ZenaShapter

The lovely Jen Persson has interviewed me over on The View From Here literary magazine: http://www.viewfromheremagazine.com/2013/01/interview-with-zena-shapter.html Jen read my website, my blog and...

Humans have debated the issue of free will for millennia. But over the past several years, while the philosophers continue to argue about the metaphysical underpinnings of human choice, an increasing number of neuroscientists have started to tackle t...

The phrase "shooting blanks" has passed into colloquialism. But, literally speaking, what does it mean to shoot blanks? And why can people who get shot with blank ammunition still die?

One of the major problems with traveling through space is the need to carry fuel. Scientists have endlessly sought after sources of perpetual, portable fuel for spacecraft.

The Doctor has battled Daleks, Cybermen, rogue Time Lords, and even farting aliens. But can he handle the nightmare that is the U.K. postal system? From BBC News: Tom Baker, David Tennant and Patrick Troughton are to feature on a special set of Royal...

We may never have our flying cars, but the future is here. From creating fully functioning artificial leaves to hacking the human brain, science made a lot of breakthroughs this year.

I led a discussion earlier this year with the CSFG Novel Writing Group on what are the characteristics of a good system of magic in fiction. We discussed a range of examples of what we thought were...

Space travel is tough on the human body. But what does it do to the human mind? Gary Beven, a space psychiatrist at NASA, answers our questions about how humans adapt to space, and what we have to do to go to Mars. Doctor Gary Beven has to have one...

The trouble with the word "nanotechnology" is that it refers mostly to an idea from science fiction and futurism: nanoscopic, self-replicating machines that can turn any piece of matter into another piece of matter in seconds.

1. Arrive late. It's what a movie star would do after all - and the best way to achieve success is to model yourself on the successful people who've come before you. Agents and editors ...

So, the incredibly talented Ditmar award-winning Joanne Anderton just tagged me in this Next Big Thing thingy (thanks too Amanda Bridgeman and Amin Chehelnabi for also asking me), meaning I now hav...

Evolutionary theory teaches us that life never remains the same. It is constantly changing and adapting. So what might be the next stages in the evolution of humanity and our planet?