First Science Fiction Convention, 1937

Pictured above are Walter Gillings, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ted Carnell, in front of Theosophical Hall, the site where, in 1937, the first science fiction convention was held. Ah, those clothes, that style. It's a long way from nacho-eating dudes in Star Trek gear.

Magnetic Movie

From Semiconductor Films, 2007. As they state on their site, it's "something not precisely scientific but grants us an uncanny experience of geophysical and cosmological forces."

Scientists Photograph Eye of Sauron

Okay, okay, so it's not the all-seeing evil eye of Tolkien lore.

This (above) shot is merely of the star Fomalhaut, which UC Berkely scientists recently photographed with an orbiting planet, released at the same time of other photographs of a star (HR8799) with three planets larger than Jupiter orbiting it, some 128 light years away.

Almost as nerd-out inducing, isn't it?

Inching Closer to Disappearance

I know I wasn't alone – joined, I'm sure, by any number of science, science fiction, or Harry Potter enthusiasts – in being enthralled by the advances announced last week in reversing refraction, bringing us just a bit closer to the realization of some form of "invisibility cloak." Cloak or not, the other applications both currently realizable or potential are staggering. (Some of those applications were discussed on Talk of the Nation's Science Friday (with host Ira Flatow who always sounds to me uncannily like Groucho Marx)) .

As with most scientific achievements, this advance is no revolution, just a step closer, employing wavelengths visible to humans. Previously scientists at Duke University were able to "cloak" an object from (longer wavelength) microwaves. (Duke subsequently published a lighter discussion of those results and their implications on their web site.

Regardless of the lack of complete revolution or fully realized invisibility, nerds everywhere had to be giddy. But careful, don't play an extra game of Dungeons & Dragons to celebrate, John McCain will get pissed.