News Roundup
Here are this week’s stories about the Universe, our place in it and other cool stuff.


Pop Culture
So here comes another Lord of the Rings movie. Will be an exploitative festival of suck or will it really contribute to the grand story? First explored in the appendices of Tolkien’s novels, this Warner Bros film follows Gollum before the events of the main Lord of the Rings series.
Grab your power armor, we’re going to Vegas! Fan boys and girls of the Fallout franchise will be psyched to see the settlement of New Vegas appear in season two of the popular video game’s adaptation.
Astrophysics
Supernovas give us a rare opportunity to glimpse the deep heart of a massive star moments before it explodes. New insights can be found but only if we can catch the apocalypse in its earliest act.
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it's a mesosphere surfer! Powered by photophoresis (word of the day!), these tiny devices will be the first to conquer the “no fly zone” of the mesosphere.
Science and Wonder
An adaptation of the famous “chicken or the egg” query, Stephan Hawking and Thomas Hertog sought to answer which came first; the Big Bang or the Laws of Physics?
Check out this collection of forums, articles, and studies as a part of Big Think’s recent Consciousness Issue. It includes my interview with Annaka Harris.
