Science Faction Podcast

This episode contains: The three of us are here and ready to talk Star Wars. Mostly about how it has failed. But we eventually get positive. We get onto the science pretty quick so we can discuss the Wars of the Stars!

I Wanna’ Fly Away, Yeah, Yeah…: Drones have transformed blood delivery in Rwanda. The autonomous aircraft have shuttled blood to rural, mountainous areas for years. A new analysis proves they’re faster than driving.

https://www.wired.com/story/drones-have-transformed-blood-delivery-in-rwanda/

Science Fiction: May the 4th Be With You! It’s all Star Wars! We talk about our favorite entries into the series, our least favorite, and our favorite scenes. We also talk about changes from the theatrical releases to the latest digital releases. Steven tries to do some comparisons, but ends up making Ben's soul leave his body.

This episode contains: Ben hangs up on Steven in this week's Patreon-only content. We have almost 36 minutes extra in this week's unedited ep. 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-398-65566625

Ben is allegedly a good kisser. Steven has some "smelly cat" going from his cold. Steven got a new iPad Air. Wanna know why? He's gonna rewatch The Batman!
Ben has been looking for what is leaking in his kitchen for 8 YEARS, and gets sciencesplained by a plumber.

Good music noises: Dun dun dunna dun dunna dun DUN. BWEAAAANNNRRR! Tumors partially destroyed with sound don't come back. You know what is so metal? Non-invasive sound technology to remove cancer. Steven can't pronounce the word histotripsy. Can you? Can we scare liver cancer away with sound? Not exactly scare, but yeah. "Violent Sound Bubble" will be the first album by Non-Canon Borg Queen. After killing 75% of a liver tumor, rats' immune systems can clear away the rest.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220418093955.htm

"Could you save me / From the ranks of the freaks / Who suspect they could never love anyone?": Let's talk about digital preservation. If you go back to a file with links years later, you might find they're gone. How can you preserve links forever? Maybe ArchiveBox can help! How do we get a WordPerfect document from 1995 off a floppy drive? Our Twitter account has tweeted over 55,000 times! That's unpossible!

https://www.dpconline.org/digipres/what-is-digipres
https://archivebox.io/

Science Fiction: Ben's family is way into Space Boy. Ben's son is already caught up. Handling mysterious back story in fiction is risky: Maybe it won't pay off. Like Space Boy? Consider Kazu Kibuishi's work: Flight, Amulet, Copper. Steven's kids Spider-splained to him after watching Spidey and His Amazing Friends, so Steven pulled out Ultimate Spider Man, even though it has some hanky panky. Try talking about it with a 7 year old. Ben finally saw and loved The Batman. The movie The Batman was so much better than the animated series The Batman. "Michael Douglas is my Batman," says Ben's wife. But she's not wrong ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Keaton ). The narration in The Batman does a LOT for the story. The journey of The Batman and The Riddler are mirrors of each other. 

This episode contains: We talk about sick kids, the easter, LIQUID DEATH, house destruction and possibly starting a proof-reading podcast.

Let's Go Fly a Kite: Could high-flying kites power your home? We chat about how kites wind power works and how it possibly couldn't work. Future power solutions are on the way and we are extremely excited.

https://knowablemagazine.org/article/technology/2022/could-high-flying-kites-power-your-home 
https://skysails-power.com/ 

I Thought It Wasn't Real, But It Is: Burst of accumulated zinc shows how the mineral boosts immune function, suggesting ways to improve health. Steven had lumped zinc in with woo-woo nonsense when it came to boosting immune function. Until now. Zinc is needed for the development of T cells and prompts regeneration of the thymus. Too cool.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220331185359.htm

Science Fiction: Thanks @ibakepies for our cool new twitter header. Ben recommends the One-Minute Time Machine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkBS4O3yvY

The release date for For All Mankind season 3 has been revealed, set your watches to June 10th. Steven does a mini-review on Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. You should go read it. Ben has come to terms with Picard, the episodes don't connect thematically or tonally. We really dug the TNG animated clip though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jyz2pVqrEkI

On this episode: We have a full house: Steven, Ben and Devon. Ben and Devon played some Walkabout Mini-Golf. Steven has been dealing with sick kids. Devon has been spending time alone and building fire pits. Ben does his laundry…

Biology, Something, Something: Researchers generate the first complete, gapless sequence of a human genome. Scientists have published the first complete, gapless sequence of a human genome, two decades after the Human Genome Project produced the first draft human genome sequence. According to researchers, having a complete, gap-free sequence of the roughly 3 billion bases (or 'letters') in our DNA is critical for understanding the full spectrum of human genomic variation and for understanding the genetic contributions to certain diseases.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220331151517.htm

Be Prepared: AI Predicts if and When Someone Will Experience Cardiac Arrest. An algorithm built to assess scar patterns in patient heart tissue can predict potentially life-threatening arrhythmias more accurately than doctors can.

https://hub.jhu.edu/2022/04/07/trayanova-artificial-intelligence-cardiac-arrhythmia/

Science Fiction: We discuss: Spock has a first name, Moon Knight, Upload, Star Trek , LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Space Boy and more!

This Episode Contains: In the Patreon-only pre-show, does Ben have mono? In Texas, Devon's got pollen covering his black truck. It's now YELLOW! Steven ordered the Lego Delorean, the last Lego he buys for a long time. Dream Theater just won their first Grammy! ROCK ON!

If you liked it, then you should've put a ring on it: The Long Goodbye to Saturn's Rings. Ben doesn't want to be alarmist, but Saturn's rings are going bye-bye. They are being vaporized over the course of the next 300M years. Imagine: Phobos may one day become the rings of Mars. The title sequence to Star Trek: Voyager is still breathtaking.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/03/saturn-losing-rings-nasa-moons/629391/

This Week in Space: What's going on in space between the U.S. and Russia? Nasa said that they'll still work with Russia, despite threats and sanctions. There are treaties preventing owning the moon, but it's unenforceable. April 1st is the only day a year Americans will be skeptical of news articles.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/02/russia-to-end-cooperation-over-international-space-station
https://www.space.com/russia-threatens-leave-international-space-station-program-rogozin

Science Fiction: The Fallout show has a new lead... WHEN DOES IT COME OUT?!?!? How will Undone Season 2 resolves real vs. not real? Steven solves it. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is coming out on Revenge of the Fifth Day. Are we ever going to get a thinky Star Trek show? Moreso than Disco Season 4? Jurati and Borg Queen have very Farscape John/Harvey vibes. "Why is everyone so angry when you meet them in Star Trek: Picard?" - Devon. "Devon, emotions ARE a part of the human experience." - Ben. Ben gives a very short review of Halo. Devon reviews Black Fleet trilogy by Joshua Dalzelle: "Like The Expanse in intensity."

This episode contains: Break-ins, BBQs and Boxes. Would you like to know more?

Sip, Sip, Go!: Good news for coffee lovers: Daily coffee may benefit the heart. A new analysis of meta data shows that coffee is either neutral to, or associated with benefits to the heart. We talk about our own coffee (and bathroom associated) habits as well.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220324104420.htm

Creativity, blah, blah blah, creativity: Anyone can be trained to be creative, researchers say. Current foundation of creativity training is divergant thinking; treating the brain is logic machine. New creativity training focuses on developing new worlds and shifting perspectives.

https://news.osu.edu/anyone-can-be-trained-to-be-creative-researchers-say/

Science Fiction: Ben gives his review of the Kobo and how it works with Overdrive (at the request of a patron). Steven gives a mini-review of The Adam Project. Ben and Steven both give high praise to the short time-travel film Exit Strategy. https://youtu.be/2roa2AhhgbM  At the one hour mark we finally get to Star Trek Picard. We talk about some key points, including the Punk on the Bus, 10-Forward, and the Borg Queen. We roundout the episode by a tiny chat about Raised By Wolves, in which Ben tries to talk about it, but it's just too cool and weird. Oh, and there's a tiny bit of Fallout tv news.

This episode contains: We have all three science podcasters on this episode. After going around the horn saying how we’ve been doing we get down to business.

Look Up, Picard: NASA’s Webb Reaches Alignment Milestone, Optics Working Successfully. On March 11, the Webb team completed the stage of alignment known as “fine phasing.” At this key stage in the commissioning of Webb’s Optical Telescope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations.

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-s-webb-reaches-alignment-milestone-optics-working-successfully/

https://www.webb.nasa.gov/content/webbLaunch/whereIsWebb.html

The Week In Space: Moon's orbit proposed as a gravitational wave detector. Researchers propose using the variations in distance between the Earth and the Moon, which can be measured with a precision of less than a centimeter, as a new gravitational wave detector within a frequency range that current devices cannot detect. The research could pave the way for the detection of signals from the early universe.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220317094755.htm

Follow The Sun: Materials scientists finding solutions to biggest hurdle for solar cell technology. Materials scientists have discovered the major reason why perovskite solar cells -- which show great promise for improved energy-conversion efficiency -- degrade in sunlight, causing their performance to suffer over time. The team successfully demonstrated a simple manufacturing adjustment to fix the cause of the degradation, clearing the biggest hurdle toward the widespread adoption of the thin-film solar cell technology.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220315141803.htm

Science Fiction: Ben fist gives us his review of the Kobo Sage, which was recommended by one of our Patrons. We then discuss the season finally of Star Trek: Discovery, episode 3 of season 2 of Star Trek: Picard, The Batman, and more!

This episode contains: Ben's been geeking out in books this last week. Not video games. Weird. But that didn't stop him getting an XBox Series X on MAR10 day. WHAT A TRAITOR! We chat about Moonglow Bay, a slice of life fishing RPG on Xbox Gamepass.

Alicia Keys: Let's talk about typewriters and e-ink. An artist made a concept typewriter with a curved e-ink display, called Flowo. Hemingwrite is a mechanical keyboard with an e-ink screen. Looks so old school IBM. Ben teaches Steven two different ways e-ink displays can work. Steven is really interested in color e-ink displays, and tells Ben about a Bryan Lee O'Malley comic he didn't know about called Snot Girl.

Flowo typewriter with curved E Ink display offers a similar feel as a real typewriter: https://goodereader.com/blog/e-paper/flowo-typewriter-with-curved-e-ink-display-offers-a-similar-feel-as-a-real-typewriter
A $600 E Ink typewriter got me one step closer to writing a novel: https://www.engadget.com/astrohaus-freewrite-one-month-writing-test-140008132.html
The Top 5 Color ebook Readers of 2021: https://goodereader.com/blog/electronic-readers/the-top-5-color-ebook-readers-of-2021

Little Tiny Miracles: The physics of fire ant rafts could help engineers design swarming robots. Scientists throw science ants into buckets of science water, for SCIENCE! Steven would still go to a Jurassic Park, even though he would probably die.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220302185954.htm

Science Fiction: We talk so much on the Patreon-only midsection of the episode about Star Wars, but finally come on-air to talk about the Obi-Wan Kenobi Teaser Trailer ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWTfhyvzTx0 ), and Steven schools Ben on the Inquisitors. Steven's daughter might finally think Star Wars is cool. Ben is conflicted on which trailer is better between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxuyzk5DUFc ). Captain Pike has grown a sadness beard. Steven digs the classic Star Trek sounds, but still "every day is Star Wars day, unless you're a coward" - Steven. Species 10-C in StarTrekDiscovery was SO GOOD. Think Star Trek meets Arrival. Discovery Season 4 > Picard Season 2 so far. Which is more horrifying to Jean-Luc: Eradication Day or Captain Picard Day? Picard says "there's a real old movie called Voyage Home. Let's do that." If you're using a WMD on the Vulcan homeworld, you've gone too far. Spot 73, Jurati's AI cat, is awesome and played by Patton Oswald. Is Picard season 2 another Book of Boba Fett? We think they're playing it a little too safe.

This episode contains: Ben's been not having some real problems with spreadsheets. In fact, this episode was almost called 'The Spreadsheet Edition'.

This Week in Space: 'Closest black hole' system found to contain no black hole. We've got some updates to system HR 6819 and the scientists behind the original conclusions were happy that their results were challenged.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220302092707.htm

The invention of the ship was the invention of the shipwreck: Study finds that over 100 different species made a 2,200-year-old shipwreck home. Scientists sampled and documented sediment blocks and biological materials inside and outside the shipwreck artifact. 114 different invertebrate species made the 2,200 year old shipwreck their home. 

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/01/over-100-different-species-made-this-2200-year-old-shipwreck-home-study-finds/

Science Fiction: DiMaggio is back, baby! Ben complains that there may be too much Star Trek right now. Ben covers the newest episode of Star Trek Discovery, titled Rosetta. Then Steven and Ben dive into Picard, season 2. Steven demands to do an act by act recap, so that we all have to suffer the way he did. All in all, not terrible, but Steven has a bad feeling about this one. We round out the episode by talking about Batman. Not the one you think though. Ninja Batman.

This episode contains: We record this on Sunday night, without Devon. Ben tells us about Babylon 5 without waiting for the Sci-Fi section of the podcast. Steven then talks about skipping first season of TV shows, including Parks and Rec.

There’s Nothing Funny About Measles: Scientists have known for years that measles can alter the immune system – but the latest evidence suggests it's less of a mild tweaking, and more of a total reset. Enter "immune amnesia", a mysterious phenomenon that's been with us for millennia. Essentially, when you're infected with measles, your immune system abruptly forgets every pathogen it's ever encountered before – every cold, every bout of flu, every exposure to bacteria or viruses in the environment, every vaccination. Once the measles infection is over, current evidence suggests that your body has to re-learn what's good and what's bad almost from scratch.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20211112-the-people-with-immune-amnesia

Next Week in Space: Predicting the efficiency of oxygen-evolving electrolysis on the Moon and Mars. Scientists have today provided more insight into the possibility of establishing a pathway to generate oxygen for humans to potentially call the Moon or Mars 'home' for extended periods of time.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220208113903.htm

Science Fiction: Ben brings us up to speed on Star Trek Discovery. There’s something about a DMA and Omega Particle. Ben also talks about the coming first episode of the second season of Picard. Steven then tells us about the Apple TV+ show Severance.