Jason Bradbury

This is my very well thumbed proof-copy of Airman by the brilliant Eoin Colfer. It is one of my favourite books (and that’s not just because Eoin was very complimentary about my own book! B-) Puffin is holding a competition to film your own flying machine in action and offering a really cool prize. You can check my own origami effort on Airman’s website www.isitabird.co.uk.

Watch this video in HD. See all the my posts about Dot Robot here 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZHxwtH7GXA

As I get ready for the launch of Dot Robot (5^th Feb 2009), I’m busy writing its sequel! Here’s a sneaky peek at one of the gadgets I’m planning for book two. I saw this Police Specialized Hardrock mountain bike at a cycle show in Earl’s Court, London this year. Now, a couple of these aluminum framed, blues and twos equipped, cruisers have made it into an action-packed chase sequence I’m working on. I wonder if Specialized would lend me one for a test ride?

Do you know any secrets?

There I was, on Amazon.co.uk, looking for last minute Christmas presents and I thought I’d see if Dot Robot is listed. And OMG, there’s my book! After such a long time writing it, it’s an incredible feeling to see my first book on the world’s biggest online book domain. Check it out here.

I can’t believe how soon my book will be out! In around seven weeks! It hit me when I was Christmas book shopping in my local bookstore and the manager asked me about the launch date for Dot.Robot - 5th of February 2009. I’ll let y’all know when the planned web stuff is live (hint: there’s going to be a really cool Flash game) It’s going to be a very exciting year.

Ray Kurzweil is a brilliant scientist and futurist. His book maps out a startling vision of the fusion of biology (namely us) and technology. It’s a dense read, but it’s not a difficult book to understand because Kurzweil is fond of graphs! His sections on Moore’s Law are fascinating and he makes it clear that, because of the exponential growth in computing power,  those of us who are around for the next fifty years will see Star-Trekian advances in technology. ‘It is reasonable to expect [the] hardware that can emulate human-brain functionality to be available for approximately one thousands dollars by around 2020.’ I just wish it was lighter, so I could carry it with me on the tube! Check out more books from My Library.

This is what a door to a nuclear reactor looks like. I snapped it on a recent fact finding mission for my new book (hmmmm, nuclear reactors, bad guys, robots…. I like). I expected biometrics, metal detectors and guards… with guns. I guess this undistinguished door is part of the facility’s security strategy - make your front look like the entrance to any old warehouse, and the terrorists will think they’ve got the wrong address.

Welcome to the first post my new blog. It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally here! I’ve been trying to decide what I should put in the first post and I’ve decided that as I share my launch week with the switching on of the world’s biggest machine - the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland - I should honour this scientific milestone.

You will surely have heard about the switching on of the LHC and the smashing together of two beams of particles that begins a groundbreaking investigation into the origins of the universe. The best way to get your head around the significance of the Super-Collider machine is to read some of the web headlines surrounding it’s launch. My favourites include: Botanist sues to stop CERN hurling earth into parallel universe, Black Hole eats Earth and CERN black hole is the most dangerous danger for the world. In a nutshell, this week begins a series of experiments that could shed light on dark matter, describe the origins of mass and possibly show us extra dimensions in space. Yeah, okay, my new blog seems trivial now, but I’m still proud to launch in this week of astonishing creativity and scientific brilliance.

If you’d like to learn all about CERN click [here]. You can volunteer your computer’s downtown to crunch Super-Collider data with this [screensaver].