Who else has read Lois McMaster Bujold’s Ethan of Athos?

Originally shared by Larry Panozzo

We know it’s going to happen. Now it’s just a question of when and how accessible it will be.

Something I’d never thought about tho: Or one man could have his own child using his own cells and sperm – with that child being more like a non-identical twin than a clone. 😮 What do you guys think about that?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37337215

Most surprising part of this for me: you can get monkeys to transcribe written words. Monkeys.

Originally shared by ScienceDaily

http://dlvr.it/MFVLpZ

Via Karen Conlin. We have met alien intelligences, and they are… really cheerful.

Originally shared by Wayne Radinsky

Two Black Sea bottlenose dolphins, called Yasha and Yana, were recorded talking to each other in a pool at the Karadag Nature Reserve, in Feodosia, Russia. Reserchers found that each dolphin would listen to a sentence of pulses without interruption, before replying. “Dolphins alter the volume and frequency of pulsed clicks to form individual ‘words’ which they string together into sentences in much the same way that humans speak.” “Lead researcher Dr Vyacheslav Ryabov, said: ‘Essentially, this exchange resembles a conversation between two people.'”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/09/11/dolphins-recorded-having-a-conversation-for-first-time/

Originally shared by Singularity Hub

“Genetic engineering is introducing a gene from species A to species B. That’s the equivalent of replacing a red light bulb with a green light bulb. Synthetic biology is focused on designing the underlying circuitry expressing that red or green light bulb.”

http://suhub.co/2bXQ9ol

Brin, somewhat less ranty than usual (yes, this is him being less ranty), makes a good point here about different kinds of stories: the Solitary Chosen Hero or the ensemble cast of ordinary people, representing a whole functioning civilization.

Originally shared by David Brin

For the weekend: my own impudent, off-axis take on the 50th anniversary of Star Trek! How diametrically opposite Trek is, from Star Wars, in every moral sense. And you can see this in one trait – the size of the ship. Size does matter! Come find out why.

People in SF are often as rational as the writers, unless it’s satirical SF like Robert Sheckley. But people in real life believe all kinds of bizarre things. How might you realistically and convincingly incorporate a belief like this into your story?

Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger

There is a new theory making the rounds in Flat Earth circles. (Squares?) The forests you see are not real forests; the true forests are long dead, and the things which we think are mountains are actually their ruins.

There’s a marvelous article here about how such a theory spreads, and its curious and somewhat mad beauty. (OK, strike “somewhat”) It’s a fascinating way to start your day.

h/t Steven Flaeck

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/09/flat-earth-truthers/499322/