weekend #language #linguistics #science #sciencefiction

New post day! Today in #CosmicStories, I take a look at the #ScienceandSF of Language and Linguistics, featuring works by Elgin, Vance, Delany, Sheckley and Masson amongst others, as well as Star Trek, Arrival and more. Comments always welcome. www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie...

In case anyone missed it....

New blog day! Today in #CosmicStories I'm taking a look at the protections and perils of personal shields in science and SF, including examples from Asimov, Anderson, Stargate Atlantis, Smith and others. Comments always welcome! www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie... #scienceandSF

New blog day! Today in #CosmicStories I'm taking a look at the protections and perils of personal shields in science and SF, including examples from Asimov, Anderson, Stargate Atlantis, Smith and others. Comments always welcome! www.warwick.ac.uk/CosmicStorie... #scienceandSF

In case anyone missed it at the weekend...

New blog post! Today in my #CosmicStories #ScienceandSF blog, I'm returning to #Astronomy and looking at red dwarf stars and their planets in science and science fiction. Including works by Blish, Chambers, Asimov, Latham, Steele and others. www.warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie... Comments welcome!

New blog! Today in #CosmicStories I take a look at the #scienceandSF of museums - how the guardians of the past relate to the literature of the future. Featuring Morris, Wells, Doctor Who, @kristinerusch.bsky.social, Bates and others. warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie... Comments always welcome!

Flashback time! Two years ago, I celebrated 50 years since first broadcast of The Tomorrow People by looking at stories of the next stage of human evolution: Homo superior. Featuring The Tomorrow People (of course), Sturgeon, Stapledon, Wyndham, Jaeger and others. warwick.ac.uk/cosmicstorie...

In case anyone missed it...