Space...Laundry?

 Washing clothes in space might seem simple. But the laundry detergents we use don't recycle well in a tight closed loop system. (Don't think about the pee).

Which is why NASA has hired laundry company Tide to make a detergent that rapidly degrades. If it works, then it may have a place here on Earth too...and other companies will no doubt follow suit with similar designs.

Laundry detergent, see, isn't exactly great for the environment or for aquatic life. A fully degradable detergent that's gone before it gets to the treatment plant would be a major advantage for everyone, and one I'd gladly pay a little bit more for. So, let's hope this works. (And stop whining about "space stuff")

Venus Keeps Getting More Interesting

 Tectonic activity on Venus isn't the same as it is on Earth. The plates are much smaller...and act more like pack ice.

And some of it's recent enough that Venus may be tectonically active, like Earth. We need so much more information, though.

How did the crust fragment like that and is it connected to Venus' runaway greenhouse? Hopefully the new missions to Earth's "evil" twin will give us some answers.

"We have Life Signs, Jim."

Ever wondered how the Enterprise detects life signs?

Or, for that matter, what "life signs" are? The meta explanation is, of course, that it's convenient to the plot.

Except...

...we can now detect "life signs." Specifically, we now have instruments that can detect specific light refraction created by living things. It works by leveraging the fact that life is homochiral. We're not sure why it is (or whether it's true of all life), but living molecules all spiral to the right, whilst inorganic molecules can go either way.

And we can detect it from a helicopter.

It's not hard at all to go from that to detecting it from orbit. Until, of course, we find heterochiral life and get a nasty/pleasant (depending) surprise.

So "life signs" really do exist and can be remotely detected. Despite everything, we do live in an age of wonders.

Juneteenth

 So, tomorrow is Juneteenth, and yesterday Congress voted at the last possible moment to make it a federal holiday.

Which means this white chick is not talking about herself this week. Instead, I'm going to suggest my readers check out some of the wonderful Black authors doing fantastic work right now. (I'm not going to talk about Nalo Hopkinson, N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor, because you already know them unless you've been under a rock ;)).

Here's a few names to look at.

Tomi Adeyemi - I loved her Children of Blood and Bone, although I haven't got around to the sequel yet. Amazing African-flavored secondary world fantasy.

Jordan Ifueko - His YA novel, Raybearer was my choice for the Nebula this year, although it lost out in the final vote to T. Kingfisher's A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking. It's also up for a Hugo. More African-flavored secondary world fantasy, subverts the soulmate trope beautifully and has a significant asexual character, as well as being delightfully written. Get it for your kids...and a second copy for yourself.

P. Djeli Clark - responsible for such gems as The Black God's Drums, Ring Shout and my personal favorite, The Haunting of Tram Car 015. Clark does his best work in the novella and novelette lengths, so if you're looking for a quick read, he's one worth checking out. Also a really nice guy.

Rivers Solomon - I really loved their dark take on mermaids in The Deep, which was based off of a song which was based off of...I forget, but it's been circling. Basic concept is mermaids descended from pregnant slaves who didn't survive the Middle Passage. But they have some other work out too.

Tochi Onyebuchi - Riot Baby made me uncomfortable and that's exactly why all of my white friends should read it.

Tade Thompson - also a really nice guy and his Rosewater takes biopunk and cyberpunk to Africa in a very interesting way.

I also recommend checking out FIYAH, the magazine of black speculative fiction, which provides a wonderful sampler of the best working today.

Please celebrate Juneteenth by reading and recommending books by Black authors.

So, We Now Know What Was Going On With Betelgeuse

 ...obviously, not a kaboom.

It turns out that a cold spot on a star that size actually sends out a lot of gas. The gas got between us and the star, amplifying the dimming effect of the cold spot. It just happened to be on the right side...this probably happens a lot more, but usually not pointed right at us.

Mystery solved, and we now understand a bit more about how supergiant stars work.

Mirror, Mirror...

 Imagine a mirror which can be literally turned on and off. Researchers are pretty close to creating such a thing, using liquid metal and a current.

While this might seem like a party trick, it could be used to create art by switching the material between reflective and scattering states in different areas.

It could also potentially be used to 3D print electronically controlled optics, which would be useful for making certain health testing devices.

It's a Bird, It's a...Lizard?

 Oculadentavis khaungraae was identified as a hummingbird-sized dinosaur.

Nope, it's a lizard.

A new species in the genre, Oculadentavis naga has proven this. It's just a very, very strange lizard.

Specifically, it had scales (dinosaurs have smooth skin or feathers), lizard teeth rather than dinosaur teeth (lizards have teeth that attach to the jawbone directly unlike both dinosaurs and mammals), and a hockey stick-shaped skull bone that is very specific to scaled reptiles.

Part of the issue was that khangraae's skull looks very like that of a bird, with a thin beak-like jaw.

Naga also has a raised crest and appeared to have a chin pouch that could be used in display. It's...a lizard, but not like any of the ones we know.

Generation Ship Sperm Banks

 If we're transporting animals (and even humans) to another planet, we'll need to preserve genetic diversity.

One great way to do so is to take along quantities of sperm. However, the obvious concern is that sperm exposed to cosmic radiation will develop all kinds of mutations.

Seems that's not true! Researchers stored mouse sperm on the ISS for almost six years, brought it back to Earth, and used it to produce perfectly healthy, genetically normal and fertile mice. You can't even tell.

So...yeah. Space sperm is a thing.

Friday Updates

 The first draft of Tyranis is finally done. Next step is to start edits on Kyx and also work out exactly where Glyn is going.

Starting to feel like I might actually get this series done now the pandemic stressors have eased off some ;).

Other than that, it's raining and also raining cicadas. Fun!

Should We Drop Rocks on the Great Barrier Reef?

 Some scientists think we should. The theory is that by dropping crushed olivine, we can counteract ocean acidification and help corals recover.

But other scientists think it's really stupid and reckless.

I dunno. There's some proof of concept, but I think the idea of breeding corals that are more acid tolerant has more merit...

Ganymede, Ho!

 Juno caught some wonderful images of Ganymede as it flew by. The pictures show striations caused by tectonic activity and craters in the icy surface. They show dark and light areas, but the best is yet to come.

The spacecraft should also have snapped pictures that can be processed into the first color images of Ganymede. Because deep space probes have limited bandwidth, it's going to take a while to actually get those images back to Earth, but when we do, we'll know what Ganymede really looks like.

In the meantime, just take a look at the wonders on the other side of that link.

Fear May Really Come From Your Gut

 "I have a bad feeling about this" and "I have a gut feeling about this" overlap.

A recent study has shown that the less well balanced the gut in a baby, the more they are afraid. (Yes, they scared babies. Don't worry, it was an age-appropriate experiment involving ugly masks. I wonder what it will do to their tolerance for horror as they get older).

Oh, now, that's an interesting thought. Does our gut determine what kind of horror we like?

It's all very preliminary, but it might indicate that we could use adjusting somebody's gut microbiome to help them deal with, say, a severe phobia.

So, uh...

...we just discovered a completely new way of generating electricity. All you have to do is dip carbon nanotubes into a solvent that likes electrons.

It literally just pulls electrons off the tube, creating a current. This current can then be used to power certain chemical reactions. Oh, and it could power microbots.

No, it won't be powering your car any time soon, but there are some really intriguing things we can do with this.

 

Own a cat?

 Scientists have identified that there are five different kinds of relationship you can have with your cat! They are: Open relationship, remote association, casual relationship, co-dependence, and friendship.

They're hoping this will help people understand their relationship with their cat, and perhaps how they can change it. It might even help people choose cats that want the same kind of relationship they do.

If you have a cat, the University of Lincoln has a quiz to help you determine the kind of relationship you have with them. You can find it here. I don't have a cat, but I hope this helps a few people.

Falcon Eyeliner

 It's a bit of a duh, but I'm glad somebody looked.

Peregrine falcons have dark stripes below their eyes, and it turns out that the brighter the sun where the falcon hatched, the darker the stripes. This probably proves the hypothesis that the stripes help them see in sun glare.

This is the same reason football players paint stripes below their eyes, and Egyptian eye makeup strongly resembles the feather patterns on falcons...

...did the ancient Egyptians copy falcon feathering because they were smart and worked out what it was for?

Balticon Roundup

 Phewf! Virtual Balticon was not as awesome as "real" Balticon, but we still have a blast.

This year, tech was on the ball; most of the panels and presentations can be found on the Baltimore Science Fiction Society Youtube channel.

Highlights from what I did attend were the presentation on volcano hunting in Alaska, the panel on Death and Funerary Practices in Science Fiction, and the science panel on Invasive Species.

These will be up until...whenever. (I haven't heard that they will be taken down). A few things are not posted because panelists or presenters didn't want to be recorded.

(There are no readings because readings are often embargoed, so they were not recorded. I think that's for the best; con readings should be transient).