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06/22/2001 Archived Entry: "Back again"

So, I'm back on Vavatch again. Before I launch into what I've been doing lately, here's my plan of action for the summer:

On Thursday (28th) I'm flying to Amsterdam to check out a special European advance screening of A.I., four months ahead of general European release and about roughly four hours ahead of the special USA preview. Not staying there long.

I'm hoping to get some kind of super-cheapo package holiday early on in July, and then later that month I'm flying off to Seattle for a week or so. Beyond that, little is clear...

As for work, well, I have a few websites that need developing and updating, all of which are to do with Mars. There's Generation Mars, which I haven't worked on for a while, and a 'New Mars' webzine/community website I want to develop. Neither of those should take too much time as long as I'm sufficiently concentrated.

It's looking as if the bulk of my time this summer will be taken up by writing the manuscript for the textbook adaptation I'm doing of my Astrobiology: The Living Universe website, which at least one publisher is interested in having a look at. From my point of view, the content on the website is pretty good but if it's going to be made into a textbook then I want to make it perfect, and I want to make it a lot more advanced with a lot more meaty content and facts and figures. Also, the problem with the website (well, not so much a problem as a feature) is that it has a more hierarchical web-approach as opposed to the linear style we're used to seeing in textbooks. So obviously all the separate 100+ articles have to be joined up, which is no mean feat.

I think that to get it really up to scratch I'd want to spend as least as much time on it as I have done so far, which is a pretty damn large number of hours. I'd also have to spend a while in a library checking out references from all over the place.

Don't get me wrong, the website has a fully-completed list of references and citations, but for the extra material I'll need to look at the source.

The textbook (which I'm writing with Katie Harris, the person who I did the website with) will be written as an introductory text for undergraduates studying astrobiology or related fields. And yes, there are several reputable universities in America that offer an undergraduate astrobiology course. It should do fine at that, but to be honest I don't think it'll be a bestseller compared to, say, biology or physics textbooks even though there are no textbooks on astrobiology yet.

So, in keeping with the nice original 'conversational' tone that is adopted in some parts of the website, we might also try and aim the textbook so that it is also accessible as a pop science book. It will always be a textbook - but if written properly we can make it so that the general public will be able to read and enjoy it.

Anyway, that's enough of my ramblings. I should be uploading some photos that I've taken lately, of punting around Cambridge and so on.