Kate Rauner's Blog, page 4

3,000 years ago, a star went nova, and it’s light is about to reach Earth #NASA #astronomy

You’ve heard of Old Faithful – that’s a geyser. How about the binary star T CrB? It’s one of only five recurring novas in our galaxy. Astronomers believe it will explode again between now and September 2024. T Coronae Borealis, or T CrB, may have been spotted as far back as 1217. It was observed […]

New reader Sci-Fi review – Hermit on Mars

My thanks to Scott! He’s helping other readers find my book and more great sci-fi too. Check out the complete review of Hermit on Mars and find lots more stories in Sci-Fi – click here to go to Liminal Fiction. Rauner’s Colony on Mars continues with this third book in the five book series, Hermit […]

Lost a tooth? Maybe you can grow a replacement! #sciencefacts

We humans have a third set of teeth, buried in our jaws as buds. Dentists may be able to coax them to grow and replace a lost tooth. Japanese researchers found a gene that controls a protein that shuts off tooth growth. Suppress the protein production, and a new tooth could grow. This works in […]

Space-based science fiction with faster-than-light travel, aliens, military, family loyalty – it’s all here

Engaging science fiction puzzle

Amazon has a new concept in Audio Books – but will it work? Take the Beta Test #scifibooks #audiobook

Amazon has a new Virtual Voice. It’s not sophisticated like an AI – there are limitations, for sure. But, books narrated by real live humans average around $20, so Virtual Voice would make audio books more available… if it works! Amazon set up a Beta Test. Shall we give it a try? I created a […]

5 Stars for Glory on Mars – read the story today :)

If you’re looking for a hard sci-fi colony tale that makes you feel like you’re really on Mars, then yanks you out of your seat & drags you through the red dust to the top of an extinct volcano and back, Glory on Mars is just the ticket. 5 stars. Pop over the Scott’s site for […]

We almost lost all our orbit-based tech – only 20 m of open space saved us #satellite #space

Humanity dodged a bullet. An orbiting space bullet. Not an asteroid, but our own technology: A NASA and Russian satellite missed each other by only 20 meters at 0634 GMT on February 28, 2024. This was well within the uncertainty range; they could well have collided. Brian Dunning (paywall) So what, you say? Here’s what: […]

Building the Great Pyramids – report from someone who was there! #Egypt #history

How did I miss this? The greatest discovery of ancient Egypt in decades! Papyrus logbooks written over 4,500 years ago by Merer, a middle-ranking official with the title inspector. They are the oldest known papyri with text, dating to the 27th year of the reign of pharaoh Khufu during the 4th dynasty. The text, written […]

Congratulations on being wrong! Oh, and on a cool new discovery that’s right!

I ran across this article about tardigrades, those tiny, delightfully weird creatures that can enter an extreme hibernation called a tun state, and thereby survive almost any environmental change, even being exposed to space in orbit. Scientists have wondered for a long time what prompts the tardigrades to enter the tun state and come back […]