I spent a lot of my time as a child reading and dreaming about space and space travel. As with most geeky males my age, Star Wars pretty much defined my existence from the time I first saw it (I think I was seven) right up through, well, today. Part of that existence died today when some dirtbag radiologist at Johns Hopkins said light speed travel would never be possible because it would kill everyone inside whatever space craft they were using and short-circuit the entire vessel.

William Edstein says the problem lies in the small amount of hydrogen gas that exists in space. When you’re traveling close to the speed of light, say at 98% or so, that hydrogen becomes a friction bomb from hell. The hydrogen would release 7 teraelectron volts, which is essentially the equivalent of standing in the LHC when it’s running full steam. Obviously, that makes people dead, and it would pretty much trash any piece of electronic equipment in the area.

Edstein’s final thought? “Hydrogen atoms are unavoidable space mines.” Sure, until we find a way to avoid them.

Source: New Scientist

The world has long tried to understand Steve Jobs. There have been several biographies written about him, though none of them were authorized and most have lacked the kind of personal material that make a biography really great. Luckily for all the fanboys (and the haters) Jobs has agreed to an authorized biography.

Jobs struck the deal with former Time Magazine managing editor Walter Isaacson. Isaacson has written two other bestselling biographies on historical figures that show a bit of Jobs’ hubris: Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. Criticisms aside, the book should be very interesting. Jobs has invited Isaacson on a tour of his childhood home according to the New York Times.

Jobs has never been a fan of those other biographies, either. He’s been known to pull books by those publishers from Apple Store shelves in spite.

Source: New York Times