m. c. de marco

BLDGBLOG, the source of yesterday’s habitable deserts for man, has a short review of a new terraforming book, Terraforming: The Creating of Habitable Worlds by Martin Beech:

Usually the realm of science fiction and/or moral speculation – indeed, even this book opens with a fictional scenario set in the year 2100 – the controversial idea of terraforming here takes on a numeric, chemical, and even topographic specificity.

Via SFScope: The RAND Corporation has released its legendary report, Habitable Planets for Man by Stephen H. Dole in PDF format.

An attempt to make an estimate of the probabilities of finding planets habitable to man, where they might be found, and the number there may be in our own galaxy. The characteristics of a planet that can provide an acceptable environment for man are presented in detail. The stars nearest the earth, most likely to possess habitable planets, are itemized.

Via GeekPress: LiveScience reports that a storm in Alaska broke up an iceberg off Antarctica.

On a calm, clear day in October 2005, a huge Antarctic iceberg broke into half a dozen pieces. Today, scientists said the event was triggered by ocean swells kicked up during an Alaskan storm—half a world away.

At 60 miles long and 18.5 miles wide, the iceberg called B15A was half of a larger iceberg called B15, which was for a time the world’s largest iceberg after breaking away from the Antarctic’s in Ross Ice Shelf in 2000.

Via GeekPress: Iceberg Collision Forces Redraw of Antarctic Maps. I guess that’s one more item for my to-do list…