DARPA book's new table of contents

My book about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, now not only has a cover, but a finalized table of contents as well.

Full title: The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs

Publisher: Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins

Publication date: October 20, 2009

Table of Contents:

Introduction
How I came to write the book and why DARPA may just be the most important government agency most people have never heard of.

Chapter 1: An Arm and a Leg
DARPA's quest to build a prosthetic arm as functional as a native one, and why cutting-edge military hardware development doesn't have to break the national budget.

Chapter 2: A Special Projects Agency
DARPA's origins in the Cold War as America's first space agency.

Chapter 3: The Intergalactic Computer Network
How DARPA funding launched the Internet and interactive computing, and how its current experiments in information technology could change your life.

Chapter 4: The Robot Will See You Now
DARPA helped set the standard in today's surgical robots. Now for the next step: autonomous surgical suites that bring the hospital to trauma patients, instead of the other way around.

Chapter 5: Back Seat Drivers
Ten days in the desert with the self-driving cars that will redefine the great American obsession.

Chapter 6: Crazy-Ass Things
DARPA's longest-serving director and his quest to bring back the exuberance that marked the agency's early days.

Chapter 7: The Final Frontier
How DARPA is getting back into the space access business after ceding its original mission to NASA.

Chapter 8: Power to the People
Super-efficient solar cells, jet fuel made from vegetable oil, and DARPA's mission to remove energy as a source of world conflict.

DARPA book cover

My DARPA book now has a cover. Thanks to Harry LeBlanc for suggesting a variation of the subtitle. Now it's off to copyediting and fact checking, and we're on schedule for October's publication date.

Jade Star Belfiore

My second daughter, Jade Star, was born Saturday, 3/28/09, at 4:19
a.m. She was 6 pounds, 11 ounces.

She made a dramatic entrance; Wendy and I only barely made it to the
hospital in time after a very short labor. Jade was in Wendy's arms
within 10 minutes of our hitting the door.

Both Wendy and Jade are in perfect health. I'll bring them home this
morning, after taking our 3-year-old, Amelie, to daycare.

Space Dominance

Popular Mechanics made my roundup of spacefaring nations and their current capabilities the top story on popularmechanics.com today.

With the Space Shuttle set to retire next year, the Russians getting increasingly focused on manned commercial spaceflight, and ambitious government space programs ramping up around the world, we're definately heading into a new era.

Ticket to Ride

Popular Mechanics has made my first published piece for them the lead story today on popularmechanics.com.

The story explores possible ways to get to space on the cheap--really cheap--like 20 bucks for a trip to suborbital space.

I also provided initial research help on last month's cover story, the one with the shuttle-derived ship taking off in the screenshot.

I have more Web stories for PM in progress and a spread in next month's magazine. Stay tuned!

Space & Technology Copywriter

Today I launched some upgrades on my website to reflect a new focus for my work: high-tech copywriting.

I've been engaged in marketing and public relations writing in one form or another since 1995, when I became a freelance technical writer for companies like Northwest Airlines and Target. I moved next into public relations writing, still with an emphasis on technology.

When SpaceShipOne left the planet in 2004 with the first commercial astronaut on board, I jumped at the opportunity to cover the story and others like it as a freelance journalist for media outlets like Reuters, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, New Scientist, Financial Times, and many others. Along the way, I've written two books on advanced technology development for HarperCollins.

At the same time, I kept my hand in PR writing through the partnership I run with my wife, fellow writer Wendy Kagan.

Now I'm combining the two threads of my work as a writer by offering copywriting services to organizations engaged in advanced technology development.

This is an exciting direction for me. It means I get to get to spend more time with some of the most exciting business ventures on (and off!) the planet. At the same time I won't always be tied to the dictates of magazine and news publishing.

Visit the new Copywriting Services page on my website, or read the free white paper I've just posted about Selling Breakthrough Technology to learn more.

License to Thrill

The article I wrote on what it takes to be a commercial spaceship pilot for the March issue of Air & Space is now available online.

The piece was a ball to write--I got to try out the centrifuge at the National Aerospace Training and Research Training, or NASTAR, Center, an experience I highly recommend--especially if you can get someone else to foot the bill!

You can read the whole text of my article at the Air & Space site, but unless you pick up the printed magazine, you'll miss out on one of the best features--gorgeous portraits of spaceship pilots Brian Binnie, Mike Melvill, Pete Siebold, Rick Searfoss, and a few of the new Virgin Galactic pilots by Chad Slattery. The one shot of Searfoss that's on the site doesn't do the spread justice.

Oh, and there are a couple of shots by yours truly in there too.