NASA's Next Rover

If you recall, I posted the link to the online vote for the next Mars rover's name. The results are now in.

The rover will be named Perseverance.

Perseverance is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in July, and will land on Mars in February, 2021.

No doubt at least some of the public will fall in love with this one too.

I Have a Confession

I like spiders.

Okay, widows and recluses can stay well over there. But I like spiders. I think they are adorable and cute.

This makes me a weird person, but it's hard not to agree when you come across something like the peacock spider.

There are, yes, spider pictures down that link, so Kevin, don't go there ;).

Seriously, though, peacock spiders are adorable and how did I not know about them before?

Friday Updates

A quiet week. I don't actually have any news (sadly, I suspect everyone wants a trace of good news right now. I certainly do!)

A lot of people right now are stressed, bored, and scared. I am too. I'm continuing to work on the next book, hoping to get it through another round of edits this week and then off to my editor (who is hopefully healthy) shortly. This was supposed to be launched at Balticon, so there's a part of me that wants to hold off. But we all need entertainment right now.

The Next Thing...

...to be banned on the Olympics.

It's this ankle exoskeleton that can increase running speed by 10% and also boost endurance.

While elite athletes will certainly be told nope, for the rest of us, these kinds of "power boots" might be used for recreation and even commuting to work instead of a bicycle.

How about editing your own genetic code?

If you're a squid, that's just part of life. We don't know why they keep editing their RNA so it varies in different parts of the body. But we know they can do it, and if we can learn the trick it might be used to treat various neurological conditions and other genetic diseases, without the risk of germline genetic engineering.

How Many Planets Anyway?

How about, over 300? That's the number of trans-Neptunian objects we're up to, and if Pluto's a planet, then so are they.

Yeah.

Every single one.

I'm thinking of poking around and doing some research into how we ended up there, how there are so many relatively large objects in the outer system.

I'm sure we know, but I need to do the research to understand it.

NASCAR goes VR

So, given the plague, it's not safe for NASCAR to run races.

But the show must go on. With a huge fan base and frustrated drivers, the series resorted to an unusual measure. Until social distancing measures are relaxed enough for races to run, they will be running races...

...in virtual reality.

(Running spectator-free was presumably considered and dismissed because of travel distances).

The eNASCAR iRacing Professional Invitational series will run until things return to normal, with the normal tracks. And the majority of the drivers did just fine. iRacing is not a video game, it's a full simulator of NASCAR that many drivers use to train when the weather isn't cooperative, or to get around practice limits.

Personally, I would love to see this become an annual tradition; except that instead of slavishly copying the real tracks, they should do weird shit like historic tracks, showing everyone what woul happen if a restrictor plate course was run without a restrictor plate. Maybe they could run some of the F1 courses. The possibilities are endless.

In the mean time, some of us can get some of our sports fix, and there were moments it was possible to forget it wasn't real.

Biggest difference?

Much more aggressive driving.

Friday Update

Not a very cheery Friday update, unfortunately.

Due to the plague, both RavenCon and Balticon have been canceled. Balticon may be doing a virtual convention. Neither con is able to reschedule.

AwesomeCon has yet to be canceled, but it's almost certain they won't be allowed to go ahead. I am hoping they will be able to reschedule for later in the year.

I am planning on recording some readings at some point.

Also if you are quarantined and/or furloughed and thus desperate for reading material and broke, hit me up. I'll gladly send out free books, although I do ask for a review if you are up to giving one (not a requirement!).

We will get through this.

Wow - Mammoths!

Or rather, their bones. Check this out.

Circles of mammoth bones are apparently a thing in Siberia, but this one is particularly big and spectacular.

Nobody seems to know exactly what they were built for, but a reasonable guess is that they may, in fact, have been for food storage.

Or, of course, ritual purposes, because everything we don't understand is for ritual purposes.

More science from NASA

A lot of science is being delayed by the plague, but NASA has announced the finalists for the next wave of small probe missions.

https://spacenews.com/nasa-selects-finalists-for-next-small-astrophysics-mission/

There are four candidate missions, all of which will explore different areas of astrophysics, but the focus appears to be fairly heavily on gamma rays right now.

Steampunk on Venus

So, check this out.

Apparently, the reason why none of our probes/rovers have ever survived on Venus is because the atmosphere destroys electronics.

Which means?

Steampunk.

The new Venus rover NASA is working on is going to be an automaton. Clockwork. I love it. It's a major lesson in technology for environment.

(And covered in plotbunnies).

Awww! It''s...

...the world's smallest dinosaur.

It was an itty bitty insectivore the size of a small hummingbird. I'm imagining it scurrying around, completely ignored by T-Rex and the other giants. It would probably have filled the same evolutionary niche now filled by the smallest of mammals: Shrews.

Friday Updates

Guess who's sick.

No, it's not COVID-19, it's the cold I thought I'd managed to avoid. Yesterday I thought it was allergies.

Isolating myself until I feel better so as not to add to the panic. So...

...a lot of us are staying home more, and I'd like to just remind everyone that BOOKS are a great way to stay sane if stuck indoors.

From my own offerings, for two different situations:

1. If reading about fictional plagues helps you deal with the real one?

Amazon link

If the LAST thing you want to do is read about plagues, then how about:

It's set *after* we recover from a ton of as-yet-not-fully-explained disasters, so...

Amazon link

I've said this before...

...and I'm going to say it again, and right now it's particularly important.

Americans, the Daily Mail is a rag. It is a tabloid of the worst kind. It is at least as bad as the New York Post. At least.

I'm saying this right now, because in the last couple of weeks, this rag has reported that we're all gonna die of Coronavirus (not that they're alone) and now they're saying SARS-CoV-2 came from:

Outer space.

Please stop believing the newspaper British entertainment folks have been known to deliberately leak misinformation to 'cause they'll run anything.

Color blind?

My stepfather is red-green color blind. He often has to ask somebody what color something really is.

Israeli researchers have come up with contact lenses...yes, lenses...that can give a color blind person something closer to what we consider normal vision.

Handy! (The link includes pictures to show the effect).

Lopsided pulsars

Check this out:

https://phys.org/news/2020-03-pulsating-star.html

The tl;dr:

Pulsars with a close orbiting binary companion may pulse only in one direction because of the gravity of the other star. It's been theorized, but now we know.

(Pulsars may be vital for interstellar navigation and a one-sided one may be particularly useful! You could use it to line up on...)

Landscape Photography

Curiosity just sent us the best picture of Mars yet.

Sorry it's so small, I can't get Blogger to enlarge. Try here.

Such a pretty planet!

Friday Update

First, I've signed a contract to publish another story in Daily Science Fiction. I'm not sure when it will appear, but will keep you posted (and you should all be subscribing to Daily Science Fiction).

Two new Goodreads reviews on Araña that I missed.

One called it "thought provoking and exciting" and a "perfect palate cleanser"

The other said it was "Lots of fun"

So, go get your copy. I'll also have copies at RavenCon assuming we aren't all hiding from a pandemic by that point (I'm certainly not changing plans ;)).

Did we find dinosaur DNA?

It's possible that we have actually identified dinosaur DNA in fossilized cartilage of a duckbilled dinosaur.

No, this doesn't make Jurassic Park possible, and even if it is DNA (which seems likely but has yet to be independently confirmed) we're probably not going to get a full sequence.

But even a few dinosaur genes will tell us something, especially about how they are related to modern birds. (Emus, anyone?)

Umm...are there spice worms on Mars?

Check that out. It sure as heck looks like a giant wormhole!

What it actually is is a lava tube 'skylight,' on the side of a volcano called Pavonis Mons. It's a place where a lava tube collapsed.

Still pretty neat, though!

RavenCon Guest List

I was asked to spread this far and wide (don't worry, it's not a coronavirus).

https://www.ravencon.com/activities/guests/

Our Author Guest of Honor this year is the wonderful Terry Brooks.

We have an amazing selection of guests in all fields and I happen to know there are some wonderful panels on the schedule (which isn't close to finalized yet).

I hope to see everyone in Williamsburg!

Dyson Spheres and Alien Megastructures

Remember Tabby's Star? Remember how some people seriously thought it was aliens?

That's all down to Freeman Dyson.

Dyson was born in England, but spent most of his working life at the Princeton University Institute for Advanced Study.

And he envisioned a high-tech civilization building a huge structure enclosing a star. The structure would harness 100% of the star's energy and provide a huge living area. You would presumably get in and out through some kind of lock.

This concept spread out through science fiction and became known as a Dyson sphere. Many people now use the term without even, in some cases, knowing it was named after a person.

But Freeman Dyson also had all kinds of other ideas.

He worked on the Orion concept (powering a spaceship with nuclear bombs). He suggested that the best solution to global warming is to, well, plant trees (except he suggested genetically modifying them).

And he did a lot of work on the interaction between light and matter, resolving the problem of quantum electrodynamics. On top of that he was a mathematical genius who had two mathematical tools named after him.

But he was beloved for his weird ideas which, in addition, to Dyson spheres included growing trees on comets as a habitat (did this inspire Niven's Integral Trees? One day I'll actually get to ask him).

He died on February 28 at the age of 96...after a long and no doubt highly fulfilling life. He's one of those scientists who had a major influence on science fiction.

I may just have to write a Dyson sphere story now.