Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card was one of the first real SF novels I ever read, and one of the most impressionable.
It’s just one of those books that every SF fan should read.
Now there’s a movie coming out in November, starring Asa Butterfield and Harrison Ford (great choice).
Here’s the trailer:
Sorry I’ve been a bit absent friends! Have been working furiously to finish this book. It’s coming along — about 10k words to go. That is HUGE.
If you’re a writer, check out my other blog wipupdate.com for author interviews, writing tips, and resources. It’s a bit easier to maintain than scienceforfiction, so content goes up there fairly regularly.
Okay — anyway — who wants a flying car?!
Hi Everyone -
MY NEW SHORT STORY JUST CAME OUT TODAY IN QUANTUM FAIRY TALES!!!
I love the folks at Quantum Fairy Tales. Check them out right now, and maybe submit something for their next quarterly issue!
Here’s the beginning of A Needed Visit, with a link to the rest of the story. My spin is that I present a short scifi piece first, and then back it up with real-world cutting edge science. That’s why you’ll see “The Fiction” and then “The Science.”
Enjoy!
by: Tim Barzyk
My senses fill with the musky scent of sweat and soap and a long hard day.
I float my hand across his cheek, hovering just above my own face, and feel the sandpaper bristle of his evening beard. His hands move behind my shoulders, his fingers knead into my sore muscles.
It feels good to be held again.
“Hey honey,” his deep rich voice softly saturates my mind, and then I open my eyes.
And smile.
“Hey yourself,” I say playfully. But my heart fills with a mournful joy at seeing him again. His deep brown eyes steadily gaze into my own, and though we’ve been together for seven years now, I still feel like looking away at their intensity. But one of the greatest gifts I give myself is to let them stare at me, let them engage me, and let their love soak into me.
Read the rest… (pretty please with a cherry on top?)
Ready for the paperless society? Perhaps not quite as ready as you might think.
Your iPad or Android tablet is really good at a lot of things, but for some things, paper just can't be replaced, as one French company hilariously illustrates in this ad, which has gone viral:
The ad is by the Leo Burnett agency for a French company, Le Trèfle, which produces -- of course -- toilet paper.
Alas, the punchline is given above, but that’s okay.
My short story Touch came out like a newly-formed artificial intelligence — rearin’ and ready to go, but with a nascent understanding of the world.
I like it, but as a short story, it could use a little TLC — some restructuring in flow and character development, a bit less cliff-hangy — but that’s what the future is for. It’ll be there waiting for me when I have the time to get back to it. It was my first ever short story, so I learned a lot.
Please feel free to check it out — posted here – and let me know what you think.
Happy days folks — hope you’re keeping sane in these crazy times.
All the best –
Tim
Headline from The Telegraph:
The Science
A hundred and seventy-two years ago, I pondered what it would be like to live 1,000 years. If medical science developed a pill to extend life indefinitely, would you take it?
I mean, really…would you?
You’d live for centuries and centuries and centuries. You’re not invincible, you just stop aging. The things that make your body old – oxidative stress, tissue degeneration, muscle atrophy – all gone.
Biology is a weird field, though, because sometimes a hopeful little finding takes a loooooooong time to amount to something. Even a huge finding – like mapping the human genome – that promised tailored cures and a new era of disease prevention – still has a long way to go.
That said, let’s accentuate the positive – researchers have found a protein that restores youth in the blood of mice.
Genes produce proteins. So if you lack a gene, you lack a protein. In this case, we’re talking about the SIRT3 protein.
Old mice that couldn’t produce SIRT3 were less able to produce new blood cells, so basically their blood got old – oxidative stress damaged the blood and their systems couldn’t produce new blood to replace it…not until researchers gave them a healthy dose of SIRT3!
The proteins didn’t just regulate the aging process or slow down the damage, they reversed the ageing process and rejuvenated the blood.
I swear. One by one, they’ll identify more genes and proteins that do things like this. Question is, when will they be available for HUMANS as an actual treatment, and not just a result from a lab mouse?
The Fiction
Anti-aging treatments have extended the life of the common mouse by ten-fold. The oldest lab mouse on record has already outlived two generations of caregivers. However, anti-aging treatments have yet to be developed for human use.
Humans that have covertly tried the mouse-based treatments have had serious side effects, from third-arm growth to eyeball engorgement, and no significant increase in lifespan.
Researchers have finally found a way to incorporate the treatments into humans, but people are a little wary of the implications.
“It’s all in the timing,” says Dr. Genarian of the Anti-Aging Growth Enterprise (AAGE). “We gave people the treatments when they were already old, and they didn’t work. We need to administer them a little earlier,” she says.
When asked how early, Dr. Genarian scratches her red hair and says, “Mmm…pre-embryo.”
The idea is to incorporate mouse DNA into a human embryo to create a mouse-human hybrid that can accept the treatments.
“Technically, we’d be creating a new species of homo-sapien,” says Dr. Genarian. “But they’d live a lot longer.”
Researchers can’t exactly predict all the traits of a half-breed – DNA is way too complex for that, but if they live to be 1,000 years old, some parents may not mind a child with a abnormal affinity for cheese.
