Science round-up inspiration - 13

Welcome to my end of month round-up of science items that have piqued my interest as they’ve flowed across my social media stream.  As a science fiction writer (and scientist) I keep track of these for both a personal fascination and writing inspiration.  I never cease to be amazed at the advances and discoveries that are happening around the world and I know I’m only aware of a small minority.  Anyway, here’s this month’s selection:

Mars

Every month there are new plans/ideas as to how we will reach and colonise the red planet.  Although it seems the most notable event this month was the failure of the European Space Agency ExoMars lander.  It appears that it’s parachutes did not open early enough and it crash landed into the surface.  Helpfully NASA has released images of the disaster (follow this link – it’s the fourth item down).  This is on the Popular Science site – well worth a look if you don’t know it.

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Science round-up inspiration - 12

Here is my latest my round-up from the world of science.  As always I attach no measure of relative importance to what I include.  They are simply items that have caught my eye as they flow through my social media stream.  This time it’s a little more space based, perhaps because I’m a science fiction author and I’ve been revising a book based way out there in the future.

The journey to Mars – its not all about Mars

William Gurstenmaier (NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations) has been talking about NASAs ambitions for a Mars mission.  What was interesting for me is that for me it’s the first time I’ve read an article that isn’t solely focused on Mars.  A Mars mission is just part of broader mission for the human exploration of the solar system.  They will use robots to build the base and they see robots and humans working together to conquer all the issues that humans will face in that wider exploration.

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Why I write science fiction

In my last blog I questioned if blogging was wasting my time.  I concluded it was, but it wasn’t all the time if that makes sense.  I don’t want to stop blogging, I enjoy it.  However, I did need to reassess my blog, content, timing, frequency etc. so that it both works for me and of course provides entertaining and interesting content for the reader.  So having taken a little blog holiday I’m back.  And for this first in a new era I thought I should go back to the beginning and explain why I feel compelled to write science fiction.  http://wp.me/p3ycbY-1nj

My monthly science highlights - 8)

The end of the month again and time for another dose of science inspiration. The more I do this, the more I see ideas that only a few years ago were science fiction becoming science fact, or at least being talked about as a serious possibility. So here are a few of the things that have caught my eye in March.  This month's highlights include, amongst others, a new Mars mission, a bug that eats plastic and the possibility of immortality. http://wp.me/p3ycbY-1lP

My monthly science round-up - 7)

A month is a short time in writing and I got caught out by February, so here is my (late) batch of inspiration - the seventh of my monthly picks of what's new in science.  Or at least what's new that has caught my imagination. http://wp.me/s3ycbY-science