MPJ

Just like a single ant who's lost in the large expanse of Brazilian Casino Beach ( Praia do Cassino , 250km in length, considered to be the largest beach on Earth), and felt as small as possible in surrounding space, we humans are experiencing similar sensation when it comes to space and especially time. But, contrary to ants, we have the ultimate tool, called science, that is allowing us to see beyond the horizon. If we could place ourselves in ant's shoes, we would find clues and evidence all around us and, metaphorically speaking, no matter of large quantities of sand grains, we would know that we were on the beach. And with time, when it comes to history of life, all the clues lie in fossil records of coral reefs. The main study, performed by J.E.N. Veron in his publication " A Reef in Time ", identified five periods in Earth's history with major extinction of corals that built reefs. In all five periods, fossil records of the reefs needed millions of

In wide variety of entire expanse of science fiction genre, Martians are inevitable players. Even the most popular "Little Green Men" phrase from the early comic books, at the beginning referred to the aliens from Mars. However, this year, when it comes to motion pictures, two great master pieces will come to life and all without LGM in classical meaning of the word. There will be no aliens on Mars this time and all the Martians in upcoming movie and TV series will actually be humans. Moreover, the science in background is returning to the front door and accompanying stories will immediately be more valid, more plausible and more ... amazing. And this is what I like the most in good and old Verne's type of Sci-Fi. In short, give me more science and just a hint of fiction to spice the things up and I am happy. You probably already guessed, it is about filming amazing books I have already written about on the blog - "The Martian" by Andy Weir and "The

Did you know that if you were standing on the near side of the Moon, and for your mass of 80kg and weight of 785N on Earth, due to Moon's lower gravity, you would not feel being heavier than 13kg (130N)? You knew? Ok, did you know that Earth's and Moon's gravities combined gave you different weight on near and far side of the Moon? Slightly yes, but true. Earth and Moon are relatively small celestial bodies but this difference goes even higher if you move from the Moon to the Io or Europe for example as they are also tidally locked by Jupiter just like our Moon is locked by Earth. This would most definitely not help mountains on Avatar's Pandora to float but still, within right conditions and with presence of large mass(es) nearby, considering appropriate composition of the ground I am sure there are solar systems out there with strange conditions to live with, to say the least. "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” - Isaac Ne

In short it goes like this: "There's a cat in a box... That has, like, a 50/50 chance of living because there's a vial of poison that's also in the box. Regular physics would say that it's one or the other. That the cat is either alive or dead, but quantum physics says that both realities exist simultaneously. It's only when you open the box that they collapse into one single event." This quote is me paraphrasing James Ward Byrkit, writer and director of the movie "Coherence" I've just watched. Although Erwin Schrödinger back in 1935, when he first wrote his famous thought experiment, invented pretty complex radioactive trap for the poor cat inside the box, I think that "vial of poison" and James' full description in the script is one of the best interpretation of the quantum paradox there is. The quantum weirdness is one of the most intriguing areas in science, that is still buzzing our minds for about a century now. I wrote ab

Most of famous movies and novels that are dealing with remarkable and bold scientific ideas in existence, like plotting the script behind the most intriguing property in the latest string theory called "Holographic principle", lack one main attraction I am always looking in science fiction. The plausibility of the story. To get to the wider audience, science behind is somehow always pushed below the main layer and the result is either too philosophical, ridiculous or unnecessary too complex (like planting humans for energy in 'Matrix' by AIs) or simple love story, like in case of "The Thirteenth Floor" or other simple and proven Good-vs-Bad chases in virtual realities, like those portrayed in Caprica. The Thirteenth Floor* But, if I had to choose one of those Hollywood fictions, maybe you would be surprised if I preferred "The Thirteenth Floor" over all the others I had chance to watch or read. For one simple reason. Like with holographic p

I don't really remember what was the name of the novel I read for the first time in my life. Probably one of those great books for children, like Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" or several of those with treasure hunt in story line with pirates and children in main character roles. It seems that it happened ages ago and whichever the book was, ever since then, especially in first decade or two after I learned to read, I swallowed a big amount of novels in realms of science fiction and different variety of adventurous stories. If I add tons of magazines, short stories and comic books to my reading habits back then, I think I can't be too much wrong if I say that my personality is shaped, more than I am ready to admit, with that big pile of paper I held in my hands decades ago. My early reading gave me one more thing besides pure knowledge and as weirdly as it sounds it is the smell of paper. Especially, the odor of printed paper just got out of printin

Not so long ago I mentioned great city of Alexandria in post Constantine & Naissus when I described the horrible misfortune and death of Hypatia, one of the greatest philosopher and astronomer of 4th century AD, who lived at the very end of classical Greek era of prosperity. Within the same city walls, couple of centuries before, one of the equally greatest and famous scientists of all times, Claudius Ptolemy was living, exploring, teaching and dedicating his life in various disciplines including astronomy and, of course, unavoidable astrology which was considered to be "connected science" for centuries, especially in the old ages. Rachel Weisz as Hypatia of Alexandria in Agora (2009) Among other things, Ptolemy will be remembered as the one of first scholars who described and identified 48 constellations of clear and unpolluted nightly skies above Alexandria so many centuries ago. One of the biggest constellations in his list was the great constellation of Gem

Recently, my five years old boy asked me the question I knew it would eventually come. The very question all parents are inevitably facing with, when the right time comes. With my son it came in the most simplest form: "What is God?" popped occasionally after tons of OMGs he heard everywhere in his realm of cartoons, video games, YouTube channels and TV shows. I wasn't prepared completely. I mean I had pretty good idea of how to explain mythical phenomenons, unknown and unexplainable tales and the very concept of belief, but I didn't know how to do it without destroying Santa Claus, Easter Bunny and other fairy tales he enjoys every year. To me, it's much too early for that age in life. It would only add disappointment and confusion and its better to leave it for little later. So I performed good and old evasive maneuvers and in a couple of curves succeeded in changing the topic and postponing the inevitable for the next time which will come probably sooner than I