Writer at Space Daily

Mal James

Writer

Mal James is a writer at Space Daily covering self-development, productivity, relationships, and the psychology of work. He is also an entrepreneur and former teacher, and brings both perspectives into his writing on the Mind & Meaning pillar. Mal's pieces focus on the practical — how people change behavior, build better habits, and navigate the parts of life that don't come with instructions.

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Psychology

In the 1980s, an Italian student invented the Pomodoro Technique — the popular timed focus method. He named it after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer sitting on his desk

Many people think of the Pomodoro Technique as the ultimate productivity hack. And in a sense, it has earned that reputation — there are apps, browser…

May 26, 2026

Aerospace

Carl Sagan’s team considered sending a nude photograph of a man and a pregnant woman on the Voyager Golden Record, but after the controversy over the nude Pioneer plaque, the final record used a silhouette instead

In late 1971, after NASA approved the idea of sending a message aboard Pioneer 10, Carl Sagan was given just three weeks to prepare it.

May 26, 2026

Psychology

Michael Collins, dubbed by the press “the loneliest man in history” while orbiting the far side of the Moon for roughly forty-seven minutes at a time, gently corrected the description — he said he felt isolated, but never lonely

As the command module Columbia slipped behind the Moon on the afternoon of July 20, 1969 and lost radio contact with the world, Mission Control said over…

May 26, 2026

Human Behaviour

The human brain accounts for about two per cent of body weight and consumes about twenty per cent of the body’s total energy every day — and that consumption barely changes whether you are solving differential equations or staring at a wall

The number that gets repeated in pop-science columns is the 2/20 split (that the brain is 2% of body weight but consumes 20% of energy) — a small organ…

May 25, 2026

Psychology

Voyager 1’s famous Pale Blue Dot photograph was nearly never taken — Carl Sagan pushed NASA to turn the camera back toward Earth after the planetary mission was over, while engineers worried the Sun’s glare could damage the optics

On February 14, 1990, six billion kilometers from the sun, Voyager 1 swiveled around and took a photograph of Earth.

May 25, 2026

Aerospace

Many astronauts describe a quiet realization when they look down at Earth from orbit — that the borders and political lines we treat as permanent are invisible from above

NASA astronaut Christina Koch, a NASA astronaut selected for the Artemis II crew, has perhaps the cleanest description of what she sees from the cupola of the International Space Station.

May 25, 2026

Human Behaviour

The modern 8-hour workday is usually traced to Robert Owen, a Welsh industrialist and social reformer, who in 1817 popularized the formula: ‘eight hours’ labour, eight hours’ recreation, eight hours’ rest.’ Does this split still make sense in 2026?

Many of us live inside the 8-hour box without ever asking where the box came from.

May 23, 2026

Human Behaviour

Anthropologist Marshall Sahlins called early hunter-gatherer societies “the original affluent society” — not because they had more than us, but because they wanted less than they had, and worked the minimum required to meet what they wanted

The American anthropologist Marshall Sahlins defined affluence not as a satisfaction of wants.

May 23, 2026

Mind & Meaning

Modern retirement was invented in 1889 by a 74-year-old German Chancellor named Otto von Bismarck, who set the eligible age at 70 in a country where the average male life expectancy at birth was around 40

An American who reaches 65 today can expect, on average, to live roughly another 18 to 20 years.

May 22, 2026

Human Behaviour

Why are so many of us still awake at midnight watching something we don’t even care about? Researchers call it “revenge bedtime procrastination” — a self-regulation failure driven by a need to reclaim the autonomy a demanding day took away

I am not a psychologist or sleep specialist. This piece draws on published research but is not a substitute for professional advice.

May 21, 2026

Human Behaviour

The international space station has had continuous human presence for over twenty-five years. The daily habits that made that possible are almost embarrassingly ordinary, which is perhaps precisely why they work

What do you imagine is responsible for keeping a human being functional during six months in one of the most extreme environments our species has ever visited?

May 21, 2026

Human Behaviour

NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock said the thing he missed in orbit was the smell of grass and trees and on his return he found those ordinary aromas “intoxicating”. Most of us have never stopped to notice we have them

The International Space Station is sealed, filtered, and controlled — and astronauts have described its smells as antiseptic, garbage-like, or metallic.

May 21, 2026

Human Behaviour

The international space station runs on a five-day work and two-day rest schedule deliberately mirroring the rhythm of an earth working week and the reason isn’t sentimental

In the final weeks of 1973, three astronauts aboard NASA's Skylab space station were struggling.

May 21, 2026

Human Behaviour

Astronaut Chris Hadfield says confidence on the ISS didn’t come from optimism — it came from what he calls the power of negative thinking, the practice of working out your most likely failure points before you start

A navigator plotting a course does not spend the whole voyage imagining the smooth water ahead.

May 21, 2026

Psychology

NASA’s playbook for staying intact through long isolation

At NASA, a scientist named Tom Williams leads the Human Factors and Behavioral Performance work inside NASA's Human Research Program.

May 17, 2026

Psychology

Psychology suggests stargazing might be better for us than we realize

Step outside on a clear night in rural Ireland and the sky is just there. No app to open, no announcement, no preamble.

May 16, 2026