All posts by Paul Raven

Fiction

NEW FICTION: ERASING THE MAP by Marissa Lingen

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We’ve published a lot of wild and gonzo stuff at Futurismic in recent months, but we wouldn’t want you to make the mistake that’s all we like. And here’s an example: “Erasing the Map” by Marissa Lingen, which is subtle, quietly assertive, and handled perfectly.

Its thesis: If you could have traumatic memories surgically removed, would you take the risk of losing some of the memories you treasure? Read first, then make your mind up and tell us in the comments!

“Erasing the Map”

by Marissa Lingen

There was this one time, in college. I was arguing politics with this girl. Young Republican type. She had the blonde bob and the baby blue sweater, the whole works. I’d even seen her wear penny loafers. I liked her anyway. We were arguing about gun control, and I said there was absolutely no feeling in the world worse than killing another person.

I think if it had been another circumstance, another time, she would have responded by reaming me out about all the things she could think of that were worse. But it was a party. Maybe she thought I was cute. So instead, she batted those contact-lens-blue eyes at me and said, “And how many people have you killed?”

I said, “Just the one.”

It was the wrong answer, I knew, and the flirting look went off like a switch. But it was the only answer I could give. After she stared at me for a minute, I said, “It was an accident. I was ten years old.” She still didn’t say anything, so I said, “His name was Anthony, and he was my best friend.” Continue reading NEW FICTION: ERASING THE MAP by Marissa Lingen →

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Productive Nanosystems – The Movie

Most of us are aware that DNA and RNA are the molecular machinery that synthesise proteins and allow the complex reactions of life to take place, but actually visualising the processes is a considerable mental leap.

Most such visualisations rely on visual simplifications that actually present a false impression of the processes involved, but via Eric Drexler we discover the following examples by Drew Berry, which are apparently much truer to the actual processes that occur. Take the seven or so minutes needed to watch this, and you’ll be set up for your daily dose of scientific sensawunda for the rest of the week – biochemistry is incredibly awesome:

Aside from the sheer wow-factor of seeing molecules acting like high-precision machines deep at the cores of our cells, it’s worth bearing in mind that there’s no magic involved, and that we’re constantly getting better at understanding how these processes work.

Which, I expect, is why Drexler is so fascinated by them: once we know how the body’s nanomachines work, we’ll be properly equipped to start building new ones.

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Multiple sclerosis responds to stem cell therapy

Still wondering what stem cell therapy might be good for? Wonder no more – a team from the University of Chicago have used stem cells to treat – and in some cases partially reverse – the effects of multiple sclerosis. The doctors…

… recruited 12 women and 11 men in the early relapsing-remitting stage of MS, who had not responded to treatment with the drug, interferon beta, after six months.

They removed stem cells from the patients’ bone marrow, and then used chemicals to destroy all existing immune cells in the body, before re-injecting the stem cells. These then developed into naïve immune cells that do not see myelin as alien, and hence do not attack it.

Three years later, 17 of the patients had improved by at least one point on a standard disability scale, while none of the patients had deteriorated.

Kinda like the biological equivalent of a complete oil change! Those are some pretty impressive results; I think we’re going to see a lot of awesome stuff come out of the stem cell field over the next decade, especially now there’s a US administration that isn’t actively hostile to it on moral grounds.

Looking further ahead, maybe the regenerative power of stem cells will eventually lead to the science fiction staple of rejuvenation treatments?

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Friday Free Fiction for 30th January

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Wow, it’s the end of January already – where the hell’s this year going to so fast, I ask you?

With another week comes another batch of free science fiction stories on the intertubes, lovingly collected from the RSS quagmire and presented for your edification and enjoyment. Bon appetit!

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Just the one from Manybooks:

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And just the one from Feedbooks:

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Polu Texni presents “Very Truly Yours, Part II” by Seth Gordon

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SpaceWesterns presents “The Reckoning” by John P Wilson

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Via the perpetrators themselves (and pretty much everyone else), here’s an opening sample from “Colliding Branes” by Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker.

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Some microfiction news from the Orbit gang:

Jeff Somers — author of The Electric Chruch, The Digital Plague, and the forthcoming The Eternal Prison — is tweeting a short story, a few lines at a time.

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On the subject of Twitter fiction, here’s another example: MidnightStories tweets a 140 character story every night at midnight, Texas time.

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Via EOS Books:

Harper Perennial is celebrating the short story this year, and each Sunday evening during 2009 will be posting a new story from both established authors and début authors. This year they have already published stories from Tony O’Neill, Simon Van Booy, and Mary Gaitskill. Check it out at www.fiftytwostories.com.

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Strange Horizons presents part two of “The Shangri-La Affair” by Lavie Tidhar

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Here’s Memory #32 by Jayme Lynn Blaschke

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In keeping with his manifesto of optimism, Jason Stoddard has decided that a lot of his trunk stories are now obsolete, set as they are in a future that now appears much less likely to actually become real (and let’s all hope he’s right on that point).

As a result, he’s releasing some free fiction to the web; first up on the block is his unpublished novel Eternal Franchise, to be serialised over the coming year, starting with chapter 1.1. The future depicted within may be obsolete, but Jason’s storytelling surely isn’t – so why not follow his RSS feed for a vision of the future that might have been?

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Via Chris Roberson:

BookSpot Central is featuring a preview of the first three chapters of The Dragon’s Nine Sons, if you haven’t read the book and would like to sample it.

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A Continuous Coast update from Kit O’Connell:

The latest fiction from the Creative Commons-licensed Continuous Coast project is available. The first five parts of Reesa Brown’s rescue ride are up as of now.

Those interested in learning more about the extreme sport of Gurge Riding depicted in the stories may also want to read these recent chat transcripts.

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The SF Signal gang, in addition to their traditional linkitude, are hosting some excerpts:

Several weeks back, I read and enjoyed Hater by David Moody, a tense thriller with science fictional leanings.

St Martin’s is allowing us to offer the first four chapters right here on SF Signal. Read Chapter 1 below. The next chapter will appear next week.

Meanwhile, here’s all the other gubbins they caught in their trawler-net of justice:

  • Infinite Canvas presents “The Day The Saucers Came” by Neil Gaiman [Editor’s note: I’ve heard him read this aloud, and it’s a super little story. Pure Gaiman all the way.]
  • Mindflights presents “Marionettes” by Mike Simon
  • The new issue of AntipodeanSF features fiction by Jill Smith, Julie Cohen Wornan, Kirstyn McDermott, Matthew Sanborn Smith, Angie Smibert, Shaun A Saunders, Richard Thorne, Mark Farrugia, Ashley Hibbert, and Felicity Dowker
  • M-BRANE SF is a new genre magazine available in PDF format

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Before we start with Friday Flash Fiction, here’s a message from a new contributor, Sumit Dam:

Thought I would let you know that I’m posting weekly Friday Flash too, over at Sumitsays.com. Last Friday’s offering was “The Unbearable Beings of Lightness“, my contribution to the Altered Film Titles challenge.

Thanks, Sumit! And here’s this week’s collection:

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And that’s all we have for you this week, ladies and gents. Don’t forget to keep us posted about any free sf that you hear of; we’ll link it here and give you a shout as well. In the meantime, have a great weekend!

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The new alchemy: turning sewage into gold

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There’s an old saying in the north of the UK – “where there’s muck, there’s brass”. So here’s a modern Japanese re-spin on it: where there’s sewage, there’s gold.

The sewage in question is from Nagano Prefecture’s Suwa Basin, a region where a lot of machining factories and metal-plating outfits are located, and apparently the resulting sludge has a higher concentration of gold than high-grade ore. Ker-ching!