Science and SF Tidbits: April 30, 2012

Some of the science and SF links originally posted on Google+, Twitter , and Facebook this week:


Recommended free Kindle book (limited time only):

Amazon.com: Long Eyes eBook: Jeff Carlson: Kindle Store » (affiliate link)
Free for the Kindle (or if you are running the Kindle App), at least at the moment:
"Long Eyes" by Jeff Carlson. This collection includes "sixteen stories about strange worlds, biotech, commandos, and the girl next door" along with Carlson's commentary about his inspiration for each story.
Kickstarter project plug:
Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology »
Kickstarter plug: the Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology will be edited by Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer:

"The anthology will emphasize women's speculative fiction from the mid-1970s onward, looking to explore women's rights as well as gender/race/class/etc. from as many perspectives as possible. The contributors are not yet established so we hesitate to name names, but rights to reprint stories from Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, Joanna Russ, and James Tiptree Jr. would be sought in addition to a wealth of newer voices in the field."

You can learn more about the project at http://blog.geekradical.org/

Geek Life:

What It Means To Be A Geek »
Are geeks the most enthusiastic people on the planet? And what does it mean to be both a girl and a geek?

Science and Science Fiction in the Arts 

• Harvard sociobiologist E.O. Wilson on the origins of the arts | Harvard Magazine May-Jun 2012 »
  Could there be a Shakespeare of the ants? E.O. Wilson writes about the arts - painting, music, literature - and how they are influenced by neuroscience and human evolutionary history.
• Strongest Female Protagonist in YA? | Strange Chemistry »
  Who is your favorite female YA novel protagonist? For current novels, I'd have to go with Hermione from the Harry Potter series. From my youth, I'd vote for Mia in "Rite of Passage" by Alexei Panshin.
• Scientist Spotlight: Aaron Blaisdell | The Science & Entertainment Exchange »
  The Science & Entertainment Exchange interviews animal behavior expert Aaron Blaisdell, who has been a consultant to Disney Animation. He says:
  "Practitioners of science and fiction are both in the business of exploring the question “what if?” For a scientist the question is a hypothesis to be tested, for the fiction storyteller the question is explored in the medium of film or writing. Personally, I find good fiction gets my creative juices flowing, which translates into better, by which I mean more creative and thoughtful, science."

• How Movie Makers Use Science To Make Magic : NPR »
  NPR talks to scientists from Pixar and ILM about creating digital characters:
  "...  capturing that emotion in a performance is very difficult, and that's what our animators bring to the table. Once the emotion is there, then other artists are responsible for making sure that, you know, the plastic looks like it should and that the lighting is going to reflect the desires of the director."
• Untangling The Hairy Physics Of Rapunzel (YouTube)
  Science Friday looks at the science behind CGI

Science of the Future? 

• 14 extinct animals that could be resurrected »
  If you could resurrect one extinct animal, which would it be? Saber toothed cats? Passenger pigeons? The dodo? Giant sloths? T-rex?
• UK team develops Trek 'tricorder' »
  This sounds very cool:
  "At its heart are bacteriophages - viruses that attack bacteria. By attaching antibodies to the viruses, they can be made to "stick" to specific micro-organisms. [...] Like strands of pasta, the viruses "line up" when stirred in a solution. But just as meatballs disturb rows of perfectly aligned spaghetti, bacteria cause the viruses to separate and tangle.
  Polarised light shone through the viruses makes it possible to show when the bugs are present. The light is blocked by aligned viruses, but passes through them when they become tangled. This generates an electrical signal displayed as a set of numbers on a computer screen. "
• DVICE: Biophotovoltaic table harvests electricity from moss »

Cool Bioscience

• The Virus that Destroyed the Dutch Economy »
  A virus that infected tulips in 17th century Netherlands helped destroy the Dutch economy. Amazing how a simple virus could generate such unexpected consequences. Truth is stranger than fiction.
• “Mythological Beast of a Virus” Found in Californian Hot Spring | 80beats | Discover Magazine »
  A chimeric RNA-DNA virus would be a rare beast indeed. The results haven't been confirmed, but if they turn out to be accurate:
  "... it suggests that viral evolution and the ability of different viruses to swap genes is more widespread and general than we had thought. "
• Fish Glow Green After Genetic Engineering »
  At +National Geographic: Zebrafish were genetically engineered so that their organs would glow green if affected by common freshwater pollutants, including endocrine disruptors.
• Study reveals how ancient viruses became genomic 'superspreaders' »
  Understanding the "dark matter" of our genomes - the ancient viruses incorporated in our DNA:
  "We suspect that these viruses are forced to make a choice: either to keep their 'viral' essence and spread between animals and species, or to commit to one genome and then spread massively within it. This is the story of the epidemic within every animal's genome, a story which has been going on for 100 million years and which continues today."
• Rare protozoan from sludge in Norwegian lake does not fit on main branches of tree of life »
  From one of the scientists who made the discovery:
  "We have found an unknown branch of the tree of life that lives in this lake. It is unique! So far we know of no other group of organisms that descend from closer to the roots of the tree of life than this species. It can be used as a telescope into the primordial micro-cosmos"

Other worlds

• Giant lava coils seen for the first time on Mars
  A beautiful pattern left by water and lava on ancient Mars.
  (See the image at the top of the page)

Putting More Science into UK Fiction and Movies

A group of UK SF writers, including Alastair Reynolds, Ken MacLeod, Geoff Ryman, Justina Robson, Simon Ings and Paul McAuley, are calling for a UK equivalent to the US Science & Entertainment Exchange, which connects scientists with the entertainment industry.

In their letter published in the Manchester Review they suggest that scientific credibility in entertainment is important to both scientists and the public:

In Britain, though, scientists, and people in arts, TV, movie and literary worlds do not work together as they should. This is a major problem: we all desperately need to understand each other’s constraints to create works that are entertaining, enlightening, and scientifically authentic. But worryingly, Britain is falling behind the United States, where organisations such as The National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange are forging these new and productive relationships between scientists and the entertainment industry.

The authors are participating in the "Putting Science in Fiction" symposium at the University of Manchester this week.  The scientists participating in the conference include biologist Matthew Cobb, astrophysicist Tim O'Brien, and paleontologist Phil Manning. They are joined by David A. Kirby, author of Lab Coats in Hollywood (sample chapters), and Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, author of Science on Stage (sample chapter).

As Ryman told The Guardian, part of the problem is poor communication between scientists and science fiction writers:

"I work with a lot of scientists and one of the frustrating things they find is that all this fascinating stuff is being done which doesn't find its way into science fiction. They say look at the science fact pages – they're so much more imaginative than science fiction," said Ryman, winner for his novels of a British Science Fiction Association award, a World Fantasy award and an Arthur C Clarke award, and a creative writing lecturer at the University of Manchester. "It's my experience that scientists can find it difficult to understand the needs of scriptwriters or storytellers. [. . .]"

On this side of the Atlantic, the Science and Entertainment Exchange is a program of the US National Academy of Sciences. It will be interesting to see whether the UK group is successful in organizing a similar program with ties to the Royal Society or another scientific organization that can help with promotion within the scientific community.

And I wonder how interested the entertainment industry is in getting suggestions from scientists about "fascinating stuff" - from the interviews I've read on the Science and Entertainment Exchange site, it seems more common that scientists are asked to help with the implementation of scientific ideas that are already part of an existing screenplay. It seems to me that the more unusual scientific discoveries are more likely to appear in written science fiction than on TV or in the movies.  But maybe that's a misperception influenced by my entertainment choices.

In any case,  I strongly believe that popular culture influences the public perception of both science and scientists.  Any improvement in the interaction between scientists, writers, and members of the entertainment industry is good thing.

Science and SF Tidbits: April 23, 2012

Some of the science and SF links originally posted on Google+, Twitter , and Facebook this week:

Science and Science Fiction in the Arts

• Mythical Creatures Infographic (Flickr)
  I love this infographic that shows the components of Mythical Creatures. I never considered that a Mermaid = Human + Narwhal
• Cats in Space | Tor.com »
  Star Trek with cats. You've gotta say it in the right voice Cats...In...Space...!!!!
• First Native Science Fiction Anthology Showcases Indigenous Imagination »
  From the interview:
  "Just as our science is not primitive, our storytelling has always contained the elements of science fiction that are considered forward-thinking, inventive and visionary today. Native intellectuals have begun pointing out that “our knowledge is not primitive,” as a recent book by Wendy Djinn Geniusz on the botanical scientific teachings of the Anishinaabe puts it."
• The Innate Irresistibility of Film | Literally Psyched, Scientific American Blog Network »
  Maria Konnikova explains how movies affect our brains:
• "Films have tapped into something incredibly basic in the way our brains work. And there’s something remarkable about that. A tribute of sorts to the innate, deep-rooted nature of our predisposition for narrative, for a world of stories that we can all experience, share, and pass on."
• CultureLab: Prickly personality of Rosalind Franklin »
  A common SF trope is the lone scientist, working in an isolated lab who gets along with no one. In real life that doesn't always mean success.
• Dinosaurs dressed like the Avengers
  Artist Whitlatch studied zoology before becoming a creature designer, and her dinosaur superheroes are based on real dinos.
• Star Wars: Identities premieres Thursday in Montreal »If you are a Canadian science and +Star Wars fan, you may want to check out the Star Wars: Identities exhibit.
  "Experts in fields including psychology, neuropsychology and genetics were consulted during the crafting of the real-science portions of the exhibition. The real and the imagined complement each other throughout."
  The exhibit opens at the Montreal Science Center starting April 19 and at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton in the fall. More information: http://www.starwarsidentities.com/
• REVIEW: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - SF Signal – A Speculative Fiction Blog »
  From the review:
  "... while it innocently depicts the lives of these three friends (strained as those relationships sometimes are), is really asking tough, thought-provoking questions about what it means to be human. These are the questions that resonate emotionally."
• Science Fiction Killed the Dinosaurs | Tor.com »
  at Tor.com: science fiction has killed the dinosaurs in so many ways...
• Fight Fight Fight #1 (YouTube)
  Chuck Norris vs. Darth Vader - who will win?

Science of the Future?

• The 2080 Census: The World As We (Don't) Know It : NPR »
  What will the Census of 2080 ask?
  —Do you consider yourself to be a:
  a) Homo sapiens (natural human being)?
  b) Homo cyberneticus (mostly human with some external cybernetic enhancements)?
  c) Homo hybridus (mostly human with some genetic enhancements)?
  d) Homo machinus (slightly human but mostly machine)?
  e) Other?
• Alien encounters : Naturejobs »
  Interested in becoming an astrobiologist? Nature Jobs has some tips.
• DVICE: How eating bugs can help save the planet »
  The problem with eating bugs is the "ew" factor. Maybe if they were battered and deep fried to disguise them it would help...
• How to Make Your Own Evil Twin »
  Just in case you need someone to do your dirty work.

Cool Bioscience

• Divining Human History with DNA »
  Our history is in our genes - and the genes of domesticated animals.
• Memory Foraging: When the Brain Behaves Like a Bee: Scientific American »
  Have our brains evolved to forage for memories?
• Can a Brain Scan Tell You What Drugs to Take and Choices to Make? | Pharmaceuticals | DISCOVER Magazine »
  Carl Zimmer looks at the Duke Neurogenetics Study, which looks for correlations between genetics, brain activity and behavior.
• Researchers Show How Social Interaction and Teamwork Lead to Human Intelligence
• Space Zucchini's Orbital Life and Times Blogged by Astronaut »
  I'll bet space zucchini is delicious, especially with space garlic and space peppers.
• Why we have blind spots - and how to see the blood vessels inside your own eye! (YouTube)
  Sometimes fancy graphics aren't necessary to explain scientific concepts. This video is a good example of that. Find out why we have blind spots!
• This microbe could become the "off" switch for biological machines »
  DNA sequences from bacteria that thrive at either very high or very low temperatures can be used to design genes and proteins that are switched on or off when the environmental temperature changes. Very useful for bioengineering and synthetic biology applications!
• The Brian Lehrer Show - Teaching Evolution with Biorobots »
  Vassar Professor John Long talks about his lab's use of biorobots that mimic fish behavior to help understand both fish biology and evolution. More information.
• How Eggs Shaped Dinosaur Evolution »
  Eggs may have been the secret 
• Monkey see, monkey read (YouTube)
  Can baboons read? Not exactly. What they can do is distinguish between different groups of letters and distinguish which ones correspond with "real" words, which is indeed one of the elements of reading. There is no evidence that they can understand what the groups of letters mean, though. More information
• XNA is synthetic DNA that's stronger than the real thing »
  As the article points out, "XNAs" - modified synthetic nucleic acids - aren't new. What is new is that MRC chemists Philipp Holliger and Vitor Pinheiro have shown that some XNAs can replicate and potentially "evolve".
  The chemical bonds holding the XNAs together are stronger than native DNA. This may mean they are more suited to therapeutic applications than naturally occurring nucleic acids.
  There are also implications for artificial life sometime in the future:
  "... nothing would call the indispensability of DNA- or RNA-based life into question more than the generation of an entirely synthetic, alternative life form, built from the ground up entirely by XNA. Such an organism would require XNA capable of driving its own replication, without the aid of any biological molecules. Pinheiro says that's still a ways off. "Even in its simplest setup... it would be very challenging to develop an XNA system within a cell." Such a system would require XNA capable of self-replication, and capable of undergoing evolution in a self-sustained manner."

Eron Sheean's Errors of the Human Body: A New Genetic Thriller

In 2007 Australian filmwriter and director Eron Sheean became an artist-in-residence at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) in Dresden, Germany.  

In his more than two years at the Institute, Sheean got a first hand look at real-life science.  As he explains, the experience changed his outlook on genetics:

Like most of those unfamiliar with the mechanisms of science and scientists, I had a lot of naive assumptions about the reality of research and an overly active imagination as influenced by the mass media, with its undertones of modern Frankenstein and Promethean stories. Obviously, all technology can be exploited for both negative and positive purposes, and genetic research more than most evokes wondrous fear. I was struck by the knee-jerk reaction of artists to this form of research; artists who are supposed to enquire beyond the potential horror or destruction of our exploration into new frontiers, but to also celebrate the possible beauty and humanity.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute study the development of the nervous system and heart, the genetics behind cancer, and flatworm regeneration, which I imagine provide plenty of science fodder for an active imagination.

Sheean's experience inspired his creation of a new film Errors of the Human Body. It's the story of a scientist (played by Geoffry Burton) whose son is born with severe and rare genetic disease.  That drives his research into a "human regeneration gene"  with the goal to "ensure a future line of people free from disease and deformity."

He talks a bit about his inspiration:


Set in Dresden, and filmed in part at MPI-CBG in early 2011, it looks like the bits of the film showing science taking place will be more realistic than depicted in most psychological thrillers.  There are more images from the film on the official web site.

The first teaser-trailer has been posted at Twitch Film:

The release date has not yet been announced. If you are interested in contributing to the movie making process, donations are being accepted through Interactor.

I look forward to seeing the finished film!

(via io9)

Science and SF Tidbits: April 15, 2012

Some of the science and SF links originally posted on Google+ , Twitter , and Facebook this week:

Good to know in an emergency:

• Zombie Survival Maps Show Danger Zones, Armories and Food Sources for Entire U.S. | Gadget Lab | Wired.com »
  "Red areas denote population centers where zombies might graze, while dark gray zones cover parks and wilderness areas, which are most likely to be walker-free."
  But what about those of us who aren't in the cities? What will we do?

Science, Science Fiction and the Arts

• Evil ... or the Victim of Framing? Bad Guys in Science Fiction Film »
  Have some "bad guys" gotten a bad rap?
  "Look, here's a simple fact: The alien didn't ask to be born. It didn't ask to have an evolutionary gestational strategy that relies partly on a third-party host. You can't in good conscience blame it for that. ..."
• Rejecting Creationism: Building Better Monsters Through Evolution by James L. Sutter - SF Signal – A Speculative Fiction Blog »
  I also prefer biologically plausible monsters. As James L. Sutter puts it:
  "Taking the time to explain how your monster developed to be the way it is, how its strange traits actually make perfect sense as adaptations to its environment, makes your monster feel real and interesting even if, in a vacuum, it might seem absurd or poorly conceived."
• Pop Culture's 100-year Obsession With Eugenics »
  An excellent overview of eugenics and SF by Charlie Jane Anders and Gordon Jackson, from the eugenics movement of the early 20th century to the focus on "transhumanism" in the early 21st.
• Eva Green’s ‘Womb’ Is Pregnant With Possibility That It Never Quite Delivers | Film School Rejects
  A "lo-fi sci-fi" film that contemplates the ethics of cloning that ultimately disappoints:
  "There’s no doubt that the ethical questions and ideas introduced in writer/director Benedek Fliegauf’s film are intriguing and thought provoking, but that introduction is where the film’s fascination starts and ends. He fills the movie with stark beauty and long moments of reflection, but he forgets to add anything of substance."
• Scientist Spotlight: May Berenbaum | The Science & Entertainment Exchange »
  May Berenbaum is the go-to expert for bugs in the movies and holds the annual Insect Fear Film Festival. She even had a character in X-Files named after her, which is wicked cool.
  Read more about big bugs in the movies at the Science and Entertainment Exchange blog.
• Rare Footage Of Steven Spielberg Directing Jurassic Park »
  A blast from the past.
• Digital butchery makes a monster of Frankenstein »
  From the review of Dave Morris's interactive Frankenstein app:
  " Frankenstein is lovely to look at: tastefully designed and illustrated with old anatomical drawings. It's when you start reading that things go downhill. What Morris has done is dismember Mary Shelley's novel and sew it into a digital version of a Choose Your Own Adventure story. In doing so, he has created a monster."

Interesting Bioscience

• The Making of a Mutant: A Fruit Fly Love Story | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network »
  Some offspring only a mother can love...
• 10 Genes Named After Science Fiction and Fantasy Icons »
  There is a long tradition of fun names for fruit fly (Drosophila) mutations and genes. It's no surprise that some of the names have geeky origins. The list left off vulcan and klingon!
  There are more in this article at American Scientist
• How Dark Matter Interacts with the Human Body - Technology Review »
  The title of the article is a bit misleading: there is a new estimate of how often dark matter collides with atoms in the human body. What still isn't know is what the actual effect of such collisions might be. Maybe there isn't any noticeable impact on our bodies at all - or maybe it's turning us into mutant superheroes?
• Could we create a perfect society by tweaking two areas of the human brain? »
  It's all strictly hypothetical of course.
• One Per Cent: Computers powered by swarms of crabs »
  If your computer is powered by soldier crabs, does that mean you'd need to buy a special anti-bird protective case for it? And how would you keep the critters happy in your book bag?
• "Strawberry" Leopard Discovered—A First »
  A model for the genetic engineering of pink poodles?
• Discovery: Bacteria From 4-Million-Year-Old Cave Resistant to Antibiotics | Healthland | TIME.com
  I'm not sure why it's a total surprise that there are bacteria with antibiotic resistance even though they haven't previously been exposed to antibiotics. That's the way that selection for antibiotic resistance works: there is always a small population of bacteria that are resistant, and killing off all the non-resistant bacteria allows that resistant population to thrive.
  The original paper is published at PLoS One
• Why You Should Be Glad You're Not a Vulcan »
  Of course Vulcans aren't actually emotionless. Instead they repress the emotions they do have - that's what sets them apart from those tempestuous Romulans.
• Awake or Knocked Out? The Line Gets Blurrier (New York Times)
  I find the idea of being awake during surgery disturbing. Even if we don't consciously remember it, might the experience lurk in our subconscious?
• Animal Sex, As Illustrated by Humanoid Cartoons »
  "Animals have weird sex, you guys. But if putting the weird, wild mating habits of the animal kingdom has always been hard for you to put into human context, then you are in luck this afternoon! Devian..." 
• Reverse Engineer the Brain (YouTube)
  What can advanced brain imaging tell us about how the brain works?

Exploring Space and Extraterrestrial Life

• Ancient Astronauts and Forgotten Dreams: End of Space Exploration — Features — Utne Reader »
  Mark Dery remembers the time when dreams of space exploration looked like Disney's Tomorrowland and pulp science fiction.
  "The Space Age is ancient history. Why not admit, then, that its greatest contribution to American culture is the rich fund of symbolism it has given us? The 20th century’s greatest myth, space exploration is the only true new religion since the Bronze Age. Christianity gave us the unforgettable fable of the alien messiah who touched down on planet Earth, assumed human form, sacrificed himself in order to save the species, then rose from the dead and returned to the stars." 
• Life discovered on Mars .... 36 Years Ago
  "An international team of mathematicians and scientists have re-evaluated data from NASA's Viking mission to Mars over three decades ago, and have come to the conclusion that the data prove life exists on Mars. " 
• Short Sharp Science: How Earthly life could populate space by panspermia »
  Could life have spread from Earth to the rest of the galaxy?
• Dinosaurs From Space! »
  Might there be advanced, hyper-intelligent dinosaurs on other planets? A recent paper published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society looked at "right handed" versus "left handed" chemical building blocks for life. All pretty straightforward biochemistry..
  But for reasons that are unclear, the scientists (perhaps having just finished a+Syfy movie marathon) concluded the paper with a bit of bizarre speculation about dinosaurs on other planets (!!?): 
• Tardigrade Eggs Might Survive Interplanetary Trip | Wired Science | Wired.com »
  Tardigrades and ticks may take over the galaxy...

Hand transplants, face transplants ... and brain transplants?

If you can believe what you read in science fiction, in the future we'll be able to swap out any damaged or malfunctioning body parts for new and better functioning replacements. But not only are there serious ethical issues to be considered before that can become a reality - where or who do the replacement parts come from, exactly? - there are also many technical hurdles that need to be overcome.  So what may the future bring?

There was a lot of buzz last month about a major surgical achievement: a man who had suffered severe facial disfigurement from a gunshot wound received a full face transplant. Using techniques less than a decade old, the transplant included facial tissue from his hairline to his neck, and included a replacement of his upper and lower jaw and teeth. The results were stunning.

Face transplants represent just the latest step in the development of transplantation technology over the past century.  Experiments on dogs and other non-human animals beginning in the early 1900s demonstrated that limbs could indeed be transplanted successfully. But there were serious complications caused by infection and rejection of foreign grafted tissue. And even if the procedures could be successfully used to help human patients, there was a lack of donors.

It wasn't until 1944, in the midst of World War II, that Lieutenant Richard H. Hall, a member of the Navy medical corps, proposed a method for human arm transplants.  The time was ripe: recently developed sulfa drugs, penicillin, and other antibiotics could prevent loss of the transplanted limbs to infection. And there was a need. With no end of the war in sight, Hall noted that "there is certainly a growing demand for this procedure." He proposed that "civil or military casualties" could be used as donors. It's terrible to consider, but wartime created a flood of both potential recipients and deceased donors. 

It turns out that Hall was decades ahead of his time. In 1964 the first human hand transplantation was performed, but that failed after two weeks when the hand was rejected by the recipient. It wasn't until 1998 that a hand transplantation was performed successfully. And the first successful arm transplantation followed  in 2008, more than 60 years after Hall's paper was published.

But even though Hall's proposed methods weren't immediately successful, that doesn't mean his paper went unnoticed.  In 1959 Astounding Science Fiction published Anne Walker's short story "A Matter of Proportion" that explicitly cited Hall's 1944 paper. As one of her characters explains it:

By curiosity, I know a bit about such things. A big surgery journal, back in the '40s, had published a visionary article on grafting a whole limb, with colored plates as if for a real procedure[A]. Then they'd developed techniques for acclimating a graft to the host's serum, so it would not react as a foreign body. First, they'd transplanted hunks of ear and such; then, in the '60s, fingers, feet, and whole arms in fact.

But since this is science fiction, Walker takes the idea to it's logical extreme, from "simple" limb transplants to  whole brain transplants:

"[...] When you cut your finger, it can heal in two ways. Usually it bleeds, scabs, and skin grows under the scab, taking a week or so. But if you align the edges exactly, at once, they may join almost immediately healing by First Intent. Likewise in the brain, if they line up cut nerve fibers before the cut-off bit degenerates, it'll join up with the stump. So, take a serum-conditioned brain and fit it to the stem of another brain so that the big fiber bundles are properly fitted together, fast enough, and you can get better than ninety per cent recovery."

"[...] There's a place in the brain stem called the isthmus, no cell masses, just bundles of fibers running up and down. Almost all the nerves come off below that point; and the few that don't can be spliced together, except the smell nerves and optic nerve. Ever notice I can't smell, Willie? And they transplanted my eyes with the brain—biggest trick of the whole job."

You'll have to read the whole story to learn about what sort of man is willing to risk being a brain donor. 

Of course there's no real world brain transplantation, at least not yet.  And maybe we're more likely to have our memories, thoughts and emotions uploaded to a computer than have our brains transferred to a new mortal body. Only time will tell. 

On a side note, I am quite curious about the author Anne Walker.  I've only found one other story attributed to her, published in 1961, and then she disappears. Was she a doctor or other medical professional? if not, how did she come across a Hall's article in a medical journal? If any of you readers have more information about Walker, I'd love to learn more about her.

References:

Hall RH "Whole Upper Extremity Transplant for Human Beings." Annals of Surgery 120:12-23 (1944)

"A Matter of Proportion" by Anne Walker at Project Gutenberg

Top image: Hall (1944) Figure 3 "Donor graft in place on recipient, medial aspect. Closure partially completed. (a) Details of vascular anastomosis."

Bottom image: Illustration from "A Matter of Proportion" by Bernklau

Science and SF Tidbits: April 9, 2012

Some of the science and SF links originally posted on Google+ , Twitter , and Facebook this week:

Free for the Kindle (limited time, affiliate link):

• Amazon.com: Daughter of Elysium - An Elysium Cycle Novel eBook: Joan Slonczewski: Kindle Store
  It's excellent science fiction with a strong biological basis. Get your copy!
  And if you've read it (or don't mind a few spoilers), see my related post about embryo visualization in the story.

Science and the Arts

• Jonah Lehrer, science fiction writer | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine
  Will increasing creativity mean mankind's demise?
• The neuroscience of Bob Dylan's genius
  But how is brain activity reflected in our brain's activity?
  "Every creative journey begins with a problem. It starts with a feeling of frustration, the dull ache of not being able to find the answer. When we tell one another stories about creativity, we tend to leave out this phase of the creative process. We neglect to mention those days when we wanted to quit, when we believed that our problems were impossible to solve. Instead, we skip straight to the  breakthroughs. The danger of telling this narrative is that the feeling of frustration – the act of being stumped – is an essential part of the creative process."
• Cambridge Ideas - Bird Tango (YouTube)
  A dance inspired by Darwin.
  "By day Professor Nicky Clayton researches the social behaviour and intelligence of birds but by night she is an accomplished dancer. Recently, Professor Clayton has been encouraged by Rambert Dance Company to merge the two passions by becoming their Scientist in Residence....."
• The music created by your brain waves could score a horror film
  The video: http://youtu.be/XI4Mge8nLMw
  "Brain waves are picked up from the parietal and frontal lobes, then sent by radio waves to the motherboard, which converts the radio waves into a wave pulse that is output as sound."
• Do science fiction and fantasy cause recurring dreams?

Looking at the Future

• TEDxBrussels - Rudy Rucker - Beyond Machines: The Year 3000 (YouTube)
  Rudy Rucker's vision of the future:
  "As in his novel "Software" where computers 'preserve' the human brain, a so-called 'life box' database remains which keeps our memories alive. These machines however cannot substitute humans as our minds perform more physical and biological processes, where artificial intelligence only relies on inferences."

Interesting Bioscience

• How to Use Light to Control the Brain
  "Over the last several years, optogenetics has provided powerful insights into the neural underpinnings of brain disorders like depression, Parkinson’s disease, anxiety, and schizophrenia. Now, in the context of memory research, this study shows that it is possible to artificially stimulate a few neurons to activate an old memory, controlling an animals’ behavior without any sensory input."
• Contrary Brin: From Brain Imaging to Parasite Infestations
• Short Sharp Science: World's toughest bugs survive electron beam and vacuum
  Ticks may be the first invaders from Earth to take over other planet.
• The Giant, Prehistoric Squid That Ate Common Sense
  What happens when extraordinary scientific claims are made in a press release? As Brian Switek reports, in this case, the claim was made that super-intelligent giant prehistoric squids ate huge ichthyosaurs and artfully arranged their bones. Despite the fact that the claims were extraordinary and were primarily based on speculation, rather than evidence, most news outlet republished the original press release without any analysis of commentary from other scientists. Bad science, maybe, bad journalism, definitely.  On the other hand, super-intelligent bone-arranging prehistoric squids would be a great subject for a novel, especially if they could travel through space!
• The secret life of plankton | Video on TED.com
  Some beautiful underwater photography.
• Farm-fresh infringement: Can you violate a patent by planting some seeds?
  This sounds like science fiction, but it's the present day reality for many US farmers: growing plants could be patent infringement. For a SF take on agribusiness-created plants as intellectual property, see Paolo Bacigalupi's "Calorie Man" (pdf)
• The One-Ton Turkey: Further Adventures in Slow-Cooked Science | The Loom | Discover Magazine
  Carl Zimmer reports on seeing feathered dinosaur fossils in China.The dinosaurs are cousins to Tyrannosaurus Rex, hinting that T. Rex could have been feathered too.
• "The two fossils I saw, plus a third, all belong to a new species, which Xu has dubbed Yutyrannus huali (a mix of Latin and Mandarin, meaning beautiful feathered tyrannosaur). They had filament-like feathers, reaching several inches in length. Since they are preserved on widely separated parts of Yutyrannus’s body, Xu leans towards the dinosaurs being extensively covered with feathers."
• Lighting up plant cells to engineer biology - Research - University of Cambridge
• Common things under an electron microscope
• The Mystery of the Glow-in-the-Dark Civil War Soldiers
  Truth is stranger than fiction. (The answer to the mystery involves nematode vomit and hypothermia)

Other Planets and Extraterrestrials

• What would your voice sound like on Venus?
  I'd probably end up sounding like James Earl Jones.
• Q&A: The Anthropology of Searching for Aliens | Wired Science | Wired.com
  Anthropologist Kathryn Denning talks to Wired about how our cultural narratives affect the way we think about extraterrestrial intelligence and possible contact with alien cultures.
  "From Star Trek to SETI, our modern world is constantly imagining possible futures where we dart around the galaxy engaging with bizarre alien races. Denning points out that when people talk about these futures, they often invoke the past. But they frequently seem to have a poor understanding of history."

Alien: The Easter Edition

The crew of the USS Chocstromo discovers a suspicious (and delicious) giant egg. If you've seen Ridley Scott's 1979 classic Alien, you have an idea of how it all turns out. The movie features John Seaward (of the Inbetweeners). Also be sure to check out filmmaker Will Tribble's blog for a look at how the sets and various alien incarnations were created.

Whale Songs and Dolphin Chatter: Free Science Fiction

The great mammals of the oceans, dolphins and whales are like intelligent aliens right here on Earth. They are intelligent and share their own language. Whales and dolphins may even be able to learn to speak to each other. It's been suggested that learning to better communicate with dolphins will help us better communicate with extraterrestrials, if and when we meet them.

It's no wonder that cetaceans frequently appear in science fiction. Often their intelligence has been given a boost - "uplifted" in SF terms - so that they can take their place beside humans.

This month the Biology in SF Free Fiction Directory highlights stories featuring dolphins and whales who communicate with humans in a variety of ways. Go check it out!

 Photo: By IK's World Trip on Flickr

Science and Science Fiction Highlights: April 1, 2012

Some of the science and SF links originally posted on Google+ , Twitter , and Facebook this week:

Science and the Arts

• Ratha's Creature Graphic Novel Survey
  Everyone who submits the survey by April 30, 2012 will be entered to win a $25 gift certificate to the bookstore of your choice, offline or online.
• Chapter-By-Chapter Analysis – Daenerys I
  For you Game of Thrones fans, here's an discussion of Targaryen inbreeding and genetics with reference to the deformities in the (real world) Hapsburg family lines. (via the Gene Expression blog)
• Bring the love (Mindhacks)
  The film The Love Competition is about a "love competition" held in a real MRI scanner. While it wasn't meant to be research or part of a scientific study, real MRIs were made.
  "...when a group of participants were instructed to ruminate on the person or concept they associate with love, BOLD signal in the nucleus accumbens showed individual differences."
  Link to the film: http://vimeo.com/33698394
• Featured Entertainer: Maggie Malone | The Science & Entertainment Exchange
  Maggie Malone, Director of Development at Walt Disney Animation Studios says:
  "Science consultants have spent their lifetimes in the library, the lab, and the field. They have logged lots of boring hours and accrued some amazing tales of experiences you cannot find in books. When we speak with them, we get the benefit of all their years of study, with all the boring bits cut out."
• gamrConnect Forums - How Evolution Defines Mass Effect's Aliens
  This is some fun speculation about how the different alien races in Bioware's Mass Effect universe could have evolved. The author points out: "Evolutionary biology plays an important role in achieving immersion in the 'believable' ME galaxy"
• Let There Be (Living) Light: Bioluminescence in Nature | Anthropology in Practice, Scientific American Blog Network
  A look at bioluminescensce in folklore, plus a review of the new bioluminescensce exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History.
• Anatomical Neon, Glowing Human Organ Sculptures
  Fantastic glass sculptures of human organs filled with glowing neon "and other inert gasses"
• So You Think About Dance? | The Scientist
  Watching dance makes your brain activity similar to that of a dancer.
• Should science fiction and fantasy do more than entertain?
  Damien Walter argues that "fantastika" is more than just entertainment:
  "If science fiction, fantasy, horror, and even relative new kids on the genre block such as steampunk are part of a centuries-long tradition of fantastika, then it's even more important that they are positive in their representation of issues like gender and race. "

Interesting Bioscience

• How Pandemics Spread (YouTube)
• Breaking: James Cameron Completes Record-Breaking Mariana Trench Dive
• Scientists turn living cell into laser | SmartPlanet
  It's a bit premature to talk about "attacking cells deep within the body", but it's pretty neat that putting together two mirrors, kidney cells expressing green fluorescent protein and a light source can stimulate living cells to generate a laser beam.
• How do you buy organs on the black market?
  From horror musicals like Repo! the Genetic Opera to the much more thoughtful novels like Never Let Me Go, science fiction often suggests that the real present-day problem of a lack of donor organs necessarily requires terrible decisions. While increasing the pool of voluntary donors is an obvious solution, I hope in the longer term we'll eventually be able to turn to more technological solutions like artificial organ replacements.
• Butterfly wings' 'art of blackness' could boost production of green fuels
  The tiny scales on butterfly wings are a natural solar energy collectors that the butterfly normally uses to keep itself warm. Now a research team at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China is using the structure of the black butterfly scales as a template for titanium structures that catalyze the production of hydrogen gas from water. The hope is that could create a potential renewable energy source.
• Living human gut-on-a-chip: Tiny device simulates structure, microenvironment, and mechanical behavior of human intestine
  This new device looks like a pretty impressive simulation of the human gut, right down to the growth of common intestinal microbes. The secret is that the interior of the device is lined with living human intestinal cells. While it's designed as a model for human disease, could this also be a step towards artificial intestines?
• Man Hugs Doctor after Seeing Face Transplant in Mirror
  Amazing surgery gives a man a face.
• Dolphin society 'is run by gangs'
  Male dolphins form different kinds of alliances from "Buddiess" (groups of 2-3), "Gangs" (up to 14 males) and much larger "Armies". No word on whether female dolphins also form social alliances.("Buddies" is my own term. I figure it's no more anthropomorphizing that "Gangs")
• New plastics 'bleed' when cut or scratched -- and then heal like human skin
  When the plastic is damaged red splotches form. When the damaged area is exposed to visible light or a change in pH or temperature, the molecules that make up the plastic form "bridges" that heal the damage.
• Life-changing experiments: The biological Higgs
  I don't think it's really meaningful to compare the big questions in biology to the discovery of the Higg's boson in physics, since biology is more complicated than does-it-or-doesn't-it-exist type questions
  The exception would be discovery of extraterrestrial life. But is that likely? I'm willing to bet that several more decades of meaningful-yet-messy research into how the brain works and how our lifespans could be extended is more likely to bear fruit than the search for life off Earth, even if there isn't a single "A ha!" moment.
• How the Cost of Computation Restricts the Processes of Life - Technology Review
  I don't feel like I have a good enough understanding of what is meant by "computation" in a biological context to decide if this sounds like it's a useful way of looking at biological processes like sporulation of yeast or not. Interesting idea, though.
• Bart Weetjens: How I taught rats to sniff out land mines (YouTube)
  Sometimes nature has invented tools that are as good as - or even better than - technology we humans create from scratch. In this case, Bart Weetjens and his organization APOPO has trained African giant pouched rats to efficiently sniff out land mines.
  APOPO is also training the rats to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis in human spit, which is faster than microscopy methods currently in use to diagnose tuberculosis.
• MIT news: Conjuring Memories Artificially:
  Simply activating a tiny number of neurons can conjure an entire memory.
• Brain.mov (YouTube)
  A dramatic 3D display of the connections in the brain of the owl monkey.
  More information at Technology Review and American Scientist
• CultureLab: The matter of your brain
  Bridging the gap between the "physical" and the "mental": a review of "Brains" the new show at London's Wellcome Collection.
• Slacker Rat, Worker Rat - Science News
  Amphetamines make slacker rats work harder, but make worker rats slack off.
• Scientists have proven that, up close, your brain is plaid
  The brain is more organized that previously expected.
• Foods in the Year 2000 | Oscillator, Scientific American Blog Network
  Christina Agapakis looks at food synthesis in space, synthetic biology and what "future food" looked like from the perspective of the 1890s.
• NYC Dept of Education wants to ban the word "dinosaur" from standardized tests
  Apparently NYC standardized tests don't cover biology.
  (It reminds me of Connie Willis's short story "Ado" where Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing is gutted as any bit that might offend someone is removed.)

Other Planets and Alien Life

• Why black (or blue, or red) plants might be the key to finding life beyond Earth
  Life on other planets may be colorful!
• Science Fiction or Fact: ET Will Look Like Us
  Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at SETI sums up the answer nicely:
  "Why should they look like us? No other creatures look that much like us, except for other apes."
  He also points out: "An alien will look like whatever its evolutionary niche is."
  Despite that, the article gives a 3 out of 4 plausibility rating for the idea that extraterrestrial aliens will look like "us". What the heck?
• If We Discover Aliens, What's Our Protocol for Making Contact?
  It seems like the biggest mistake we could make is assuming that aliens will think and behave like humans and that they likewise understand our behavior. Do open gun ports signify an imminent attack or are they a sign of respect?
• Science Fiction or Fact: Sentient Living Planets Exist
  The article doesn't really focus on planets themselves that could be sentient, like the Gaia of Asimov's Foundation universe. Instead it asks whether a network of living beings on the surface of a planet could become sentient. In either case, the answer is "pretty darn unlikely".
• “Snowing Microbes” On Saturn’s Moon?
  It's all speculation at the moment, but Cassini imaging team leader Carolyn Porcini thinks there's the possibility of life in ice jets of Enceladus:
  "In the end, it’s is the most promising place I know of for an astrobiology search. We don’t even need to go scratching around on the surface. We can fly through the plume and sample it. Or we can land on the surface, look up and stick our tongues out. And voilà…we have what we came for.”
• Could Life Be Abundant In Our Galaxy?

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