All posts by LJM

I write science fiction and sling other memes on the side. You can find me on Wandering.Shop (a Mastodon server) as LauraJMG. Drop a line in the comments!

Climate Change a Go-Go

Now that it’s official, I can spill the beans. I’ve sold a story to Gordon van Gelder for Welcome to the Greenhouse, a climate change anthology due out early next year.

Climate change—or rather, preventing it—is a topic close to my heart, and I am thrilled to be included this anthology. My story is a post-apocalyptic vision of an old man living amid the ruins of civilization, ready to follow his wife (and the other 99.9% of humanity) into death…whose life is changed forever when a young woman he meets just won’t take extinction for an answer.

I’ve asked Gordon to send me a list of the writers included in the book. When he does so, I’ll post their names and story titles if available.

30 Nov 10 Update: Here’s the line-up, with my best guess as to the authors’ websites (corrections eagerly encouraged). Great list!

“Benkoelen” by Brian W. Aldiss
“Damned When You Do” by Jeff Carlson
“The Middle of Somewhere” by Judith Moffett
“Not a Problem” by Matthew Hughes
“Eagle” by Gregory Benford
“Come Again Some Other Day” by Michael Alexander
“The Master of the Aviary” by Bruce Sterling
“Turtle Love” by Joseph Green
“The Delta Queen Comes A-Calling” by Pat MacEwen (can’t find a link for her, but she is a forensic anthropologist who has published short fiction in F&SF Magazine)
“That Creeping Sensation” by Alan Dean Foster
“The Men of Summer” by David Prill
“The Bridge” by George Guthridge
“FarmEarth” by Paul Di Filippo
“Sundown” by Chris Lawson (I think this is him…even if not, though, you should check it out)
“Fish Cakes” by Ray Vukcevich
…and, of course, “True North” by moi.

The book’s publisher, O / R books, is an alternative small-press publisher who, as I understand it, sells works only through their own website. As soon as the book is available to order, I’ll let y’all know.

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Cage Match: Quantum Physics vs General Relativity

Quantum physicist and all-round awesome skiffy dude Calvin Johnson is doing a series of posts over at Science in my Fiction* about how quantum field theory–the physics of very small things–clashes with our understanding of gravity, as explained by Einstein’s theory of relativity. The first post just went up. Fascinating stuff, for all y’all fellow physics nerds. Check it out.

This will be the first of three posts on the subject. I’ll include links to the other two here, once they are up.

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*which, btw, is an excellent blog; add it to your bookmarks now. I mean it! (Obligatory disclaimer: I am one of the writers invited to play there but have been a sorry-ass-procrastinator and have yet to actually, y’know, POST there. Ahem.)

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Cosmic fingerprints from before the Big Bang?

This is nifty (h/t Gardner Dozois). Cosmologist Roger Penrose and his associate Vahe Gurzadyan have found concentric rings in the sky, deep in space, which scientists believe are shockwaves arising from the collision of supermassive, galactic black holes in the far distant past.

The currently accepted model of the universe* posits that it started as an infinitely dense point of unimaginably high energy. The early universe expanded much faster than the speed of light, till matter and energy condensed out of their prior entangled state, in a phase known as inflation. This rapid expansion would necessarily have obliterated these rings. Penrose’s model, Conformal cyclic cosmology (CCC), apparently predicts the rings, which suggest that the universe pre-dates the Big Bang—that is, that there was no theoretical beginning to the universe—and thus challenges the standard model, including inflation.

The findings are still preliminary, and a lot more research would need to be done to unseat the currently accepted inflationary model as an explanation for how our universe got to be where it is today. Still, it’s fascinating stuff. If true, it would not only change our understanding of the past, but also our expectation of future events.

Two things intrigue me about this. First, I am fascinated by how the ancient past is etched into the fabric of space. Second, I am impressed as hell that researchers whose only medium of study is the trickle of light emitted long ago by distant suns can extract so much knowledge from it. Here’s to the genius that can tease free such magnificent concoctions—such spires and castles and landscapes of thought—sipping info through such tiny straws.
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*Obligatory cautionary note: layperson’s interpretation here. Apply due salt shakings.

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Super Mamika is a viral hit

Ninety-one-year old Mamika’s grandson, Sacha Goldberger, turned her into a super hero to cheer her up. Now the photos have gone viral. No surprise, as they are charming, funny, and rather naughty. Check them out.

Photo by Sacha Goldberger, 2010

The costumed photos are cute. But here’s the real kicker. Mamika saved people from the Nazi purges during World War II. She’s a hero in the truest sense of the word.

Go, Super Mamika! I’d vote for you, any day.

21-Nov-10: Links restored.

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