The space research discussion came after a passing mention of Christopher Nolan's new movie Interstellar, which I have now seen.

I found both the acting and the visuals spectacular, but for a film proud of having had a scientific adviser, by the end the tired old pseudo-scientific munbo-jumbo was too much for me: the talk of gravity 'being the only thing transcending time and space' and thus useful for information time travel, of love as a distinct force of Nature in a 5D world, stuff like that.

Still, the film is to be praised for the first half-way correct portrayal of a black hole (on its edges you should see what's behind it) and at least the entrance of a wormhole (no 2D surface but a sphere that's a looking glass on the other side) on the big screen. Interstellar is a return to 2001: Space Odyssey after Star Wars-inspired portrayals of space (and there are plenty of homages to Kubrick's classic).

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}