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This week on the Science Faction Podcast, we're traveling through the Marvel Cinematic Universe, revisiting the worlds of Stephen King, and diving into the neon-soaked chaos of Cyberpunk. Meanwhile, we're questioning everything we learned in high school, examining the dangers of permanent daylight saving time, and confronting some sobering new research about alcohol. Plus, Devon checks in on the midterm elections and a changing political landscape in Texas. Real Life Devon kicks things off with a look at the midterm election results, particularly in Texas, where the political landscape may be shifting. It's a new day in the Lone Star State, and Devon has plenty to say about what the results could mean moving forward. Ben has been preparing for Avengers: Doomsday the only reasonable way he knows how: watching nothing but Avengers movies. From The Avengers in a hotel room to Age of Ultron on a plane, followed by Infinity War and Endgame over the weekend, Ben is getting reacquainted with Earth's Mightiest Heroes. But there's still the question of the new material from Avengers: Encore. Is there a legitimate way to watch it, or are we all just going to end up hunting for clips on YouTube? Steven has his sights set on two very different fictional universes. First, Stephen King is returning to the world he created with Peter Straub in The Talisman with the third installment, Other Worlds Than These. What can readers expect from this long-awaited continuation of the fantasy-horror series? Then it's back to Night City with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 and the latest additions to the Cyberpunk RED: Combat Zone miniature skirmish game. Monster Fight Club is bringing the Santo Domingo crew into the action with a new box set, giving players even more ways to wage war on the tabletop. Links: Stephen King's Other Worlds Than These Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Combat Zone Future or Now Devon asks whether permanent daylight saving time might be a terrible idea. A new study suggests that keeping our clocks permanently shifted forward could result in American children making at least two billion additional school commutes in darkness. Researchers also found that fatal pedestrian crashes involving school-aged children were roughly twice as likely during dark mornings compared with commutes after sunrise. Between safety concerns and disruptions to our biological clocks, maybe those extra hours of evening sunlight aren't worth the cost. Read the daylight saving time study Ben takes us on a trip down memory lane with The Retro Codex, a website that asks a simple question: How much of what you learned in school is now wrong? Enter the year you graduated high school, and the site reveals scientific facts, historical assumptions, and conventional wisdom that have since been revised or outright disproven. It's a fascinating reminder that knowledge doesn't stand still, even if our high school textbooks did. Steven wraps things up with some research that might make you reconsider your next drink. A major new study challenges the long-standing belief that moderate alcohol consumption can be good for your health. Researchers found that even relatively small amounts of alcohol may increase the risks of cancer, heart disease, and premature death, with no overall health benefits from drinking. The findings suggest that consuming more than one alcoholic beverage per day can significantly increase long-term health risks. So much for that daily glass of wine being good for your heart. Read the alcohol and health study From superhero marathons and cyberpunk warfare to scientific discoveries that challenge what we thought we knew, this episode has a little bit of everything. Join Steven, Ben, and Devon for another round of science, pop culture, questionable wisdom, and the usual Science Faction nonsense. Thanks for listening to the Science Faction Podcast!

This week on the Science Faction Podcast, we're talking about Halloween costume chaos, disturbing discoveries in Colorado funeral homes, new guitars, and a surprising amount of emotion from Devon. We also celebrate a Cyberpunk victory, discuss religion and parenting, and tackle a surprisingly complicated question: should you wear a bicycle helmet? Plus, a Netflix miniseries that Devon absolutely hated. Real Life Steven kicks things off with the dangers of letting your kids raid your prized Star Wars collectibles for Halloween costumes. When your carefully preserved treasures become costume accessories, things can get stressful. Meanwhile, his eldest daughter managed an impressive three costume changes over the holiday. Ben takes things in a considerably darker direction with a pair of disturbing stories out of Colorado. A funeral home owner convicted of corpse abuse is just the beginning, as another case involving mishandled human remains raises serious questions about oversight in the funeral industry. It's creepy, unsettling, and unfortunately very real. Devon surprises everyone by experiencing an actual human emotion while reflecting on Sir Patrick Stewart. Yes, you read that correctly. DEVON FELT SOMETHING. He also shares his excitement over a new guitar, the Sterling by Music Man John Petrucci MAJ170 seven-string. Because nothing helps process complicated feelings quite like adding another string. Steven celebrates a victory in Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone and shares some encouraging news about the second season of Netflix's Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Devon brings up the upcoming midterm elections, including polling showing James Talarico with a seven-point lead. The conversation then takes a more personal turn as we discuss religion, our own experiences growing up, and how we approach talking to our children about faith and belief. It's a thoughtful detour into parenting, personal values, and the challenges of helping kids understand a complicated world. Future or Now Ben introduces us to Hackertube before diving into a video that challenged one of his assumptions: Why We Shouldn't Bike With a Helmet. It sounds ridiculous at first, but the argument is more nuanced than you might expect. Mandatory helmet laws can discourage cycling, potentially reducing public health benefits and the safety that comes with having more cyclists on the road. There's also the question of whether focusing on helmets distracts from more effective solutions, like protected bike lanes and safer streets. Of course, there's a difference between arguing against mandatory helmet laws and arguing against helmets themselves. Research consistently shows that helmets significantly reduce the risk of serious head injuries in crashes. So where should the emphasis be: individual protection or building infrastructure that makes cycling safer for everyone? We dig into the arguments and consider whether the video makes a convincing case. Devon then turns his attention to Netflix's Below miniseries, delivering a review that's about as enthusiastic as a root canal. His verdict? It "fails in every sense." You'll have to listen to find out just how thoroughly it disappointed him. Steven also brought an article to discuss, but as usual, we ran out of time before getting to it. Perhaps next week! Join the Conversation Would you let your kids use your prized collectibles for Halloween? Should bicycle helmets be mandatory, or should cities focus more on safer infrastructure? And has Devon finally developed a full range of human emotions? Join us for another episode of the Science Faction Podcast, where science, technology, pop culture, and everyday life collide in occasionally unexpected ways. Listen, subscribe, and join the discussion!

This week on Science Faction, Devon survives a questionable amusement park experience, Ben remembers a friend through poetry, and we pay tribute to a science fiction legend. Later, we discuss political polling ahead of the midterms, explore a Star Trek comic that's delivering some of the franchise's best storytelling, and debate the state of modern science fiction television. Real Life: Farm Adventures and Fond Farewells Devon vs. the Cornado Devon recently visited Yesterland Farm, where he encountered an attraction called the Cornado. Unfortunately, Devon isn't a fan of spinning rides, making this particular experience less than enjoyable. We discuss his adventure and the questionable decisions that sometimes accompany family outings. Some rides are memorable for all the wrong reasons. Remembering Walter Koenig We take a moment to remember Walter Koenig, who passed away at the age of 90. Best known as Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek series and its films, Koenig helped define one of science fiction's most beloved franchises. His later portrayal of the sinister Alfred Bester on Babylon 5 further cemented his place in science fiction history. We reflect on his remarkable career and the legacy he leaves behind. Read more in Entertainment Weekly's tribute to Walter Koenig. Ben Remembers Kevin Patrick Sullivan Ben shares a personal remembrance of Kevin Patrick Sullivan through his poem, Party for Misfits. It's a thoughtful reflection on friendship, loss, and the people who leave lasting impressions on our lives. You can read Ben's poem, Party for Misfits, on his website. Future or Now: Politics, Starships, and Storytelling Political Polling and the Midterms Devon turns our attention to the upcoming midterm elections, focusing on polling and the political landscape in Texas. We discuss what the numbers might tell us, how reliable those predictions really are, and what the results could mean for the broader political landscape. Star Trek: The Last Starship — Bold, Bleak, Brilliant Ben has been reading Star Trek: The Last Starship, and he's thoroughly impressed. The comic explores a darker, more challenging side of the Star Trek universe while embracing the ambitious storytelling and moral complexity that make the franchise compelling. Ben considers it some of the best Star Trek storytelling currently available. It's bold in its approach, bleak in its atmosphere, and brilliant in its execution. For fans looking for something fresh that still feels distinctly Star Trek, this series deserves attention. Learn more through TrekMovie's coverage of The Last Starship, or check out the first collected volume, which covers approximately half the story. The Orville and Star Trek's Writing Problem Our Star Trek discussion continues with a rant inspired by the video Star Trek Is Taking Writing Advice From the Worst Place. The conversation turns toward The Orville, modern Star Trek, and the challenges of keeping a beloved science fiction franchise relevant without losing what made it special. We discuss the importance of strong writing, the balance between nostalgia and innovation, and whether today's science fiction shows are learning the right lessons from their predecessors. There are some strong opinions about what makes good Star Trek, and we're certainly not shy about sharing them. Watch the video that inspired the discussion: Star Trek Is Taking Writing Advice From the Worst Place. Join the Conversation Have you read Star Trek: The Last Starship? What do you think about the direction of modern Star Trek, and where does The Orville fit into the conversation? We'd love to hear your thoughts! Join us for another episode of Science Faction Podcast, where science fiction, real life, and the occasional unnecessary tangent collide.

This week on Science Faction, Devon is missing in action, leaving Steven and Ben to tackle the important questions facing humanity: How many holes does a straw have? Is water actually wet? And how angry can two grown men get arguing about definitions? Before diving into these deeply scientific disputes, we've got Star Wars racing, Marvel's VisionQuest, the return of Avatar, some wonderfully bizarre Adventure Time, and a few video games worth talking about. Real Life: Podracing, Weird Cartoons, and Giant Robot Fights Devon is out this week, but Ben and Steven have plenty to discuss. Ben is recovering from getting sick after his Florida vacation, and a dog-sitting adventure that lasted a little longer than expected when the dog's owners returned late. Meanwhile, Steven has been spending more time with Star Wars: Galactic Racer, which continues to be an absolute blast. The game even inspired a family viewing of the podracing sequence from The Phantom Menace, introducing the kids to one of the most memorable racing scenes in science fiction. That leads to a conversation about Star Wars, art, and the upcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which Ben is eager to visit. Steven also checks in on the first two episodes of Marvel's VisionQuest, which are off to a strong start. Naturally, this provides an excellent opportunity for Steven to spend some time fangirling over James Spader. Ben takes us back into the world of Avatar, offering a quick refresher on the franchise before discussing the first three episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens. There's plenty of mythology and history to unpack, especially for anyone who hasn't kept up with the adventures of the various Avatars. Steven has also been revisiting Adventure Time with his 11-year-old, discovering that the show remains just as wonderfully strange as ever. Beneath the surreal humor and occasionally unsettling characters, there's a surprising amount of heart. Episodes featuring Ricardio the Heart Guy and The Enchiridion are perfect examples of a cartoon that somehow manages to be ridiculous, creepy, and genuinely sweet. Finally, the guys talk games. Driving Rogue continues to deliver a great time, particularly thanks to its built-in internet radio stations that make cruising around even more entertaining. Ben also received a copy of UNDERDOGS, a VR mech-fighting game that promises plenty of brutal robot combat. Thanks, Josh! Future or Now: How Many Holes Does a Straw Have? It's time for some scientific pedantry, and we have Ben's wife to thank for setting the whole thing in motion. The question sounds simple: How many holes does a drinking straw have? Two openings, one at either end, would seem to suggest two holes. But what if those openings are simply the opposite ends of a single continuous hole? Suddenly, an innocent drinking straw becomes an argument about mathematics, geometry, and the fundamental nature of holes. Ben explores the topological explanation, where a hole is associated with a structure that prevents an object from being continuously shrunk to a single point. Under this mathematical interpretation, a drinking straw has one hole, regardless of how many openings you can see. Of course, that doesn't necessarily settle the argument. It just gives everyone more terminology to fight over. Does the everyday meaning of a hole matter more than the mathematical definition? Is an opening the same thing as a hole? And how long can two people argue about a straw before someone regrets bringing it up? Future or Now: Is Water Wet? Not to be outdone, Steven tackles another deceptively simple question, also courtesy of Ben's wife: Is water wet, or does it only make other things wet? The argument comes down to definitions. If wetness means being covered or saturated with liquid, can water itself qualify? Steven explores the science and semantics, including the idea that while a single H₂O molecule might not be wet, a collection of water molecules could be considered wet because they're surrounded by one another. It's another perfectly ordinary question turned into an unnecessarily complicated scientific argument. Exactly the kind of thing we love around here. So what do you think? Does a straw have one hole or two? Is water wet? Join us for another episode of Science Faction, where the science is real, the arguments are ridiculous, and the pedantry is entirely intentional. Watch and subscribe on YouTube.

This week on the Science Faction Podcast, Ben is out sick, leaving Steven and Devon to hold down the fort. We've got some video game nostalgia, a mysterious road trip movie, and plenty of Star Wars to discuss. Then, in Future or Now, we're celebrating the 2026 Nobel Prizes in science and discovering why mushrooms have been giving farmers such a hard time for over a century. Real Life With his wife and kids visiting Virginia, Devon has the house to himself. That means plenty of time to play guitar, catch up on television, and revisit some video games. We get into a discussion about Grand Theft Auto IV, V and VI, because sometimes the best way to spend a little time alone is causing virtual chaos. Meanwhile, Steven's household has been battling sickness, but that hasn't stopped him from squeezing in some gaming. He talks about a recent Star Wars: Shatterpoint match with Greg and his ongoing preparations for the Dungeon Crawler Carl tabletop RPG. There's also some excitement surrounding Star Wars: Galactic Racer, a just released racing game that promises to bring high-speed competition back to a galaxy far, far away. Devon also brings us a movie review of It Ends, a mysterious film about a road trip that simply refuses to end. The characters find themselves traveling down an endless road where the normal rules of survival don't seem to apply. Their vehicle never runs out of gas, they don't get tired, and they don't even need to eat. With no obvious escape and few answers, the real question becomes how people react when they're trapped in a situation they can't understand or control. Devon calls it "a really good movie," and we dig into what makes its strange premise so compelling. Future or Now: And the Winners Are… It's Nobel Prize season, and Devon takes us through some of the biggest scientific achievements recognized in 2026. From the elusive world of neutrinos to new ways of controlling brain cells and the strange behavior of mirror-image molecules, this year's science prizes highlight just how much we're still discovering about the universe and ourselves. We discuss the research behind these discoveries, why they matter, and what they might mean for the future. Whether it's unlocking mysteries of fundamental physics, advancing our understanding of biology, or revealing the surprising complexity of chemistry, there's plenty of fascinating science to celebrate. Read more: The 2026 Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Medicine — Science News Future or Now: Nature Made Steven brings us a story about mushrooms, bacteria, and a century-old agricultural mystery. For more than 100 years, mushroom growers have struggled with a persistent bacterial disease, and scientists may finally understand why it's been so difficult to control. It turns out the problem isn't caused by just one bacterial species, as previously believed. Researchers have identified more than 17 different species of harmful bacteria associated with the disease, making it a much more complicated problem than anyone realized. This discovery could explain why previous treatments have been inconsistent or ineffective. More importantly, understanding the full range of bacteria involved could help researchers develop better, more environmentally friendly ways to protect mushroom crops. It's another reminder that nature rarely makes things simple, especially when microscopic organisms are involved. Read more: Scientists Uncover a Surprising Secret Behind Mushroom Disease — ScienceDaily From endless highways and galactic racing to award-winning science and troublesome fungi, this week's episode covers plenty of strange territory. Join Steven and Devon for another round of science, science fiction, and everything in between. Watch and subscribe: The Science Faction Podcast on YouTube

This week, Ben returns from Orlando with tales of theme parks, electric cars, Florida humidity, and some very large rockets. Steven celebrates a fantastic Lanterns finale before asking whether the universe is actually infinite, while Devon somehow turns a conversation about having nothing to talk about into a discussion of the 11th dimension. Naturally. Real Life Ben is back from Orlando, but before we get to theme parks and spaceships, we need to answer an important question: can you beat jet lag by changing your sleep schedule before a trip with a three-hour time difference? Ben tried it, and now we get to find out whether this was clever preparation or just voluntarily making himself tired ahead of time. Once in Florida, Ben got the full Orlando experience. He spent some time driving a Polestar electric car and visited Epic Universe. He also hit Andretti Indoor Karting—which sounds increasingly like Dave & Buster's after somebody turned the chaos knob all the way up—and explored the upside-down weirdness of WonderWorks Orlando. Devon's adventures stayed a little closer to home. He went laser tagging with his kids. Just his kids. Apparently, the day will eventually come when they abandon him and he'll be left Home Alone. At least that gives him an excuse for a movie marathon. Steven, meanwhile, finished Lanterns, and the finale was firing on all cylinders. The first season manages to tell such a complete story that a potential second season faces an interesting problem: where do you go from here without simply trying to repeat what already worked? Future or Now Ben's Florida vacation inevitably turned into Today in Space when he visited Kennedy Space Center. The first scientific observation: Florida is really freakin' humid. After recovering from that discovery, Ben checked out Launch Complex 39, the Vehicle Assembly Building, and some of the areas now connected to SpaceX and Blue Origin operations. There was also the launch simulator, because apparently looking at rockets isn't enough—we need to pretend to ride one too. The trip also adds to Ben's growing collection of enormous pieces of spaceflight history. He's now seen two Saturn V rockets, in Huntsville and Florida, with Texas still waiting on the list. He's also seen two Space Shuttles: Pathfinder in California and Atlantis in Florida. This Week in Space: Is the Universe Infinite? Steven brings us one of those wonderfully simple questions that becomes less simple the longer you think about it: Is the universe infinite? Measurements of the cosmic microwave background—the ancient light left over from the early universe—indicate that the universe is remarkably flat on the largest scales we can observe. It's tempting to hear "flat" and immediately conclude "infinite," but those aren't necessarily the same thing. As discussed in coverage from ScienceDaily and Universe Today, the observable universe could represent only a tiny portion of something much larger with curvature we simply cannot detect from our limited perspective. Stranger still, space might be flat while having a topology that allows it to wrap around itself. In other words, you could theoretically have a universe with no obvious edge that still isn't infinite in the straightforward way we normally imagine infinity. And this is approximately where Devon starts talking about the 11th dimension. Because why stop at asking whether the universe is infinite when we can ask whether our entire universe somehow exists on the edge of a black hole in a higher-dimensional reality?   Jet lag, theme parks, Saturn V rockets, cosmic topology, and higher-dimensional black holes. Just another week on Science Faction.

This week on Science Faction, we tackle the important questions: Is bread actually good? Can a Disney Channel movie sneak science fiction past Steven? Can Star Trek: Strange New Worlds finally make Ben stop complaining? And, most importantly, how did a movie about sheep detectives turn out to be legitimately great? Then, in Future or Now, things get a little more serious as Devon brings us a massive Kelvin wave moving toward California, while Ben explores a fake version of Windows 11 that leads us into a much bigger question: why are we still using computers basically the same way we have for decades? Real Life We begin, naturally, with bread. Ben is against it. Devon, who apparently becomes increasingly French whenever bread is involved, is very much in favor of it. Steven loves sourdough and becomes increasingly concerned about what exactly Ben considers the staple crops of his diet. Devon settles the matter with perhaps the strongest argument anyone can make: fresh French bread is amazing, and he will eat all of it. From there, Steven has two movies to discuss, neither of which would normally be considered science fiction. Or would they? First up is Big City Greens: Spacecation, which gets a thumbs-up from Steven. It's a Big City Greens adventure that sends the family into space, which certainly sounds suspiciously like science fiction. There's also a familiar name in the writing credits: Mike Trapp. Then there's The Love Hypothesis. If you've listened to Steven talk about romantic comedies before, you probably already know where this conversation is headed. If you don't, well…he's going to tell you. Meanwhile, Ben has reached the end of another season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which raises an important question: is there a limit to how long Ben can complain about Star Trek? Season four is over, and somehow the show may have accidentally made a good Star Trek episode. That sends us into a bigger discussion about what some fans want from the franchise: an aspirational future where science, discovery, truth, and people working together matter more than enormous space armadas and the latest galaxy-ending artificial intelligence. Could this finally make Ben stop complaining about Star Trek? Maybe for five minutes. But the biggest surprise of Ben's week was The Sheep Detectives. And apparently it was EPIC. Ben calls it a genuinely smart movie and, perhaps most impressively, says it succeeds where Cars 2 failed. Beneath the absurd premise of sheep solving a mystery, there's a story dealing with grief and trauma that worked far better than Ben expected. Ben recommends it. Strongly. Future or Now Devon brings us something considerably larger than sheep detectives: a slow-moving, planetary-scale Kelvin wave heading toward California. The Guardian: Concern mounts over planetary-scale Kelvin wave heading for California The enormous mass of warm water is moving across the Pacific and could affect sea levels along the California coast, with changes potentially approaching a foot in some areas. That leads us into a conversation about what these enormous ocean systems actually mean when they finally reach land—and, for Devon, a much more personal connection involving his son and the devastating flooding in Texas. Then Ben takes us somewhere considerably sillier. Definitely Not Windows is exactly what it sounds like: a parody of Windows 11 that gives us an excuse to complain about modern operating systems. But the joke leads into a much more interesting question. Why do computers still work like this? Windows, icons, folders, desktops, applications—we've been iterating on essentially the same basic ideas for decades. Ben brings in Scott Jenson's exploration of what could come next and asks whether we're really going to use the same desktop UX forever. Scott Jenson: Are we really going to use the same Desktop UX forever? If artificial intelligence changes how we interact with computers, maybe the future isn't simply an AI assistant sitting inside the same old operating system. Maybe the entire idea of what an operating system looks like—and how we tell a computer what we want—needs to change. So this week we've got bread, romantic comedies, surprisingly good Star Trek, emotionally complicated sheep, planetary waves, fake Windows, and the possible death of the desktop. You know. Science Faction.

This week on Science Faction, we've got VR mini golf inside a gelatinous lair, Lanterns continuing its hot streak, questionable Resident Evil continuity, and Devon discovering that talking about guitar theory apparently removes all normal limits on podcast airtime. Then we get into the science: human neurons growing inside mouse brains and the complete nervous system of a fruit fly being reconstructed digitally—because apparently mapping a brain isn't enough anymore. Now we need to see if it can play Doom. Real Life Ben has been back in Walkabout Mini Golf, checking out Gloop Lair, a new course that sends players into a wonderfully strange underground world filled with colorful goo, bizarre environments, and exactly the sort of elaborate miniature-golf nonsense that keeps us coming back to this game. Gloop Lair: https://www.mightycoconut.com/gloop-lair Steven continues his weekly declaration that Lanterns is amazing, this time after Episode 6. We also get a Nathan Fillion sighting as Guy Gardner, which naturally gives us another excuse to talk about superheroes. Steven has also fallen even farther down the vibe-coding rabbit hole. The latest project is CRAWLBOX, a loot-box generator built for the Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG. What started as a relatively simple helper for generating rewards has, predictably, turned into an increasingly elaborate system for creating randomized weapons, armor, magic items, consumables, enchantments, and other crawler loot. Try CRAWLBOX: https://dungeon-crawler-loot.stevezero.chatgpt.site Ben brings us the strange crossover between The Rookie and Dropout, which raises some questions about what happens when a network procedural collides with the very different world of internet comedy. Read more at IndieWire: https://www.indiewire.com/features/commentary/dropout-the-rookie-crossover-controversy-explained-1235182321/ Steven also watched the latest Resident Evil movie. Is it a reboot? Is it connected to something else? Does any of that actually matter? Who knows. What we do know is that it was an entertaining distraction that seems squarely aimed at a younger, roughly 18–24 audience. Meanwhile, Devon is tired and claims he hasn't been doing much—which somehow turns into an extended discussion about learning Bullet for My Valentine songs, taking guitar lessons online, and studying the CAGED system. And then something remarkable happens: Devon starts talking about music. And keeps talking. And keeps talking. Steven eventually has a more fundamental question: Why is Devon putting this much effort into learning all of this guitar stuff? That launches us into a much bigger conversation about learning an instrument, understanding music instead of simply playing songs, and why apparently the secret to getting Devon to talk forever is mentioning a fretboard. Future or Now Human Neurons…Inside Mouse Brains Devon brings us a story that sounds like the opening act of a science-fiction movie: researchers are growing human neurons inside mouse brains. Scientists are using these transplanted human cells to study how neurons develop and behave inside a living brain, potentially giving researchers a new way to investigate neurodevelopmental disorders that are difficult to reproduce using traditional laboratory models. It's fascinating research. It's also one of those sentences where every additional explanation somehow makes it sound more like science fiction. Read the Science article: https://www.science.org/content/article/human-neurons-flourish-mouse-brains-offering-new-view-neurodevelopmental-disorders We Mapped a Fruit Fly Brain. Naturally, We Made It Play Video Games. Steven's story starts with a major scientific achievement: researchers produced a remarkably detailed map of the nervous system of an adult male fruit fly. That alone is impressive. The resulting connectome gives researchers an extraordinary look at how a relatively small biological brain is wired together. But this is the internet, so obviously somebody had to ask the important question: Can we use it to play video games? Researchers and programmers are already experimenting with computational models based on fruit-fly neural circuitry, including attempts to put these systems into virtual environments involving games such as Doom and Super Mario 64. Which raises some wonderfully strange questions. If you reproduce the connections inside a brain, how much of the original behavior comes along with it? How much does the body matter? Could increasingly sophisticated connectomes eventually produce useful artificial agents? And, perhaps most importantly, how humiliating will it be when a fruit fly becomes better at Doom than we are? Read more: Gizmodo: https://gizmodo.com/google-mapped-a-fruit-flys-brain-now-its-playing-doom-and-super-mario-64-2000808616 Google Research — A Connectomics Milestone: Mapping the Complete Male Fruit Fly Brain: https://research.google/blog/a-connectomics-milestone-mapping-the-complete-male-fruit-fly-brain/ This week: VR goo, Guy Gardner, vibe-coded loot boxes, entirely too much guitar theory, human neurons living in mice, and a fruit fly learning to play video games. Just another perfectly normal episode of Science Faction.

This week on Science Faction, real life means surgery updates, kids claiming their own rooms, Ben questioning whether he needs a room of his own, and a surprisingly enthusiastic review of Lanterns. We also talk Silo, Pluribus, Strange New Worlds, and a new game that brings GoldenEye-style shooting into the modern age. Then in Future or Now, things get philosophical as we ask whether your brain is actually "making" decisions at all, before Ben introduces us to Douglas Harding's strange and fascinating Headless Way. Real Life This week Steven starts with some actual real-life stuff: Annabell had surgery, so there's an update on how everything went before we move on to considerably less important matters. Namely, Lanterns Episode 5, which Steven thought was absolutely fantastic. The series continues to hit that sweet spot between serious adult drama and comic-book weirdness, and Episode 5 might be one of its strongest outings yet. Devon's household is undergoing a major reorganization as the kids finally get their own rooms. That means purging years of accumulated toys, painting, decorating, rearranging furniture, and discovering exactly how much stuff children can somehow acquire. Devon also checks in on Silo Season 3. With the next season set to be the last, the end is coming into view—but getting there takes some patience. The beginning of this season is slooooow. Meanwhile, Ben is sharing an office with his son, which raises an important middle-aged question: does Ben actually need a space of his own? We also get the mysterious "Congratulations, Carol" text message, some Emmy talk, and an update on Pluribus Season 2. Vince Gilligan recently gave an update on the progress of Season 2, saying that the new season isn't technically completely written yet, but work is well underway. Then it's back to Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, where we somehow end up with Dr. Miles Dyson in Star Trek and another entry in the franchise's long and distinguished tradition of terrible admirals: the "Badmiral." Ben also has a new game recommendation: Agent 64: Spies Never Die. It's essentially a love letter to the Nintendo 64 era of first-person shooters—especially GoldenEye—but with modernized controls that don't require you to remember how we somehow survived playing FPS games with an N64 controller. Future or Now Steven brings us Brain Matters, and this week we're questioning something fairly fundamental: who—or what—is actually making your decisions? A neuroscience story highlighted by ScienceDaily challenges the familiar idea that somewhere inside the brain there is a central decision-making system responsible for choosing what we do. Instead, what we experience as a conscious "decision" may emerge from the constantly changing interaction between perception, movement, the body, and the environment around us. If that model is right, there may not be a little command center inside your head examining the available options and issuing orders. Decision-making could be something far more distributed—a process that happens as the brain, body, and world continuously respond to one another. Which, naturally, sends Science Faction directly into the comfortable and completely uncomplicated territory of consciousness, agency, and free will. Ben follows that discussion from a very different direction with Douglas Harding's "The Headless Way." You can watch Harding's 1991 Melbourne talk here. Harding's experiments ask people to reconsider their ordinary sense of being a person located somewhere "inside" their head, using surprisingly simple exercises—such as literally pointing back toward where you imagine your own face to be. For anyone wanting to try it rather than just hear us talk about it, The Headless Way has the pointing experiment available here. The Harding talk recently generated some controversy in Ben's sangha, giving him a reason to dig further into the idea and prepare a presentation about it. That also means experimenting with AI tools during the production process, including using Gemini Notebook, formerly NotebookLM, while preparing and editing the accompanying video. So this week we somehow travel from neuroscience questioning where decisions come from to a philosophical exercise questioning whether you have a head. And Devon? Devon swears he was going to find something for Future or Now. He did not.

Devon made the wise decision not to join us this week, which leaves Ben and Steven unsupervised to talk about Star Trek, Star Wars, Linux, AI, and what exactly we should expect from the "free" software we use. Real Life Ben kicks things off with more Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, including a new episode that he loved…and the rest of his family absolutely did not. Apparently soap-opera Star Trek is officially a thing now, and that sends us down the inevitable rabbit hole of Trek lore, timelines, and the increasingly complicated ways all the different series connect to one another. There's also some good news from the world of science fiction: John Scalzi won the 2026 Hugo Award for Best Series for Old Man's War. Scalzi celebrated the win over on his blog, where he seems appropriately delighted to bring home yet another little rocket. Read John Scalzi's "Suddenly: Hugo!" post Steven, meanwhile, has been watching the numbers on last week's episode, which has climbed to 124 views on YouTube. That leads directly into a question we probably shouldn't be asking on this particular podcast: Should AI be writing our episode titles? If it comes up with better titles than we do, is that good? Bad? Embarrassing? All three? The Science Faction Podcast on YouTube Steven also has about ten hours in Star Wars: Zero Company, and so far, it's excellent. For X-COM fans in particular, there's a lot to like here. Set during the Clone Wars, the game digs into corners of the Star Wars universe without feeling like it's simply throwing familiar things onto the screen for the sake of recognition. It understands the setting, uses it well, and so far feels like a great fit for the tactical strategy formula. Star Wars: Zero Company on Steam Future or Now Then Ben asks the question that sends us straight into the Linux lake: What is Omarchy, who is it actually for, and why did Steven decide to jump in? Omarchy That turns into a much broader conversation about Linux, open-source software, Twitter/X, vibecoded slop, and the appeal of actually taking control of the computer sitting on your desk. Modern computers are extraordinarily capable machines, but most of us interact with them through a relatively narrow collection of applications and interfaces. What happens when you start digging underneath all of that and customizing the machine around the way you want to use it? There's an important distinction, though, between being willing to experiment with something yourself and recommending that someone else do the same thing. Steven can mess around with Linux because he has another computer available if everything goes sideways. Having spare hardware, free time, and enough technical experience to troubleshoot problems is a privilege that changes the equation considerably. And that brings us to an even bigger question: Who should we actually support when it comes to "free" software? Free and open-source software doesn't magically appear. Somebody is writing it, maintaining it, fixing bugs, answering questions, hosting infrastructure, and dealing with the endless parade of people asking why Feature X doesn't work exactly the way they want. If software gives us more control over our computers and reduces our dependence on giant technology companies, maybe "free" shouldn't automatically mean "something we should never have to pay for." This week, we're wandering through several different flavors of nerd territory: Star Trek continuity, Star Wars tactics, AI creativity, Linux experimentation, and the people quietly building the software that lets the rest of us tinker with our computers. Just another perfectly normal episode of Science Faction.

This week on Science Faction, we've got sick hosts, recovering rats, California fires, extremely low-tuned guitars, and more Star Trek than you can shake a tricorder at. Devon also somehow turns movie night into legal analysis before discovering that his children have absolutely no interest in Harry Potter—forcing him to take matters into his own hands. Real Life Devon kicks things off with the DigiTech Drop pedal, a piece of guitar gear that lets you digitally drop your tuning without having to completely retune or swap guitars. That leads us down the increasingly low-pitched rabbit hole of modern metalcore bands, how they're tuning their guitars, and just how low a guitar can go before it stops being a guitar and becomes heavy machinery. Steven, meanwhile, has been dealing with the sickness that wouldn't leave. Sometimes you get sick, recover, and move on with your life. Other times your immune system apparently signs up for a limited series. Ben has an update on the rat tumor saga following surgery, complete with tiny socks, medication, and all the complications that come with providing postoperative care to an animal that has absolutely no idea why you're doing any of this. And because apparently we needed another reminder that we live in California: the state is on fire again. Ben talks about keeping tabs on everything with Watch Duty, which provides real-time wildfire maps, alerts, evacuation information, fire perimeters, and other emergency information. Movies, Lawyers, and Questionable Taste Devon has also been watching movies, starting with Bugonia on Netflix. The sci-fi black comedy from director Yorgos Lanthimos stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons and involves two conspiracy-obsessed men who become convinced that a powerful CEO is actually an alien. Then there's Coyote vs. Acme. Devon enjoyed it, but being a lawyer means he naturally has some thoughts about what happens when you apply even the slightest amount of legal scrutiny to a movie about Wile E. Coyote. He also watched Anatomy of a Fall, a French courtroom drama with a distinctly 1970s feel. It's serious, methodical, and very much outside our normal science-fiction wheelhouse. So why is Devon talking about it? We're wondering the same thing. Strange New Worlds and Old-School Trek Ben brings us back where we belong with the latest episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, "Off-Hour", including the return of Phil Boyce, a character whose roots stretch all the way back to the original Star Trek pilot era. That naturally sends us into Trek history, potential future casting for McCoy and Sulu, and a discussion of Brian Markinson. From there, we get into the famous professional competition between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy as Star Trek became a phenomenon. It's exactly the kind of conversation where one episode of modern Trek somehow requires discussing television made roughly 60 years ago. Lanterns and Dungeon Crawler Carl Steven is three episodes into Lanterns, and the verdict remains the same: this show is really good. The series continues to work as an adult police procedural that happens to exist inside a comic-book universe rather than simply being another conventional superhero show. He's also gone back into the world of Dungeon Crawler Carl with the release of the Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG PDFs. Steven is relistening to the first audiobook while digging into the game, and so far the designers seem to have nailed the ridiculous, violent, funny tone that makes the books work. Larry Johnson and the Sorcerer's Stone Finally, Devon decided it was time to introduce his kids to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. They refused. Rather than accept defeat, Devon did what any reasonable parent would do: he started reading them Larry Johnson and the Sorcerer's Stone instead. Apparently, changing the name was enough. So far, they love it. Parenting is mostly marketing.

This week, the Science Faction crew has rats, road trips, gaming marathons, and some surprisingly good superhero television before asking an important question: what happens when your dog gets its own digital assistant? We also look at a new weapon in the fight against AI scraping and tease what Steven has coming next week. Real Life Ben has some unfortunate pet news this week: tumors have appeared on one of the family rats. Meanwhile, the "fat" rat has been put on a diet, so apparently even the rodents are dealing with health and wellness goals. On the entertainment side, Ben wonders whether Star Trek: Strange New Worlds may finally be getting a little too strange. Joe Lo Truglio, best known as Charles Boyle on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, enters the conversation and gives us plenty to talk about. Devon has returned from Boston — but not the band. While there, he took one of the city's famous duck tours aboard an amphibious vehicle and ventured out on a ghost tour populated mostly by people in character. Somewhere along the way, we also discover that Devon may be skeptical about cemeteries. Thankfully, he has no tumor news to report. Steven, meanwhile, had an epic gaming weekend. That included Marvel Zombies, a game of Dungeon Crawl Classics, and a trip into the weird west with We Deal in Lead. He also checked out Lanterns and came away impressed. It's a genuinely good police procedural made for adults that also happens to exist in a comic-book universe. Future or Now Ben starts us off with a question inspired by something he saw on a morning walk: What if your digital assistant lived on your dog's collar? Imagine a near-future version of Dug from Up. We're probably not about to translate canine brain waves into speech, but a smart collar equipped with local AI, sensors, and a memory of your dog's life could do quite a bit. The collar could remember veterinary instructions and medication schedules, giving owners an easy way to keep track of their pet's care. That could be especially useful for elderly pet owners or anyone managing a complicated treatment schedule. It could also provide context when something goes wrong. If your dog eats something it shouldn't, sensors and location data might help determine where it happened and what the animal encountered. Instead of answering the vet's questions with a shrug, you'd potentially have an actual record. Then there's passive health monitoring. Think of it as an Apple Watch for dogs: heart rate, temperature, activity, blood oxygen, sleep, and other measurements tracked continuously. Rather than waiting for obvious symptoms, changes from an individual animal's normal baseline could provide an early warning that something isn't right. But putting an always-listening, always-sensing computer around your dog's neck creates an obvious problem: privacy. The device potentially knows where you go, when you're home, what your routines look like, and even what your house sounds like. Who owns that information? Where is it stored? Who can access it? A completely local system trained only around the pet could mitigate some of those concerns, but the temptation to turn that information into another giant pool of commercially valuable data would be enormous. That's the tension at the heart of the idea. The same technology could have tremendous benefits for animal health and welfare while simultaneously creating another surveillance system following us through our daily lives. We've already seen how technologies like automated license-plate readers can expand far beyond their original use cases. Ben would very much prefer that his helpful talking dog collar not eventually become the Canine Gestapo. Devon brings us another front in the ongoing battle over AI and the internet: "Devious New Font Turns AI Scrapers Into Mincemeat." Researchers have developed a font designed to remain readable to humans while confusing automated systems scraping text for AI. The idea opens up a much larger discussion about the future of AI training, ownership of online material, and whether technical tools can give creators more control over how their work is collected and used. If AI is going to remain part of our lives, finding ways to build systems around ethically sourced data may become increasingly important. Steven doesn't have a Future or Now story this week—but that's because he's saving something for next time. Consider this your tease for next week's episode.

This week on Science Faction, we're confronting the inevitable decline of both man and machine. Steven's 3D printer is showing its age, patches are becoming increasingly relatable, and Ben has some thoughts about games that aren't quite what they first appear to be. We also dig into new Star Wars and Marvel trailers, a pair of Stephen King-adjacent movie reviews, strange new twists on Minesweeper, and several games that seem scientifically engineered to appeal directly to us. Real Life Ben starts things off by investigating a pressing technological crisis: what exactly is happening with Steven's 3D printer? The diagnosis seems to be that it's simply old and tired—which, frankly, is becoming a recurring theme around here. That leads us into FDM versus resin printers, the surprisingly low cost of getting into 3D printing these days, and the realization that you can apparently buy a new printer for about a third of the price of a really good LEGO set. Meanwhile, Steven is ordering patches again, including one featuring a skull giving a thumbs-up alongside the phrase "Everything Hurts." At some point, novelty merchandise stops being ironic and simply becomes an accurate description of middle age. Ben also reviews Tunic, a charming, Zelda-esque adventure game starring a tiny fox. But appearances can be deceiving, and Tunic turns out to have considerably more going on beneath the surface than its cute presentation initially suggests. Devon takes us outside our usual science-fiction territory with Green Book, starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali. It's definitely not sci-fi, but sometimes a good movie is just a good movie. Check out Green Book on IMDb. Steven then turns his attention back toward the nerdier corners of entertainment with reactions to two big trailers. First up is the Ahsoka Season 2 trailer and what it suggests about the next chapter of the Star Wars series. Then we jump over to Marvel for the VisionQuest trailer and see what's in store for Vision. Future or Now Devon is preparing for his annual trip to Boston to watch the Giants, but there's still time for movies. He reviews The Life of Chuck, based on the Stephen King story and featuring a decidedly different flavor of King adaptation. You can find The Life of Chuck on IMDb. He also reviews The Drama, because apparently one movie review wasn't enough this week. Here's The Drama on IMDb. Ben brings us back to games with Quantum Sweeper, a free iOS variation on Minesweeper that takes the familiar formula in a new direction. Learn more about Quantum Sweeper. Unfortunately, Dragonsweeper has stopped working properly in iOS Safari. That's a shame, because Ben still thinks it's absolutely worth your time if you have another way to play it. You can find Dragonsweeper on itch.io. Finally, Steven has discovered what may be an entire genre of game designed specifically to generate Ben Energy. There's RACCOIN: Coin Pusher Roguelike on Steam, which combines the hypnotic appeal of a coin-pusher machine with roguelike mechanics. Then there's the wonderfully named How Many Dudes? on Steam, which asks one of the most important questions in modern gaming: just how many dudes are there? And rounding things out is Dogpile on Steam, completing a trio of games that Steven suspects Ben was genetically engineered to enjoy. From dying 3D printers and increasingly appropriate patches to deceptively deep indie games, new trailers, movies, and a suspicious number of dudes, we've got another episode full of the stuff we've been watching, playing, and obsessing over.

This week, we bounce from questionable kindergarten teaching techniques and a tour through old movies to a pile of upcoming sci-fi and superhero projects. Then, in Future or Now, AI gives hurricane forecasters a potentially huge advantage, NASA pulls off another bit of engineering wizardry to keep Voyager 2 alive, and the cast of The Pitt boldly goes where plenty of actors have gone before. Real Life Steven is officially over summer. Heat, summer schedules, summer in general—it's time to move on. Meanwhile, Ben has been watching OLD MOVIES, including Kindergarten Cop. Ben calls it an "exceptional film," but watching Arnold Schwarzenegger take control of a classroom in 2026 raises some questions. How would Detective John Kimble's teaching methods stack up against modern school employee safety training? How many policies would he violate before lunch? And perhaps most unsettling: just how old are all those kindergarteners today? That sends us down the inevitable road of examining an old movie through the lens of people who now have entirely too much experience with how schools actually operate. Steven also has a pile of upcoming genre television and movie news to talk about. Neuromancer is headed to Apple TV, while Blade Runner 2099 is coming as a limited series on Prime Video. San Diego Comic-Con also brought news about Ghost Rider and Black Panther 3, along with more X-Men casting news involving Cyclops, Emma Frost, Beast, and Professor X. Trailer Links: Neuromancer: Watch on YouTube Blade Runner 2099: Watch on YouTube Devon has been doing some family movie watching, working through the Jumanji movies and eventually arriving at Zathura. Technically part of the larger Jumanji family, Zathura doesn't quite live up to its predecessor. It doesn't help that Dax Shepard's character has to exist in the shadow of Robin Williams, which leads to the assessment that Shepard comes across as "a block of wood" by comparison. Things get considerably darker with The Long Walk, based on Stephen King's novel originally published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym. Devon found the adaptation interesting and well done—but extremely bleak. That conversation somehow takes a detour through Time Runner before eventually landing on Hokum and its supernatural layer. Future or Now AI Gets Better at Predicting Hurricanes Ben brings us a potentially enormous development in weather forecasting. Google DeepMind's WeatherNext AI system has demonstrated an ability to improve hurricane forecasts, potentially giving forecasters and emergency planners an additional day of warning. The system predicts both storm tracks and intensity and can rapidly generate thousands of possible scenarios. During Hurricane Melissa, it reportedly identified major intensification earlier than conventional forecasting models. That's potentially life-saving extra time for communities preparing for a major storm. But there's an interesting wrinkle: like many sophisticated AI systems, exactly how the model reaches some of its conclusions isn't always clear to the scientists using it. That makes WeatherNext another fascinating example of AI producing useful results while simultaneously raising questions about how much we need to understand a system before we're comfortable relying on it. And despite the improvement in modeling, humans aren't leaving the process. Meteorologists still have to interpret the information, communicate uncertainty, and turn forecasts into useful warnings for the public. Read the Ars Technica report on DeepMind's hurricane forecasting breakthrough This Week in Space: Voyager's "Big Bang" Nearly half a century after leaving Earth, Voyager 2 is still going, and NASA engineers are once again finding creative ways to keep it alive. In an operation nicknamed the "Big Bang," engineers simultaneously shut down power-hungry hardware and transitioned to lower-power alternatives while carefully keeping the spacecraft warm enough to survive. Voyager's dwindling power supply has forced NASA to make increasingly difficult decisions about which systems can remain operational, making every additional bit of usable energy precious. It's another remarkable chapter in a mission launched in 1977 that is still returning scientific data from interstellar space. Read more about the Voyager 2 operation at ScienceDaily Explore NASA's Voyager mission And while we're talking about space, we check back in on New Asgard and ask the important question: is Devon still going to space? The Pitt Goes to Star Trek Finally, there's an unusual crossover coming for fans of The Pitt and Star Trek. Noah Wyle and members of The Pitt cast are participating in a Star Trek table read benefiting the Writers Guild Foundation. It's not a new Trek series and it's not some bizarre medical-drama crossover episode—but it is an opportunity to hear a completely different cast tackle Star Trek material while supporting the foundation's programs. Read more about The Pitt cast's Star Trek table read at TrekMovie   From aging action comedies to AI-powered hurricane forecasts and a spacecraft that refuses to die, this week is a reminder that the future has a funny way of colliding with the past. Join us next time for more science, sci-fi, and whatever unexpected detours we stumble into along the way.

This week the crew dives into everything from the enduring appeal of Star Trek and classic science fiction to Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey, Saturday morning superheroes, and the ever-growing spoiler problem surrounding the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then it's on to the Future or Now segment, where Linux experiments with collaborative computing, the Large Hadron Collider may have stumbled onto an unexpected clue about dark matter, and the hosts speculate about what Spider-Man: Brand New Day means for the future of Marvel. Real Life Ben kicks things off with a reminder that, in his opinion, all Trek is good Trek. That naturally leads into a discussion about the six Star Trek movies featuring the crew of the USS Enterprise and why the franchise continues to find new fans across generations. He also revisits Carl Sagan's Contact, arguing that both the novel and the Jodie Foster film remain some of the finest examples of thoughtful hard science fiction ever created. Devon brings a dose of nostalgia with the return of Blockbuster Game and Movie Quotes, revisiting the classic video rental era and the memorable quotes that defined countless movie nights. Steven reviews The Odyssey, sharing spoiler-filled thoughts on the film's strengths, historical accuracy, and breathtaking presentation. His recommendation is simple: if you have the opportunity, see it in IMAX. One unexpected highlight was the Cyclops sequence, whose visual style reminded him of surreal 1990s rock music videos, channeling the atmosphere of bands like Pearl Jam and Nine Inch Nails. Steven also revisits X-Men '92, X-Men '96, and X-Men '97, praising how well the original animated series portrayed its female characters. Better yet, his kids were immediately hooked after watching the iconic two-part opener, Night of the Sentinels. Future or Now Ben explores the surprisingly underdeveloped world of multi-seat computing on Linux after reading an excellent write-up on the subject at https://blinry.org/multi-seat-wayland/. While the Wayland protocol already supports multiple users sharing a single computer remarkably well, many surrounding applications and libraries still lag behind. The project demonstrates exciting possibilities for collaborative gaming, pair programming, classrooms, and other shared computing experiences. He also highlights the cooperative physics game Heavenly Bodies (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1138850/Heavenly_Bodies/), whose unique gameplay feels like the perfect showcase for this kind of multi-user setup. Devon heads underground—literally—to CERN, where researchers continue investigating mysterious "unidentified falling objects" inside the Large Hadron Collider. According to a recent article from ScienceAlert (https://www.sciencealert.com/ufos-in-the-large-hadron-collider-may-be-hints-of-dark-matter), tiny dust particles unexpectedly drift into the proton beam, disrupting experiments. The bigger mystery isn't the dust itself, but what causes it to move in one of the cleanest scientific instruments ever built. Some physicists now wonder whether these events could be indirect hints of dark matter interacting with the detector in ways nobody anticipated. Steven wraps things up with thoughts on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, using it as a springboard to discuss the modern spoiler culture surrounding the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With audiences dissecting every trailer, casting announcement, and leaked set photos months before release, the hosts debate whether the excitement of surprise has largely disappeared. Along the way, Ben poses one of the episode's more important questions: If it's a gray movie... should Hulk be gray too?