Videos: “Gravity” – the actors and director talk about the movie

Robert Pearlman writes about gravity as a force and a metaphor in the new movie Gravity, which will be released on Oct.4th: Defining ‘Gravity’: Sandra Bullock, Alfonso Cuarón talk pull behind film’s title (video) – collectSPACE

Actress Sandra Bullock and director Alfonso Cuarón talk with Pearlman:

In  researching her role as an astronaut for the new movie, Sandra Bullock talked with NASA Astronaut Cady Coleman while she was onboard the International Space Station in 2010-2011.

Here is a press conference at a film festival:

Jim Benford on The Space Show

Physcists Jim Benford will be on The Space Show today to talk about the recent Starship Century Symposium and the companion book to the event – Twitter / SpaceShow:

Dr. Jim Benford,co-editor “Starship Century,” 9:30 AM PDT,12:30 PM EDT today. Listen @ http://www.thespaceshow.com . Call 1-866-687-7223 #fb#i.

Videos of the many interesting talks at the event can be found via the post Videos from the Starship Century Symposium.

Richard Feynman on rubber bands, mirrors, and other adventures

This  short video (via GeekPress) is a great example of the late Richard Feynman‘s extraordinary eloquence in explaining scientific phenomena. Whether it was a basic or advanced physics topic, he could turn it into a marvelously vivid adventure:

Can’t resist posting another one:

And here is the first of a set of videos in which he discusses “The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out”:

More Feynman videos are available at

He taught an introductory physics course at Caltech in the early 1960s and out of that effort came a famous set of lectures in which he illuminated aspects of fundamental physics far beyond standard introductory textbooks. The lectures are now available on line: The Feynman Lectures on Physics

Journal of Space Philosophy, Vol. 3, Fall 2013

The Kepler Space Institute has posted the latest issue of the Journal of Space Philosophy, Volume 3, Fall 2013. All the papers are available for download.

Examples include:

 

Sci-Tech: Intro video to the Polywell fusion system

I recently posted an item about the Focus Fusion technique aimed at achieving power generation from nuclear fusion. Back in February I poste about a  Lockheed-Martin fusion reactor project, which is also a fairly near term low cost approach.

Another alternative fusion scheme is the Polywell, invented by the late Robert W. Bussard. Here is a basic introductory tutorial on the concept: The Polywell 101 – Moonshots – Solve for X