WELCOME
Thanks for coming to visit my website. I write about science, technology, foreign affairs, and other subjects.
Follow me on Twitter: @kkakaesDrones and Aerial Observation
I edited and wrote part of a short book published by New America in July 2015 and freely available online, about how drones are being used in new ways around the world. It's meant to be useful to people who want to fly drones.The Pioneer Detectives
I published a short book with The Millions.
It's the story of the Pioneer Anomaly, a long-standing mystery. The book is short and fun—the length of a novella—but also, in the words of Amazon's reviewer, "powerful and sad". If you've got any curiosity about how NASA works behind the scenes or why scientists believe what they do, I think you'll enjoy the book.
It is available on Amazon as a Kindle Single and also on Apple's iBooks.Drone Wars
I wrote a chapter on the long history of drone technology going back to the early 20th century in this edited Cambridge University Press volume.
Is Science Really Moving Faster Than Ever?
3 April 2012
Why talking about the “pace of technological change” is a meaningless, counterproductive generality.
Part 1 of a debate on Slate with ASU’s Dan Sarewitz.
Part 2 is here>>.
[Slate]
The Nucleus of the Digital Age
3 March 2012
A review of George Dyson’s “Turing’s Cathedral”
In pursuit of hydrogen bombs, a math genius and a brilliant tinkerer in Princeton developed the modern computer.
[Wall Street Journal]
The Death of the Research Works Act
28 February 2012
Scientists’ Victory Over the Research Works Act Is Like the SOPA Defeat
Darrell Issa and Carolyn Maloney withdraw their support from a bill which would have limited public access to scientific papers.
[Slate]
The Other Academic Freedom Movement
11 February 2012
How scientists broke through the paywall and made their articles available to (almost) everyone.
Why extremely profitable scientific publishers lack a future, and why this is good for science as a whole.
[Slate]
NASA needs one “highest priority” not 16 of them
1 February 2012
More numbers, more problems
The flaws of a new National Research Council report on what direction NASA should take
[Slate]
Promise me the moon
31 January 2012
The emotional appeal of Gingrich’s space policy
The Republican presidential candidate wants to build a base on the moon. So do I.
[Huffington Post]
Phobos-Grunt, grunt.
11 January 2012
The U.S. Didn’t Shoot Down Russia’s Mars Probe. But It Could Have.
Strange accusations from the head of Russia’s space programme, and why they matter.
[Slate]
String theory
5 January 2012
The art and science of making violins
I spent some time with Tom King, a violinmaker in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He uses a combination of craftsmanship and technical analysis to make great-sounding, and beautiful, instruments. He once took several million dollars worth of violins to the hospital to get CAT-scanned.
[Stanford Magazine]
Chronicle of a War Foretold
5 January 2012
Violence Begets Violence in Mexico
How nobody understands what spurred 45,000 drug-related murders in Mexico, though Ioan Grillo’s new book El Narco does a good job of trying to.
[Zocalo Public Square]
The 40-year itch
5 October 2011
How to build a really awesome spaceship, maybe
Would-be space explorers, scientists, and a couple of crackpots gather at DARPA’s 100-Year Starship Symposium to try to get interstellar travel unstuck.
[Slate]
clips, Physics, Astronomy and Space, Science and Technology, Science Policy and Technological Culture, Technology
tags: 100 year straship, DARPA, exotic propulsion, gravity drives, interstellar travel, NASA, nuclear rockets, quantum vacuum fluctuation, Slate, solar sails, space travel, zero point energy
Atomic Dogs
28 September 2011
Why can’t the world’s nuclear energy watchdog do anything about Fukushima or Iran’s weapons program?
A report from Vienna
[Foreign Policy]
The Philosopher-Fisticuffers
14 September 2011
A review of Enrique Krauze’s new book Redeemers
Which consists of 12 profiles of Latin American figures, and is a good read.
[Zocalo Public Square]
Salvaging space
1 September 2011
Cleaning up low-Earth-orbit debris might lead to new space technologies.
Why problems are sometimes useful to have.
[Slate]