Science for Use in Science Fiction

[Dayton3]

for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Newtonian physics do not apply at the quantum level.

 

[Stryder50]

Could a solar storm ever destroy Earth?​

Could a solar storm ever destroy Earth?

 

[Stryder50]

Could go in other threads, but being new tech of sorts ...

Chinese scientists create a ‘plasma shower’ to improve stealth bomber performance​

Chinese scientists create a ‘plasma shower’ to improve stealth bomber performance

 

[Stryder50]

Scientists Puzzled Because James Webb Is Seeing Stuff That Shouldn't Be There​

...
EXCERPT:

Over the past several weeks, NASA's ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has allowed humankind some unprecedented glimpses into the farthest reaches of our universe. And unsurprisingly, some of these dazzling new observations have raised more questions than they've answered.

For a long time, for instance, scientists believed the universe's earliest, oldest galaxies to be small, slightly chaotic, and misshapen systems. But according to the Washington Post, JWST-captured imagery has revealed those galaxies to be shockingly massive, not to mention balanced and well-formed — a finding that challenges, and will likely rewrite, long-held understandings about the origins of our universe.

"The models just don't predict this," Garth Illingworth, an astronomer at the University of California at Santa Cruz, told WaPo. "How do you do this in the universe at such an early time? How do you form so many stars so quickly?"
...
The embedded movie clip discusses finding the furthest known star, named Earendel, at about 2.9 billion light years distant.

Interesting considering the Universe is supposedly only 13 billion years old according to the experts.
....

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Stryder50]

The launch vehicle looks a lot like the one used for the Space Shuttle program.
The game plan is a replay of the original Apollo, where this launch is an empty Orion capsule that loops around the Moon and returns.
Then in 2024 a crewed mission that will also loop around the Moon, only, and return.
Ideally the next is the landing mission, slated for 2025.
.........

NASA aims for Saturday launch of new moon rocket: Take 2​

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA will try again Saturday to launch its new moon rocket on a test flight, after engine trouble halted the first countdown this week.


In this photo provided by NASA, NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket with the Orion spacecraft aboard is seen atop the mobile launcher at Launch Pad 39B, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.. NASA's Artemis I flight test is the first integrated test of the agency's deep space exploration systems: (Joel Kowsky/NASA via AP)

Managers said Tuesday they are changing fueling procedures to deal with the issue.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket remains on its pad at Kennedy Space Center, with an empty crew capsule on top. It's the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA.

The Space Launch System rocket, or SLS, will attempt to send the capsule around the moon and back. No one will be aboard, just three test dummies. If successful, it will be the first capsule to fly to the moon since NASA’s Apollo program 50 years ago.
...

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NASA aims for Saturday launch of new moon rocket: Take 2

 

[Stryder50]

Scientists found an astonishing new material that behaves like nothing we’ve ever seen​

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Scientists have discovered a shocking fact about a material called Vanadium dioxide (VO2). According to research published in Nature Electronics, VO2 can remember previous external stimuli. It’s an interesting discovery, and one that researchers say could completely change the future of computer and storage devices.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a material bring new properties to light, or the first time we’ve heard about researchers finding new uses for older materials. Back in 2014, researchers and engineers began looking at graphene as a way to make smartphones even thinner. Perhaps Vanadium dioxide would provide a similar evolution for computational storage devices.
...

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Stryder50]

5 years ago, the most pivotal sci-fi franchise ever made a crucial comeback​

5 years ago, the most pivotal sci-fi franchise ever made a crucial comeback

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(This is more of a start in the right direction. Not the 'real deal' the title suggests.
CNN report: The NASA mission that could 'potentially save all of humankind'

CNN report: The NASA mission that could 'potentially save all of humankind'

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Our Solar System’s Demise​

First the oceans boil off. Then things really get serious.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Our Solar System’s Demise

First the oceans boil off. Then things really get serious.

nautil.us

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Just What Was Oumuamua? One Harvard Professor Is Convinced It Was An Alien Craft​

Naturally occurring interstellar objects don't accelerate on their own and change course so easily.

Just What Was Oumuamua? One Harvard Professor Is Convinced It Was An Alien Craft

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The Universal Law That Aims Time’s Arrow​

A new look at a ubiquitous phenomenon has uncovered unexpected fractal behavior that could give us clues about the early universe and the arrow of time.​

The Universal Law That Aims Time’s Arrow

A new look at a ubiquitous phenomenon has uncovered unexpected fractal behavior that could give us clues about the early universe and the arrow of time.

getpocket.com

 

[Stryder50]

Liquid water may have just been discovered on Mars​

Liquid water may have just been discovered on Mars

 

[Stryder50]

Is there a planet more habitable than Earth? The answer is yes, and it is called Super-Earth.​

Is there a planet more habitable than Earth? The answer is yes, and it is called Super-Earth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Actually a few others as well, but later ...

After 350 years, astronomers still can’t explain the solar system’s strangest moon​

Saturn's Iapetus, discovered way back in 1671, has three bizarre features that science still can't fully explain.

After 350 years, astronomers still can't explain the solar system's strangest moon

Saturn's Iapetus, discovered way back in 1671, has three bizarre features that science still can't fully explain.

bigthink.com

 

[Stryder50]

Subjective assessment, yet ~ FWIW:

Best Alien Invasion Movies​

Best Alien Invasion Movies

 

[Stryder50]

Totally subjective per the author's opinion(s), yet a few to consider;

The 25 Best Space Opera Books of All Time​

25 of the Best Space Opera Books of All Time | Book Riot

Set out on a journey to explore the stars with 25 of the best space opera books of all time, from Babel-17 to A Memory Called Empire.

bookriot.com

 

[Stryder50]

An unsung sci-fi sleeper hit fights back on streaming to force the hand of destiny​

An unsung sci-fi sleeper hit fights back on streaming to force the hand of destiny

 

[Stryder50]

Though a past item, the potential for use in the future could be game changing.

Riddle solved: Why was Roman concrete so durable?​

An unexpected ancient manufacturing strategy may hold the key to designing concrete that lasts for millennia.

Riddle solved: Why was Roman concrete so durable?

Researchers have discovered ancient Roman concrete-manufacturing strategies that incorporated self-healing. Applying this knowledge toward modern cement production, they hope to improve the material’s environmental impact.

news.mit.edu

 

[Stryder50]

The sun is crackling with ‘solar flares’. Here’s what that means.​

The sun is crackling with ‘solar flares’. Here’s what that means.

 

[Stryder50]

Maybe not incredible, but interesting.

10 incredible findings about aliens​

10 incredible findings about aliens

 

[Stryder50]

Not an optimistic view here. If true, might as well crawl back into the caves.

There’s no planet B​

The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. Here’s why

We will never be able to live on another planet. Here’s why | Aeon Essays

The scientific evidence is clear: the only celestial body that can support us is the one we evolved with. Here’s why

aeon.co

 

[Stryder50]

"Social Science" here of sorts ...

Eight Secret Societies You Might Not Know​

The popularity of these secret clubs peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Eight Secret Societies You Might Not Know

The popularity of these secret clubs peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries.

getpocket.com

 

[scruffy]

Scientists found an astonishing new material that behaves like nothing we’ve ever seen​

...
Scientists have discovered a shocking fact about a material called Vanadium dioxide (VO2). According to research published in Nature Electronics, VO2 can remember previous external stimuli. It’s an interesting discovery, and one that researchers say could completely change the future of computer and storage devices.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a material bring new properties to light, or the first time we’ve heard about researchers finding new uses for older materials. Back in 2014, researchers and engineers began looking at graphene as a way to make smartphones even thinner. Perhaps Vanadium dioxide would provide a similar evolution for computational storage devices.
...

MSN

www.msn.com

Memristors are not new. They've been around since the 60's. Titanium dioxide is the most popular material, but it's been done with others, even silicon dioxide.

Sheets of boron nitride look promising as memristive devices. The thing is, you need to control these devices in specific ways, to make them useful computationally. One of the basic requirements is phase coding, you need to be able to send about 90 degrees worth of a traveling wave across the spatial extent, "while" the devices are interacting with each other. So, you need to embed the memristors in a "command and control lattice", without interfering with their other ongoing internal interactions.

Memristors are "neuron-like", and networks of memristors are "brain-like". Generally they implement a "Hebbian learning rule", which means connections get reinforced on the basis of covariance (or coincidence in discrete time models). Self organizing memristor networks display the full spectrum of Kuramoto dynamics, and they tend to organize themselves into MISO-type clusters of Laguerre-filtered Volterra engines.

However this is not the whole story.

You can calculate the time it takes for an E/M signal to get from one side of the brain to the other. (Not synaptically, but rather, by volume conduction - when a nerve fires it generates a significant E/M field which is so strong it's picked up on the surface of the scalp, we're talking reversal of a trans-membrane electric field of about 10 million V/m, yes that's not a typo).

The brain is about 10 cm long, from frontal to occipital, so you end up with a fraction of a nanosecond travel time, for an EM signal at the speed of light. The duration of that event matches the duration of an action potential, which is about 1 msec.

Within that interval, you have about 80 billion neurons engaged in time-coding (just about the entirety of the cerebellum, which contains 3/4 of all the neurons in the brain), and "many" experiments have shown that the conscious brain can entrain and control the firing of a single neuron. After a little quickie math at 10k synapses per, you can calculate that the maximal temporal resolution of the human brain is on the order of femtoseconds. FEMTO-seconds being 10^-15, which is comparable to chemical reaction times or the fastest lasers.

The interesting thing about the Volterra dynamics is cellular assemblies can make the information appear somewhere (like, at the opposite end of the brain) and SEEM LIKE it gets there faster than the speed of light. What happens then is, this sets up an "expectation field" that interacts with paramagnetic ions and membrane proteins through J-coupling.

This process is not like a Kalman filter, although there are similarities in concept. The trick is we're querying the distribution in real time, "while" it's being updated, and the same neurons doing the querying are the same ones doing the updating. (These activities are "distributed" throughout the network, and their EM signatures interact holistically).

If you try this with memristors, you run immediately into the daunting technical problem that memristors don't have loads of paramagnetic ions hanging around. They can't be interrogated and controlled this way, it has to be done differently. So memristors have seen success in LSTM architectures where the control elements can be built right into the chip. And less success in the Volterra engine architectures that try to extract causality from millions of simultaneous time series

 

[scruffy]

Totally subjective per the author's opinion(s), yet a few to consider;

The 25 Best Space Opera Books of All Time​

25 of the Best Space Opera Books of All Time | Book Riot

Set out on a journey to explore the stars with 25 of the best space opera books of all time, from Babel-17 to A Memory Called Empire.

bookriot.com

Best space opera of all time is definitely Dame Kiri-Te Kanawa in "The Fifth Element".

 

[Stryder50]

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life as We Don’t Know It​

Scientists are abandoning conventional thinking to search for extraterrestrial creatures that bear little resemblance to Earthlings

The Search for Extraterrestrial Life as We Don't Know It

Scientists are abandoning conventional thinking to search for extraterrestrial creatures that bear little resemblance to Earthlings

www.scientificamerican.com