So, it turns out there are remarkably fewer red giants within 1.6 light years of the Milky Way's central black hole.
The theory is that the black hole likes to give off jets of gas from its accretion disc, which then ripped outer layers from nearby red giants, turning them blue.
But not everyone buys it. There's another theory that the black hole had a large disc of gas around it which also did the same thing.
Either way, black holes and red giants don't seem to get on...
Wooden spaceships is like an old pulp joke at this point.
Unless you're Japanese, in which case they're a serious proposition.
No, I am not making this up.
Kyoto University and Sumitomo Forestry are working towards making wooden cubesats. The point is that they will result in less space junk falling to earth or hanging out in the upper atmosphere.
The research could also lead to an understanding of how trees might grow in low gravity, essential for permanent settlements in space.
But I just can't quite take wooden satellites seriously, even as I see the point and hope they work.
So, I get it...a lot of people are really worried about the new COVID-19 strain that appears (and I stress appears) to be more transmissible.
Here's one reassuring fact: Although tests are incomplete, it does appear that existing vaccines will still work on the new variant.
The new variant may be more transmissible, but we can't be 100% sure. However, it is not more virulent (it doesn't cause more severe disease). Sadly, it does not appear to be less virulent.
It's also a variant, not a strain.
It does mean we should be even more careful, but it probably won't have a huge impact on the course of the pandemic in the grand scheme of things.
So try not to worry too much. But please wear a mask.
ISS astronauts get a personal weight allowance, which they've used to take all kinds of things up...including a Star Trek uniform.
But what about a Star Trek actor?
In 2008, Richard Garriott smuggled some of James Doohan's ashes onto the space station and hid them under the floor of the Columbus module. And yes, they're still there, along with a picture.
Which means that James Doohan is the first human being to be officially buried in space.
Humans some days. I love it.
Here's a few links to amazing images of the conjunction.
This one includes the ISS (it's the streak, because of the exposure).
And this article includes nine incredible images.
This one includes some of Jupiter's moons! And also has shots which show Saturn's rings.
It was still pretty clear last night, albeit not at closest approach and there were no asshole clouds this time, so I did get to see it, but I don't have the gear for astronomical photography.
Let it be an omen that things are about to change for the better.
Her name is Zhur, and she died when the den she was raised in collapsed about 56,000 years ago...leaving us with a well-preserved wolf pup to study (and ooh over).
We know that she was closely related to the ancestors of all wolves, but not as closely related to modern wolves in the Klondike (there appears to have been migration).
She had a stomach full of fish, likely from salmon running in the Klondike river. Modern wolves don't eat that much fish, but who doesn't enjoy the bounty of the salmon run?
Whether she had siblings and what happened to them is unknown...perhaps mama wolf was able to rescue most of the litter from the collapse, leaving poor Zhur buried.
Zhur will be displayed at the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Center in Whitehorse, if you're ever up there.
Radio astronomers have picked up a signal from Proxima Centauri that may be aliens.
Or it might be a comet (comets do weird shit with radio waves), or something going on in the atmosphere of the known gas giant in the system.
Details of the signal haven't been released yet, perhaps to avoid too much speculation.
Maybe it's that invite to join the Galactic Federation, although right now I'd rather they sent us a cure for COVID...
So, first of all, the Ravencon kickstarter!
Scheduled in April, Ravencon was one of the first regional cons forced to cancel in 2020. This week the decision was made to cancel 2021 as well.
This put the con in the hole. Vendors and attendees had to be refunded, and the con still needs to pay a deposit to the hotel for 2022. Thus, the kickstarter.
The primary reward is the CORVID-19 anthology, which contains 19 stories that somehow involve birds in the corvidae family.
But we also have some other rewards...quite a few are now taken, but if you want a bridge officer or diplomatic aide named after you in my upcoming novel Kyx, that Tuckerization is still available as of right now (the female character restriction is from April and I can do any gender now).
We also have CDs from some of Ravencon's past music guests, an appearance on an RPG podcast, Tuckerizations from C. McDonnell, Patrick Dugan, Lawrence M. Schoen, Christopher Nuttall, L. Jagi Lamplighter. We're going to add more rewards and are now starting to put together CORVID-19: The Second Wave (any writers who might have crow or raven-related stories? We're taking donations and yes, they can be reprints).
The initial goal is funded, but Ravencon can still use funds to improve future cons or help with charitable initiatives.
Second of all, I just got The Secret History of Victor Prince back from my editor, so expect an early to mid January release on that. It's a prequel of sorts to the Lost Guardians series and sees the return of Victor, Tag, and the addition of an all new character that I happen to love.
Well, more accurately it's the Solstice Star as the conjunction occurs on December 21.
Jupiter and Saturn are going to appear to merge, which happens every few hundred years.
Look to the southwest just after sunset to see this particular dance.
The last time this happened was 400 years ago, but that was during the day, so it wasn't visible. The most recent opportunity to see this was 800 years ago.
It's probably some kind of omen. Let's hope it's a good one.
The Japanese asteroid sampling mission keeps getting better. They were hoping for dust.
They got pebbles.
And they got gas. This is the first time we've managed to return a sample of matter in a gaseous state from space. I can't wait to see what the analysis shows on this one. Kind of envy those scientists.
A company called Moon Mark has decided that it would be fun to...
...stage a car race on the moon.
Specifically, teams of high school students will compete to design small rovers through a tournament with the final round launched to the moon. The remote-controlled cars will race around a predetermined track.
They're pretty small cars; the weight limit is 11 pounds.
The cars will launch on the Nova-C Lunar Lander, which is designed to provide commercial payload to the moon, likely along with other payloads, some of which are going to support the Artemis program.
On the one hand, it's a gimmick. On the other hand, I'm mad all the baby roboticists I know are in college.
...you know the silly highways in space science fiction trope that's clearly not...
...except it is.
Because apparently gravity affects space in such a way that you can use gravity assist by following a specific route, rather than just through the more standard "slingshot" maneuver.
Which may help us get probes to the outer system faster. No, they aren't "hyperspace lanes," but one might think that if FTL is possible, then depending on how it works, there might be gravity pathways that a ship could follow.
Hrm.
NASA has announced that 18 astronauts, 9 men and 9 women, will begin training for the Artemis program, America's planned return to the moon.
The 18 astronauts reflect diversity in demographics and backgrounds, including test pilots, systems engineers, flight surgeons and a submariner with a degree in nuclear engineering. The last choice is particularly interesting, as any manned Mars mission is probably going to involve a ship equipped with a small nuclear reactor for power...
Here's the full list with little blurbs about each one. Obviously we aren't going to be talking mission assignments for a while, but there's a good chance one of these people will be the next American...and one of them the first woman and/or the first Black person to set foot on the moon.
Well, not quite, but researchers have written a smartphone app (so far iPhone only, but presumably higher end androids will get their turn) that pairs with a small handheld device to....sequence your DNA.
The idea is that researchers in remote locations won't need to ship in laptops to do the sequencing. The device may also be used to sequence the DNA of astronauts and experimental plants in space.
One day we will have that tricorder! One day...
Chuck Yeager, the man who was the first to fly faster than the speed of town, died this morning at the age of 97.
Not only was he a great pilot, but he was America's first astronaut trainer; teaching men to do what he never did himself. In fact, what he was never allowed to do because he didn't have a college education.
Yeager never went into space, but he launched others and is the spiritual ancestor of everyone who demonstrates "The Right Stuff."
Japan's Hayabusa probe landed safely in the Australian outback with a cargo of asteroid sample.
This is our first subsurface asteroid sample and may reveal things about the origins of planets or even of life. The capsule has now been shipped to Japan where it can be opened in clean room conditions.
Meanwhile, the Chang'e ascender safely reached orbit with samples from the lunar surface...the first since the Apollo program.
We have boxes to open and I, for one, can't wait to find out what might be inside.
So, again, not much in the way of news.
The holiday season is coming up...please be careful and try not to catch the roni, okay?
(Yes, I know we all want to celebrate, but the best thing to do is stay home with a good book).
The Pfizer vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the UK and vaccinations of healthcare workers and those at extreme risk will begin soon.
An EUA is likely in the US by the end of the month.
Which means now we need to start thinking about how we're going to get everyone vaccinated.
Ideally, more vaccines will also be approved (the more the better), and manufacturing capacity is being increased.
Still, vaccinating everyone is a challenge. So, how are we going to get the vaccine?
For most Americans, the answer is likely to be "at a pharmacy." Pharmacists routinely give other adult vaccinations and some have nurses who can also give pediatric shots.
In rural America, though, there may be more challenges. Some out of the box thinking is already happening.
Last year, Oregon passed a law allowing dentists to give vaccinations. This makes more sense than you think. Dental nurses are trained to give local anesthesia shots in the mouth. This is much harder than administering a vaccination. However, dentists aren't going to have the storage facilities for the mRNA vaccine. They may, however, be able to give the Astra-Zeneca shot if it's approved.
Another out of the box possibility: Veterinarians, who are used to giving shots to far less cooperative patients.
And, obviously, there's also been a lot of discussion of sending nurses to workplaces to do clinics. This will probably work well for critical infrastructure workers. For example, it would be cost effective to send a nurse and a special cooler to a meat packing plant and vaccinate workers as they leave at the end of their shifts.
And when it comes to delivering the vaccine to the pharmacist, there's some fun stuff going on there.
In the UK, the relatively remote Isles of Scilly may receive their vaccine doses by...drone.
(I've been to the Isles of Scilly. It was not a fun trip. I am never getting on that ferry again).
Drone delivery might also be considered in other parts of the world.
Most vaccine supplies are going to be delivered by plane; and it's entirely likely passenger planes idled by the reduced travel demand will be used.
Please get vaccinated when it's offered to you. Despite the unprecedented speed, the science is solid.
I'm just glad I can walk to a pharmacist.
I'm sorry, but ESA's experimental space junk capturing drone looks like a four-armed version of those fairground/arcade grab a prize things that never actually work.
Sorry not sorry.
Here's the full article from Science. It's actually pretty neat.
2020 has been a year of loss, of mourning. Sooner or later it was bound to hit the SF community as a whole.
Yesterday, Ben Bova, one of the greatest writers and editors of all time passed away from COVID-19. He was an influence on influences, and one of the few big names to never have anything bad said about him. Instead, by every account (although I personally never had the pleasure), Bova was a true gentleman who treated everyone with professionalism and kindness.
Perhaps one death is not more important than another, but this one is touching a lot of people.
David Prowse is one of those actors whom everyone has seen...sort of...but few people know.
A bodybuilder and weightlifter, the 6'6 actor was most famous for being the physical presence of Darth Vader. In England he was also known as the Green Crossing Man for starring in a series of PSAs designed to teach little kids to wait for the light when crossing the road.
Prowse is often forgotten. His face was hidden by a mask and his voice was replaced (without telling him at the time) by James Earl Jones. But his incredible physicality and control defined the intimidating body language. He was, in fact, given a choice when he auditioned...in an alternate reality he was Chewbacca, but he didn't want to deal with the fursuit. I don't entirely blame him, they didn't have cooling vests back then! Also, "Everyone remembers the villain, George."
(But I'd watch that alternate Star Wars).
Of course, everyone also remembers Chewbacca. And we remember Darth by his voice...although in the end, Prowse apparently agreed with that decision. Despite this there was a feud between him and Lucas that resulted in him being banned from official events. (He turned round and engaged with a fan community often neglected by Lucas and, due to the fact that he was already in disgrace, was involved in a number of fan films).
Oh, and as well as being an actor he played a behind-the-scenes role that is often forgotten: He trained actors who needed to bulk up quickly for a role, including Christopher Reeve.
I'm envisioning the Vader hand twist, which I suspect was all Prowse. He will be missed by a fan community that was in the end more welcoming to him than the official world of Star Wars.
No actual news just yet, so I'm just going to toss up a reminder.
Books make great holiday gifts. I'm always open to giving recommendations if you give me a solid idea of what the person is looking for!
...the sun's popped a pimple. There's a huge sunspot on the sun right now.
Thankfully, it doesn't appear to be setting off a solar flare, which might disrupt everyone's Thanksgiving plans...at least those of the sane people who are doing it over the internet.
(Please, please celebrate at home. Please).
...why exactly it is that British tabloids are obsessed with Yellowstone exploding and killing us all.
Normally it's the Daily Mail saying we're all going to die, this time it's the Express. Sigh. In fact, the entire first page of Yellowstone supervolcano in a news search except for one article from the Columbus Dispatch (which informs us we are not all going to die) is the Daily Express telling us we're all going to die.
(The second page has an idiot who got arrested after trying to cook a chicken in the hot springs).
So, are we all going to die? In fact, the Yellowstone hotspot is what's dying; it's becoming less powerful and eruptions are becoming less common...and by less common we mean it's gone from about every 500,000 years to about every 1.5 million years.
By that measure the most likely time for the next eruption is, oh, about 900,000 years in the future.
So, tabloids, what is with the supervolcano obsession?
So, wildlife officers counting bighorn sheep found something they didn't expect.
A monolith.
Yes.
Uh.
A three meter tall, shiny metal monolith.
It's not actually full of stars, but nobody has any idea how it got there and nobody seems to be willing to admit to having put it there.
There are three likely theories:
1. Aliens. Which we all know it isn't.
2. It's art. Somebody thought it would be neat. If it is art, then it is similar to the work of an artist named John McCracken, who died in 2011. But he didn't live in Utah. A copycat?
3. Somebody was filming a movie without permission and could afford to get this massive prop out there...and then ran out of money and couldn't get it back. Movie makers are notorious for leaving unusual litter.
I like #3, think it's most likely #2, but...
...it could be aliens.
(Note that the park service have asked people not to go hunting for it because they're worried people will, ya know, die).
So, I'd much rather have been in Cherry Hill, but Philcon still went very well.
The highlight was the Mars colonization panel, where the panelist played a colonization game. I'm now trying to work out whether it would be more effective to run a cable car up Olympus Mons in a tube or whether to pressurize individual cars.
Decisions, decisions.
Every panel I was on or attended went smoothly and unlike Capclave people were finding the con suite.
(Although MaltCon is no fun virtually. Let's hope for next year...)
The Philcon discord is open! Go to philcon.org and head over.
There's no overall registration for the con, but you do need to register for specific sections (for attendance tracking).
All sessions will be in Zoom except for the moderated media discussion, which will be on Discord. Like Balticon, Philcon is using Zoom webinar, so everything should be straightforward at this point.
I wish I was in Cherry Hill, but this will do as a substitute! Join me at 7pm tonight in the Discord for a moderated Star Wars discussion.
And in sad news, assessment of the damage to Arecibo has led to three independent firms recommending the demolition of the dish.
The structure has become so unstable that the risk to human life of trying to repair it is unacceptably high.
The rest of the observatory will stay in use, primarily for educational purposes.
This is very sad news, but not at all unexpected.
First there was phosphine on Venus. Then there wasn't. Now there is again, because science.
The real answer seems to be yes, but not as much as we first thought. Now, if they're wrong, that doesn't mean there isn't life there, just that we still haven't found evidence.
It's all just part of the scientific process. To be sure, we are going to need to send some robots there and do some closer up analysis. The Indian Space Research Organization has a mission in planning stages and could probably be talked into carrying the needed instruments. In 2025...
So, this is last minute notice, but Philcon is virtual this weekend and I got roped into participating.
The con is free but they're asking for donations to cover the Zoom account and other costs. Registration is not needed. Go to Philcon's website for details and sign up for their discount.
Here's my schedule.
Friday, 7pm: Discord #Media Discussion : Star Wars (I'll be moderating and keeping things moving).
Saturday, 11:30am: What We Owe Each Other: Philosophy in SF&F Media (Moderator)
Saturday, 1pm: Writing for Aliens: Cities Without Stairs?
Saturday, 4pm: Creating More Inclusive Games
Sunday, 2:30pm: Writing Branching Narratives for Game Play (Moderator).
There's also some really interesting science programming to check out this year! For those who have never made it to the world's oldest science fiction con, here's an opportunity to find out what it's all about.
The word "boring" is not one we generally associate with manned spaceflight launches; especially those of us old enough to remember Challenger.
(Most of us will never forget).
But it was a good adjective to describe the stunningly routine yet historic launch of Crew Dragon to the ISS on its first official crew rotation mission.
Four astronauts are now in orbit on their way to the ISS, with docking planned at 11pm ET tonight. They are Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Soichi Noguchi. Hopkins was mission commander.
All four are looking forward to a six-month rotation. Glover will be the first Black astronaut to do a full rotation on the ISS.
When space launches become "boring" then we start to enter the next era of exploration.
Just got edits back for a story that is going to appear in the very first Other Worlds Ink anthology, Fix The World.
The anthology won't be released for a while yet, but it's looking pretty good. And very queer ;).
Other than that, no real news. Hoping that the world will start to improve now.
(Oh and Apple, did you have to move all the buttons in Mail).
This is a good week for planet gazing. If you have a decent scope you can even see Pluto.
Jupiter and Saturn are hanging out in the southwestern sky in the evenings. Venus and Mercury are up just before dawn, close to the sun. And Mars is in conjunction with Uranus and Neptune.
Def. time to get the telescope and the kids. (Just be careful with that predawn viewing).
NASA has put its stamp of approval on SpaceX's crew Dragon system.
This means Dragon is now the first NASA-certified system since the space shuttle and the first to be managed entirely by a private company.
The next manned Dragon flight is scheduled, weather permitting, for November 14.
I have a glow in the dark shirt. In fact, I'm wearing it right now (although it's getting kind of worn).
It depicts three wolves howling at the moon, but the real moon of course doesn't glow in the dark.
There's a moon in the solar system, however, that might just do that.
And it is, surprise surprise, Europa.
Lab experiments have indicated that the heavy radiation from Jupiter likely interacts with the surface and thin atmosphere in a way that makes the moon, yes, glow in the dark.
This is actually important, as we might be able to analyze the glow and establish things about the surface composition before we hopefully send a probe to land on the icy moon.
Another major support cable failed at the Arecibo dish this week, setting back the timeline for repairs and making it even more likely that the storied facility will not, in fact, reopen.
The cable appears to have snapped because of the added strain from the earlier failure in August. Repairs were supposed to start tomorrow.
Hopefully, despite this setback, the observatory can be repaired as it's currently part of our planetary defense system, but looking towards a replacement for Arecibo may be even more critical.
It's no secret Voyager is my least favorite Trek series (to be fair, I haven't seen either Picard or Lower Decks yet).
But it's still very cool that physicists designing "microswimmers," a kind of nanobot that can swim on its own using chemical reactions, decided to do, well.
This.
Yeah. They could have made any shape they wanted...
...and they went with Voyager.
Come on, guys, why not the Enterprise?
Fast radio bursts have remained a mystery for a while, with some people even saying ALIENS.
We finally know what causes at least some of these rare phenomenon. FRB 200428 is the first fast radio burst source to be identified in the Milky Way, which means it's close enough to trace back to its source.
Turns out the culprit is a particular kind of dead star called a "magnetar." Magnetars form after the collapse of huge supergiant stars. They're a kind of neutron star which produces an intense magnetic field. FRB 200428 appears to come from the imminent location of SGR 1935+2154.
However, other magnetars have not been shown to create these bursts, so there's clearly another factor at play here. And not every astronomer is convinced it explains all FRBs.
The theory as to how magnetars create FRBs? Because of their field, they create bursts of X-Rays. If there happens to be a cloud of material of certain thickness, those X-rays might be converted to radio waves.
It's not aliens, sorry. (But repeating FRBs caused by magnetars might well be helpful to a star spanning civilization...as navigational beacons).
We just celebrated 20 years of continuous occupation of space...
...most of it in a station that was designed to last 15. The stubborn leak on the ISS is a symptom; the station is seriously showing its age. The ISS is still safe and might even last another 10 to 15 years, but building its replacement is becoming more urgent.
There's two roads being taken. The first is to Theseus' boat the ISS. The ISS has always been a modular station, and the idea is to add new modules and then remove old ones, or separate the new modules so they can orbit on their own. Axiom Space already has a contract for the first of these, which will apparently include a glass "Earth Observatory" from which astronauts will be able to watch their home world. Bigelow has already added an inflatable module which is used only for storage, and has now designed one that's not much smaller than my apartment...a lot of square footage for space, especially as in space you can use all the surface area.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin has decided to abandon the ISS altogether and simply start building their own station, eventually working towards full space habitats with spin gravity and the works.
Either way, the ultimate fate of the ISS is going to be a controlled deorbit with the station being intentionally burned up in the atmosphere.
Except for any bits that we choose to keep up there and eventually put in a museum.
If you haven't already, that is.
It's kind of surreal to be sitting at home on election day and not going out to vote, but I already took care of it a couple of weeks ago.
My brain is telling me there's something I'm supposed to be doing.
I hope the lines won't be too long for anyone out there. Wear a mask, get in and out quickly, but please vote.
And please sustain this effort, regardless of who wins. Our turnout has been shamefully low for years. Let's fix that.
...apparently five million years ago there was a honey badger wandering around the African savannah and terrorizing everyone.
Up to and including lions.
It wasn't even as big as modern honey badgers.
What is it about honey badgers that's so scary?
Not a huge amount of news except Happy Halloween! (and check out the Twitter hashtag #SFWAHalloween tomorrow at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern to see a whole bunch of science fiction writers in costume, and maybe some other creepy stuff too).
Also, please, please wear a mask so we can actually see each other sooner rather than later. Things are going to be tough this month and next.
I love how NASA uses art for outreach (although not so much how they don't always credit the artists). In fact I'm advocating for a panel on it for next year's WorldCon.
And it being Halloween, I thought I'd link to their Galaxy of Horrors page, which has nine free-to-download posters, three new for this year.
This stuff is just plain awesome. I particularly like Gamma Ray Ghouls.
...the phosphine thing on Venus turned out to be an artifact of the experiment. Which doesn't completely remove the possibility, but...
However, we have now discovered a molecule called cyclopropenylidene in Titan's atmosphere. This is a complex carbon and hydrogen molecule that may be a precursor to organic compounds. Titan has long been considered a possible home for simple life.
Oh, and Perseverance is halfway to Mars.
The major announcement about the moon that NASA has been teasing is, indeed, a big one.
SOFIA, a telescope attached to a modified Boeing 747, has confirmed that not only is there water on the moon but yes, it is water, H2O, not any related molecule.
By flying at 43,000 feet it eliminates false positives created by water vapor in the atmosphere...going above the clouds removes most of this. Water has a very distinct molecular signature.
The weird thing is this water is sitting around on the lunar surface (there's not a lot of it), where we thought water wouldn't stay stable.
The moon is still a desert, but it's a bit wetter than we thought.
I was laughing at the video of my trainer's barn cat, Oliver, basically getting his butt handed to him by a young snake. Specifically, a juvenile black racer. It ended with him nonchalantly walking away from the snake (no doubt with multiple puncture holes) and pretending he had given up of his own accord.
He's not related to Olive, no r, the cat who presented her owners with a live juvenile black racer...
...with two heads. Presumably the heads didn't get on well enough for this snake to win the battle.
The snake is now at a wildlife rehab center and will probably live out its days as a zoo oddity (two headed snakes tend not to survive in the wild).
Because 2020 had to have two headed snakes as well as murder hornets.
All's quiet on this front. I honestly don't have any updates except that I wish it would make up its mind whether it's summer or fall already.
Working on some short fiction stuff right now, but I'm not going into details. Yet *grin*.
I've been to the desert southwest. There are a surprising number of trees, shrubs, and bushes there.
Now AI has been taking a look at a different desert, the Sahara. They found hundreds of million trees in the study area of 1.3 million km2. And they were only counting the ones more than 3m2 in crown size.
Trees in dryland areas have never been extensively studied and their role in climate is unknown. But there appear to be a lot of them.
Deserts are not empty, people.
We have a new DNA editing tool, which allows for larger changes than CRISPR.
This might allow us to do some very interesting things with bacteria, and allow us to insert entire genes into GMO animals and plants (and even, eventually, humans).
The tool is called CRISPR-Cas3, officially...
...but some people are calling it Pac-Man, because of course they are.
...like where the leak is on the ISS.
Yes, they found it.
And they found it by releasing tea leaves into the affected chamber.
The leak has now been patched.
And what did they use to patch it?
Kapton tape, which is a brand of electrical tape designed for extreme environments.
Not quite duct tape, but...
...the Earth won't be destroyed by an asteroid on election day. Yes, there's an asteroid with a tiny chance of hitting us the day before.
It's the size of a refrigerator and won't even make a decent fireball.
(I would have liked a decent election day fireball, dangit).
The Friar's Tale is officially released and now also available in paperback!
Normally I'd have signed copies for sale, but the logistics of doing so out of my apartment are prohibitive (mostly because of sales tax issues with some states). Hopefully there will be cons again some time next year.
That's pretty much all the news I have right now. I'm going to be hanging out at virtual Capclave this weekend, but really wish I was heading for the hotel right now. Wear masks, please, so we can get this thing under control!
I stumbled across a conspiracy theory that went, amongst other directions, to this:
We're living in a simulation, and in 2012, it crashed, and we got moved to another instance. And that's why everything has been worse.
Another variant has that the universe was destroyed in 2012 and we were rescued...to live in a simulation. (I'm reminded of a book I read in which a simulated universe was crashing and because of legal rules the only way to get all the users out and into the real world was to kill everyone...)
The idea that the universe is a computer simulation circulates every so often. But do we? How would we know?
And would it make any difference?
Scientists now say the odds are even. There is literally a 50/50 chance we're living in a simulation. One argument is that if it's possible to simulate the universe, it's more likely we're in the simulation, not the original.
And one way we might know is that if we ever create our own simulated universe with conscious beings inside, we're probably the original.
I'd argue it doesn't make much difference. Well, except it might be an argument in favor of polytheism. Of a sort.
Maybe 2020 is the year the professor took a sabbatical and left their research assistants in charge...
Toughest creatures on Earth, it seems. They can survive in a vacuum, they are essentially immune to radiation, and for their new trick?
They can handle levels of UV that are generally used to kill things. Ya know, like certain annoying viruses that just won't go away.
Researchers hit specimens with a germicidal UV, and discovered that while most tardigrades did die, one species seemed highly resistant.
And the way they do it might be useful to humans. They have fluorescent pigment under their skin that transforms UV into harmless blue light. Could this be used to make a new sunscreen for humans? Or maybe UV resistant clothing? Maybe!
(It's so not going to be cockroaches that are the last living beings on Earth before it's swallowed by the sun...)
There's probably an entire litter of plotbunnies in here somewhere.
Apep is a Wolf-Rayet binary system, which means it's about to go supernova. Any time now. It produces beautiful dust plumes that, bizarrely, move slower than the stellar wind than they're pushing out.
It's rapidly rotating.
When it does go it's going to produce a long gamma ray burst. Thankfully, not pointed in our direction (a gamma ray burst of that strength could destroy the Earth's ozone layer and essentially render Earth uninhabitable).
But we might be able to observe it.
I don't trust that thing, though...
So, Mars is in opposition tomorrow.
This means it's easier to see than ever (this happens about every two years). It was at its closest last week, but opposition is a great time to get some photos if you have the right equipment.
Or just wave to the rovers.
Don't forget to preorder your copy of The Friar's Tale
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KHRXW6Z
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1046581
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-friars-tale-jennifer-r-povey/1137838574
Also, don't forget to preorder your copy of The Phantom Games
The release date is October 10, anniversary of the first Tokyo Games. In addition to 16 stories which either feature the Olympics or which are set in or based around characters from Japan, it also contains personal essays on how to handle these difficult times. I am very glad this anthology has still been released and give a lot of kudos to the publisher.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Phantom-Games-Dimensions-2020-ebook/dp/B08KDMLFRL
The JWST, now scheduled to launch next October (thank you, coronavirus, not) appears to have passed the key environmental launch test.
This means that the observatory was put through a simulation of the exact conditions that it will face when launched on an Ariane 5 rocket.
Given how much money and work has gone into this thing, NASA and ESA are taking every precaution to ensure that the launch will be a success.
(I'm pretty sure the mirrors work too...)
...is CRISPR, the gene editing tool biology or is it chemistry.
The Nobel committee, decided it was, in fact, the latter, awarding this year's Chemistry prize to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna for developing the tool. (This is the first time the prize has been jointly awarded to two women).
My dad once said that chemistry as a discipline would slowly be eroded away (we were talking about careers, before I got pushed out of science for having dyspraxia...yes, I'm still mad about it) with parts going to biology and parts to physics.
What I think this really means is that we need to start viewing science holistically. Understanding that it overlaps.
And we're in the age of biotech...
This year, the prize was split.
One half went to Sir Roger Penrose for doing the math that demonstrates that black holes should exist and how stars collapse into them.
The other half went to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez, for essentially proving that the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy really does exist.
Because apparently the committee this year thinks (rightly) that black holes are indeed really cool.
Okay, so it's now available for preorder. The release date is October 16 (paperbacks will be available then).
Here's your links:
Barnes & Noble to come.
If you are a book blogger or regular reviewer and would like to request an eARC, please drop me an email at poveyjennifer (at) gmail.com.
A new theory says that a nearby supernova may have been responsible for the Ice Age during the Pleistocene.
The theory is that the elevated cosmic rays caused by the supernova increased cloud coverage on Earth and cooled the planet.
Maybe we should hope for Betelgeuse to toss us a global warming lifeline?
No, it's not a new Saturday morning cartoon. It's a citizen scientist project NASA is putting together to help analyze TESS data.
If you're bored at home, check it out. If you're homeschooling, older kids will probably enjoy it too! And that name...that name...
Somebody is bored at home ;).
So, apparently the ISS astronauts got bourbon balls. In space. Now I want some.
(Actually with the day I'm having I'll just take the bourbon, thanks).
So, here's a question:
How does alcohol affect people in microgravity? It's not an experiment we can really do as drunkenness on the ISS would be dangerous. But if we start building space hotels...
I get launch windows.
But did you have to schedule a crewed launch for Halloween, when Halloween is also a blue moon? In 2020?
I know, I should be past superstition, but I can't quite turn it off, ya know.
(In all seriousness, I hope the flight goes well, or at least better than the launch attempts this week...weather has not been cooperative).
Fictional time travel has all kind of rules, but in the majority of cases the conflict comes from the travelers seeking to avoid (or cause, or stop somebody else from causing) a paradox.
There's another set of rules, though, and those say that the timeline will repair itself. There's two approaches to this.
One says that if you try to shoot Hitler, your gun will jam. That is to say, the universe won't "let" you commit the act which would cause the paradox.
The other says that if you shoot Hitler he will simply be replaced.
And the latter may have support in science based on math done by an Australian student named Germain Tobar.
Tobar's theory is that time travelers can do whatever they want...but it will also be futile. If somebody from 2100 travels back in time and tries to stop the spread of COVID-19, all they will do is change how it spreads.
Which doesn't make for nearly as much conflict in fiction unless you make your characters ignorant of the real rules.
But if time travel is ever invented, this would explain why nothing ever changes, wouldn't it.
So...oops! I should have known such a perfect title for a Robin Hood book as Wolfshead would, in fact, be taken...but I looked.
My wonderful cover artist is just better at looking. So, the new title is The Friar's Tale. And we have a cover!
We don't have a release date because I'm wary of committing to anything when the postal service is the way it is and I don't release without checking the print proof, which is on its way to me right now!
But watch this space for an announcement when I can commit!
We invented stainless steel in the early 19th century...
...right?
Wrong!
In Persia, somebody managed to make it in the 11th century.
Because people in the past were so much smarter and more knowledgable than we think.
...kind of.
Building materials are kind of tough to find on Mars. We can't use concrete or bricks because, well, there's not going to be enough water. We can't just transport stuff, because it's too expensive.
Urea might be usable to make concrete, but scientists have a better idea.
Insect shells.
Chitin! A mixture of chitin and Martian soil, combined with 3D printing, makes a substance that's concrete-like but doesn't need much water to make.
It's also a primary component of fish scales, crustacean shells, etc.
Insects could be a viable protein source for Martian colonists, which would produce chitin for building as a byproduct. (Ugh? Most human cultures do eat bugs and locusts are kosher, people...)
So now I have to think about the fact that this substance, as best as we can simulate it, is kind of...reddish-pink. That's the color of unpainted buildings on Mars.
Confession: I still haven't seen the Watchmen series, which apparently did a better job of catching the spirit of the classic graphic novel than the movie.
But a lot of people have been...and that's presumably part of why it did so well at the Emmys.
It was nominated in 5 categories and presented three of six nominees for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.
It won:
Outstanding Limited Series
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II)
Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series or Movie (Damon Lindelof and Cord Jefferson)
It didn't do the best, though, Canadian comedy series Schitt's Creek just completely swept the comedy awards. That title alone...
Just for fun.
Astronomers just discovered a nice little planet, about the same size as Earth...
...and it's orbit is 3.14 days. It's called K2-315b, but it's the Pi Planet.
Oh, and it's surface temperature?
About 350 degrees Fahrenheit. A temperature that should be familiar to all cooks.
I figured we all needed some pi(e) today!
Not much to report. Talking to my cover artist about Wolfshead. I'm not setting a release date just yet, but I'm hoping to get it out sooner rather than later so I can then focus on edits on The Secret History of Victor Prince.
Hoping to have more news soon!
...but it turns out potatoes don't grow too too well in simulated Martian soil. They grow, but they don't exactly produce a great crop.
What does?
Kale, which actually preferred it to Earth soil. And tomatoes, which came out very sweet.
Potatoes, though, are kind of a vital crop to colonization plans. Personally, I'd be going on a trip to Peru to see if any of their amazing variety of heritage taters do any better.
They're also looking at soybeans, but can we absolutely be sure nobody on Mars will develop a soy allergy?
I've kinda seen this movie.
Scientists have come up with a way to create infertile male animals that then can be convinced to produce...somebody else's sperm.
This could be used to, for example, duplicate a prize bull in another country. It could also be used to breed endangered species.
But is it ethical? My worry is a simple one:
If a sire is carrying an unknown defective gene that shows up three generations out, do we want to breed him that much. To understand what I mean, look up the Quarter Horse stallion Impressive.
I'm iffy about anything that greatly expands the reproductive capability of a single animal.
If you find an ancient clay pot or bowl, scientists at UC Berkeley have a simple request:
Don't clean it.
Scientists want these pots intact. Based off of an experiment done with modern cookware made in ancient style, an old cooking pot holds the record of not just the last meal cooked in it, but past meals too. Cooks call the way unglazed pots and cast iron hold the "memory" of previous meals "seasoning."
We now know you can get some pretty accurate information about how people in the past cooked and ate and just how old grandma's recipe might actually be...
We may even be able to use this to reconstruct recipes that have been lost.
Yum.
Oh, good. It's lunch time.
Venus is not exactly the place one might think to look for extraterrestrial life, given how hostile it is not only to terrestrial lifeforms, but to our technology. We haven't explored Venus as much as Mars because it eats robots.
Yet, scientists have found an unexpectedly high level of phosphine at levels in the hellworld's atmosphere that might be habitable...with a lot of work. (Derek Kunsken's novel The House of Styx goes into what life on Venus might be like in fascinating detail).
This level of phosphine only has one explanation that we know of: Life.
However, given how crazy Venus is, there may be an explanation that we don't know of. Even that, though, would tell us things about the universe we don't yet understand.
Oh, and you don't want to get close to this stuff. It's lethally toxic, not to mention vile smelling.
Venus probably hates us.
Don't forget the New Bristol kickstarter. We need your pledges to make this thing happen!
I'm anticipating Wolfshead will be released by the end of the month, but don't want to commit to a date given the pandemic and everything else. I then have to deal with edits on The Secret History of Victor Prince.
The next big project after that is Kyx, which has grown multiple...sequels is the wrong word, but I don't have a right word for it. Fun with aliens!
We don't generally think of woodpeckers as being particularly, well, sophisticated creatures.
But acorn woodpeckers, I tell you.
These birds create "granaries" that then house multiple breeding pairs. Needless to say, these become valuable.
Valuable enough to throw battle royales over. No kidding.
The war can last several days and involves same sex coalitions of related birds who may have been building their strength for years.
Oh, and even better? All the birds in the area that aren't competing come watch. It's like bird territory football. With occasional fatalities. Maybe they're looking for strong birds to ask to join their own mating groups?
Woodpeckers. Seriously.
Hummingbirds are adorable.
They also have such a fast metabolism that they can't ever stop eating. Because of this, the only way they can survive is to literally hibernate every night! They lower their body temperature and enter torpor.
In fact, some of them drop their temperature by as much as 33 degrees celsius. Only true hibernators go lower.
And then they wake up and start raiding everyone's nectar. They're just plain amazing little things.
The moon is...rusting. Very slowly, but it's starting to turn slightly red.
What's going on is that hematite is forming on the moon's surface, especially at the poles. Here's the thing?
For rust, you have to have iron, water, and oxygen. The moon has iron, but very little water and no oxygen.
So, how the heck is the moon rusting?
The answer lies in the Earth's magnetosphere, which has a long tail that allows traces of oxygen, just tiny amounts, to reach the Earth. To prove this theory, we need to take a look at the far side of the moon; there should not be any rust there.
(And no, the moon won't turn all the way red, at least not any time soon...)
We know how a solar system looks, vaguely. When a star is young, a protoplanetary disk forms around it that eventually clumps into planets. The disk is flat because of how momentum works, and it spins in the same direction, which is why all of our planets orbit the same way....the same direction their host star happens to spin.
We have found planets in retrograde orbits, in fact they're fairly common. The theory is that they're caused by near collisions between large planets that causes the planet's orbit to flip. Another thing which could cause this would be the capture of a "rogue" or nomad planet.
But the protoplanetary disk around GW Orionis is kind of weird...and it's weird because there are three stars.
GW Orionis has three disks, and one of them is, well, tilted. This could result in the eventual formation of planets that aren't level with the normal solar system, but orbit at an angle to it. In our system the largest tilt is Pluto, at 17 degrees, but that could be an Oort Cloud thing. Of the large planets, the largest orbital tilt is seven degrees...and that, perhaps interestingly, is Earth.
But we've also found large planets in highly tilted orbits close in (which GW Orionis' disks appear to be leading to), in orbits that more closely resemble those of comets...
Worldbuilders take note.
Not sure what I'd do with it, but some scientists managed to get small boats to float upside down in levitating liquid.
It's all done with vertical vibration. It's a bit of a party trick, but it could have some industrial applications in the first place.
But of course I'm now thinking of upside-down skyships and my mind goes straight to aether pirates because it's me.
So, it turns out that the "highland wild dogs" in part of Papua New Guinea are...
...a population of the New Guinea Singing Dog, which was thought to be extinct in the wild. The population seems to be healthy and genetically diverse.
This is absolutely awesome news and also they're, well...
...adorable.
Adorable little yellow foxy-dogs!
There's a galactic collision in our future. We've known for a while that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is going to collide with Andromeda.
The guess is that this will take place in about 4.5 billion years, and the prediction is that the two galaxies will merge into one hyper galaxy.
Earth won't be habitable by that point, but the solar system will survive...individual stars are not going to hit each other, just move around each other into a new configuration.
So, 4.5 billion years.
Or...tomorrow. See, it turns out galaxies are a lot larger than we thought. Specifically, galaxies have halos. Think of them as the galaxy's equivalent of the solar system's Oort cloud, except instead of being lots of small objects, they're shells of plasma.
And the halos of the two galaxies are already starting to touch. What this means for us? Pretty much nothing, it's just some cool science.
We'll eventually be able to see the halos of other galaxies. Except one...
...we have no technology current or in the works that will allow us to see our own galactic halo.
Okay, confession time: I love and adore maps.
I just love maps.
And this is too much fun not to play with.
You can enter a city name then click on various times in the past to see how that point on the Earth's surface has moved.
Got bored kids you're homeschooling? This bored adult thinks they might well enjoy this...
NASA is looking for more volunteers for a project studying planet formation.
It's called Disk Detectives, and all you have to do is watch videos and help determine whether they show planetary disks. It just went to 2.0, so they have more images...but in the first version, people discovered brown dwarfs and a new kind of protoplanetary disks.
Oh, and it's a perfect project to involve kids with if you're homeschooling; the videos are only about ten seconds long so an attention span is not needed ;).
First, a kickstarter!
New Bristol is a classic superhero setting for Savage Worlds.
We're working up an entire city for GMs who want to be able to run a superhero campaign in a unique, well-fleshed-out urban area that's intended to be a character in its own right. Aliens! Weirdness!
The project lead is Andrew J. Lucas, who I worked with on Dark Hold and some other projects. It's going to be an amazing book!
Second, the paperback for Triangulation: Extinction is in the works, but you can get the Kindle copy here.
Third, I have an update on "Excalibur 2020: Warriors of Olympia." This was supposed to tie in to the Tokyo Olympics (oops. Curse you, COVID!), but will now be released to coincide with the anthology of the first Tokyo Olympics, which took place in October of 1964.
The book is, to my knowledge, coming together well, and I'm going to be doing an author interview with the publisher some time around publication.
Scientists used virtual reality to trick people into thinking they had swapped bodies with a friend.
They demonstrated that people have memory issues unless they can adapt to the new body...which included acting like the person who's body they were in.
Weird, huh?
Or rather, they acted and adjusted their personality to match how they saw their friend.
The experiment has implications for therapy for depersonalization disorder.
It might also say something about how VR avatars might affect us. Could we use "body swapping" to help us learn skills? What is the impact on our personality if we perceive ourselves as an elf or a dwarf? Or a different gender? Would VR therapy help trans people? Would it help cis people better understand trans people? Could we use VR 'body swapping' to help architects see the world from a child's eye view and thus produce better design that's more friendly to children, which is an issue?
And would it be good for all of us to step into the shoes of our friends for a while?
If all goes well, the first crewed voyage of Boeing's Starliner (which has been developed under a veil of secrecy) to the ISS will happen some time in 2021, and the third astronaut has now been named.
Unless something changes, the three astronauts who will take the trip are Josh Cassada, Sunita Williams, and Jeanette Epps.
Assuming this lineup doesn't change, mission commander will almost certainly be Williams as her two companions will be taking their first flights. Sunita Williams has spent 322 days on the ISS, some of them in command.
I wish I knew more about the setup and how it differs from the Dragon. I'm particularly interested in the cockpit design...
Apparently, a 5-meter Triassic ichthyosaur tried to eat a 4-meter Triassic thalattosaur.
This did not end well for either. The unique fossil was found in 2010 in southwestern China. The prey's tail was found a short distance away.
And yeah, all I can think is kaiju fight.
Somebody bit off far more than he could chew...
I was watching this year's Indianapolis 500, and there were several incidents, including one car's wheel spontaneously catching fire (presumably a bizarre brake malfunction).
And four laps from the end, Spencer Pigot slammed into the wall, spun all the way cross the track and hit the pit road in barrier. Hard.
I've seen more spectacular crashes; he didn't go airborne. But I haven't seen many harder hits.
Ten years ago, even five years ago, we'd probably be holding a funeral.
Spencer Pigot got out of the car with minimal assistance and while he spent the evening in the hospital, he was discharged within a few hours.
Motor racing has gotten safer. It's still dangerous, but it's gotten so much safer. Not just for drivers, either (injuries and even deaths of spectators were known before catch fences were introduced in 1973, the year I was born).
But this crash gave me flashbacks to the loss of Ayrton Senna. If we had had SAFER barriers and tire attenuators in 1994...
Not much going on this week. (Other than D&D craziness. Dragons! Lots of dragons!)
I'm still working on various projects, but have nothing in the direct pipeline until I get through the edits on Wolfshead.
It's...possible.
Scientists have been performing models to explain the Oort Cloud for years with no success.
A new model comes closest...and that model indicates that the solar system was once a binary system, with a second sun about the same size as Sol, about 1,000 AUs away.
If so, what happened to it?
Simple: It wasn't held tightly enough gravitationally (or vice versa) and wandered off to hang out somewhere else in the galaxy. This is called dissociation, and it's not uncommon for "wide" binary systems, where the stars are more than 800 AUs apart.
It may even have left something behind; if Planet Nine is real, then planetary formation theories don't explain a gas giant that far out. Capture does...and it's possible that our sun stole the planet as Sol Two left.
So, would Earth still be habitable if it had stuck around?
The answer is most likely, and perhaps surprisingly, yes. Unless the other star was much brighter than Sol (which seems unlikely at the same mass), Sol's habitable zone would be more or less the same.
But, life's evolution...and certainly the culture of any sentient species on this alternate Earth...would likely have been altered by having a second sun.
I'm now speculating. This could be quite the rabbit hole...
Watch out - there's a solar storm on the way!
Specifically, there's a CME which will strike Earth a glancing blow some time on Thursday night, triggering a G 1 geomagnetic storm. It might cause fluctuations in the power grid or a brief interruption in satellite communications.
(No, it won't cause any huge problems).
Solar weather is something that a high tech civilization has to worry about. NOAA has various categories. G 1 is the lowest of geomagnetic storm. The highest, G 5, might cause blackouts, damage power grid components, degrade satellite navigation for a few days and block high frequency radio. It might also damage satellites or cause them to temporarily go out of communication. We don't want a G 5...although we've been designing systems to take it for years.
Oh, and geomagnetic storms can confuse animals that use the magnetic field for navigation.
The upside is that we might see auroras as far south as Maine!
(And yes, this is all normal. We're coming out of a solar minimum, so we haven't had one in a while, but it's just, ya know. Weather)
Possibly:
Beds.
In Border Cave, which was occupied over 200,000 years ago, we've found that they were making beds from a mixture of grass and ash. And the ash was clearly intentional (perhaps a deterrent for fleas or bed bugs?). Oh, and they also added camphor to it, which also repels insects.
Obviously, we couldn't use ash in our beds until we invented fire, but were we making simpler beds before then? Realizing camphor scared off bugs can't have been overnight.
But yeah.
Beds.
Possibly we were making them when we were still apes...
We talk a lot about putting men on the moon. But if we actually colonize Earth's airless satellite, we won't have men on the moon.
We'll have men (and all other genders) in the moon. It turns out that the moon likely has huge lava tubes...large enough to build entire cities in them.
Building underground is a no brainer when you are trying to colonize a world with no atmosphere or magnetosphere. These lava tubes, some of which are 3,000 feet in diameter and longer than 40k would contain settlements that ran along the tube, likely with some kind of transit system (possibly maglev) in the center. Cities would spread entirely longitudinally.
Visitors from Earth would probably find the geometry as difficult to start with as the gravity.
But if we colonize the moon, that's how we'll almost certainly do it.
The latest Triangulation anthology, "Extinction" is now available in ebook format! It contains my story "As Much As The Crows."
You can get a Kindle copy here. As always, if you buy and read it please write a review!
Wolfshead is back from my editor, I'm going to tackle it when I'm a little more caught up on short fiction books. The Secret History of Victor Prince is in beta.
I'm behind, but catching up.
There are quite a few upset scientists right now. What was probably delayed damage from Isaiah caused a cable to snap at Arecibo, significantly damaging the big dish.
Thankfully, it happened in the middle of the night and there were no staff anywhere in the area. The telescope is down for at least two weeks...but likely quite a lot longer.
And it might not even come back...the NSF has been wanting to divert funding as newer and better equipment comes online. That would truly be the end of an era.
...okay, so this is from 2015, but it's too cool anyway.
Not Sharknado, but...
Sharks are pretty tough fishes and apparently don't mind hanging out in active volcanoes. Are they enjoying some kind of weird shark spa day?
We still don't know. What we do know is the following:
Sorry, James S.A. Corey...science just overtook you.
A key plot point is hauling ice to the rocky world of Ceres...
...except we just found sea salt on Ceres. Specifically, hydrohalite, which forms in seawater under low temperatures. This indicates the likely presence of a subsurface ocean, highly salty, on the dwarf planet.
If this is true, then Ceres would be a source of water and its biggest industry might well be desalination.
I am now envisioning some guy on the docks at Ceres selling tourists from earth little bottles of Ceres salt as a trashy souvenir.
(Is hydrohalite edible? Could Ceres also be the source of culinary salt in the belt? I need to do research!)
Possibly! Researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have taken carbon dioxide and water and used it to make...ethanol.
We use ethanol in a lot of things. Not just fuel.
Essentially, think of this as a kind of catalytic converter for factories, which takes the waste carbon dioxide and turns it into ethanol. It uses a bit of electricity, but not that much, and the system can be designed to run off peak.
Ethanol can then be used to fuel things which don't run well on electricity and in plastic production.
This could actually be awesome if it scales up.
First of all, the first draft of Kyx is done. This week I've been dealing with beta responses on Wolfshead and will be talking to my editor.
I'm looking for a beta reader (ideally another author I can trade with as I haven't done a beta in a while ;)) for The Secret History of Victor Prince. I'm specifically looking for somebody who lives in, or used to live in/around New York City.
Other than that, life is going on right now, much as it usually does.
Best Fancast
