The Apolyton Science Fiction Discussion Group: Red Mars

[CyberGnu]

Starchild,
wow, it's been a while since we talked. How are you these days? Fabulous, from your sig Excellent!

The command comes from the need for heavy machinery for conversion of the raw energy (sunlight) into, for example, portable energy. Hydrogen peroxide stores a lot of energy in liquid form (about 200 kJ/mole), which means you can take it with you and use it piece meal.

[Starchild]

Cyber, I'm gooood. I can't remember if you're still on my ICQ/Trillian list. I'll have to check.

Let's see, what have I been up to.... Finished highschool in Canada and moved to the UK for pre-uni Sixth Form. I'm currently the darling student of my chemistry teachers and right now, I'm hoping to get into Edinburgh University the year after next to study biochemistry. I've got major exams coming up on a few weeks, my job sucks, and I drink like a fish. I'm 99% out to the people I know and I get more fabulous by the day.

You?

[CyberGnu]

I'm great! I finished my PhD (in four years, thanks to the incredibly dullness of Indiana), and I'm now at Caltech. Just got my second promotion since I got here about a year ago, so it's going quite well

Only drawback of Caltech is how small and conservative it is... Especially for being in LA. Half the people here thinks I'm a lunatic just for owning a see through shirt...

Edinburg, you say? Why? Pretty town, I've heard Don't know anything about the uni itself.

Need ahy help with your chemistry, feel free to ask Dr. Gnu.

[Odin]

I am a carbon copy of Sax, I can't make good jokes even if my life depended on it.

I thought the genetic aging treatment was kind of cool.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Cyber, Starchild: Now, now now... let's break up this how ya doin fest and get back to the book .

Cyber: Thanks for the elucidation. I think that simply because everything isn't explained in the book, doesn't mean Robinson made up totally unrealistic stuff.

[CyberGnu]

Odin, interesting sidenote: When Robinson wrote the book, this was considered an incredibly hot and promising topic in the science community. These little things called telomers were thought to be the sole cause of aging, and if we could add on more telomers to our cells via a retroviral vector, we would be young again.

Then in 1998 or so scientists managed to actually do this to mice, but found that it had very little effect... There is something else going on in your cells that we still haven't figured out.

I can't say for sure whether robinson based his idea on this research, but it fits quite well.

[CyberGnu]

Imran, hey, what are you doing with that fist?!

Sorry, back on track now

[CyberGnu]

Che, was it you who mentioned antarctica? Either way, robinsons latest book is sort of a "mini red mars", set in antarctica. Quite decent, although not as good as RM.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Lets talk about the problems inherant when you have a small group of 'equals' over a long period of time . Of course they'll faction off! Without strong leadership, they go their own ways and work to undermine others. Perhaps with strong leadership these things still would have occured, but at a much lesser pace, IMO.

[Bosh]

Read a good chunk of the series a while ago. I remember liking the first a lot since so much was happening without it dragging and I liked how the revolution had a good leftist tinge rather than being a rip-off of the American revolution as usually happens with revolutions in sci-fi books.

*SEQUEL SPOILER AHEAD*



















































I threw the book across the room and gave up after the second revolution where after all the hard work, all the cool (literally) underground commies, after all the social change all the revolution ends up producing is a constitution that isn't anything more interesting than an especially weenie form of Social Democracy.
bah!

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by CyberGnu

Static, you mentioned fuel for Phobos missions?

Actually, I didn't mention the fuel. This I liked. I have no problem the technology in the novel (beyond thinking it's badly described and was a little too deus ex machina for my taste.)

My gripe is that more time should have been spent describing the terraforming equipment and not who was schtupping who* behind it. Robinson I'll admit did some good research here. A shame he didn't bother to share it with the rest of us.

And thanks for your excellent technical contributions to the thread.

* Or should that be "whom"? I never know...

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by CyberGnu
"familiariy breeds contempt"

Not in my experience... I work at Caltech, and regularly run into at least two recent nobel prize winners. Going to ignore a seminar by Watson in an hour, actually. But my familiarity with them doesn't in any way breed any contempt... Watson is a good example: he hasn;t done any research in years, but I still respect the man very much. He was a pioneer in the field, and when he speaks people listen.

OK, after reading JohnT's and your comments and thinking about it for a while, perhaps I'll soften my position on this point.

BUT THAT'S AS FAR AS I'LL GO!

[Rogan Josh]

[small] Originally posted by CyberGnu[/small]
"familiariy breeds contempt"

Not in my experience... I work at Caltech, and regularly run into at least two recent nobel prize winners. Going to ignore a seminar by Watson in an hour, actually. But my familiarity with them doesn't in any way breed any contempt... Watson is a good example: he hasn;t done any research in years, but I still respect the man very much. He was a pioneer in the field, and when he speaks people listen.

Heh! Funny you should say this because I have exactly the contrary opinion. I too know a few Nobel laureates (and a few Field medalists) and once you get to know them, they are either complete ****s or pretty ordinary.

In fact, the only exceptions to this I have met are Witten (who is a Feild medalist) and t'Hoft.

I wouldn't say that familiarity breeds comtempt, but it definitely makes you realise that they **** like all the rest of us.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
Heh! Funny you should say this because I have exactly the contrary opinion. I too know a few Nobel laureates (and a few Field medalists) and once you get to know them, they are either complete ****s or pretty ordinary.

In fact, the only exceptions to this I have met are Witten (who is a Feild medalist) and t'Hoft.

I wouldn't say that familiarity breeds comtempt, but it definitely makes you realise that they **** like all the rest of us.

OK, I'm changing my opinion back.

[CyberGnu]

Rogan, actually, one of them is a complete ****, but I still respect him

Knowing that they defecate just like you and me doesn't really do anything to that, in my opinion... Since it is a professional reverence. I wouldn't dream of asking them for advice on my personal life...