Regular readers will know how frustrated I get by the continual see-sawing about water on Mars … but it’s like a particularly thick and itchy scab I just can’t leave alone. So here we go again – remember the terrain that was too hilly to have been evidence of oceans on the Red Planet? It were disfigured by a massive warping of the Martian rock! Says one Mark Richards, “This really confirms that there was an ocean on Mars.” Right … until next month at least. It’s a shameful thing to admit, but I’m so sick of this whole business I was actually pleased to hear New Scientist had to retract the ‘puddles of liquid’ story. Can we please just get some proper damned missions out there and sort this out once and for all? Either that, or stop making dramatic sweeping announcements based on insufficient evidence?
Upgraded implants could return hearing to the deaf
Your cyborg link for the day: an improved version of cochlear implants could return full-spectrum hearing to the deaf. Now, if they could make some with an input volume adjustment for attending rock concerts …
Polymer ‘skin’ that heals itself
Some of the greatest scientific advances come from imitations of nature, and that appears to be the case with this new polymer that can repair itself by ‘bleeding’ a healing agent through capillaries to seal splits in the surface. Sure to be useful in space aeronautics and other environments where materials integrity is all-important … like exploring an ocean beneath the icy surface of Titan, perhaps. [SlashDot]
More free reads at Subterranean Press
If you didn’t bookmark or subscribe last time I linked to it, you should be clicking on over to Subterranean Press’s online magazine – because the summer edition has got some damn fine genre fiction content in it, none of which will cost you a penny to read. Oh, you want names? How does fiction from Charles de Lint, Joe Lansdale, Rachel Swirsky and Elizabeth Bear sound?
Swivel-chair tourism – visit virtual Chichen Itza in Second Life
If you’ve never seen Chichen Itza, take it from me – it’s an awesome piece of ancient history. Oh, you can’t afford a jaunt to Mexico? Me neither – I’m still paying off the last one, well over three years later. But hey – you’ve got broadband, right? So you can always go and visit a 3D scale model of the ancient Mayan city in Second Life … won’t cost you a penny. And talking of things that cost a lot to do in ‘Real Life’ but virtually nothing in the metaverse, geocaching seems to be taking off in SL too.