{"id":3423,"date":"2015-07-14T10:06:35","date_gmt":"2015-07-14T09:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/?p=3423"},"modified":"2015-07-14T10:06:35","modified_gmt":"2015-07-14T09:06:35","slug":"in-which-we-recommend-a-classic-lab-lit-novel-in-honor-of-the-pluto-flyby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2015\/07\/14\/in-which-we-recommend-a-classic-lab-lit-novel-in-honor-of-the-pluto-flyby\/","title":{"rendered":"In which we recommend a classic lab lit novel in honor of the Pluto flyby"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The big day is finally arrived: in just a few hours, we are about to get <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2015\/jul\/13\/nasa-probes-early-pluto-data-shows-dwarf-planet-larger-than-anticipated\">our closest look yet at Pluto<\/a>. Call it what you will &#8211; planet, dwarf planet, even the last word in that classic American solar system mnemonic (&#8220;My very educated mother just served us nine pizza-pies&#8221; &#8211; sung to the tune of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AibZ6E13Iao\">Swannee River<\/a>&#8220;) &#8211; it&#8217;s a big day for science, and it&#8217;s a big day for our species.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to learn more about the history of Pluto&#8217;s discovery in a truly entertaining way, I can highly recommend the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lablit.com\/the_list\">lab lit<\/a> classic novel <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Unfixed-Stars-Michael-Byers\/dp\/0330513818\/ref=nosim?tag=lablicom-21\">The Unfixed Stars<\/a> (its UK title; in America it was called <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Percivals-Planet-Novel-Michael-Byers\/dp\/0312573561\/\">Percival&#8217;s Planet<\/a>). Penned by the fabulous <a href=\"http:\/\/michaelbyers.org\/\">Michael Byers<\/a>, it&#8217;s a fictionalised account of the painstaking identification of the heavenly body by a Kansas farm boy. Byers brings the story to life by imbedding it in a colorful and vivid story &#8211; not all of whose elements are true. <\/p>\n<p>But that&#8217;s just part of the fun!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The big day is finally arrived: in just a few hours, we are about to get our closest look yet at Pluto. Call it what you will &#8211; planet, dwarf planet, even the last word in that classic American solar &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/2015\/07\/14\/in-which-we-recommend-a-classic-lab-lit-novel-in-honor-of-the-pluto-flyby\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lablit","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/mindthegap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}