Science Behind the Sci-Fi Newsletter: July 2014

I: Introduction

Hello my friends, and welcome to the July edition of the Science Behind the Sci-Fi newsletter! July brought us our first new installment of the new video panels, which we’ll talk about in a moment, and we’re already working hard to bring you an excellent lineup of panel topics for the rest of the year. With that said, let’s dive in!

II: Science Behind the Sci-Fi

Earlier this month, Broken Crown Games CEO Tyler Yohe moderated a panel entitled, “Episode 1: Space Exploration – Past, Present, and Future”. Joining him on the panel were Amy Teitel of Popular Science, Micah Walter-Range of the Space Foundation and Michael Paul of the Penn State GoogleX Lunar Lions. It was an excellent and spirited discussion that discussed the exciting past and future of space exploration from a wide variety of angles. You can watch the video below or go to YouTube directly!

For August, we’re working on a panel we’re tentatively calling, “Stresses in a multi-planet society,” and are currently working on the guests and other details for that. As soon as we know the who and then when, we’ll let you know, so stay tuned!!

III: Fun Science News!

There was some fun sciencey news over the last month, so let’s take a look!

• Google is Giving HOW Much Money to Whichever Company Gets Us to The Moon First?
• Speaking of Which, Should We Even BOTHER Returning to The Moon at All?
• I Mean, There’s Plenty Happening on Mars, Right?
• But Wait, Forget The Moon, Let’s Go to the Sun (or Closer to It)!

Finally, if y’all don’t mind me embellishing a bit, I got to visit an honest to goodness Space Shuttle recently, namely the Endeavour at the California Science Center here in Los Angeles. I was so moved by the event I wrote a little something about it, which I hope you enjoy. 🙂

That’s it for this installment folks. Be sure to tune into us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to keep up with the latest developments on our ebook releases, future Science Behind the Sci-Fi panels and more! Thanks for reading folks, and have a wonderful day/month! 🙂

October 2013 Science Newsletter (WITH SPECIAL COMPANY UPDATE!)

Happy Halloween everyone!

This month went by incredibly fast for us.  For those of you that might not have already heard, our sister company, Broken Crayon Games (notice the family relation), released their very first game, Wizardous: An Apprentice’s Betrayal.  It’s an incredibly fun (although at times frustrating – by design) mobile game.  You can pick it up for all of the major mobile devices.

The game is FREE until Nov. 1st (NO ads, NO in-app purchases… just free) in order to give those who show us early support something in return!  The version in stores currently is only a Promo version and is missing the final levels, however if you download it now while it’s FREE, you’ll be updated to the final complete version on Nov. 14th!

Here are links to the game in stores:

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wizardous-apprentices-betrayal/id719287441?ls=1&mt=8

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.botfgames.wizardous

NOOK: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wizardous-broken-crayon-games/1117075416

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Crown-Games-LLC-Wizardous/dp/B00FP23JJ2

Though there are a lot of great things I could talk about with this game, it’s a bit off-topic for this newsletter.  If you’d like to learn more, feel free to check out the Wizardous website.

Alright, so enough about Broken Crayon Games and Wizardous — you’re all here because you support Broken CROWN Games and Escaping Titan, which is all about getting the science behind our sci-fi right.  So onto the science!

Science Behind the Sci-Fi Panel Overview

• Science Focus: Paleobotany
• Author: Jamie Boyer

• Science Focus: Neuroscience
• Author: Robert Hampson

• Science Focus: Astrobiology
• Author: Jacob Haqq-Misra

• Science Focus: Astrophysics
• Author: Amitai Bin-Nun

FEATURED GUEST PANEL:

• Science Focus: Physics
• Author: David S. Latchman – David holds a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad & Tobago with specialization in Environmental & Medical Physics. David is a freelance science writer whose work has appeared in Next Door Magazine. His blog, The Quantum Tunnel, focuses on the science featured in popular movies and TV shows. He can be found on Google+ and on Twitter.

This Month’s “Random Science News”

We’ve got a range of topics for this week, including Saturn and Titan updates, Mars news, and a cancer-related “vaccine” (cell therapy really).

• It seems the planet that we’ll call home for our first game in the Broken Crown series, Titan, as well as its host planet Saturn, have been fairly active in the October science news:
  • Check out these awesome images of Saturn made by an amateur astronomer.
  • There is also news from NASA (pre-shutdown) about a discovery that Titan’s atmosphere contains Propylene – one of the major ingredients in plastic. I’m sure that’s something we can work into the game somehow!
• News related to Mars
  • Curiosity has come back with some more great evidence to show Mars PREVIOUSLY had the conditions needed to support life (not that life was actually there).
  • Plus, have you ever had an idea for what should go on a rover?  Well here is your chance!  NASA is now accepting proposals for what should go on their 2020 rover – granted that’s not important to most of us. What might be however, is that they are looking at this mission as a way to test out the necessary tools for humans to colonize to Mars.
• For some more ‘down to Earth’ news – a new discovery was made on the cancer front! Though I wouldn’t exactly recommend the treatment to a friend just yet, a Russian team of scientists have successfully “doubled the life-span” of cancer patients.

That about does it for this week’s Broken Crown Games science newsletter.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Have a safe and Happy Halloween, but before you go out on that candy grab, don’t forget to check us out on social media, like Facebook and Twitter, for the latest in Broken Crown Games’ news!

 -Tyler