M Thomas Apple Author Page

Science fiction, actual science, history, and personal ranting about life, the universe, and everything

Humans Have a ‘Salamander-Like’ Ability to Regenerate Damaged Body Parts, Study Finds

October 12, 2019
MThomas

Paging Dr. Connors! Dr. Kurt Con….

Our bodies have retained the capacity to repair injured or overworked cartilage in our joints, says new research published today in Science Advances. Remarkably, the mechanics of this healing process are practically the same as what’s used by amphibians and other animals to regenerate lost limbs

Oh.

Um.

Nevermind. It was a cool idea, anyways…

— Read on gizmodo.com/humans-have-a-salamander-like-ability-to-regenerate-d-1838909848

A brief rant about Netflix: No, that’s NOT what “original” means

August 6, 2019
MThomas

IMG_7075

This is not a complaint about Netflix in general (well, not necessarily, but anyway). Without Netflix, I might have gone, shall we say, a little…

img_2250

…this past winter. I’ve been working temporarily in Montréal, several thousands miles of miles apart from my family, and being able to watch movies and older TV shows has been a great escape from the depressing monotony of single life.

But I feel the need to tell Netflix that I do not appreciate their use of the word “original.” Continue Reading

Farewell, Roy Baty

July 24, 2019
MThomas

All those moments have been lost.

Like tears in rain.

Entering eternity.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/24/20708804/blade-runner-rutger-hauer-dead-tears-in-rain-replicant-roy-batty

12 Times SFF Characters Trained Their Own Duplicates

July 3, 2019
MThomas

clones

My award-winning SF novella Adam’s Stepsons featured clones, which as some reviewers noted came a little after the peak of clones (although I wonder if we have yet to hit the “peak,” given scientific progress).

So as I was scouring the net for summer reads, I came across a lot of books about clones and ethical dilemmas (or lack thereof).

The main article I’ve linked here is from Tor.com, which often posts great stuff about SF Continue Reading

Full Metal Asteroid! Um. Maybe.

June 24, 2019
MThomas

Psyche

“Final planning stages” usually translates into “we have no idea when, if ever, this thing will work.”

Psyche!

Yes, actually.

Let’s hope NASA doesn’t resort to this:

FullMetal-bail

techcrunch.com/2019/06/11/nasa-moves-to-final-planning-stages-for-mission-to-explore-16-psyches-full-metal-asteroid/

Vulcan does not exist — but 40 Eridani does

June 13, 2019
MThomas

vulcan

As a kid I remember reading about “Vulcan,” which people used to think existed between Mercury and the Sun but always orbited on the opposite side.

Completely fictional, of course.

But…

Vulcan made a comeback as the fictional home of Spock in Star Trek. It was said by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to be orbiting around 40 Eridani (also called HD 26965), a triple star system in the constellation of Eridanus “the river” in the southern hemisphere just 16 light years distant. In September 2018, astronomers at the University of Florida in Gainesville found a “super-Earth” exoplanet orbiting exactly where Vulcan was said to be.

There is only one logical conclusion…

Spock-Amok

www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2019/05/24/return-of-the-planet-vulcan-how-the-fire-planet-was-destroyed-by-science-and-how-its-been-reborn/

The Moon, Mars, and What?

June 8, 2019
MThomas

No, the Moon is not “part of Mars.”

No, I don’t know what he meant.

No, I don’t really feel like posting about it.

So there. Nyah.

Aliens are among us! Um, apparently…

April 30, 2019
MThomas

oxford-invisible-aliens-breeding-humans-1200x630

Still, the fact that someone as highly educated as Chi wrote an entire book based on salvation by extraterrestrials could be a sign of how daunting our future is starting to look.

Or, conversely, how wack some Oxford dons really are…

https://futurism.com/the-byte/oxford-invisible-aliens-breeding-humans?fbclid=IwAR16jgOZNhpe6Q4tQrjDD7myYRF7vhC3ZJhf15GoPxrYPbMDxMF7fH5Xz2o

New Lifelike Biomaterial Self-Reproduces and Has a Metabolism

April 25, 2019
MThomas

Iron-Man-comics-Bleeding-Edge-armor

“Fundamentally, we may be able to change how we create and use the materials with lifelike characteristics. Typically materials and objects we create in general are basically static… one day, we may be able to ‘grow’ objects like houses and maintain their forms and functions autonomously.”

You mean like Iron Man from a decade ago (as seen in Infinity War)?

Or Venom back in 1984?

Honestly, scientists these days…can’t even keep up with comic books from the ’80s…

(That said, I’m not entirely thrilled with the idea of living in a living house that can maintain its own form and feed itself…on what?! you might ask…)

— Read on singularityhub.com/2019/04/24/new-lifelike-biomaterial-self-reproduces-and-has-a-metabolism/amp/

Quantum downloading the brain

April 16, 2019
MThomas

scientists-quantum-material-download-brain-1200x630

The research is in early stages, but it invokes ideas like uploading brains to the cloud or hooking people up to a computer to track deep health metrics…

Hm. This sounds like an idea for a cool science fiction

Ah.

jwl8mezh-720

https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-quantum-material-download-brain?fbclid=IwAR0gsFggMSQ6RF-poI8QV5rNGpko5HylTbuZyCOM_Uxh0LhV5hnFkUv2xgw

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