Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Futurism.
Florence's Museo Galileo
Located near Ponte Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria, Museo Galileo is in the Florence’s historical center. Formerly the Museum of History of Science, Museo Galileo is dedicated to the education and preservation of science history. Since its founding in 1927, the museum has grown to be an archive of scientific instruments and an institute focused on the research, dissemination, and documentation of technology and science. Museo Galileo boasts an impressive specialized library, multimedia center, photographic and restoration laboratories, and more.
By Dava Sobel8 years ago in Futurism
Do Language and Emotion Affect Health?
Some years ago, when I was a little younger but just as peculiar, I was a general surgeon more interested in why people got sick than in cutting them—and equally interested in why they got well. Eventually, I decided that if I were to get any of my crazy ideas accepted, I'd have to become a psychiatrist. So I started hunting for a psychiatry residency. I was interviewed by one eminent gentleman and incidentally expressed my belief that anger and depression were important mechanisms in the induction of cancer. He sneered, not very politely, and said, "Every weekend we get at least a dozen nuts in the emergency room who have figured out what causes cancer." I asked, "What do they say?" His reply, which I treasure, was, "We ignore them... we have better things to do."
By Futurism Staff8 years ago in Futurism
David Cronenberg’s Prophetic Videodrome
Videodrome is the best movie ever made about Facebook. What felt “vaguely futuristic” about it in 1983 is prescient today: technology and media are ever more intimate, personal, embodied, an interpenetration that David Cronenberg’s film graphically explores.
By Nathan Jurgenson8 years ago in Futurism
What Was the Star of Bethlehem?
It’s a scientific detective case, really, not unlike some modern UFO reports: cold clues, conflicting observers, many possible explanations, lack of data from people who should have seen what others reported, plus a need to come up with an answer. The nature of the Star of Bethlehem, or the Star of the Magi, used to come up every year around December and was the subject of planetarium shows all over the Western world. It was the case of trying to identify a historical event using available records, modern knowledge of the sky, ancient astrology, and was subjected to the errors of interpreting extinct tongues.
By Mark R. Chartrand III8 years ago in Futurism
Making Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica was one of the most expensive series ever created for television in its time. Its price tag averaged nearly a million dollars per hour for the episodes seen in fall of 78. The usual fees for a big budget series were compounded by an inspired move from creator/writer/executive producer Glen Larson. In signing John Dykstra, multiple Academy Award-winning special effects supervisor for Star Wars, Larson hired a formidable talent. Dykstra created the dazzling array of effects that highlight this otherwise pedestrian program, making Battlestar Galactica the hottest new series of its time.
By Futurism Staff8 years ago in Futurism
How Can Venus Be a UFO?
A celebrated UFO report, widely publicized in the 1970s, is Jimmy Carter's sighting in Georgia, before he was governor. Hundreds of UFO writers and lecturers refer glowingly to the "Jimmy Carter UFO," though not a single one of them appears to have actually investigated the report. In light of statistics showing that 90 to 98 percent of all such instances can readily be identified as scientific phenomena (at least a quarter of these cases turn out to be bright planets), one suspects that UFO buffs are afraid that just such a solution would explain away the Carter sighting and thus deprive them of a good publicity gimmick.
By James Oberg8 years ago in Futurism
Darwin’s Archipelago
In 1966, I spent four months in the Galápagos Islands, gathering materials for a picture book on that archipelago. My Galápagos, the Galápagos of 1966, had been discovered by science but not by Lindblad. Charles Darwin had come 131 years before, but tour boats were not yet calling; there were no hotels, and the Ecuadorian government had yet to establish the Galápagos National Park. The islands were best known among the citizens of the mainland for their old penal settlements. The Encantadas—the enchanted isles, as the Spanish had first called them—for a time had been devil's islands of the Pacific.
By Kenneth Brower8 years ago in Futurism
299,000 Kilometers a Second
Bill had 24 hours before his flight. He had spent the last month jettisoning his possessions to his friends and family in a process that felt a lot like a living funeral. All his books, most of his clothes, and many of the objects he had collected for years began to feel heavy on him.
By Brett Ryan Bonowicz8 years ago in Futurism
Astronaut Humor
Space, the final frontier. Mankind has explored, colonized, and dominated just about every corner of the earth. But it is not our destiny keep our feet planted merely on the dirt. In our bones we know our destiny is to float amongst the stars. While nations might bicker and squabble the best of the best struggle to make their own headway towards conquering the final frontier. Astronauts, the best and brightest men and women, are the ones who have taken it upon themselves to shoulder this cosmic burden. But just because the future of the human race and our destiny in the stars lays upon them doesn’t mean they can’t have a little fun. After some extensive research, we have found some of the funniest anecdotes from some of our favorite space missions. So as you go out gazing out at the stars and wondering in awe at the infinite possibility of the cosmos take a second and chuckle at these funny little mishaps on the road towards cosmic enlightenment.
By Isaac Shapiro8 years ago in Futurism
Science Needs Unreasonable Leaps
An abiding fascination of science is its propulsive creativity and unreasonable leaps. Why does the occasional lone genius succeed where a lavishly funded, mission-oriented project has failed? Even odder, why should Alexander Fleming, half a century ago, have made his mightily significant discovery of penicillin—yet leave its consummation to Howard Florey and Ernst Chain more than 10 years later? Often it requires great risk for scientists to make great strides.
By Bernard Dixon8 years ago in Futurism
Lost Hope Creator Jeff Saamanen
Lost Hope is a comedic sci-fi epic with mature themes and dramatic overtones; or, as we like to call it, Archer meets Star Wars. Lost Hope, created by real life sci-fi couple Jeff Saamanen and Natalie Harvey, follows the exploits of Clara Hope and her team after the unexpected destruction of planet Earth. Together with her inexperienced crew of the USS Hopeful, Clara is forced to protect what remains of our species from the vast unknown of the universe.
By Natasha Sydor8 years ago in Futurism