Only 24 human beings have seen this view. If all goes well with Artemis I, that number is set to increase.
And...it cropped out the Earth. Typical. But this is a selfie of Artemis with both (click on it). Perspective is making it look like the moon is the big planet!
So far, the mission is going well. The nerve wracking thing will be reentry...
Scientists just revived a virus that was frozen for 48,500 years. Yeouch. It's gonna...
...actually, don't worry. All of the viruses they've found frozen are giant viruses, otherwise known as pandoraviruses. Pandoraviruses only infect amoebas, so the chances of them mutating to infect us are really...it's not going to happen.
The worry is that something worse is also lurking, but right now we don't have to worry about a lab leak.
I keep being told I should do this and as I don't *think* anything else will be coming out this year.
All of these are short fiction and all are eligible for the Nebula Awards and the Hugo Awards. Some are marked with additional eligibility.
"Only the Rain" in Dark Void Magazine Issue 1 Spring 2022. Also eligible: Bram Stoker Award.
"Old McDonald Saves The World" in Save the World: Twenty Sci-Fi Writers Save the Planet, June 22, 2022.
"Song of Starlight" in Analog Science Fiction & Fact July/August 2022.
"Life Is Information" in Daily Science Fiction, September 13, 2022.
"For the Sake of a Dandelion" in For the Good of the Realm: Stories of Power and Defiance, November 14, 2022. Also eligible: World Fantasy Award, British Fantasy Award.
That's it for 2022 unless somebody surprises me with a December release ;).
So, we have now discovered this:
One enzyme, and only one, supplies the energy to load neurotransmitters into containers, which is how neurons communicate. The network of neurons is, well, us. These containers store neurotransmitters and release them when they are needed.
Well, it turns out that this enzyme, V-ATPase, turns off 40% of the time. Meaning there's no loading. Does this mean those neurons can't communicate.
One theory is that the pattern of on-off in this enzyme may be another way of encoding information into our brains, one we didn't know about. This is true for all mammalian brains. It could be a problem, but it feels too deliberate to me. I bet we'll find this is key to...something.
(Birds organize their brains very differently).
Brains are weird.
...and did other damage to the launch pad. Some people are arguing that NASA is downplaying it as no big deal, but the truth is?
Hardening the launch pad to handle a rocket this size was going to be a tough task and it's possible they let the damage happen so they know what to focus on.
You can't do prototypes without breaking something, and elevator doors are a bit easier to replace than, ya know, the entire rocket. It also blew up several of the pad cameras (which is pretty normal), did minor damage to nitrogen and helium supply lines, and burned paint off the deck.
Launch pad damage was to be expected. There was also some very minor damage to the venerable mobile launcher.
The elevators are the worst problem...NASA says it will take several months to fix (I'm actually figuring replace) the elevators, but they weren't planning on using this pad for a while anyway.
...or anything else. The latest theory? Too much vulcanism.
Volcanos help keep Earth a vibrant, living planet. But in the past, Earth has also been the victim of what are called "large igneous provinces," where large numbers of eruptions over a long period of time cause mass extinctions. And we mean hundreds of thousands of years in some cases.
On Venus, it appears that several of these events in quick suggestion triggered the runaway greenhouse effect. 80% of the surface is lava fields.
Why did Earth escape this fate? My personal guess is that being a bit further from Sol, we have less energy and thus the eruptions here aren't quite as powerful.
We're going to study Venus more and see if this is true or not, but 80% seems like pretty damning evidence.
(I'm reminded of the Doctor Who episode "Inferno").
Not on it, but Orion has made its closest approach as part of a flyby. And it sent us this video:
The craft actually crossed into the lunar sphere on Sunday. Note the Earth setting in the background.
Hello, moon.
Delayed just long enough to ensure that I couldn't QUITE stay up to watch it. Going to find the video, of course.
The causes of the delay were a leaking LHO valve (which was fixed by the brave Red Crew) and...
...a dud ethernet switch at range.
Really?
IT people, are you as amused as I am by this?
Another attempt will be made to test launch Artemis today. Do we think it will go off?
No shade on NASA if it's another scrub; rockets are complicated and this is a new rocket with inevitable teething problems. I am hoping that it will be a successful launch and will be biting my nails, but I don't see any guarantees.
Despite several issues, the CAPSTONE probe is now in lunar orbit. The 55 pound spacecraft is the first cubesat to enter lunar orbit.
The probe is designed to test the stability of the orbit for the Gateway station that is a key part of Artemis.
It will not be the only cubesat there for a while. Most space launches these days tuck cubesats into every corner to maximize payload.
Artemis I, which is scheduled to launch on Wednesday, will take no less than 10 cubesats with the Orion capsule, one of which is a lunar lander built by Japan, a technology demonstrator for lander technology.
NASA's inflatable heat shield has successfully landed on Earth. The planned use case is landing crewed modules on Mars, where heat shields have to be much bigger...while there's less heat, you need to create a lot more drag to slow down.
It also allows for a heat shield that is larger than the descending craft, or for a heat shield to be attached to something which doesn't normally have one.
(For example, your fictional starship might have inflatable heat shields on escape pods, because you don't know WHAT planet you might be trying to land on...)
One is being really good at throwing things. We're so good at throwing things cobras had to evolve a ranged defense to get us to stop being annoying.
Other animals don't do so well. I had a horse try to throw something at me once and his range and aim were terrible.
But one other kind of animal on the planet likes to throw stuff:
Octopi.
Specifically, the gloomy octopus, which lives off the Australian cost. They use their water siphon to throw away food waste.
And sometimes they aim at each other. It's definitely deliberate, they change color. And the octopus on the receiving end ducks.
We aren't sure why, but it's some kind of social behavior. It might not even be malicious. as it's usually harmless silt they throw.
Here's my schedule for Philcon, which is in the very near future. I'm not vending this year, but will be doing the following programming items:
Friday, 6pm, Reading (Room 923)
Friday, 7pm, You Got Horror in My Sci-Fi (Plaza 3)
Friday, 9pm, Climate Fiction - Hopepunk or Dystopia? (Plaza 3)
Saturday, 11am, Signing. I will have a limited number of books available for sale.
Saturday, 3pm, My First Time (Getting Published) (Plaza 4)
Saturday, 5pm, Queer Protagonists (Plaza 3)
Sunday, 11am, So You Want To Become A Panelist at an SF&F Con (Plaza 3)
Sunday, 12pm, Vintage RPG Discussion (Plaza 5)
Sunday, 1pm, Are Fictional Aliens Too Much Like Us? (Crystal 2)
I'm taking suggestions for what to read.
Fri 6:00 PM 25 Min Room 923 205 Readings: Jennifer Povey
Fri 7:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 3 333 You Got Horror In My Sci-Fi!
Fri 9:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 3 261 Climate Fiction—Hopepunk or Dystopia?
Sat 11:00 AM 50 Min Autograph Table 215 Autographs: Neil Clarke, Jennifer Povey
Sat 3:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 4 281 My First Time (Getting Published)
Sat 5:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 3 256 Queer Protagonists
Sun 11:00 AM 50 Min Plaza 3 240 So You Want to Become a Panelist at an SF&F Con
Sun 12:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 5 364 Vintage RPG Discussion
Sun 1:00 PM 50 Min Crystal 2 258 Are Fictional Aliens Too Much Like Us?
Fri 6:00 PM 25 Min Room 923 205 Readings: Jennifer Povey
Fri 7:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 3 333 You Got Horror In My Sci-Fi!
Fri 9:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 3 261 Climate Fiction—Hopepunk or Dystopia?
Sat 11:00 AM 50 Min Autograph Table 215 Autographs: Neil Clarke, Jennifer Povey
Sat 3:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 4 281 My First Time (Getting Published)
Sat 5:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 3 256 Queer Protagonists
Sun 11:00 AM 50 Min Plaza 3 240 So You Want to Become a Panelist at an SF&F Con
Sun 12:00 PM 50 Min Plaza 5 364 Vintage RPG Discussion
Sun 1:00 PM 50 Min Crystal 2 258 Are Fictional Aliens Too Much Like Us?
...and it's very, very dead. A white dwarf not that far away from us...10.7 billion years old...has "planetary debris" around it.
It was a larger star than the sun, but did not go nova. Instead, it swelled into a red giant and then collapsed into a white dwarf...the eventual fate of our own solar system.
And now the star itself is "polluted" by debris, and it proves that there were rocky worlds in that system.
These planets...and any inhabitants...died before the Earth was formed.
Maybe we have missed our neighbors in time as well as space.
T. Kingfisher/Ursula Vernon is apparently a bit obsessed with them, just saying.
But slime molds have no brain or nervous system...but can solve problems. Slime molds are members of the protist kingdom, which is where we file the extremely weird shit.
A slime mold is one cell but with lots of nuclei. Basically, the nuclei never bother to separate themselves with cell membranes.
P. polycephalum, a common slime mold, can navigate mazes if you bribe it with, of all things, oats. (It doesn't eat the oats, it eats bacteria that lives on oats).
It can solve the traveling salesman problem.
It has memory.
It can fuse with other slime molds to pass on that memory. I.e., communicate.
One researcher tried putting one on a growth medium used for mammal cells and it promptly tried to escape by building a weird three-dimensional structure to pull itself out. The theory is it hated the taste!
No, it can't handle abstract reasoning, but it solves its own problems, the ones it needs to.
And it tells us cognition does not, in fact, need a brain.
...asteroids.
NASA's Psyche mission missed its launch window this year, but is apparently still going to happen. And the target is 16 Psyche, which is worth more than...
...the entire economy of Earth. No, I'm not kidding. From what we can tell, it just has that much gold in it.
This is why futurists who dream big like asteroid mining. Gold is not just for pretty jewelry, it's vital for electronics.
The issue, of course, is getting all that gold where it will be useful.
However, other materials found in asteroids might be used right where they are found; as a way to not have to bring metal out of a gravity well.
The mission will also test a form of infrared laser communication that will increase the bandwidth we have to communicate with deep space craft.
...sexy? Hot?
A new paper theorizes that the reason for Neanderthal extinction is that too many of them were mating with modern humans...and not with each other.
And it also notes that Neanderthal mitochondrial DNA has been lost, which might indicate that there was only one successful breeding...between a male Neanderthal and a female modern.
When breeding equine hybrids, the vast majority are mules (male donkey, female horse). Hinnies (male horse, female donkey) are much rarer because it is harder for a stallion to get a jenny pregnant. People tend only to breed hinnies when they really like the cross as it often takes several matings to be successful. And in ligers, the mating is indeed only successful in one direction. (The loss of the Neanderthal Y chromosome is indicative of a feline-type hybrid pattern, which also includes the first generation males being infertile).
Also interesting...the late Neanderthal sequences don't show any modern DNA.
Which might also tie into that if the humans that expanded into Europe were matrilocal. In a matrilocal society, you become a member of your mother's clan or tribe. Neanderthals appear to have been patrilocal in Siberia, but we don't know in Europe. It's also possible that a lot of these matings were trysts rather than longer term relationships, perhaps due to the language barrier. But the theory is that Neanderthal individuals were joining modern groups (I know that's an awkward phrasing, but both species are, in fact, human) and removing themselves from the Neanderthal gene pool.
If the vast majority of hybrids were born to anatomically modern mothers and stayed with those mothers, then our ancestors benefitted from useful Neanderthal genes...but not the reverse.
So, it's possible Neanderthals are extinct because Neanderthal men couldn't resist modern women.
The InSight lander will run out of power some time in the next few years. The craft's solar panels are now completely clogged with dust (this is why solar power is not honestly great for Mars. Any settlements would be better served with a small nuclear reactor, or somebody will be constantly cleaning panels).
The four year old lander has studied seismic activity on Mars and given us an idea of the red planet's composition and interior.
ForeSight, the model used for testing, will be crated up. Likely its ultimate destination will be a museum.
It's sad, but Mars landers and rovers have a finite life...and the big reason why is that pesky dust.
Well, eventually, but please ignore the tabloid headlines about a "planet killer" earth crossing asteroid. Does it exist? Yes.
Is it going to hit Earth? Maybe...centuries from now.
Let's worry about climate change...by that point either we'll be extinct or we'll have planetary defenses.
And none of US are going to be alive to worry about it.
(Yes, a 1km wide asteroid hitting the Earth would be very, very bad, although it's still a lot smaller than the one that killed the dinosaurs, which was about 12km wide...)
