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SCIENCE: The Real, Freaky Experiments That Inspired “Frankenstein”

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Frankenstein experiments

On Jan. 17 1803, a young man named George Forster was hanged for murder at Newgate prison in London. After his execution, as often happened, his body was carried ceremoniously across the city to the Royal College of Surgeons, where it would be publicly dissected. What actually happened was rather more shocking than simple dissection though. Forster was going to be electrified. The experiments were to be carried out by the Italian natural philosopher Giovanni Aldini, the nephew of Luigi Galvani, who discovered “animal electricity” in 1780, and for whom the field of galvanism is named. With Forster on the … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: The Rising Tide, by J. Scott Coatsworth

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The Rising Tide

Eddy Tremayne rode his horse, Cassiopeia, along the edge of the pastures that were the last official human habitations before the Anatov Mountains. Several ranchers along the Verge—the zone between the ranches and the foothills—had reported losses of sheep and cattle in the last few weeks. As the elected sheriff of First District, which ran from Micavery and the South Pole to the mountains, it was Eddy’s responsibility to find out what was going on. He had his crossbow strapped to his back and his long knife in a leather sheath at his waist. He’d been carrying them for long … Read more

SPACE: Einstein and The Hulk Get Their Own (Invisible) Constellations

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NASA New Constellations

Einstein and the Incredible Hulk Now Have Their Own Constellations (But You’ll Never See Them) Look up at the night sky, and you won’t see Albert Einstein, the Eiffel Tower, or any of the other 21 gamma-ray constellations that NASA recently named Credit: NASA For thousands of years, humans have looked up at the stars and ordered them into constellations: the Hulk … the TARDIS … Schrödinger’s cat. Not familiar with these? That’s probably because you can’t see them without a gamma-ray telescope — and also, NASA just invented them. To highlight the first decade of discoveries recorded by NASA’s … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: The Werewolf on Lowre Few Lane, by Bryce Bentley-Tales

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The Werewolf on Lowre Few Lane, by Bryce Bentley-Tales

Bryce Bentley-Tales has a new queer YA paranormal book out: The Werewolf on Lowre Few Lane. Thirteen-year-old Colton and his best friend Jade spend their free time investigating a local urban legend concerning an old abandoned house in their hometown in Ireland. The run-down building is said to be haunted and some of the things they’ve seen seem to confirm it. Colton has a crush on foreign-exchange student, Dylan, who is visiting his aunt from America. But Dylan isn’t your average American kid, and soon Colton and his friends are embroiled in more than urban legend and must find a … Read more

Me Me Monday!

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Me Me Monday

Welcome to M3: ME ME MONDAY at our FB discussion group – your chance to pop in and tell us about your latest success. Have a new book or short story coming out? Let us know. Just sell something? Let us know so we can cheer you on. HOW IT WORKS: I’ll pin this topic to the top of our FB discussion page for the day. –Please post your announcement as a separate post so we can comment on yours specifically –Check out the other posts and congratulate and share them too! And congratulations!!!

SPACE: A Second Moon Could Soon Hang Over China

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moon - pixabay

Moonlit skies over the Chinese city of Chengdu may soon get a boost from a second moon. City officials recently announced plans to build an artificial moon, launching it to hang over Sichuan province’s capital city by 2020, Chinese news site People’s Daily Online (PDO) reported. The illuminated orb is intended to complement the light of Earth’s existing moon, and will be eight times brighter than the natural satellite, Wu Chunfeng, chairman of Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute Co. Ltd. (CASC) — the primary contractor for the Chinese space program — told PDO. In fact, light … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT: Rites of Winter, by Amelia Faulkner

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Rites of Winter

QSFer Amelia Faulkner has a new MM fantasy book out in her Inheritance series: Rites of Winter. The Wheel turns. Laurence Riley is slowly recovering from the torture he endured. A short break in New York should give him the peace and quiet he craves. But then Quentin goes missing in the worst blizzard the city has ever seen, and Laurence can’t save him alone. He’s going to need help. Snow falls. Quentin d’Arcy is a man torn apart by truth. When he’s abducted to a world that he can’t possibly survive, his nightmares are suddenly the least of his … Read more

FOR READERS: Multiple Minority Status

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minorities - pixabay

FOR READERS Today’s reader topic comes from QSFer Brian Cherry: I’d like to see more books with characters with multiple minority status, such as a gay person who is also trans, disabled, an ethnic minority, etc What are some of your favorite books that mix and match this way? Writers: This is a reader chat – you are welcome to join it, but please do not reference your own works directly. Thanks! This is a legacy chat. Join the chat

TECH: How Close Are We to 2001’s AI Future?

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Hal - 2001

“I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.” Movie audiences first heard these calmly intoned and ominous words in 1968, spoken by a spaceship’s intelligent computer in the science-fiction masterpiece “2001: A Space Odyssey.” With that one phrase, the computer named HAL 9000 confirmed that it could think for itself, and that it was prepared to terminate the astronauts who were planning to deactivate it. Fifty years after director Stanley Kubrick released his visionary masterpiece of space colonization, how close are humans to the future that he imagined, in which we partner with artificial intelligence (A.I.) that we ultimately … Read more