Royce Sears-Sci-Fi/Fantasy Author

In a thought provoking article found on Sciencenews.org , scientists have found evidence linking the existence of hydrogen belching volcanoes to the possibility of life supporting planets. Atmospheric models suggest, according to the article, these volcanoes may extend a star's habitable zone considerably. This is exciting news for the exoplanet hunting community that opens the potential for many more worlds which may harbor life. It's an exciting time in the world of exoplanet astronomy and for lovers of science, like myself. Now, we just need a means of propulsion that will get us to these far-flung worlds in a timely manner rather than say the 750,000 years it would take us to get to the Trappist-1 system currently. Royce Sears www.roycesears.com

http://epicofevolution.com This article, found on Science News , showcases the wild and unpredictable nature of life. What is life? Life: a condition of growth, reproduction, and adaptation to the environment through internal changes. Such a sterile definition of something so precious and beautiful. Life is a complex process that we still don't understand. Somehow, millions of years ago, just the right combination of amino acids and proteins came together in the primordial soup of Earth to form the building blocks of what we are today. How did it all happen? That's one of the great existential questions that most either ignore, take on faith, or leave it up to the scientific community to find the answer. Personally, I fall into the last category. Will we ever know that answer? Maybe...hopefully... but until then we can use the tried-and-true method of establishing scientific understanding, the scientific method, to come to a better understanding of the FACTS . h...

Source Article by Christopher Crockett "'Now with the first proven distance, we can see how remote and how bright the source must be,” Sarah Burke-Spolaor, an astrophysicist at West Virginia University, said January 4 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.'" In a previous blog post I discussed these mysterious Fast Radio Bursts coming from approximately three billion light years away. More information recently became available about these radio bursts. The host galaxy has been identified and a constant glow of radio waves emanates from this tiny galaxy, but for roughly five milliseconds, the burst outshined all the stars in the host galaxy. Do we know what this is? No, but new information suggests the source may be near a supermassive black hole. Researchers will be analyzing the repeated bursts for some kind of rhythm, but at first appearances, these bursts seem to be random in nature. Whether this is some natural phenomenon or not, it is something ...

Artificial Intelligence: The Apex Technology of the Information Age Sharing this in relation to my work in progress; working title "Humanity First."  Heath Terry, shown in the attached video, is lead analyst for the Internet sector in  Global Investment Research and is deputy business unit leader of the Technology, Media and Telecom business unit in Americas Equity Research. "People are giving machines problems and the machines learn how to solve them on their own," Terry says in the video. This is a path we are already on thanks to our fascination with data. (No, not the android on Star Trek: The Next Generation--sorry @Brentspiner ) Data and data mining drive corporate business decisions on a global scale and this will only continue to increase as more and more computing processing power is directed at finding ways to put this data mining to use. As Artificial Intelligence grows beyond Siri, Alexa, Cortana, or any of the other AI facsimiles avail...

As of November 2016, some of our more star names have officially changed thanks to the International Astronomical Union. This has been an ongoing project to clarify many names which Formalhaut, which is currently known by around thirty different names and/or spellings. Rigil Kentaurus and Proxima Centauri vary from region to region and assign a formal designation to stars with many names. The most prominent change is a star that many may recognize Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri is part of a trinary system consisting of what used to be known as Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Alpha Centauri C. Alpha Centauri A has been redesignated to its more ancient name, Rigil Kentaurus while Alpha Centauri C will keep its name of Proxima Centauri. Another less well-known example is the star What does this mean for the average person? Not much really since the names of stars aren't really a topic of conversation for most people, but for those of us who pay attention to such things ...

Source Article: Science News Eighteen fast radio bursts since 2007, each lasting a few milliseconds, have been recorded from the Christopher Crockett , is the repeating nature of these transmissions - which indicates these transmissions are not isolated to a one-time event. same place. Where are they coming from? The source of these strange transmissions is over 3 billion - yes that Billion with a capital B - LIGHT YEARS away, in the constellation Auriga. The interesting thing about these, according to Some of these intercepted transmissions were even picked up right here in West Virginia, at the Green Bank Observatory . It is suspected that these bursts of radio waves may be from neutron stars, but it is purely suspicion at this point. Green Bank Observatory made news in 2016 when it went 'rogue' after the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank's parent organization, cut funding in efforts to tighten its fiscal belt. This was quite a shock to Green Bank Ob...

This is what our future could be if folks like Franklin Chang Díaz and his team at AdAstra are successful with the integration of their VASMIR engine into our existing space programs. What you see above is a test of the VASMIR engine, taking place here on Earth, but it is designed to function in space. A new rocket engine, big deal, right? We have all kinds of different rocket engines and they all do the same thing, There's not much difference between one rocket engine and another, right? They all push big, heavy things into orbit and make alot of noise while they're doing it. Wrong. The VASMIR engine is a completely new concept that uses a tenth of the fuel of a conventional chemical rocket and produces much more bang for the buck. Additionally, it's not using hydrogen and oxygen or solid rocket fuel but rather an inert, noble gas that is very safe to store and use. How does this make it a good rocket fuel? Isn't rocket fuel supposed to make lots of noise a...

Science News: First peek under clouds reveals Jupiter’s surprising depths Juno's data, and the analysis of it, indicates the colors and stripes we see on Jupiter extend at least 350-400 kilometers below the clouds. Added to that mystery is the fact that Juno measured the radio waves emanating from Jupiter, waves that ranged in frequency depending upon the depth of origin. What does it mean? Who knows? But it does lead up to some interesting questions. Why are the frequencies different depending on the depth? What's producing the colors and stripes that would maintain that degree of division across distances so vast? What's really going on inside Jupiter? Questions that this science fiction author's mind are eating up right now as I formulate all kinds of fun, freaky explanations for what we see. Story ideas are in abundance with news like this.

US Airforce Expands Space Warfare Training:  "U.S. Air Force Space Command released an outline late last week of Gen. John Hyten’s plan for training military satellite operators to defend the ultimate high ground against adversaries striving to take away the edge satellites give the U.S. and its allies in armed conflict."--  As a former member of the United States Navy, I understand the need to protect assets and safeguard the idea of global commons--much as the navy does our oceans. It seems to me that, much like everything else in our military's arsenal, America wants to militarize space in such a way as to police and patrol in a manner that we see fit.  “Our space forces must demonstrate their ability to react to a thinking adversary and operate as warfighters in this environment,” Hyten said in the document. “If we do not adopt this transformation quickly, we will lose our competitive advantage in space and jeopardize our ability to successfully confront a...

According to the article, Electrons have Potential for Mutual Attraction on Science News , we may be setting ourselves up for the next big wave in technology... high-temperature superconductors. I can't help imagining what this tech, combined with a new generation of quantum computers, might do for the advancement of our computer tech. I'm thinking Star Trek style, voice controlled, computers that process data in speeds and quantities that will make our current standards appear obsolete.