Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space

Traveling and living in space will pose a variety of technical challenges, but there are plenty of other social challenges that space will pose. Who owns space? How will workers get paid? How will we handle reproduction in an environment with limited resources? To start considering these questions and their answers, I recommend reading Off-Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space, by Erika Nesvold.

Nesvold starts the book by acknowledging that some people may wonder why we should go to space when we still have so many problems to fix on Earth. There are a couple of reasons why we should start planning for space anyway. The first is that developing the technology needed for space travel may help us improve the situation on our planet. The other is that there are people and companies determined to get into space, so we need to plan accordingly. Attempts to regulate space internationally have had limited success, so we need to learn how to do so quickly.

Each chapter of Off-Earth raises a different question. (Some of the examples are listed in the first paragraph.) At the beginning of each chapter, Nesvold describes three scenarios, some based on history, others set in the future, about the topic. There are plenty of historical examples where exploration and exploitation of resources and people led to tragedy. If we don't learn from these examples and set up regulations/customs/laws before we establish lunar settlements or asteroid mines, we'll only repeat our mistakes.

At the end of the book, Nestvold discusses how we as a species can start discussing these questions. One thing we should do is to look to non-Western societies for possible solutions. For example, people living in the Arctic have experience with extreme environments like the ones in space. We could learn from them, but we shouldn't just appropriate their knowledge but make sure they're included in space exploration. One group Nestvold fails to acknowledge are science fiction writers. We have experience creating thought experiments about alternate societies in space. If authors consider ethical questions in their works, we can influence the development of real space societies, hopefully in ways that will be sustainable and beneficial for all.

Evolution in Science Fiction

My family and I saw Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3, last weekend. While the scenes with animal experimentation were disturbing, overall it was better than I expected. I liked the storyline, and I always enjoy seeing Mantis and Drax interact. However, the main villain's project in evolution is not scientifically accurate for several reasons. I'll try to state them in a non-spoiler way:

1. Natural selection may work on individuals of a species, but that doesn't mean individuals evolve. Individuals have traits that make them more or less suited to their environment, which in turn affects their ability to pass those traits down to the next generation. Natural selection needs a context in which to work.

2. Mutations can appear in individuals that affect their ability to survive, but most of these either have no effect or a harmful one. Radiation or chemicals can increase the mutation rate, but an affected individual doesn't keep popping out random changes in body type. It's very unlikely that you could take an adult individual and make it change its body plan or develop new traits by mutating it. If you really wanted to create a new species, you'd have to change the genetic material in a fertilized egg and let it develop and mature.

3. Evolution doesn't happen with an end goal in mind. Humans are a twig on a bush, not the top of a tree. There are millions of other species that are extremely well-adapted to their niches, have traits that we would envy (better senses than ours, flight, ability to breathe underwater, etc.), and have been around much longer than us.

4. Genetics may set the potential for an individual, but the environment plays an important role in an individual's development. If you want to develop intelligent individuals, you need to meet their biological needs and also give them a stimulating environment.

I'm not just picking on this movie; I have long felt that the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Genesis," which features the crew "de-evolving," was bad biological science. It's possible that the writers portrayed evolution acting on adult individuals for visual effects and emotional involvement in the story. However, the writers might not have been familiar with the principles of evolution to begin with. Given that evolution is being dropped from some science textbooks in India, that trend may only get worse.

How well do you think evolution is portrayed in science fiction? Can you think of examples where it's done accurately? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Dinner on Mars

If you're interested in worldbuilding for science fiction, then you know food is an important part of that. How a society produces and prepares food has a big impact on many other parts of their culture. And as Lenore Newman and Evan D.G. Fraser point out in their book Dinner on Mars: The Technologies That Will Feed the Red Planet and Transform Agriculture on Earth, thinking about food production in extreme environments can in turn change how we handle food on this planet.

This book was inspired by Zoom chats between the authors during the Covid lockdown, and they refer to that often in the text. However, the "meat" of the book is a thought experiment of how to feed the first colonists on Mars. The authors discuss what's possible--obtaining nutrients from the soil on Mars--and what isn't feasible--transporting animals or growing grains on the red planet. Given the challenges of living on a planet with little water, a thin atmosphere, and reduced sunlight intensity, future Martian colonists will have to be ingenious at maximizing their resources. They would have to rely on blue-green algae, yeast, and microbes to produce the building blocks of food, at least initially. Special arrangements would have to be made to grow plants on Mars (the plants would also produce oxygen and help us maintain a link with nature). The plants might have to be genetically engineered to be more efficient, and they could grown by robots that deliver the exact amount of fertilizer needed. Protein could be printed or grown in a lab, and cheese could be developed from yeast extracts. The authors optimistically end by imagining the types of meals Martian colonists would eat--protein bars for breakfast, salad and printed meat for lunch and dinner, with the occasional treat of something made from potatoes and maybe even a distilled beverage. They describe this as a much healthier diet than what we currently eat and point out that we need those technologies here and now to change our food supply. However, getting these technologies to the small farms around the world may be as challenging as developing them.

Newman and Fraser write in an engaging style that make this book accessible to general readers. If I have to find a fault with their thought experiment, I think that they dismiss carbs too easily. Rice, corn, and pasta are staples in many cultures, and I doubt the first waves of colonists will want to do without them, even if these foods aren't optimally nutritious. If it's impractical to grow vast fields of wheat or rice paddies on Mars, then people will find other ways to create carbs. Perhaps yeasts will be used to churn out simple sugars that can be printed into starches and flours. Or perhaps plants with starchy roots can be modified to be more grain-like. I think the challenge of recreating specific dishes in space or another extreme environment might make for an interesting solarpunk story. 

If you were going to colonize another planet, what kind of food would you want to bring with you and why? Feel free to share in the comments.

The Skeptics' Guide to the Future

I started listening to The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast a few months ago. I'd read the book with the same name and thought it was quite useful. So when Dr. Steven Novella and the rest of the podcasters mentioned they'd written a second book called The Skeptics' Guide to the Future: What Yesterday's Science and Science Fiction Tell Us About the World of Tomorrow, I had to (literally) check it out. If you're interested in futurism--as science fiction writers are by definition--then you'll want to do the same.

The book is divided into five parts. The first one is an introduction to futurism, which is the art of predicting the future. It discusses how previous predictions about the future were right or not and looks at general trends. (We tend to overestimate short-term progress and underestimate long-term progress. We also assume the institutions and culture we have today will persist with little or no change.) The other four sections deal with various aspects of technology: current, future, space travel, and science fiction tech. Each part is broken into several chapters, with each chapter focused on a specific type of technology. The authors discuss what types of technology are possible (they cover everything from stem cells to light sabers) and when they might be developed or become feasible. (Some familiarity with the technology is assumed, as this is a general overview, but the authors provide some history and current status for each type of technology.) They also discuss ideas that might not work; unfortunately for my stories Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes, we are unlikely to be able to travel to alternate universes through wormholes. The first four parts end with snippets of future fiction set anywhere from a few decades to more than twenty thousand years in the future.

Not surprisingly, the overall message of the book is that technology will continue to become an important part of our culture and change it in ways we might not be able to foresee. The general assumption is that humanity will continue to exist in some form or another; the authors ignore most potential catastrophes with the exception of artificial intelligence turning against us. They do discuss the possibilities of humans using brain-machine interfaces, uploading our minds into computers, or colonizing space. 

This book is worth reading not just if you're interested in science or science fiction, but the future. After all, every new day brings us closer to it.

A Shot of Hope

 Last week, I finally got my first Covid-19 vaccine dose. Although I had some initial difficulty getting an appointment, I was able to get one at a mass vaccination site close to my house. To celebrate, I wore a "Girls in Science" mask and my t-shirt from the March for Science. Once I arrived at the site, it was a very efficient process. It took less than fifteen minutes from the time I entered the building to the moment I received the injection. While I was waiting to make sure I didn't have a reaction, the appointment for my second dose was automatically scheduled exactly three weeks from my first one.

I did have some side effects from the first dose, mostly headaches. The first day was the worst, but I had some slight headaches the next day. I was pretty much back to normal by the second day. Of course, the side effects are supposed to be worse after the second shot, but fortunately my workplace is giving us time off to get the vaccine and recover.

I'm looking forward to being fully vaccinated in a little more than a month. My husband is an essential worker, so he's already fully vaccinated. Hopefully soon at least one of the vaccines will be approved for use in my son's age group. I'll feel more secure once we're all protected, though it will still take me a while before I resume my normal activities.

 Are you planning to get vaccinated, or have you already fully or partially protected? Are you having problems finding an appointment? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Virtual Members' Nights (and Day)

One of the many family traditions we weren't able to perform this year was visiting the Field Museum for Member's Night. This event is normally held in May over two nights (usually Thursday and Friday) and allows members to see some of the research being done at the museum and learn how new exhibits are designed. Fortunately, the Field Museum came up with a new way to participate this year: virtually over Zoom. They set up three sessions last week, each with several short presentations on different topics. I attended all of them, though I didn't watch every presentation. (My husband had to work during the presentations. I did share the Zoom link with my son, though I don't know if he watched any of the sessions on his own.) Here are a few of the presentation topics:

Totem poles (cleaning and imaging)

Hats and headgear (ancient hats mostly from Asia)

Green River fossils (see below)

Gems (Victorian household items made from gems; we got to guess what they were used for)

Artifacts from Kish, one of the oldest urban areas

Meteorites

Fossil prep (we got to see two of staff members actually doing this at their homes)

Fish specimens (we saw some of those at Dozing with the Dinos in March)

Dinosaurs (of course!)--the oversize collection

Some of the presentations I didn't get to see involved birds, moccasins, and mummies. There were a couple of presentations from Thursday night that aren't coming to mind at the moment.

The presentation I enjoyed the most was the Green River fossil presentation, which focused on ancient bird fossils. They showed a very nice fossil of a 155-million-year-old bird with impressions of feathers visible. Dr. O'Connor, Associate Curator of Reptile Fossils, explained that contrary to what you might expect, they found evidence of soft tissue preservation in these fossils. By demineralizing and staining a sample from another ancient bird fossil, they were able to find evidence of ovarian tissue in the fossil. Most birds have only one ovary (probably an adaption for flight), so this work showed that the ovary reduction happened very early in bird evolution. I thought that was fascinating work that could change how other fossils are studied, which would allow us to learn more about prehistoric life.

We did visit the Field Museum when they reopened in July, but unfortunately, the Chicago museums had to close down again last week. It was good to reconnect with The Field again, even if it was just virtually. Hopefully next year the whole family can attend a Members' Night in person. In the meantime, please support your local museum(s)!

Life in Venus's Atmosphere?

 2020 has been full of strange news so far, but perhaps some of the strangest could be the possibility of life in Venus's atmosphere. On the surface of the planet, it's hot enough to melt lead. However, scientists have detected phosphine in the atmosphere at concentrations high enough to suggest the gas is being made by anaerobic bacteria in the atmosphere. (Venus's atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide.) It's not definite proof, and the phosphine could be produced by some unknown method, but it is a tantalizing notion. Here's one of the articles about this discovery. 

If there is life on Venus, does it use DNA and the same genetic code as life on Earth does? Does it use the same basic biochemistry? Is there the possibility of multicellular life? How would it influence science fiction to know there is life on other planets? These are just a few of the questions that I'd want answered. What are yours? Feel free to share them in the comments.

The Day It Finally Happens

The day before Halloween might be a good time to talk about witches, vampires, and mummies, but life has horrors that are far worse. Mike Pearl, a columnist who suffers from anxiety disorder, tries to manage his fears by studying how likely some situations are and what their impacts would be. In his book, The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans--and Other ImPossible Phenomena, Pearl examines all the situations listed above and more.

Some of these events, such as freeing all slaves worldwide, are good events, while a supervolcano eruption could theoretically kill half of humanity by blanketing the world in ash and causing a volcanic winter by blocking sunlight. Others, such as ending oil dependence and no longer killing animals to eat, would be a mixed blessing. Pearl introduces each event with a scenario showing how it might occur. He also rates how likely it is each event will occur in this century along with how plausible it is, how scary the event is, and whether or not it's worth changing our habits to avoid the event. Some of these events are more plausible than you might expect, such as creating a dinosaur park. (Pearl suggests this could be done by selective breeding and genetic manipulation, since actual dinosaur DNA would be too badly damaged to use.)  In my opinion, some of the topics he discusses, such as the end of British royalty, seem frivolous compared to the extinction of all fish or learning aliens do exist.

Although some of the scenarios Pearl discusses would be catastrophic if they ever occurred, Pearl attempts to assure us in an Epilogue that the future isn't lost. Humanity may not always exist in its current form, but our descendants would be better adapted for their environment. We may be able to avoid demise if we're able to colonize space. We also know too little about the universe to know what will happen in the far future. He stresses that he wants to convince us the future is worth it:

Some of the horrors I've outlined won't be avoided, and some will. Some of the wonderful things I've predicted won't happen, and others will....If we fundamentally don't believe in a future at all, I'm pretty sure of one thing: it'll be more horror than wonder.

As a science fiction writer, I try to predict the future even knowing how unlikely it is I'll be right. It's always interesting to read what other futurists think. Do you find these kinds of books useful for your own world-building? Free free to share your thoughts in the comments. 

Science of the Week, 10/19/18

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

A cure for Alzheimer's? Yes, a cure for Alzheimer's!
(It's actually more like customized treatments for each patient, and while it sounds promising, results can also vary.)

Survey shows widespread skepticism of flu shot

Giant planets around young star raise questions about how planets form

A step toward personalized, automated smart homes


Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

Science of the Week, 10/12/18

Here are some of the most interesting science news stories I read this week:

Seaweed-powered trucks--hope or hype?

Part-organic invention can be used in bendable mobile phones

Global sea level could rise 50 feet by 2300, study says

Caffeine helps block pain

Even when presented with facts, supported by evidence, many people choose not to believe them

Researchers demonstrate first example of a bioresorbable electronic medicine

Army researchers' technique locates robots, soldiers in GPS-challenged areas

Science of the Week, 10/5/18

This week was a little better for science news articles. Here are some of the ones I found most interesting:

Fog's role in microbial transport

In dangerous fungal family's befriending of plants, a story of loss

Scientists unlock secret of how the brain decodes speech

Defects promise quantum communication through standard optical fiber

Eco-friendly nanoparticles for artificial photosynthesis

Researchers go deep, design drones for subterranean search and rescue

No more Iron Man: submarines now have soft, robotic arms

Emissions-free energy system saves heat from the summer sun for winter


Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

Science of the Week, 9/28/18

I didn't get my usual daily mail from Science Blog this week, so I have a limited number of science articles to share with you:

New battery gobbles up carbon dioxide

Software finds the best way to stick a Mars landing

Bacteria-fighting viruses could provide new approach to promoting gut health

Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

Science of the Week, 9/21/18

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Sniffing out sharks

A "volume control" for pain

Gut bacteria's shocking secret: they generate electricity

Blazes of light reveal how plants signal danger long distances

"Optical rocket" created with intense laser light

Green tea compound helps SiRNA slip inside cells

Physicists train robotic gliders to soar like birds


Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

Science of the Week, 9/14/18

This week didn't offer much in the way of interesting science news articles, but here are some of the most interesting ones I read this week:

New research suggests Pluto should be reclassified as a planet

Throwing darts at approaching asteroids

Robot can pick up any object after inspecting it



Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

Science of the Week, 9/7/18

Sorry for the scheduling mix-up on Tuesday. Now, here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Rutgers scientists identify protein that may have existed when life began

Water worlds could support life, study says

CRISPR halts Duchenne muscular dystrophy progression in dogs

Prehistoric changes in vegetation help predict future of Earth's ecosystems

Planck's Law: a nanoscale discovery with big implications

Artificial forest air and light-based chemical reactions tackle indoor pollution

How to stop an antibiotic-resistant superbug

Have a good weekend, and see you Monday!

Science of the Week, 8/31/18

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

The world's cleanest water droplet

Shape-shifting material can morph, reverse itself using heat, light

Alzheimer's one day may be predicted during eye exam

Researchers 3D print one of the strongest materials on Earth

New cancer treatment uses enzymes to boost immune system and fight back

AI can deliver specialty-level diagnosis in primary care setting

Ant-y social: successful ant colonies hint at how societies evolve

Nerve fibers regrow thru scar tissue after spinal cord injury in rodents

On the horizon: an acne vaccine

Looking for water in Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

Science of the Week: 8/24/18

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Study confirms truth behind Darwin's moth

Particulate's pollution's impact varies greatly depending on where it originated

Unexpected future boost of methane possible from Arctic permafrost

Light from ancient quasars helps confirm quantum entanglement

A GPS for inside your body

Saliva could influence taste preferences

Picture this: camera with no lens

Bigger proteins, stronger threads: synthetic spider silk

Scientists discover first direct evidence of surface exposed water ice on the moon

Inheritors of the Earth

When most people think of biodiversity, they think of saving the species we already have. While that's important, there are other ways that nature adapts to change. Chris D. Thomas discusses them in Inheritors of the Earth: How Nature is Thriving in an Age of Extinction.

We are currently living in an Anthropocene Age, where the Earth is markedly affected by our actions. Many people say that due to human activity, we are currently living through a sixth mass extinction. Thomas, however, turns conventional thinking about biology upside down. Instead of removing invasive species and preventing them from hybridizing with local ones, we should move endangered plants and animals to locations where they are likely to thrive. Although there are cases where invaders out-compete native species, this is because the invaders are fitter. For examples, island birds may lose the ability to fly over time. For them, flying is a waste of energy (since they have no predators) that could be better used for reproducing. When predators come, the birds can't escape, and they may be less able to fight new diseases. Mainland birds that have had to deal with challenges constantly are better able to survive in this situation.

Moving new species to different locations can create new niches in the ecosystem and give rise to hybrids that can form new species. One of the examples discussed in the book is an invasive plant that offered butterflies a new source of food at a time when their normal food source was threatened. When the apple tree was brought to America, it allowed a type of fly to specialize in a different food source, ultimately splitting off to form a new species. This new apple fly has three specialized parasitic wasps associated with it, so the apple tree brought about the development of four new insect species. These developments can happen fairly quickly, over a couple of centuries instead of millions of years.

Thomas ultimately reminds us that we humans are a part of nature, so everything we do is natural. Since the dawn of civilization, we have developed new species by selective breeding and brought others with us on our journeys. Global travel is creating a second Pangaea. Change has been part of life since the first unicellular creatures came into existence (and they brought about a mass extinction by releasing oxygen into the air). We should not try to recreate some long-lost Eden, but try to preserve as much biodiversity--genes--as possible, no matter in what type of body they reside or what types of technology we need to use.

As a science fiction writer, I find these ideas intriguing. Often, future worlds are depicted as being either all city or an ecological wasteland. Thomas offers alternatives. Camels and mammoths roaming the American Southwest, anyone? Science fiction writers should also think about the implications of colonizing a new world. Will Terran life forms be able to hybridize with otherworldly ones? If so, what would be the result?

Do you have a particular endangered species that you love--or a common one that you love to hate? Feel free to share them in the comments.

Science of the Week: 8/17/18

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Google Glass helps kids with autism read facial expressions

Smartphones act as digital security blankets in stressful social situations

Neuroscientists get at the roots of pessimism

Laziness helped lead to extinction of Homo erectus

Trees and climate change: faster growth, lighter wood

Immune cells in the brain have surprising effect on sexual behavior


Have a good weekend, and I'll see you Monday!

Science of the Week, 8/4/18

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Artificial intelligence device identifies objects at the speed of light

Rethinking ketchup packets: new approach to slippery packaging aims to cut food waste

Microbes go dark to stay warm in cooler climates

Koala virus could explain why humans have "junk" DNA

Corals are becoming more tolerant of rising ocean temperatures