Futures
The purpose of this section is to highlight recent scientific progress that may transform our future.
July 7, 2008
More on Bell Bio-Energy
It appears that Bell Bio-Energy is on schedule and making impressive progress in the plan to produce oil and gas from natural biomass and the genetic manipulation of bacteria. Please see my article below dated March 21. This new company now has its website on-line; please see www.bellbioenergy.com There is an audio interview with the founder, J.C. Bell, dated June 30 that updates us on the latest progress. It’s worth a listen. It took a lot of mouse clicking before the audio finally kicked in for me but it was worth the wait. This effort is one of many recent developments that will help us to ultimately achieve energy independence from our Saudi masters. I’m still optimistic enough to believe that this will happen because the American people will demand it, and I sure hope our government just gets out of the way and doesn’t interfere.
May 20, 2008
Scientists Reject Global Warming Agenda
I’ve long been suspicious of the global warming gang because they act more like religious fanatics than scientists, and refuse to even discuss the possibility that they might be wrong. Here is a very interesting World Net Daily article that claims they are wrong: livepage.apple.com
April 22, 2008
Ending Aging
I’ve just finished reading Ending Aging, a very interesting book by Aubrey de Grey PhD. The subtitle is The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. This is no longer a dream, but will soon be scientific reality. According to the back cover blurb: “The most realistic way to combat aging is to rejuvenate the body at the molecular and cellular level, removing accumulated damage and restoring us to a biologically younger state.... Comprehensive rejuvenation therapies can feasibly postpone age-related frailty and disease indefinitely, greatly extending our lives while eliminating, rather than lengthening, the period of late-life frailty and debilitation.”
This is a fascinating book on a very complex subject. De Grey relates exactly what must be done and outlines all the recent progress in this field. I recommend the book to anyone interested in this subject.
Please also see the May 2008 issue of Scientific American which has an article entitled How Cells Clean House. After reading de Grey’s book I found this article illuminating.
April 16, 2008
Very, Very Promising Progress Against Cancer
Here is some astounding news that promises a clean, non-surgical cure for all types of cancer, with zero side effects, using radio waves and nanoparticles. Please see the 60 Minutes video clip. If this works out, human testing should be underway in as little as four years. As usual, the most revolutionary concepts are invented by one guy, working alone in his garage. Here’s a glimpse of the future. The video clip begins with a short ad; please be patient.
April 12, 2008
Interesting News on Alzheimers
Here is more promising progress against the scourge of Alzheimers. I am convinced that this disease, along with many others, will be cured within the near future. From the Independent, via World Net Daily: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/scientists-claim-videos-are-proof-of-alzheimers-breakthrough-808144.html
March 24, 2008
Inconvenient Facts - Goodbye Global Warming
From World Net Daily we have more scientific evidence that global warming is not happening. Please see http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23411799-7583,00.html
March 22, 2008
Regeneration
In the Soldier of the Legion series, Legion troopers are able to regenerate limbs (and other body parts and organs) lost in combat, thanks to ConFree’s advanced science. The science in this series is based on my view of the future, but that view is based on current scientific progress extended into the future. Here is an article from Scientific American about current progress on regeneration. The salamander has always been able to regrow missing limbs and scientists are examining these creatures to find out how they do it. The goal, of course, is to enable humans to do it as well. Our thanks to Scientific American: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=regrowing-human-limbs
March 21, 2008
Oil? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Oil!
A Georgia company has found a natural, simple way to convert anything that grows into hydrocarbons to fuel vehicles. The pilot plant will be running within 2-3 months and the larger facility will be operating within 2-3 years. If the article is correct, this will end our dependence on foreign oil within a few years. And we may not even need oil at all in the future. Please see the World Net Daily site at http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=59402
March 8, 2008
Science Reveals Heaviest Element
Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.
These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction normally taking less than a second, to take from four days to four years to complete.
Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2-6 years. It does not decay, but undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes, not to mention multiple oxymorons.
This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. That hypothetical quantity might normally be called "critical mass" but, in this unique case it is known as "critical mess".
When catalyzed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (Am), another just-discovered element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.
Author unknown
Reversing Loss of Memory
According to The Independent, via World News Daily, scientists in Ontario have recently discovered - by accident - how to stimulate long-suppressed memories in the brain. Making new discoveries by accident is a long scientific tradition. What this new technique may lead to is unlocking how memory works, and bringing memories back to Alzheimer patients. This is incredibly important. Please see the article at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-discover-way-to-reverse-loss-of-memory-775586.html
January 26, 2008
Global Cooling
I’m getting so sick of people with gigantic carbon footprints blaming me personally for global warming that I thought I’d post this article on global cooling. A Russian scientist believes that global warming has peaked and that another ice age is on the way. This article is from the Russian news agency RIA Novosti- http://en.rian.ru/science/20080122/97519953.html
September 23, 2007
Alzheimers? Forget it!
Sorry, I couldn't resist the above title. If you're a pessimist I'd recommend keeping up on recent scientific advances in fighting diseases that have been plaguing mankind throughout history -- that will turn you into an optimist. One of the scariest diseases is Alzheimers, where your brain gets infected with a plaque that causes your nerve cells to degenerate and you slowly lose your memory. Finally you don't even remember your wife and kids, and you don't even know who you are.
A recent article in Science News by Patrick Barry ("Curry Power") summarizes recent progress in experimenting with turmeric, which herbal medicine practitioners from India use to treat a variety of ailments. Turmeric is a yellow-orange spice that is used in yellow curry. The active ingredient is a compound called curcumin. It is a powerful anti-oxident and anti-inflammatory agent. Curcumin has been shown to counter plaque formation in the brains of mice. There is good evidence that it does the same for people, although a definitive study is still underway. Until the results are in, Mr. Barry recommends eating yellow curry. People in India have a much lower incidence of Alzheimers than Americans. If turmeric/curcumin is effective against Alzheimers, we won't even have to worry about waiting for FDA approval. Just eat your curry!
September 20, 2007
More on Curing Cancer
Here's more evidence of the amazing progress that is being made in the fight against cancer. A newly discovered type of cancer-killing immune system cell is now being manipulated and tested and it appears to be successful in killing cancer cells permanently. Supposedly this cure may be ready for market in two years. This looks very promising. Can you imagine a world without cancer? Or a world where people will admire scientists and researchers rather than airhead celebrities? Please see the article at www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/19/ncancer219.xml
August 24, 2007
Artificial Life
Yes, that's right – artificial life. According to AP Science writer Seth Borenstein, scientists are currently working on producing artificial life from scratch and they expect results in 3 to 10 years. The idea is to create synthetic life forms, made from the basic chemicals of DNA. Once these scientists have duplicated God's work, they will be able to tailor make the new life to a wide variety of tasks, some probably not even yet envisioned.
The article notes that to create artificial life you need a container or membrane for the cell, a genetic system that controls the functions of the cell, and a metabolism that extracts raw materials from the environment as food and changes it to energy. The scientists believe that once the container is made, Darwinian evolution will take over as the new life form begins reproducing itself. Then the scientists will sit back and watch to learn what will occur.
It sounds rather scary to me, but also very interesting. Here's the article: http://www.wtop.com/?nid=220&sid=1225287
Cancer Vaccine
An article in the August 11, 2007 issue of Science News by Patrick Barry advises that the long sought possibility of a vaccine against cancer may finally become a reality. According to the article several new drugs when paired with vaccines enable the vaccines to spur the body's immune system to attack cancer cells. Cancer tumors have learned to disguise themselves as healthy tissues rather than alien invaders and this fools the killer T cells that function as the immune system's attack dogs. The new combination of drugs and vaccines subvert the cancer's defenses and allow the killer T's to recognize and destroy the unhealthy tissues.
According to the article, provisional testing on human patients in Amsterdam has been successful. This is just a beginning but if it works out cancer patients may be able to kill the disease with a vaccine, and people who don't have cancer may be able to prevent it with the same vaccine.
Isn't that amazing?
June 26, 2007
What will the future be like? Nobody knows. But if we understand history, and if we look at current trends, we can get some ideas. As a science fiction writer with a background in history, government and international affairs, I spend a lot of time thinking about it. I also spend a lot of time keeping track of current scientific events and trends. I have been increasingly amazed at what is out there. We appear to be on the brink of an era of astounding scientific progress that is going to transform our world in ways never before predicted. The world of science is meeting and overtaking the world of science fiction.
This is a very exciting period to be alive, on the brink of a new scientific age. I call this section of my website "Futures" because I feel compelled to write down some of my thoughts about this brave new age that is coming at us quickly, whether we like it or not. Although I haven't set this up as a chat site, I welcome any comments and if they are of interest I will add them to the site. Maybe we can make this a chat site later. For now just e-mail andrion2@cox.net if you wish to comment.
A little background first: As a science fiction writer, I love to write. I write about people because that's what interests me and I think people are what make a story interesting to the reader, not technology. My SF series Soldier of the Legion is primarily about people, for that reason. However, believable advanced science and technology is what defines science fiction, so the series has plenty of that as well as lots of action. I recently attended the RavenCon Science Fiction Convention in Richmond, VA, and sat on two panels covering Military SF and Hard SF. Military SF is of course science fiction that includes military action and technology. Hard SF is not SF that is difficult to read, but SF that includes believable advanced science and technology as part of the story line. To me, that is the definition of SF itself, because without it you just have space opera or maybe a Western set on Jupiter. One of the panelists was Roger Sawyer who is Mr. Hard SF. His stories are wonderfully done and he is a gentleman and a real nice guy. So, to summarize, I believe a good SF story has to have believable science and technology, or it's not SF, but it also has to have realistic, sympathetic characters or the reader may lose interest.
All right, how do you get believable science and technology if you're writing about a future that no-one has yet seen? I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that I have a clear view of the future that I envision for my SF series. I have a general idea about how things work in my series so my problem is not what to imagine but how to explain the technology to the reader in a way that sounds plausible. Keep in mind that science that is sufficiently advanced can not initially be distinguished from magic to an observer from an earlier era. It then becomes necessary for me to explain the science to the reader, and that's tricky. If I give too many details of some imagined way-out advanced technology, some scientist may say it's impossible or very unlikely. If I give just enough hints at how it works to appear plausible, then we're successful. Scientific progress is now so fast that there is not very much that can be ruled out as impossible for the future. However the info I give must track with the latest scientific developments.
Remember Jules Verne? He did hard science fiction. His SF was based on the science they had at that time. He had his characters travel to the Moon with 19th Century technology. Looking back at that science now, it appears silly. At the time, it was cutting-edge. We now know that there are going to be plenty of scientific advances in the future – with science that will probably be indistinguishable from magic, to us. So I believe in tempering my "hard" SF with plenty of imagination.
