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FeaturedPopular ScienceI'm the editor in chief of Popular Science. It's the best job I've ever had, and every trip into our archives deepens my love for the place. Here's an example: I recently discovered that at the same time we were sending Werner Von Braun, father of the space program, all over hell and gone as a correspondent, we published a plea by John Steinbeck to abandon space and instead pour NASA's budget into exploring the oceans. |
Published
In 2004, David Roberts, a second-year clinical-psychology student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, had a summer job teaching social skills to a group of...
Filmed
Part 2 of the Popular Science series "American Energy Independence," an around-the-world tour of the technologies that could set our country free.
Recorded
BBC World Service - Business Daily
Jacob Ward of Popular Science Magazine reflects on why the grounding of Boeing's Dreamliner aircraft has also grounded the dreams of air passengers.
Other Projects
My first outing with the fearless and very funny Joe Rogan, who had me down to his Burbank studio to talk about the brain.
Astronaut Training
Thursday, June 6, 2013
I'm in the midst of a book on the limits of the human body, and the degree to which our technological innovations have allowed us to wander way, way out of our depths. And in the pursuit of understanding those limits and those depths, I'm about to wander out past mine.
I'm joining a group of civilians who have the finances and the fortitude to try to get themselves ready for civilian spaceflight. A lot of attention has been paid to the ships and the space suits being devised to ferry billionaires to and from low-earth orbit, but the physical preparations a passenger needs to undertake have largely gone ignored.
It reminds me of a trip I once took to the top of an active volcano in Guatemala. My wife and I were attending a wedding there, and a few of the guests had organized themselves to make the trek up to see flowing lava in person. I pretty quickly figured out that there's a tremendous difference between an American outfitter who promises to take you somewhere, and an outfitter operating in a country without our strict liability laws and innumerable lawyers. Basically, this was just a guy who'd show you the way. And he did.
We marched up the mountain in a varied group, ranging from my wife, with her sturdy hiking boots and high level of fitness, to an overweight woman wearing backless slides and a velour sweatsuit. As we climbed through the treeline and onto an open field of sharp volcanic rock, it became clear to me why we'd been followed the whole way by men leading horses — they were just waiting for us to grow exhausted and pay for a ride. Several of our party did.
When we reached the summit, most of us oohed and aahed appreciatively. Not only were there open rivers of lava, hot...