Volcanic Precognition

An article in Science relates a study of earthquake activity near volcanoes being used to warn of impending eruptions. The study was based on the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands chain that erupted last September. Data from the article is shown to the left. This isn’t the …

Alien Radio

No, I’m not talking about Orson Welles invading homes with his War of the Worlds radio broadcast (something I imagine would spread on social media today). I’m talking about radio signals from space finally resolving the Fermi Paradox: Where are all the aliens? Radio signals abound in space from natural phenomena, so an alien signal …

“The Road Not Taken” Published!

The Road Not Taken is in the April 2019 Bards and Sages Quarterly William Tobias found a way to loop around space-time and meet a young version of himself. Can he change the destiny of his younger self?   My story “The Road Not Taken” is now published in the April 2019 issue of Bards …

The Science of Memory Implants

A recent article talks about MIT researchers Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu, who successfully implanted a false memory into the mind of a mouse. This is the real world catching up with science fiction, where the possibility of implanted memories has been around since Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series in the 1940’s. In fact, I used …

“A Matter of Nurture” Published!

A Matter of Nurture in Neo-opsis 29 Dani Díaz is a virtuoso in a dark but necessary profession. Or is she? A job gone horribly wrong makes her doubt everything she thought she knew, including her own identity. My story “A Matter of Nurture” is now published in issue 29 of Neo-opsis Science Fiction Magazine. I …

Why Scientists are Allergic to Statistics

This article in Medical Xpress addresses a huge pet peeve of mine. Scientists largely suck at statistics! Especially for experimental scientists, this is insane. Yet I cannot express how frustrating it has been to me throughout my career as an experimental scientist to see study after study proven invalid because the statistics were botched. And I’m not …

Mars Terraforming Possible

I recently saw a banner headline on a social media site (which shall remain nameless) that said: “Mars Terraforming Not Possible.” This instantly annoyed me. I am familiar with the science, and happen to know that terraforming Mars is within the realm of future science. So, I followed the link and found an article titled: …

BOOK REVIEW OF TROPIC OF KANSAS

This story exists within a dystopian future America, where the central portion of the country is a political and economic wasteland know as the Tropic of Kansas. The story follows Sig and his foster sister Tania in separate narratives through this harrowing tale of a broken America. Brown paints the picture of this grim future …

Robots in your blood

Nanobots (very small robots, potentially as tiny as molecules) have been a staple of science fiction for decades. But, despite massive investment in scientific research that has produced amazing things, actual nanobots haven’t made it into the real world. However, that may be about to change. This article talks about research at the University of California …

Where are all the aliens?

An article in Science presents research showing that the building blocks of life are more prevalent than previously thought. It says a lot of other things too, but this is what I get out of it. This makes me wonder more than ever about the Fermi Paradox, which states that reasonable assumptions lead to the …