Want a glowing houseplant?

Scientists have made petunias and roses glow quite brightly. Whether it's bright enough to light your living room is one thing, but mood lighting maybe?

Most of the work they've done has been with tobacco, but they've managed to create quite a decent amount of bioluminescence. And no, it doesn't hurt the plants.

Want a map of the moon?

You can get one right here.

The LOLA mission has finally completed its task of a comprehensive map of the moon, in detail. It will be used to guide further moon missions.

(If you do download the data, be aware there's a good bit of it).

I've talked to one of the scientists who did this. She made me excited about the moon again!

Does the Universe have a North?

Okay, so ya know, the laws of physics are pretty set, right?

Uh-huh.

It turns out that a specific physical constant used to measure electromagnetism between charged particles, well, isn't. Constant, that is.

The variations are tiny, and we're not sure yet what they mean. But what it might point to is that the universe has...

...a north and south.

Directionality.

I guess I'm going to have to start putting compasses on starships now!

Happy Birthday Hubble!

Just going to leave this here:

Friday Updates - Firewing Preorders!

Firewing is now available for preorder on both Amazon and Smashwords! The ebook will go live on May 22, 2020. Paperbacks should also be available that week (It can be a little hard to time things, so I'll post when they are).

You can go to the Smashwords link and read the first 20%. (This is the final version unless somebody tells me there's a massive typo I hadn't noticed ;)).

I also have two group giveaways running through Prolific Works that include the first eight chapters of Araña.

The first one, Search For Truth, contains a variety of science fiction books. The second, Rainy Day Reading is multi-genre. It has everything from science fiction to billionaire romance to erotica to horror to superheroes.

I haven't looked through because my to be read pile is still a tragedy, but there seems to be some awesome stuff in there.

Wow...

...this is the very first picture of the Earth from space. Somehow I haven't come across it before.

This was taken by a German rocket. It's pretty grainy, and looks kind of like an alien world, doesn't it.

Our beautiful planet...

We're All Stressed Right Now...

...so here, have some whales.

Most especially, some baby whales.

(More news to come this week. I hope).

My Irritation With "The Magicians"

Overall, I like this show. It's not for, well, the overly sensitive (lots of swearing, people having sex all over the place, etc), but it's got it's charms. It's intentionally and overtly a dark, adult homage to Narnia.

I'm behind on the show because I don't like it as much as my superhero shows (ahem), but I just finished watching season 2...

...and there was a plotline in there that quite upset me.

I'm not somebody who gets overly upset by sexual violence as long as it's committed by the bad guy and there are consequences.

But the storyline goes like this:

Character is assaulted.

Character gets pregnant.

Character has an abortion.

Character literally loses part of her soul as a direct result of the abortion.

They were, I suspect, aiming for the attack being what turned her into a monster, but where they landed was, well...in this kind of victim blamey anti-abortion spot that left me a little bit uncomfortable.

Okay, a lot uncomfortable.

This is something to be careful of. Unless that's really the message you intend to send (by the way, I haven't read the books, so...let's leave Grossman out of it), make sure it's not the kind of message you send.

Viking snowshoes...

...but not for people. The snowshoe for a horse was part of a trove found under a retreating glacier, by the side of what was once a trade route.

I'm imagining somebody cursing the realization their horse had thrown a shoe.

The spectacular find also included shoes, mittens, and arrows with the fletching intact. The pass fell out of use after the Black Death.

Friday Update - Firewing Cover Reveal

So, my cover artist apparently got bored in quarantine, because she gave me this!

Yes, it moves! (The actual cover is static, but isn't this absolutely amazing).

Firewing will be released in the second half of May (exact date depends on how quickly Amazon gets me my proof). ARCs (uncorrected) are available in all electronic formats to book bloggers and regular reviewers. Please comment on this post if you want one or find me on social media. (I don't want to post my email because spam).

Got a black thumb?

Well, in the future, you might be able to give your plants implants that let them tell you what they need.

A researcher accidentally discovered that carbon nanotube sensors he was working on can detect the chemicals plants give off when "stressed" (Does this mean plants feel pain?)

Obviously this is going to be mostly used in labs and then in agriculture, but I can imagine a future when your houseplant informs you via an app on your phone or a smart speaker that it would really like some water now, please.

Play a Game to Save Coral Reefs

NASA is asking everyone to play a game to help map coral. I want to try it, but I have to wait for the Android version...right now it's only for iOS.

If space exploration and ocean exploration don't seem to go together; NASA just happens to have the image technology to do this well.

So, about that 'Oumuamua...

...we now think it may be debris from an exploded planet. Or more specifically, a larger body torn apart by tidal forces after coming inside the roche limit of a star.

Prosaically it's more likely a big comet.

That or we should have been checking the thing for Kryptonite.

Were Neanderthals Just Like Us?

They certainly had good technology - at one site in France they found string. This might sound like a simple thing, but actual braided twine is surprisingly difficult to make and requires at least basic math.

The more we learn about our Neanderthal cousins (and in some cases ancestors), the more we realize they were just people. A little different in build and skull shape, but still people.

Which makes it less and less surprising that there were hybrids. If they were people, as smart as we are, with a similar sense of aesthetics and beauty (they seem to have had a fondness for red), then why not marry one?

"Cubesats" on the Moon

Cubesats are tiny satellites that are squeezed in around the edges of other payloads.

NASA is extending the concept to the moon; they want to build a ton of teeny tiny lunar rovers and send them out with payloads.

And they're looking for ideas.

If you're a scientist...or heck, even a science student...and have a great idea, it's over here.

And the challenge is "Honey, I Shrunk the Payload."

2020 Hugo Nominations

Yes, I should have done this two days ago. I kind of forgot.

Here are my overall thoughts.

Because I got my reading done for the Nebulas, I've read some of the nominees, but I'm not up for detailed analysis right now.

For novel, my prediction is that Tamsyn Muir will win with Gideon the Ninth, which is clearly the breakout novel of 2019. Unfortunately, I don't actually like it that much; it's a good book but I fail to see the hype.

The only other novel I've read is Arkady Martine's brilliant A Memory Called Empire, which was my pick for the Nebula. It's beautifully written, and the empire, rather than being based off of Rome is based off of...the Aztecs.

In novella, the only one I've read is The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark. It's okay, but wouldn't be my choice.

In Novelette, I've read The Archronology of Love, by Caroline M. Yoachim, and I wasn't too kken, I'll have to look at the others.

Short story, I have a fondness for Fran Wilde's "A Catalog of Storms," but wasn't impressed with "Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island" by Nibedita Sen. Shiv Ramdas' "And Now His Lordship is Laughing" is interesting.

In best series, The Expanse probably has my vote, although Seanan McGuire is always good. I haven't looked at the others.

Best related work isn't as crazy as last year, I'll have opinions as I read.

Graphic Story or Comic has me really torn between Die and The Wicked + The Divine. I'll probably jump with WicDiv because it's over. Kieron Gillen, you rock. I'm not a huge Monstress fan and I didn't find Paper Girls to be Vaughan's best. Haven't read the others.

Best dramatic presentation, long form. Whoever remembered you can nominate an entire series for this picked the winner; I haven't even seen it and already know Good Omens is going to win.

Short form, I'll probably just vote for Doctor Who because I haven't seen the others yet.

Best Editor, Short Form, is pretty much the usual suspects. Same with long form.

No opinion on the artists as yet, but one of these years Galen Dara has to win.

Best semiprozine will probably go to Fireside Magazine, just because last year was it's last year. FIYAH is always a strong contender. No surprises here.

Best fanzine and fancast are very much the usual suspects, with the only new nominees being The Rec Center in fanzine and Claire Rousseau in fancast. I sometimes think these shouldn't be split, but the mediums are so different...

In Lodestar, I am highly disappointed not to see my Nebula pick, Henry Lien's delightful Peasprout Chen and the Battle of Champions. Taiwanese Hogwarts on skates for the win. Yoon Ha Lee probably has a good chance with Dragon Pearl and the Kritzer is also delightful.

Weird to not see the Campbell name there, no thoughts on the Astounding until I see the material.

Tor has the full list here.

This is really cool

The Earth changes over time. And one of those changes drowned a forest 60,000 years ago in what we now call the Gulf of Mexico.

A storm uncovered it and now we can learn about 60,000 year old bald cypresses, that ecosystem...and it's so well preserved we might even find candidate drugs down there.

We still haven't fully explored our oceans and they hold wonderful surprises.

The Savage World is Real

Antarctica was temperate and forested...during the age of the dinosaurs. Not a bad guess on Marvel's part, even if they did have dinosaurs and cavemen coexisting.

What scientists found was evidence of a thriving temperate rain forest, due to well...the fact that it was a lot warmer back then.

Hopefully we can keep it from being that warm again...

Stop the World...

...I want to get off. If you are really feeling that right now, and are lucky enough to own a VR rig, NASA has you covered.

You can go all the way to Trappist-1, in fact.

Also, because everyone needs it right now.

A donkey and goats (I know the guy calls it a mule. It's not a mule).

Friday Updates

My next novel, Firewing, is with my editor. I don't have a planned release date yet because planning is hard right now, but expect to see it by early summer.

That's really the only update I have right now. Everything is kind of on pause, really.

Life on rogue planets?

You need a star for life, right?

Not so fast. Remember those Chernobyl mushrooms that feed off of radiation?

Some rogue planets might be radioactive enough for the heat to allow liquid water on the surface. Such planets might also have enough radiation to support radiotrophic "plants" on which an ecosystem could be built.

There's a science fiction story in there somewhere...

Mesoamerican Copper and the Spanish

Apparently, the Spanish didn't have enough copper to subjugate the natives. So, in typical irony, they bought it from the natives...

They didn't have anyone with them who knew how to smelt it. There's some kind of message there. I'm still working out exactly what it is.