January 5, 2014, Linkage (First Links of the New Year)

Missed the recycling of planet earth or the 2012 apocalypse as predicted by the Mayans? How about the Rapture?  Or even the millennium bug?  Well, fear not, those of you who look upon the destruction of the world with the eagerness of a 1999 Star Wars fanboy looking at the first trailers of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  Sir Isaac Newton says you'll finally get to act out your juvenile Road Warrior fantasies in the year 2060.

Sir Isaac Newton predicted the world would end in the year 2060, scribbling the date on a piece of paper, according to theories uncovered by academics in Jerusalem.

The prophecy has been unearthed from little-known handwritten manuscripts in a library, a BBC documentary due to screen on Saturday will show.

The pages show Newton's attempts to decode the Bible, which he believed contained God's secret laws for the universe.

The most definitive date he set for the apocalypse, which he scribbled on a scrap of paper, was 2060.

Hey, this was the guy who pretty much laid the groundwork for physics, so it must be true!  Never mind his other occult interests. 

Meanwhile, we've come to the point where the spectra of exoplanets have, in the words of Ars Technica, become "boring."  But a boring spectrum "doesn't mean boring results."

In the case of GJ 436b, the hot Neptune, there are two possible explanations for the lack of observed features in the spectrum: either the planet has an atmosphere that's nearly devoid of hydrogen, or it's covered in a layer of high clouds. Right now, the error bars of their measurements encompass models of both of these options, but they say that some additional observation time will allow them to rule one or the other out.

In the case of Super-Earth GJ 1214b, however, the authors already have enough observations to rule out the hydrogen-poor atmosphere. That leaves clouds as the only viable explanation for the spectrum that they see.

These clouds are almost certainly not the water vapor clouds that we see on Earth. Both exoplanets are much closer to their host stars, with correspondingly hotter atmospheres. As a result, both papers suggest that the clouds are likely to be composed of what we would call salts in their solid form: "Zinc sulphide and potassium chloride are both plausible candidates for the composition of the cloud." On the Super-Earth, the authors also indicate that a Titan-like atmosphere, where UV light has triggered chemical reactions that create complex hydrocarbons, is also a possibility.

Something tells me the late Hal Clement would love this data. Such exotic atmospheres would make Mission of Gravity look like a child's physics primer.

Here's a list of of 20 underrated science fiction movies.  On the whole, there's a lot I like about it, though some are blind spots for me. (Nicolas Roeg's adaptation of Tevis's fine novel The Man Who Fell to Earth is unwatchable, I think.) I have no idea how I ever missed Rainer Werner Fassbinder's World on a Wire, which sounds like something I'd eat up with gravy ladles.  And I take issue with the term "underrated" for some of these. Based on conversations I've had with genre fans, things like Sleeper, Brazil, and Solaris seem to be among the best science fiction has to offer.  I also wish some lesser-known titles like The Quiet Earth and Strange Days made the cut.  Still, I have to give props to any list that suggests Dark City or La Jetee.