Mar 31

Via a private share: a consensus study report on the science, ethics, and governance of human genome editing from…

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Via a private share: a consensus study report on the science, ethics, and governance of human genome editing from the National Academy of Science. There’s a free version as well as the ridiculously priced $55 ebook. Not sure what the full version has that’s different, but apparently the free one has plenty of story fodder for dystopias or just near-future SF.

https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24623/human-genome-editing-science-ethics-and-governance

Mar 30

Better still, be someone who doesn’t require an explanation for “no”.

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Better still, be someone who doesn’t require an explanation for “no”.

Originally shared by Dave Higgins

“sometimes it’s easier to just kiss the guy than explain to him why you don’t want to.”

Anyone out there looking for what men can do to make the world a better place, there it is: be someone to whom it’s easier to explain than submit.

https://medium.com/@natalieportman/that-obscure-subject-of-desire-f2e2bd09db8c
Mar 30

As usual, ignore the headline.

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As usual, ignore the headline. The article is about the current work being done in synthetic biology, and the aim is to rewrite parts of the human genome to, for example, be virus-resistant. It’s further along than you might think, though nowhere near ready for real-world applications yet.

Via Daniel Lemire.

https://www.wired.com/story/live-forever-synthetic-human-genome/

Mar 29

Some good discussion in the comments to the original post about both the physics of this and how to design the UI.

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Some good discussion in the comments to the original post about both the physics of this and how to design the UI.

Originally shared by Winchell Chung

Most of the laser info in this page on my website is from Luke Campbell

He has the valuable insight that the secret to making a laser pistol do bullet levels of damage is pulsing the beam. (see link for details)

To penetrate soft tissue (i.e., an evil asteroid pirate), a good optimization is 1 kilojoule total energy in the laser bolt (i.e., what the weapon emits when you pull the trigger), divided into 1 joule pulses at 5 microsecond intervals, focused down to a spot size of a millimeter or less. This will bore a hole in the asteroid pirate about 30 centimeters long and 2 centimeters in diameter in about 0.005 seconds.

Then he caught my attention by mentioning the above pulse train was optimal for soft tissue, other values would be better suited for boring through metal or other materials.

So a professional laser pistol, instead of having the pulse values pre-set, would have some kind of controls to vary the pulse train. But what? And in the interests of verisimilitude, what are the scientific names of the variables to be written next to the controls?

So far I figure something like three controls:

[1] Total energy in the bolt (pulse train emitted with each trigger pull) in joules or something.

[2] Energy per pulse in the pulse train OR number of pulses in the bolt (energy per pulse is obviously total energy divided by number of pulses)

[3] Pulse delay interval

Does this sound like I’ve covered all the bases? What names to use? Later I’ll try and figure the user interface on the weapon, probably along the lines of a Phaser 1 (or even the iPhaser gag: https://www.martinhajek.com/apple-vs-star-trek-iphaser/ )

http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php#blaster

Mar 28

As in other industries, rising profits are not being passed on to the people who are doing productive work.

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As in other industries, rising profits are not being passed on to the people who are doing productive work.

Originally shared by Steve Turnbull

Some of us have been well-aware that the big five trad publishers have been screwing authors but that knowledge was perhaps based on anecdotal evidence, well the figures are in and it’s the book trade itself that’s saying it.

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2018/03/the-profits-from-publishing-authors-perspective/

Trouble is they haven’t realised they are no longer the only game in town.

(Although I can just imagine one of their execs whining: “It’s all the fault of Amazon and its self-publishing, if people didn’t self-publish we wouldn’t have to do this to our authors.”)

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2018/03/the-profits-from-publishing-authors-perspective/