Taz asks
Can you do a rundown of Halo from a scientific perspective? I’ve really enjoyed your writing about Armageddon and would like to hear your thoughts on the game that has (since its début in 2002) become a phenomenon. Tanks in advance!
My answer to this one isn’t particularly scientific in any rigorous sense of the word, nor does it have much to do with the Halo universe itself, but I’m going to do it anyway because it’s still kind of fun. Or at least I think so, anyway.
gnomishlich asks
Armageddon, terrible movie about oil drillers on an asteroid how would a space shuttle or other space traveling vehicle fare for persons odds of arrival, survival, and departure from an asteroid?
Oh god, what have you done. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE.
Joshwah asks
All fields of science have their mavericks: people who are prepared to run against the grain of consensus to deliver a startling insight that changes the paradigms about how we think about stuff. To what extent have mavericks shaped astrophysics, and to what extent to you think that astrophysics has benefited from anti-orthodoxy when compared to other disciplines?
Darren asks
I recently played Killzone 2, and the only thing that particularly stood out to me was the gun that shoots lightning. Besides being the only unusual weapon in the KZ2 arsenal, it was extremely well-realized, and actually looked like it would be functional. Would a gun that shoots lightning actually be possible? And would lightning in general make an effective weapon?
Maxx asks
Mars One – this seems rather ambitious for the timeframe they are proposing. Do you think they will get there? Is our technology at the state that this is actually possible?
Oh god, where to even start with this one.
I don’t know, you go two months without a single question and then three come along at once. Anyway, Glory Be To Smurf, For He Is Awesome asks
So I was watching a program that said we’d dammed so many rivers that it had altered the spin of the earth by a fraction of a second. That got me thinking, firstly on how the hell that made a difference and secondly if there was anything humanity could do to really alter the spin of the earth?
Alex asks
Hi Hentzau, I know that the conservation of energy is an immutable thing, but what happens with capillary action in liquids? Where does the energy for that come from, and how does it work?