tech
Curious tech and technology from the realm of science and science fiction.
Alex The Inventor-Chapter 12
Read Chapters 1 - 11 at: Deep Sky Stories Chapter 12 (Part 1) - Belated Truth and Secret Nobility It was an educational time for Alex during the half hour he spent in Rainah's, "Resting Room", as she liked to call it. It was also a time for healing. Miss Vee gently immersed Alex's burned hands in a basin filled with a cool, healing gel compound. After only a few minutes soaking in the gel, Alex withdrew his hands to discover that the throbbing pain had subsided considerably. Bandages were then wrapped around each hand to prevent infection.After the shock and strangeness wore off, seeing Rainah put her prosthetic legs on was quite fascinating. As Miss Vee put it, "Any challenge or hardship in life can be overcome with a determined mind and a little ingenuity."The legs were very interesting because they not only performed perfectly as replacements for the ones that were lost during her hibernation, they also provided Rainah with several distinct advantages. The first and most obvious was that she could literally run the legs off anybody and barely break a sweat. The legs, which had ‘Fluid-Motion High-Speed Servo-Motors’, were powered by high-powered, rechargeable ‘Tritium-Cell’ Batteries, and had ‘Endo-Nerve Ganglia’ sensors which amplified her normal nervous system's electrical impulses.The resulting normalized feedback from her brain mirrored all the proper movements and reactions that any biological legs would have. But because of the nerve amplification and the extreme power output that Tritium-Cell batteries allowed, short bursts of higher than normal strength and speed were possible. But there was more, much more than Miss Vee or John Faraway had expected when they gave Rainah new life with the new legs. Because of the thinner atmosphere on Mars, Rainah's people not only adapted to it, they also learned telepathy because of it. This eliminated the need to waste precious energy (and breath) talking. Because of the two-way biofeedback connection with her nervous system, the new artificial nerves amplified not only Rainah's physical but also her telepathic abilities. A mind could not just be spoken to, she could also read it like a book.Under ideal conditions, such as a mental exercise (like a geography test) Rainah could even find and mentally pull the appropriate memories to the forefront of a person's mind. It was like opening a facet wide and letting the information spill out of the person so fast, that they would have no comprehension of what was happening until it was finished.The first time it happened, Miss Vee was in her kitchen, trying to remember an old cookie recipe that her mother had taught her years ago. She wanted to make enough for both Rainah and Alex, since she was caring for both of them at that time. Before she knew what was happening, ten minutes had elapsed and a fresh batch of oatmeal-chocolate chip cookies was baking in the oven. Miss Vee was completely befuddled and Rainah had a secretive, mischievous grin on her face. The legs had one more distinction: they grew in perfect unison with Rainah‘s natural growth.With the aid of ‘Omni-Balanced Molecular Silicate Growth Plastics’ the bionic legs constantly mirrored their own growth with Rainah's. They were, for all purposes and appearances, her legs. The only time she had to take them off was during the night or any time she needed some rest in her little room. Her prosthetics were then placed into a specially designed recharging container attached to her bed. All Rainah had to do was shuffle over, drop down onto them and then walk away after opening the small container doors.During their time together, the mood in the little Resting Room had soon changed to an upbeat and happier one. And so, after Rainah had had a short rest to allow her prosthetic legs to recharge, Miss Vee called a brief but serious meeting with both of them. During that time, she discussed important matters with Rainah about the Biosphere. A particular issue they focused on regarded the routine operations in the habitat and how well each successive crop was growing in the artificial Martian environment over the past twelve years.Soon, however, the topic began to shift back to a familiar worry that was always on their minds: how much longer they could remain hidden from the Others. Alex soon was forced to realize that there very little time left at all. But out from that ominous train of discussion flowed another topic from Rainah which immediately captured his attention and left him wanting to know much more. Yet, it was how she said it, how she turned to the subject, as though on cue from previously scripted lines that gave Alex his first hint that all was not quite as it should be.
By G.F. Brynn9 years ago in Futurism
Symbiote Chapter 2
Nighttime at Kittery naval ship yard was always a pain, but even more so when one drew the mid-watch. At night nothing happened. The silence was so deafening many had gone mad. This night, not even a breeze wished to stir. The ever present 10 pound seagulls had long since retired for the evening, their source of food, scraps from shipyard workers, never worked past sundown. The birds just nested in the cranes or floated sound asleep on the water.
By daniel morris9 years ago in Futurism
Star Quest
Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars, let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars in other words, let's reach our true destiny. A take on Frank Sinatra's hit. But, that movie "Interstellar" points out some very real possibilities that could play out in reality sooner than we think. When Tsiolokovsky, the pioneering Russian scientist, remarked that Earth is the cradle of mankind but one cannot live in the cradle forever he understood the vital importance that man must seek out new life forms and to literally go where no man has go before. Now, as the summer winds of the worlds discontent fast approach aided by the prolific findings of Stephen Hawking about the fate of mankind we really need to put our house in order and look to the stars if we have any hope of saving the human race. And, we better do it quick. Mankind has always wondered could there actually be a better world out there? We'd have better hope so.
By Dr. Williams9 years ago in Futurism
The Energy Equation
In a year that has already seen it's share of misfortunes not only for countless millions of Americans but millions more the world over along comes pre-summer inflationary trends in the price we pay for just about everything we buy. We have already seen staggering increases in the price of food from dairy to beef and now we are facing more pain at the pump just to get to the store to pay those inflated prices. When is comes to the price of milk lately it would be cheaper to buy a cow. Now, as we are approaching the summer months as usual the price of gas always increases. That old saying that supply and demand dictates the price, well today it is not really the supply and demand rational so much that has set the price of gas soaring it really is corporate greed. In just the past two months the price we pay at the pump has jumped and in most places around the country many are paying more than $4.00 per gallon. Many don't realize that the price we pay at the pump does dictate the price of everything else and that includes food.
By Dr. Williams9 years ago in Futurism
Joint NASA/ESA Mission Proposed to Search for Life on Europa
Europa is one of the most fascinating places in the Solar System, and is considered to be at or near the top of the list of worlds to search for possible evidence of life. Beneath its outer ice crust lies a deep and dark salty ocean, thought to be quite to Earth's own oceans. Could that ocean be inhabited, even if just by microbes? Scientists want to know, and now a new proposal calls for a joint orbiter/lander mission between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), to try to answer that question.
By Paul Scott Anderson9 years ago in Futurism
Operator
OPERATOR By Shane Phillips This was supposed to be an easy mission. They usually were, and even when they weren’t, she was always notified in advance. But as she tried to peek around the corner of the old brick wall she had her back to, the sudden shower of bullets that forced her back into cover reminded her that today had been an unpleasant surprise. And indeed, today was full of unpleasant surprises, as her accuracy was frustratingly poor, and she was quite confident that it wasn’t her fault.
By Shane Phillips9 years ago in Futurism
Alex The Inventor-Chapter 11 (Pt.2)
Read Chapters 1 - 11 at Deep Sky Stories Chapter 11 (Part 2) - Rainah's Pain... Jade greeted the two of them as they entered. She cast them a sharp, warning look and swished her long Dragon-tail when she saw Alex. Jade took longer than most creatures to warm up to strangers of any sort; especially strangers who had just befriended her Mistress. She gave Alex a haughty, dismissive look then turned, giving him a deliberate bump with her club-like tail, and disappeared round a sharp corner in the otherwise round room.The first impression Alex had was of being inside a large, dimly lit, cozy red beach ball. The walls and ceiling curved around and overhead as one continuous surface, even the floor stayed flat for only a fraction of its area before it too curved upward to blend in with the encircling wall. The whole effect was like being inside a large, smooth pudding-bubble room and Alex relaxed a little, feeling that he was being protected from the dangers of the outside world for a while.Soft, dim red lights glowed down from the small dome overhead, bathing everyone in a fuzzy red hue. Everything was of a smooth-edged design and even the walls had contoured padding to prevent injury to the occupants of the sphere.In the center of the room, about twenty feet away from the doorway stood an odd pillar or pipe, running from floor to ceiling and coiled around it were two sets of graceful spirals, one within the twist of the other. The spirals came down from the ceiling like an upside-down cone, with the wide base gradually tapering down to a point only a few feet above the floor. The inner spiral merged with the pipe and the outer spiral slid into a hole in the floor just beside the pipe.
By G.F. Brynn9 years ago in Futurism
The 21st Century Challenge
The die has been cast, the gauntlet thrown, do we dare pick up the challenge or do we retreat to our safe haven of complacency? For too long we have ignored the warning signs of what we have done to our planet by our continued drilling, extracting, processing and consuming fossil fuel sources. Ever since the first Industrial Revolution mankind has been consumed with it's unquenchable thirst for energy sources that are known to be detrimental to every form of life on this planet and yet we continue our onslaught of destruction by not fully integrating alternate fuel sources that will have a beneficial impact on not only the environment but have a very profound and positive effect on humanity as well.
By Dr. Williams9 years ago in Futurism
Let Guinea Pigs be Guinea Pigs
If you work in a biomedical research lab, you better not get emotionally attached to the lab animals. For some lab workers, it isn't easy. Those mice and guinea pigs, and sometimes rats, can look downright cute and cuddly. If, however, you can't jab the animals with compounds that make the critters sick, and even kill them, then you need to find a new line of work.
By Alan Kotok9 years ago in Futurism
The Year 2525
"In the Year 2525, if man is still alive, if women can survive, they may find." That opening to one of the most memorable hit songs of the late 60's set a very ominous tone for the future of mankind. Subsequent verses pick up a very foreboding story of mankind spanning 10,000 years. As with Nostradamus's disturbing predictions, Zager & Evans constructed an altogether more disturbing and sobering scenario for the future of humanity. A little more than 500 years from now we may find mankind at the mercy of all the technology we have created.
By Dr. Williams9 years ago in Futurism
