Marz Ketchup

 So, researchers at the Florida Institute of Technology's Aldrin Space Institute have been growing tomatoes in simulated Mars conditions.

Heinz used them to make ketchup. Sadly, you can't buy the Marz Edition ketchup, but I would be interested to hear a report on its flavor and whether they had to adjust the recipe to compensate.

The purpose? Ketchup is quite significant in a dehydrated space diet, so our first intrepid Mars explorers...who will likely be on the red planet for months...will want to make their own.

(And we all know from the Martian that they will...okay, they probably will take potato seeds. French fries and ketchup on Mars, anyone? Probably using an air fryer...)

Worker to queen

 Amongst bees, you make a queen through diet. I often wonder what selection criteria the colony applies.

But one species of ant has succession fights. When the queen dies, the workers fight over who gets to take her place. The winners start laying eggs.

So, basically, worker ants in this species fight for the right to undergo puberty. Their brains change. And a single protein "switch" appears to be behind it.

We don't quite know how...and now we need to look into other species. For example, does royal jelly contain a substance which activates a similar protein switch to turn a worker bee into a reigning queen?

Worldcon Preliminaries

 I stress...this is a partial and preliminary schedule, but here are the panels I am currently scheduled for for Discon III.

Thursday, 5:30pm - Calvert Room - The CW's Contribution to Genre TV

Thursday, 7:00pm - Calvert Room - Archaeological Fact in Historical Fiction (MOD)

Friday, 7:00pm - Forum Room - Welcome To Clone Club (MOD) (This is the Orphan Black panel).

Saturday, 11:30pm - Harris - The Tiffany Problem in Historical Fantasy (MOD). Special note: This is a virtual panel. There will be a Vimeo link available to both on site and virtual attendees.

Saturday, 5:30pm - Palladian - They Flubbed the Landing: Disappointing Finales (MOD).

I am moderating most of my panels because I was brought onto programming primarily to address the perennial shortage of people who like moderating.

Again, this is preliminary and subject to change. I'm not doing a kaffeeklatsch because I don't feel I'm famous enough to ask for one just yet. I did request a reading, which I may or may not get. We have a lot less programming space than a typical Worldcon due to the closure of the Wardman Park, and can only make up some of it by doing virtual items.

Hoping to see at least some of you there!

The Worst Part of James Webb for the Engineers

 If all goes well, the space telescope will launch in December.

But then it has to go through an incredibly complex deployment that will take a full two weeks.

All of which it will be doing on its own while everyone on Earth...let's just say I don't think they'll be needing their nail clippers.

They do have some options. For example, they have a command to make the observatory shimmy to potentially unstick something.

Which is just...going to be the worst for them. And then we still have to wait about 180 days to actually start doing science.

Glass in the Desert

 So, there is a field of glass in the Aracama Desert, and we now know for sure what caused it.

Investigating the glass fragments found mineral grains that don't occur naturally on Earth. Some of them were found in the comet sample return mission in 2004.

It appears that we had a comet air burst. Interesting, it coincides with about the time humans arrived in the area.

I would love to poke around in the stories of the indigenous people to see what they remember about it.

Tacos in Spaaaaaace!

 Apparently the ISS astronauts got to enjoy some Mexican food...or at least some soft tacos. I'm not sure about trying to eat tacos in microgravity.

It's all part of an experiment to answer a "burning" question: Are space peppers hotter or milder than their Earthbound kin.

(Well, actually, it's also about microbes and what shape they grow and...but we all know what the biggest question was).

Another Missing Link

 It's possible we just discovered a new human ancestor.

Dubbed Homo bodoensis, they lived in Africa about 600,000 years ago and appear to be a direct ancestor. They survived until 200,000 years ago or so before disappearing, but their legacy survives.

Homo bodoensis appears to be the common ancestor of both modern humans and Neanderthals, with the latter leaving Africa well before the former.

We don't know much about how they lived, but we do know that they lived...and for a very long time.