hen an SF novel is diamond-hard in its technological speculation, like Geoffrey A. Landis' Mars Crossing, the debt it owes to research, space science and engineering advances is obvious. Science fantasies and soft SF build just as surely on sociology, archaeology and paleontology.
The lightest and most science-wary of SF movies could not exist without the lifeblood of science, even if only in the form of continued advances in special-effects technology.
For anyone interested in writing science fiction—or simply in tracking events in the real-world engine that powers the genre—Eurekalert stands out from the crowd of Internet science magazines. Hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, this site provides articles on current developments in every area of research imaginable—the behavior patterns of cloned pigs, for example, or the development of medical sensors that look for harmful DNA in a patient's body—this site is a storehouse of facts, figures and cutting-edge science, not to mention enough core ideas to inspire a hundred new SF novels, stories and films.
Eurekalert also provides a mammoth list of links to peer-reviewed journals for visitors who want to further explore any topic that raises reader interest. Padding out these resources is a listing of book releases, scientific awards and upcoming conferences (some of them the stuff of pure SF, with no alteration needed, like the American Open for Robot Soccer or the National Nanotech Initiative).
Finally, Eurekalert has one other outstanding writer-friendly feature—its index of links to glossaries on topics from Federal Reserve terminology to the Hubble Space Telescope's keyword directory. Need a crash course on meteor astronomy or the plant fossil record? Without a doubt, this is the site that will point the way.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—April 21, 2003
mallville is nearing the end of its second season, and in its time on the air the show and its stars have garnered a large and loyal following. Smallville Fans is a gathering place for those dedicated to knowing—and sharing—all the hot-off-the-press news about the show.
With a bloggish sensibility to its layout and plenty of pictures and links, this site is crammed with information bulletins about Smallville, all posted by show devotees. Cast birthdays, information about actors' upcoming film projects, interviews, contest announcements—every scintilla of data picked up elsewhere on the Internet has been brought to Smallville Fans, collected in one place and easily accessible. Upcoming episode titles and airdates, along with very minor spoilers, are also provided.
Smallville Fans has a discussion forum for its members, too, as well as an extensive photo gallery and a link to Smallville Radio, a Realplayer "station" that has songs from the Smallville soundtrack on continuous play. Its archive of yes/no surveys contains some quirky and
thought-provoking questions, and makes for entertaining browsing.
This page is still very much a site under development. Its download offerings are scant and occasionally glitchy, and a single extensive surf-through will be enough for most visitors to absorb the bulk of its written content. As the show continues to develop and mature, though, the site's materials will certainly develop more depth. In the meantime, Smallville Fans is a top-notch place for tracking everything related to the doings of TV's latest incarnations of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor—a must-have, especially with the summer hiatus looming in the too-near future.
— A.M. Dellamonica
Site of the Week—April 14, 2003
magine watching the celestial dance of Saturn's rings and moons from the cloud tops of Titan. Or hovering over Mars, looking down on the 2,500-mile-long canyon of Valles Marineris from Deimos. Or even
traveling to the gas giant orbiting Pegasus 51 to watch a few alien sunsets.
Faster than Picard could say "Make it so," users of the Celestia 3D Space Simulator can visit 100,000 stellar locations like these. The free open-source program is available at the Celestia Web site and includes versions for Windows, Unix/Linux and Mac OS X.
The most robust of these, the Windows version, offers a guided tour of the solar system, as well as preprogrammed destinations of note, including all of Sol's planets and many of its moons, Proxima Centauri and Barnard's Star. Real-world photos of planets and stars are mapped onto their Celestia counterparts, and are further enhanced by special effects like clouds. It makes for beautiful, occasionally breathtaking views. Users can toggle on a variety of labels, including constellation maps (useful for seeing what Earth's constellations look like from Betelgeuse), orbital paths and star names. Double-clicking on any celestial body activates a hyperlink to a Web site containing additional information about it.
In addition to the source files for the program, the Celestia Web site includes a FAQ explaining system requirements and certain known problems, screenshots of various popular views and an active message forum. Under the links section, fans can find a variety of sites offering add-ons for the program. Of particular note is Celestia Add-Ons, which includes importable models for black holes, various real-world spacecraft, Larry Niven's Ringworld and the ever-ominous Death Star.
— Kenneth Newquist
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