Elysium (cont)

Ah. That's better. My internet woes are over. And I can talk on my phone again without hearing crackle crackle. Now, where were we...

I remember how much I was looking forward to this movie when I first saw the previews at the movies last winter - way more than Oblivion. I’ve always liked Matt Damon and I can’t think of a movie of his I haven’t enjoyed. But Elysium…I think it failed in its intent, which I assume was to deliver a cool scifi movie that maybe made you think a little – but not too much. The trouble with the movie was that I never cared enough about the characters. Although there was a bit in the beginning about Max's (Damon) past and his best friend, Frey (played by Alice Braga), it wasn’t enough or the right kind of backstory to make me care or believe in his sudden commitment to her. And Jody Foster's character...well...let's just say she's capable of so much more and to see her in such a one dimensional role was disappointing. And her accent was kinda funky. 

Then there was the all too familiar story of the have and the have nots, and this place - Elysium - that if you could just get to would solve all your troubles. Which is fine, except that a familiar plot combined with flat characters does not make a very good movie. But that's just my opinion. 

Did you see Elysium? Agree? Disagree? 

Genetic Engineering

Genetic engineering, or genetic modification, is a way to change an organism's genome (all the hereditary info found in one's DNA) by either removing or inserting new material "to form new combinations of heritable genetic material." Any organism changed in this manner is considered genetically modified. We are currently using genetic engineering to produce insect resistant plants and animals used for research "and the production of agricultural or pharmaceutical products." 

Some people worry whether genetically engineered plants and animals are safe. Other people worry that genetic engineering will eventually crossover to humans and become a privilege of the wealthy "who will opt to design their child with genetic advantages." There are arguments both for and against human genetic engineering, including "the belief that every fetus has an inherent right to remain genetically unmodified, the belief that parents hold the rights to modify their unborn offspring, and the belief that every child has the right to be born free from preventable diseases."*

The GloFish (patented and trademarked) is a brand of genetically modified fish.

And if you really want to be freaked out by this subject, look up spider-goats.


*Wikipedia

FTL - Faster Than Light

If you read or watch scifi at all, you're probably familiar with the term FTL, or faster than light travel, because it's the only way we will ever be able to explore more of our solar system - nevermind the universe. Well, okay, not the only way (wormholes come to mind), but the fact is because everything in space is so damn far away if we want to know more then we've got to invent FTL travel.

One method would be to employ an Alcubierre drive, which, unlike most methods of FTL travel actually conforms to the General Theory of Relativity rather than violates it. This method of travel was conceived by Miguel Alcubierre who imagined a bubble of normal space–time around a spacecraft that would allow for FTL travel by expanding space itself behind the ship and compressing it in front. Normal physics still applies within the bubble, and so the passengers don’t feel any acceleration at all. The bad news according to Popular Mechanics:

You can’t get in or out of the bubble. Crossing the threshold would probably crush and obliterate a spaceship.

You can’t destroy the bubble. One must deform space–time to make the bubble in the first place. How would you re-form it? No one knows.

You might destroy your destination. Even if scientists knew how to stop the bubble once it started, decelerating would release high-energy particles from the front-facing side. Anything at the destination "would be high-energy-particle blasted into oblivion." 

It requires energies that might be impossible (or incredibly difficult) to achieve. In mathematical models, the sides of the bubble would require energy per unit of volume to be less than zero. We’re not sure this "exotic energy" exists. And if it does, it would take 10 billion times the mass of the observable universe.

The good news is NASA is actually working on this (is that not so cool?!) and physicist Harvey White says the energy problem may be surmountable by "tweaking the warp drive's geometry" and thereby reducing the energy needed from "a planet with a mass equivalent to over 300 Earths, down to an object that weighs just under 1,600 pounds.

What’s more, if you oscillate the space warp, White claims you could reduce the energy load even further. Instead of taking “decades or centuries,” White says this would allow us to visit a spot like Alpha Centauri — a little over four light years from us — in as little as “weeks or months.”

So, where do you want to go?

Dyson Sphere

As some of you know I'm working on a scifi novel called NO REST, hence my choice of subject matter for the A-Z blogfest. Among the many things I've learned about is the Kardashev scale which measures a civilization's technological advancement.

Type I is pretty much where we are and where we'll probably be for a very long time. Guillermo A. Lemarchand stated this as "A level near contemporary terrestrial civilization with an energy capability equivalent to the solar insolation on earth, between 10¹⁶ and 10 ¹⁷Watts."

A Type II civ is able to harness the energy radiated by its own star, for example by building a Dyson sphere (I know, you wondering when I was going to get to the title of my post, wern't you?), a hypothetical megastructure originally described by Freeman Dyson.^* Such a "sphere" would be a system of orbiting solar-power satallites meant to completely encompass a star and capture most or all of its energy output. 

As for a Type III, a civ of this type would be have access to the power comparable to the luminosity of the entire Milky Way galaxy, about 4 x 10³⁷Watts. Yikes.



* Freeman Dyson is a British-born American, theoretical physicist, and mathematician, who is famous for his work in quantum electrodynamics, solid-state physics, astronomy, and nuclear engineering.

Clones and cloning

SOURCE

A clone is a cell product or organism that is genetically identical to the unit or individual from which it was derived. Cloning is the process of creating genetically identical individuals.

Did you know that in 2006 the FDA gave its approval to meat which came from cloned animals, with no special labeling required? Or that Dolly, the first successfully cloned animal, was born only after 277 eggs were used to create 29 embryos, only one of which lived? Not good odds. Plus Dolly only lived 7 years and allegedly "had pathologies resembling accelerated aging." However, Ian Wilmut - part of the team who cloned Dolly - claims that her premature death was "unrelated to the deficiencies with the cloning process." To learn more about the risks of cloning click here.


One of the most interesting things I learned about cloning is the idea that it could bring back extinct species like the wooly mammoth and/or save those on the endangered list. However, "many conservation biologists and environmentalists vehemently oppose cloning endangered species - mainly because they think it may deter donations to help preserve natural habitat and wild animal populations." Sadly I have to agree with them.

Bottom line, we know how to clone, but we don't yet know how to do it exactly right, and there is still a question of whether we should. What do you think about cloning?

 

Battlestar Galactica

Battlestar Galactica is, in my opinion, the best scifi show ever. Now don't get me wrong, I adore Star Trek in all its incarnations and Firefly also sits at the top of my scifi list along with Stargate, Taken, The 4400, and a host of other shows. But BSG is just the best best frakking show ever and here's why:

1. Characters to love - and hate. Aside from the cylons - some of whom were easy to hate, others not so much - we had Starbuck, a kick-ass pilot turned visionary, Boomer aka Sharon, who not only tried to kill Adama but NEVER EVEN KNEW SHE WAS A FRAKKING CYLON!!!! And Baltar, who was practically responsible for the destruction of the colonies because of his lust for Six, played by the ever so sexy Tricia Helfer. But hey, who can blame him, right? And that's just three of the amazing characters.

2. A killer plot not to mention subplots to die for that were not only amazingly well-written but also spoke to the times we lived in.

3. Special effects to rival the big screen and - according to my brother the geek - accurate depictions of space flight.

It also won a bunch of awards and was praised by a wide range of reviewers. If you haven't seen this show I highly recommend you get it to watch. You won't be disappointed.

Andromeda & Arlee Bird

Today we have our very first letter and first post. Exciting!

According to my heritage dictionary, circa 1969, Andromeda is a constellation in the Northern  Hemisphere near Lacerta and Perseus. According to Wiki it is also "the closest spiral galaxy to the Milky Way and one of the brightest Messier objects, which are "naturally occurring physical entities, associations, or structures that current science has demonstrated to exist in the observable universe." It is scheduled to crash into the Milky Way in about 5 billion years (bummer!). It was first discovered by Persian astronomer, Abd al-Rahman al-Suf in 964.*

The Andromeda Galaxy also happens to be where my current wip, NO REST, takes place. You can check out my progress on my side bar.

A also happens to stand for Arlee, as in Arlee Bird, the force behind the phenomenon that is A - Z. If you get the chance, go say hi and thank you to the founder of the most excellent fest ever :)

THANK YOU ARLEE!!!

 * http://www.space.com/19222-largest-spiral-galaxy-universe.html

Genetically Enhanced Humans - more from Gurps

So, just to prove to you how valuable and interesting Gurps is, I randomly turned to this page where Genetically Enhanced Humans is one of the headings. As you may imagine, in the future, genetic enhancement will be available and science will be able to make people 'better.' Better might include the ability to see in the dark, or breathe water. Better might be faster or stronger. Or better might be whatever your parents decide.

So, pop quiz. Would you take a genetic enhancement if it were available? Assuming it was perfectly safe, of course...and if so what sort of enhancement would you purchase? If not, why not?

One genetic enhancement I wouldn't mind having is better than 20/20 vision (and I don't even have that). Imagine how cool it would be to be able to see farther, clearly.

 Just think, I might be able to see all the way to that point, identify that boat, zoom in to see who's on board...



   

Happy Birthday Al - for real this time!

First, to those who are seeing this for the second time, I apologize. I goofed and scheduled prematurely :(
To those who are seeing this for the first time today, yay! and nice to see you :) This blogfest is brought to you by LG, Stephen Tremp, and Laura Eno and asks, where - or when - would you like to go if you had one round trip ticket through the wormhole. The only requirement is to explain your answer in 100 words or less.


Now, I'll grant that I'm tempted to take a trip back to the past but that tends to make me a little nervous because what if I changed something and it turned out badly?  Even a trip back to talk to myself and explain a few things could have unforeseen consequences so I think I'm going to leave the past where it is, behind me. Instead, I think I'll set my sights on the future and see where we are in a 1000 years. Have we invented faster than light travel yet? Do we have a colony on Mars? Have we conquered aging? Made clones? Traveled to far flung galaxies? Because that's what I'm most curious about, the future of us. And I have to tell you, if it's really cool...I might not come back :)

Where/when would you go?

casimir forces and exotic matter

You might remember me mentioning my practice last week and how it could turn into something. I told myself if it got over 10K I'd call it a work in progress. If it gets over 20 I'll make a progress bar for it. In the mean time it has a working title and I'm doing some research., because I've delved into a genre I love to read, but have never written. Science Fiction.

source

Here's two new things I've learned:

It has been suggested that the Casimir forces have application in nanotechnology, in particular silicon integrated circuit technology based micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems, silicon array propulsion for space drives, and so-called Casimir oscillators.

There is a theory that exotic matter (material that has negative mass/energy) could be used to hold the 'throat' open of a Schwarzchild wormhole.

Today I'm going to learn what a Krasnikov device is.

What have you learned lately?