@Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★: My mom spend half an hour in a parking lot listening to that and waiting for me to get interviewed. Sadly, that did not occur - I didn't even see the Science Friday people among the wandering press.
@RAHfanboy for one, welcomes his Marxist overlords.: Thank you kindly!
Let's not forget Miskatonic University, people.
@Im a people person. Who drinks.: I gotta call 'em like I see 'em! Maybe that should be a "side series" - questions plus the occasional biogeek buzzkill.
Nipping the impossible in the bud will make the awesome yet possible more likely in the future if it can help others avoid dead ends.
@B: Gonna be a bitch figuring out how to dial without a body. I'm going to need to upgrade my cell phone.
@blorp: Many of them kind of do - we call it "blebbing" (another great word).
@RAHfanboy: I drank a SlimFast once. It would be a tossup (pun intended) if I had a choice between that or a 3% beer.
@bagofmice: True, but our green is not goo - it's not a uniform colony comprised of a single organism so successful it's taken over.
@tetracycloide: Oh, a meal in a flask is a definite possibility. Disgusting, but physically possible.
@Klebert L. Hall: I considered discussing the "pure energy" thing as part of a "Evolution doesn't have an End Boss" future, but that may deserve a column of its own.
@DavinJebbies: Note to self: test potential designs on moving targets.
@MarcosR: With a little luck, Moore's Law will find a loophole or three that cuts down on the juice.
@YatesRichards: I'll admit to playing fast and loose with silicon-based and in silico, but I'm not sure we can say quite so easily that we're merely life running on carbon-based hardware. You could run a simulation of carbon-based life on silicon, or - perhaps in the future - you could run a simulation of AI in carbon. How close those simulations would be to the original is an open question (and always will be, at least in the philosophy department).
@cyr3n: Back when I was in training, we tried all sorts of loopy things to achieve the proper stretch - I'd be all for it. Sure to be a market in physical therapy, too.
@bjarmson: Perhaps I'm cynical, but I've always thought Wash died because the ensemble cast of Firefly was too large for a series of movies, and of all the roles on the ship that River could have grown into as a replacement, pilot made the most sense.
@meirelle: Fair enough - but it's a lot easier to train people to self-administer a tomato!
I can't help but like anyone who reacts to an arrow in the ass with, "AAAAUGH that did not just happen!"
@bonniegrrl:
Bachelor #2: "If you were a death ray, what kind of death ray would you be?"
@Brutalitarian: I hadn't thought of silicon and sulfur - hmm. I'll have to ponder that. My sulfur chemistry begins and ends with disulfide protein bonds.
To @Illuminatus and everyone else who was so generous with their kudos - thank you!