This week, I started counting steps as part of my ongoing attempts to recover my fitness after a partial foot amputation several years ago. Needless to say it’s been a long process, but I finally feel able to put my best foot forward (pun intended!) and measure my walking. So far, I’ve managed about 7000 steps a day. I’ve seen a lot of talk that 10,000 steps is what’s needed, and I was mostly curious as to what distance that was. It turns out that the step counting idea is strangely addictive though. So now it’s time to step up (pun also intended!) and deliver today’s Sunday science.
- Was there an intelligent civilization on Earth before humans? Probably not, but the sci-fi fan in me always likes to read about such wacky ideas, and apparently I’m not alone. Here’s a video talking about the idea.
- All creatures seem to have memories. Whether humans or other animals, there’s clearly a survival benefit to remembering things. But how are these memories actually formed? Up to now, it hasn’t been clear, but researchers have recently been able to see actual memories form. Read more…
- China is a fascinating country, and while its human rights record may be somewhat tarnished, no one can deny its scientific and technical ambition. Now it plans to build a renewable energy farm using solar and wind power to generate as much as 450GW of power in the Gobi Desert. Read more…
- Tyrannosaurus Rex has long been held up as the ferocious “king of the dinosaurs,” but new debate suggests that not all of the specimens found are the same and may, in fact, come from different species. Read more…
- Artificial limbs have been a staple in science fiction for a long time, including in my Joe Ballen series and my short story “Three Lives of Mary.” Now researchers are getting close to creating truly functional bionic prosthetics, a technology that would help thousands. Read more…
- Bulletproof materials have become almost commonplace in military and police circles, and even have a number of civilian applications. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have now created a new nanofiber material that is better at absorbing impact than both kevlar and steel. Read more…
- Science never stands still. In 2018, Australian astronomers reported detecting a “dip” in the radio spectrum coming from space, which was heralded as a signal from the birth of the first stars forming after the big bang – dubbed the “cosmic dawn”. But now a second team has failed to find such a dip, casting doubt on the original findings. But who’s right? Read more…
- Nowadays, if you want to go on a long, complicated journey, you’d probably use a GPS to help. But what about migrating animals? Well, it turns out that one group, elephant seals, have their own inbuilt version of a “GPS,” one that’s surprisingly accurate. Read more…
- For a hundred years, Einstein’s Theory of Gravity has ruled the roost in physics, and seemingly been confirmed multiple times, but with new discoveries such as dark energy and dark matter, is it time to change our ideas? Cosmologist Celia Escamilla-Rivera believes so. Read more…
- In my Joe Ballen and Logan Twofeathers books I have ships utilizing “Casimir Generators” to extract energy from the ebb and flow of virtual subatomic particles. Well, it seems DARPA must have been inspired by my books 🙂 and is researching it too. Not only that, they may also have discovered an Alcubierre-style warp bubble! Read more…
Let me know in the comments if any of these stories fascinate or inspire you. Until next time, stay safe, positive, and curious!
