@SciAm alumnus and author of science thrillers: Final Theory, The Six, The Coming Storm, Saint Joan of New York. My latest: The Doomsday Show
Articles by Mark Alpert
Konečná teorie
O knize Konečná teorie Univerzitního profesora Davida Swifta spěšně povolají do nemocnice. Chce s ním mluvit jeho bývalý učitel – profesor fyziky, kterého kdosi v noci brutálně napadl. Profesor na smrtelné posteli nadiktuje Davidovi zdánlivě náhodnou sekvenci čísel, která by však mohla být klíčem k Einsteinovu poslednímu tajemství. Je jím Einheitliche Feldtheorie neboli teorie všeho. Jde o soubor rovnic, které by dokázaly popsat všechny přírodní síly.
Why TRAPPIST-1 Is Our Favorite Alien Planetary System
The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR. When I was a wee graduate student back in the late 1980s, we didn’t know if there were any planets orbiting other stars (i.e., “exoplanets”). Now, just three decades later, we know that there are planets orbiting pretty much every star in the galaxy. This abundance of worlds was one reason I wrote my new book, The Little Book of Aliens.
Tropical Fish - Nightmare Magazine
Author’s Note: “Tropical Fish” is a relic from my childhood and mostly true. I had an aquarium in my bedroom, and my dad and I spent a lot of time staring at those fish. —MA CW: None. They came to our house in plastic bags, guppies, mollies, swordtails, a fat spiny catfish, a neon tetra, their lidless eyes peering wildly through the transparent sacks Like impatient fingers they poked the plastic or swam up and down, shaking their heads in primitive confusion.
Extinction: A Thriller
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The Ultimate Crime Story: Punishing the Pillagers of Our Planet
I’ve been frustrated for a long time. For ten years I was an editor at Scientific American, where I wrote articles and editorials about climate change, urging the government to crack down on planet-warming pollution. For the most part, the reaction was paralysis. Just a few weeks ago, the Supreme Court stripped away the U.S. government’s most powerful tool for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, and now the threat of a hotter, stormier, increasingly uninhabitable Earth seems almost inevitable.
The Doomsday Show
Mark Alpert. Severn, $29.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4483-0926-9 This entertaining environmental thriller from Alpert (The Coming Storm) opens during Climate Emergency Week when Manhattan’s streets are swarming with protestors. Max Mirsky, the head of the Doomsday Theater Company, is performing a parody of a song from Oliver! mocking Hollister Tarkington, CEO of Stygian Energy, “America’s biggest coal-mining company,” outside its corporate headquarters.
Dodging the Apocalyse | Climate Fiction Series
Mark Alpert: I have to admit, Steele got me pretty excited. And the NASA engineers I talked to said the technology seemed doable and maybe cheaper than earthbound solar farms, assuming that Steele could fix the kinks in his reusable heavy-lift rockets. But then I contacted the execs at those Australian power companies. On background, they denied having any firm deals with Stellar Technologies.
Dodging the Apocalypse | Climate Fiction Series
But you long-time listeners also know that I kinda love nutso projects. I mean, we’ve spent the past 200 years systematically screwing up the global climate—now we have to undo all of that in just, like, a couple of decades. Any plan that doesn’t involve humongous solutions isn’t really a plan, right? Besides, I used to be an astrophysics editor at Scientific American before I switched to environmental journalism, and I’ve had a soft spot for science fiction since I was a kid.
The Coming or Possibly Nearly Here Storm
Credit: Steve Mirsky Former Scientific American editor Mark Alpert talks about his latest sci-fi thriller The Coming Storm, which warns about the consequences of unethical scientific research and of ignoring the scientific findings you don't like. Rights & Permissions ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S) Steve Mirsky Steve Mirsky has been writing the Anti Gravity column since a typical tectonic plate was about 36 inches from its current location. He also hosts the Scientific American podcast Science Talk.
Not Just Fun and Games
Editor’s Note (4/16/20): On April 11 renowned mathematician John H. Conway passed away from complications of COVID-19. This article from 1999 profiles Conway and his work. Stepping into John H. Conway’s office at Princeton University is like stepping into a mathematician’s playpen. Dozens of polyhedra made of colored cardboard hang from the ceiling like mirror balls at a discotheque. Dangling among them is a Klein bottle constructed from chicken wire.
The Coronavirus and the Crisis Novel
By Mark Alpert The New York Times ran an interesting story this week about the experience of re-watching the 2011 film Contagion while the new coronavirus rages all around us. That movie was weirdly prescient in its description of society’s response to a deadly microbe that emerges in China and quickly spreads to the rest of the world. Some of the film’s characters scoffed at the danger, some tried to sound a warning, and many, many of them succumbed to infection.
Can Science Rule Out God?
Mark Alpert, Scientific American December 26, 2019 Denny Simmons/Evansville Courier & Press via AP I should make it clear from the start that I have no religious agenda. I'm not a believer. I'm not a committed atheist either. For 10 years, I was an editor at Scientific American.
Can science rule out God? – HotAir
I should make it clear from the start that I have no religious agenda. I’m not a believer. I’m not a committed atheist either. For 10 years, I was an editor at Scientific American. During that time, we were diligent about exposing the falsehoods of “intelligent design” proponents who claimed to see God’s hand in the fashioning of complex biological structures such as the human eye and the bacterial flagellum. But in 2008 I left journalism to write fiction.
Can Science Rule Out God?
I should make it clear from the start that I have no religious agenda. I’m not a believer. I’m not a committed atheist either. For 10 years, I was an editor at Scientific American. During that time, we were diligent about exposing the falsehoods of “intelligent design” proponents who claimed to see God’s hand in the fashioning of complex biological structures such as the human eye and the bacterial flagellum. But in 2008 I left journalism to write fiction.
Mark Alpert - Biography & Interviews
Mark Alpert, is a contributing editor at Scientific American. In his long journalism career he has specialized in explaining scientific ideas to readers, simplifying esoteric concepts such as extra dimensions and parallel universes. In his novels, Alpert weaves cutting-edge science into high-energy thrillers that elucidate real theories and technologies.
The Coming Storm
James Rollins has a blurb that stands out on the front cover of Mark Alpert's latest thriller, THE COMING STORM: "Terrifyingly plausible...
Make It Thrilling: Taylor Adams on Adding Violence to Fiction
By Taylor Adams January 23, 2019 Taylor Adams, author of No Exit, breaks down how he infused his novel with violence and advises us how to not overdo it. Storytelling is all about conflict, and conflict, in its purest form, is violence. That doesn’t mean violence is necessary in a thriller – far from it! – but it is a powerful item in any fiction writer’s toolbox, regardless of genre. That said… with pitfalls abound, it’s frighteningly easy to misuse.
On Process: Screenplay vs. Novel
By Marty Thornley January 9, 2019 While they may share the end goal of “telling a story,” a novel and a screenplay are two very different products, each with its own requirements, approaches, and styles. The most significant difference is that a novel is a finished product, while a screenplay is a blueprint for a film that might get made one day. I spent close to 15 years thinking about and writing screenplays. The last one I ever wrote was called Painless.
How To Make Your Novel Seem Real
By Mark Alpert Have you ever picked up a newspaper and seen a headline that sounded like the premise of a novel? It happened to me two weeks ago. And the headline was eerily similar to the idea for my latest thriller. On November 26th, Chinese scientist He Jiankui announced the birth of the first genetically modified human babies. The researcher had used a new technique known as CRISPR to alter a gene in a pair of human embryos, which were then implanted in the mother’s womb.
Can Science Fiction Save the World?
There was once a time when robots roamed the surface of Mercury, when a shape-shifting alien emerged from the ice of Antarctica, and when a galactic empire of 25 million planets spanned the Milky Way. It was called the “Golden Age” of science fiction, the period from the late 1930s to the late 1940s, when pioneering authors such as Isaac Asimov and Robert A. Heinlein wrote their first mind-bending stories.
President Ozymandias
In a recent interview on 60 Minutes, President Donald Trump claimed scientists who “believe” that humans are affecting global climate “have a very big political agenda.” As a climate scientist, I’d like to respond to this claim. The president is wrong on multiple counts. Human effects on climate are not a belief system. Climate scientists don’t just “believe” that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing. We measure CO at dozens of remote locations.
Teen Read Week 2018: Author Chat with Victoria Scott (Violet Grenade), Plus Giveaway!
Read on for more about Victoria, her novel, plus a giveaway! Victoria Scott is the acclaimed author of nine novels including Fire & Flood, The Collector, and We Told Six Lies. Victoria’s books have been YALSA-nominated, have appeared on the Spirit of Texas Reading Program, and have been included on Bank Street College of Education's Best Books of the Year list.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Kids as young as 7 hack into election systems at DEFCON event
With Election Day less than three months away, the Hearst Television National Investigative Unit has learned security vulnerabilities still remain in how you cast your ballot and get the results. And children are exposing some of the potential exploits. In Las Vegas this past weekend, kids as young as 7 years old managed to manipulate replicas of election night results pages in key battleground states from 2016; pages built, organizers say, using actual vulnerabilities previously reported.
Up Close: Brian Andrews
Brian Andrews is a former U.S. Navy submarine officer whose mind dives into unfathomable places. In his latest novel, RESET, he combines his knowledge of military technology and cutting-edge neuroscience, to craft a story about a mysterious, otherworldly object that ravages its victims’ brains. I caught up with him recently to talk about his new thriller. Brian, you work with Jeffrey Wilson on two series of novels and also write science thrillers on your own.
First Page Critique: Enemies Domestic
And now we turn to a submission from one of those brave souls who offer the first pages of their novels for the perusal of the Kill Zone community and our constructive criticism. The title is “Enemies Domestic” and here are the opening paragraphs: A bare, red lightbulb intended for photography darkrooms hung from the rough ceiling inside a small rotting plywood shed, expelled the nighttime darkness immediately beyond the open doorway, and cast Duke and his malicious undertaking in its eerie glow.
The Bowling Ball That Invaded Earth
Steve Mirsky:Welcome to Scientific American Science Talk posted on May 5, 2016. I’m Steve Mirsky. On this episode… Mark Alpert:This probe if it’s actually run by artificial intelligence as it approaches our planet it would recognize that there’s an intelligent species on this planet because it would sense our radio and TV broadcasts, it would see the lights from our cities and it intentionally on homes in on the brightest spot that it sees because it wants to take advantage of our electric power.
THE SIEGE by Mark Alpert
Adam and the other sentient, robot Pioneers return to battle evil Sigma, who targets Adam's hometown and everyone he loves by pitting the Pioneers against one another. In this mission, the Pioneers are acutely aware that their high-tech bodies are prosthetic—not immortal. Their vulnerability, combined with civilians' fear of or pity for their robot forms, raises unexplored comparisons to their former disabled bodies.
The Orion Plan | Bookreporter.com
In 1999, Mark Alpert edited a special edition of Scientific American that focused on space exploration. One particular article caught his interest: it discussed the possibility of another civilization launching a small automated probe instead of a large spaceship. Thus an idea was born, and it festered in Alpert's psyche until he put it down on paper in the form of his latest novel, THE ORION PLAN.
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