The Real-Life Possibilities Behind the Hit TV Show

Our days in the desert are coming to an end!

The new season of Heroes will start with a two-hour episode Sept. 21, then continue on Sept. 28 in the 8 p.m. slot, according to the LA Times.

The Heroes plans for next month’s Comic-con have changed: there’ll be no “Heroes” panel this year, but the studio promises “a presence” and some sort of sneak preview, says Maureen Ryan of the Chicago Tribune.

So — are any readers going to Comic-con? Let me know!

My Mom, Sylvia Carts died June 10 at the age of 77, from lung cancer. With the aid of hospice, she was able to spend her last months at home in the company of her family.

We will miss her very much.

I dedicated The Science of Heroes to her, because she was a natural teacher, a scientist (with amazingly green thumbs), and when other parents were encouraging their kids to be practical about their choice of careers and college majors, she was telling me that I’d make a wonderful novelist.

I remember that when I was very young (in preschool, I think?) she taught me the names and characteristics of the plants in our yard, about chlorophyll reflecting green light, and how the tilt in the Earth’s axis causes the seasons. I alternated between thinking that this was secret knowledge and thinking that of course anyone over the age of 6 knew these things — and finally realized that the answer is someplace between these two extremes.

“we’re not recommending an end of affection…”

The swine flu situation is developing rapidly, and there’s a lot that nobody knows, yet. If you want the basics, from people who know (as opposed to, say, hysterical bloggers), here’s the CDC Swine Flu and You fact sheet.

If you want a understand public health terminology and methods, take a look at the Effect Measure. I’ve been impressed with their knowledge and clarity.

I’m a big fan of the Centers For Disease Control And Prevention (the CDC), and I’ve been known to read their press briefings for my own entertainment and education. At the moment, my favorite quote is from the CDC briefing on Monday.

Dr. Richard Besser [the acting director of the CDC] gave the briefing. He’d said something about how folks need to change their behavior to reduce the chance of transmission, for example, maybe not kissing someone hello. When a journalist asked a followup question he said in part:

If you’re in an infected area or if you have the swine flu it’s probably best not to give a kiss, but we’re not recommending an end of affection during the period.

It’s a period of time when we need a little more affection, but doing it in a way that isn’t going to transmit a respiratory disease would be a CDC approach.

(I’m not back. Just sticking my head in for a moment.)

Family crises have eaten my time for the past few weeks, and are likely to eat my time for the next couple weeks. Something in my schedule has had to give, and it’s been this blog.

That’s not fair to you, and trying to keep up has not been fair to me. So I’m going to stop posting for a few weeks.

Regular posts will resume in June.

Until then, be well and keep an eye out for magnificent and ridiculous events in Heroes and science.

Photo by Marc Ryckaert, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.