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.
Solid-state light
6 March 2004
Seeing c
How to freeze light on a computer chip.
Technology
tags: light, The Economist
Bounding information
6 March 2004
Hair today
String theory might reveal the internal structure of black holes
Towards the planck length
28 February 2004
Atto boy!
The shortest time, and smallest mass, yet measured
Shipping in China
19 February 2004
China’s shipping boom
Chinese shipping, and shipbuilding, are sailing swiftly
with Iain Carson
Business News
tags: The Economist
Modern-day aether?
5 February 2004
A cosmological conundrum
What if the dark energy and dark matter essential to modern explanations of the universe don’t really exist?
Climbing the periodic table
5 February 2004
Two new elements
A Russian-American collaboration has created two new chemical elements.
Where are you?
29 January 2004
Satellite-navigation networks
Negotiations to harmonize America’s GPS system and Europe’s Galileo.
New approaches to cancer treatment
22 January 2004
Malignant maths
Mathematical models aid the understanding of cancer.
Plus new thermal treatmentsof cancer.
Does language structure thought?
8 January 2004
Babel’s Children
Languages may be more different from each other than is currently supposed. That may affect the way people think.
Out of mind
4 December 2003
Out of sight
A transparent magnet could be used to make new kinds of memories and displays.
Technology
tags: display, memory, The Economist
After the fingerprint
4 December 2003
Prepare to be scanned
Biometrics: High-tech security systems that rely on detailed measurements of the human body, known as biometrics, are taking off. But should they be?
And, an accompanying leader (editorial), written with Tom Standage.
Technology
tags: biometrics, The Economist
Lightening, analyzed
4 December 2003
Sturm und Drang
No one understands lightning. But here are some interesting investigations into the subject.
Rushing to judgement
13 November 2003
Perishing publishing
The benefits and dangers of pre-printing scientific papers on-line.
Gamma-ray mystery
3 November 2003
Bursting with controversy
Arguments continue about the biggest explosions in the universe–just what are gamma-ray bursts, and how do they work?