New York is freaking out over a pulsing ‘blue light’ in the sky and no, it’s not aliens

TwitterFacebook

A pulsing bright blue light illuminating the sky across Queens, New York on Thursday night had everyone thinking one thing.

But before you even start, it’s not aliens.

Awestruck folks shared footage on Twitter of the strangely glimmering turquoise light, equally as baffled as each other. 

Similar to the 2015 freak-out of Los Angeles, when a ‘blue light’ streaked across the night sky, folks on Twitter declared it one of two things: aliens or something worth calling Ghostbusters for.

The New York sky tonight confirming there is no Dana only Zuul #ghostbusters pic.twitter.com/ceEu6m9ATa

— Joe Auriemma (@JosephAuriemma) December 28, 2018 Read more…

More about Aliens, New York, Blue Light, Culture, and Science Fiction

View More New York is freaking out over a pulsing ‘blue light’ in the sky and no, it’s not aliens

Alexa in space? Why free-floating AI friends are in our interplanetary future

TwitterFacebook

This post is part of Science of Sci-Fi, Mashable’s ongoing series dissecting the science (or lack of science) in our favorite sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books.


Not many American nerds these days know about a golden age sci-fi writer called Edmond Hamilton. If they do, it’s because of his Star Wars connections: Hamilton was the husband of Leigh Brackett, space opera queen and author of the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back; he also happened to be the first guy to use a “laser sword” anywhere in fiction. 

But German nerds tend to remember Hamilton for something completely different, and the future may do, too. Because he didn’t just invent lightsabers. He also invented free-floating space brains. And in so doing, inspired a futuristic kind of Alexa built along those lines — an intelligent assistant that recently had its first orbital test run, and now seems poised to join our nonfiction interplanetary travels.  Read more…

More about Robots, International Space Station, Science Fiction, The Science Of Sci Fi, and Science

View More Alexa in space? Why free-floating AI friends are in our interplanetary future

‘Armageddon’-style asteroid will now not destroy human race, sorry

This post is part of Science of Sci-Fi, Mashable’s ongoing series dissecting the science (or lack of science) in our favorite sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books.
Some days are so damaging to your faith in humanity, you may find yourself idly wishing …

View More ‘Armageddon’-style asteroid will now not destroy human race, sorry

Why ‘Battlestar Galactica’ is still the greatest sci-fi TV show of all time

TwitterFacebook

In a year where just about every cheesy TV concept from the 1970s and 1980s seems to be the subject of a reboot, it’s high time we remember the one ’70s reboot that outshone them all — and managed the rare feat of surpassing the original in our imaginations.

I speak of course of Battlestar Galactica — which happens to be the subject of a fantastic oral history published this week. Titled So Say We All, it’s the latest outing for Mark Altman and Edward Gross, the pair who produced the mammoth and meticulous 50-Year Mission, the oral history of Star Trek. And for sci-fi geeks, it’s even more compulsively readable. Read more…

More about Books, Battlestar Galactica, Entertainment, Science Fiction, and Movies Tv Shows

View More Why ‘Battlestar Galactica’ is still the greatest sci-fi TV show of all time

9 terrifying tech and science innovations we want to see in ‘Black Mirror’ Season 5

TwitterFacebook

This post is part of Science of Sci-Fi, Mashable’s ongoing series dissecting the science (or lack of science) in our favorite sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books.

Spoiler alert: If you’re not caught up on Black Mirror, be warned. There are light spoilers from past seasons ahead.

As we wait for the return of Black Mirror, the feeling that there’s a dearth of sparse, streamable terror fuel on Netflix is palpable.  

Charlie Brooker’s deeply twisted and much-missed anthology series projects the horrifying paths tech and science trends may take us down — weaving various storylines into a single, delightfully dystopian universe. Netflix has confirmed Black Mirror will return for a fifth season — but with no specific premiere date in sight, fans have to do something to kill the time.  Read more…

More about Science, Netflix, Technology, Science Fiction, and Science And Technology

View More 9 terrifying tech and science innovations we want to see in ‘Black Mirror’ Season 5

Simon Pegg tests his ‘Mission Impossible’ spy knowledge

TwitterFacebook

Know Your Role is a card game for only the most dedicated actors. 

We quizzed Simon Pegg, aka Benji – the technician turned field agent – in the ‘Mission Impossible’ series, to see if he knows as much about the spy world as his character. 

Robot spy doves? Headbands that read thoughts? Jeremy Renner’s maglev suit? Read more…

More about Gadgets, Science Fiction, Spy, Simon Pegg, and Mission Impossible

View More Simon Pegg tests his ‘Mission Impossible’ spy knowledge

The 5 kinds of sci-fi space travel, ranked by realism

TwitterFacebook

This post is part of Science of Sci-Fi, Mashable’s ongoing series dissecting the science (or lack of science) in our favorite sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books.

Space is big, as Douglas Adams famously wrote in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Like, really big. Alpha Centauri – the nearest star system to our own – is more than 4 light years away. Even within our solar system, massive distances make travel timely and difficult to plan.

With current technology, it would take us a century to reach Alpha Centauri. We don’t have a spaceship that can go faster than the speed of light; the fastest speed we can reach using nuclear power is 4.5 percent of lightspeed. Let’s just say you’re going to need a lot of podcasts for the trip Read more…

More about Entertainment, Star Wars, Science Fiction, Star Trek, and Sci Fi

View More The 5 kinds of sci-fi space travel, ranked by realism

Shields up! How spaceships can save themselves without science fiction

TwitterFacebook

This post is part of Science of Sci-Fi, Mashable‘s ongoing series dissecting the science (or lack of science) in our favorite sci-fi movies, TV shows, and books.

Thanks to fictional depictions, we tend to think of spaceships as well-fortified machines. But in reality, even in the emptiness of outer space, their hulls would be under threat of bombardment from near-invisible enemies. 

In the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, ships are usually fitted with deflector shields — zones of energy that absorbed beams of enemy fire. The USS Enterprise, for example, could repel an enemy’s colorful phaser blasts by putting its shields up. To increase dramatic tension, those shields generally didn’t hold up for long.  Read more…

More about Space, Nasa, Science Fiction, Spaceship, and Futuristic

View More Shields up! How spaceships can save themselves without science fiction