Kate Rauner's Blog, page 26

Science Fiction Free Review Copy

Be among the first to read this scifi diplomat story from my good friend, EJ Randolph. In a twist, her plucky envoy must save the aliens from the humans. Get a ebook copy for FREE! Can’t beat that.

RANDOLPHWEB

Hooray!! I published Spiders & Spice as a paperback and a preorder ebook on Amazon. But you can get a free review copy at Story Origin at: https://storyoriginapp.com/reviewcopies/0eba3bf1-962e-43ac-a914-668bb9507fff

You can look at it on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Spiders-Spice-fashionable-buccaneering-Federation-ebook/dp/B08HSM58MR

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Can You Hear Me Now? #sciku and #aliens #haiku

Fermi Paradox

Physics the limit or our

Imagination?

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Scientific American’s article tells me why hearing an intelligent alien signal is unlikely, and our self-centered notions about communications don’t help.

How Weird is English? #swear #funniestvideos #standupcomedy

A mild swear word – practically polite, as swear words go – is hysterical and I never knew it until know. Humor can be a dangerous thing, but I gotta take the risk…

Asteroid Remnant of Failed Planet? What Can We Do With It? #scifibooks #asteroid

I’m thinking of bringing an asteroid into orbit around the Earth, say in the L5 point of the Earth/Moon system… for a science fiction story. I can’t do it in real life. Sigh.

I’d like some good metals concentrations in my asteroid. How about a piece of Psyche? It seems to be “metallic and porous in composition, something like a flying cosmic rubble pile.” scitechdaily

Psyche is five times the size of the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs, so maybe that’s a bit ambitious for my first attempt. I’d hate to miss my mark and end life on Earth. How about a nice, big chunk? Pieces blasted off by impacts should still be handy. What do you think?

While I work on my asteroid, check out a colony on Saturn’s moon, Titan. Survival is not their destiny! Complete trilogy now available!

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Has It Really Been 100 Years? Ray Bradbury Celebration #scifi #sciencefiction #author

Quick share of this Chicago item, a tribute to a classic master of science fiction:

As work continues on the future Ray Bradbury Experience Museum in downtown Waukegan, the public is invited to a free birthday bash for the celebrated author who grew up in the city.

Ray Bradbury was born Aug. 22, 1920, in Waukegan. The museum committee is celebrating his 100th birthday on Aug. 22, 2020, with a preview of attractions as well as a visit from a Martian. Chicago Tribune

You can actually go in-person (COVID safe behavior required.) I can’t make it – drat, I’ll miss the Martian.

Time Travel For an Idea #nuclear #timecapsule

Suppose you have a very important message to send 10,000 years into the future. You don’t have to imagine – you really do.

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Proposed Warning Sign for Nuclear Waste Site

Radioactive waste is disposed in America’s Carlsbad, New Mexico, in the UK’s Harwell, England, and in other spots on the globe. The material will be dangerous for 10,000 years. (An arbitrary number. A lot of this waste will be deadly longer than the 300,000 years Homo sapiens has existed on Earth.)

[image error]How should we warn future generations? It’s the field of nuclear semiotics – communicating the hazard across eons. Writing isn’t a guarantee. There are languages less than 10,000 years old we can no longer read, and even today, most of people don’t recognize the international symbol for radiation.

Hmm. Create an atomic priesthood? Convince our progeny that gods want them to stay away? Sounds like a science fiction story, and there’s always some annoying hero who defies authority.

Build complex surface structures that we think mean “stay away?” We want to prevent inadvertent intrusions, but what about very ‘advertent‘ intrusions? Large mounds and the remains of structures from ancient civilizations only excite our modern curiosity.

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Stonehenge before modern reconstructions – but what’s it FOR?

Our ancestors seemed to believe they were building for eternity. As the poet says:

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Written about the monument to an ancient Egyptian pharaoh

We’re often totally befuddled over the purpose of ancient structures. We want to dig them up and learn more. Does that mean we should leave nuclear sites unmarked and hope for the best? No, we can’t do that. Maybe render the land useless by covering it with a field of large spikes or a thick slab of concrete?

Nuclear physicists, engineers, anthropologists, sci-fi writers, artists and others have come together in the very broad, esoteric field of research into the way that future humans – and anything that comes after us – might be warned of our deadly legacy BBC

Maybe systems are the solution. Archives and artistic communities around the world, not to scare people away from a particular site, but to preserve the collective memory.

Whatever you think of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, this is a fascinating conundrum. Thanks to the BBC and Wikipedia.

 

Testing Martian Spacesuit Materials on Mars #Mars2020 #Perseverance

[image error]Five samples of spacesuit material, including a piece of helmet visor, will be tested aboard the Mars2020 Perseverance rover. Maybe it’s a small step, but a test of Mars materials… on Mars!

It’s good to make suits from materials that resist tears, UV light, and are flame and water resistant.

Our suits inflate to over 4 pounds per square inch of pressure. That’s not a crazy amount of pressure, but it’s pretty stiff. When you put a human inside a balloon and ask them to move, they’ll have trouble. It’s as tight as the head of a drum. Amy Ross, advanced spacesuit designer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston

On the surface of Mars, Perseverance will measure spectra of the materials over time to record changes in composition. Results can be compared to tests conducted on Earth. Mars feels just a tiny bit closer.

A virus so deadly and weird, it eclipses all others-Rogue’s Paradox by Erin Hayes

In case you think our real-life virus is bad! Click at the end of the preview below to see the rest of the review and for a link to the book.

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Bookstore

EJ says… We’re talking weaponized virus. Deliberate evil by corporations in search of market share and unlimited control and wealth.

This book starts out with the familiar trope of free agents on a old, creaking spaceship, making a living with crime. Smuggling, stealing secrets, you name it, they do it and get paid enough to continue. Corporations run everything but demand complete loyalty. Free agents get beat up by life, but don’t have to live their lives to the dictates of corporate elites.

Along comes a job that pays way too much for what seems like a simple data theft. They land on the derelict spaceship, get enough power going to download one particular file.

Big mistake. They were never expected to live long enough to collect the astronomical fee. But nothing works exactly like the bad guys expected.

Nothing works out well for the protagonist either. She is living…

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Perseverance on its Way to Mars :)

Launch! Mars 2020 is on its way

 

News You Can Use! How to Outrun a T. Rex #dinosaurs

Remember the “square-cube” law? It’s a basic fact that as a simple shape expands, its volume cubes while its surface area merely squares. This is important if you need to outrun a really large animal.

A full-grown Tyrannosaurus rex was absurdly huge and absurdly powerful… In the run for your life, its awe-inspiring, terrifying, stupefying size would be, in fact, your greatest advantage. Wired.com

Eric Snively, a biologist at Oklahoma State who studies the biomechanics of dinosaurs, doesn’t believe an adult Tyrannosaurus rex could have moved faster than 12 or 13 miles per hour. So we can eliminate every dinosaur over roughly 6,000 pounds as a predatory threat to a healthy human.

So why can a modern bear run you down with ease? Bears range from about your weight upward, and gait does matter. “Scientists in Yellowstone have clocked grizzlies running 25-28 mph over a distance of two miles… moving at a ‘rolling lope.'” Backpacker.com

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“The agile runner” with its era-appropriate prey

Biologist Myriam Hirt, who studies animal movement at the German Centre for Biodiversity Research, investigated whether there’s an optimum size for speed. Turns out, there is. To design an animal for speed, that animal should weigh approximately 200 pounds (91 kg.)

Hirt found a precise parabolic relationship between size and speed that not only suggests you need to fear the midsize dinosaurs most but also that you shouldn’t fear the largest at all. The reason, she tells me, is a result of the interplay between power, acceleration, and the metabolism that fuels both. Wired.com

Of course, the precise gait the dinosaur uses will affect its top speed, and there are plenty of carnivores under 200 pounds who’ll be happy to eat you, so if you find yourself in possession of a time machine, be careful what you wish for.

If one of the faster dinosaurs is after you, don’t panic. Like an impala evading a lion, you need to run smart.

First, when the dinosaur begins chasing you, change course frequently but do not decelerate. Second, when the predator draws within two or three strides, rapidly decelerate, turn sharply, and accelerate. When it catches up, do it again. Your springy hips, stretchy Achilles tendons, and efficient cooling systems make you one of the greatest endurance runners nature has ever created. The longer the race, the greater your chances of survival. Wired.com

You’ll make it provided you haven’t spent too much time on the couch eating potato chips.