The planets that were known in ancient times were, naturally enough, named after the Roman gods. When more advanced instruments let us discover even more planets, it only made sense to continue that theme. But the choice of the god of the sky has led to some irresistible jokes. So today we’re looking at some […]
Star Trek Discovery premiered last week. This week is the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Whatever your opinions of the new series or of CBS’s distribution methods, that fact gets me thinking about one thing in particular. Star Trek taught us that space is awesome. When I discussed real world discoveries inspired […]
Star Trek has inspired countless scientist. The character of Wesley Crusher was essentially written for me: A young child watching Star Trek: The Next Generation because her father loved the original series. As a teenager, Kathryn Janeway was the first woman I saw on television who got as excited about science as I did. Sometimes […]
When a new species is discovered, there are a lot of options for naming it. As long as you don’t name it after yourself, you can basically do what you want. A significant physical characteristic. The place you discovered it. An important mentor. Or, well, we saw from fruit fly gene names that scientists are […]