Science Update

I've got some pretty cool stuff up today. Well, I think they're cool.


First up, bandages that change color to let you know your wound is becoming infected. How cool is this futuristic medical treatment? Expand this and you'll have patches, gauze, and medical tape that indicates...whatever. Maybe even blood pressure, heart rate, healing progress...It goes on. I've used some things similar in my current trilogy manuscripts. I've got the Med Patch that monitors a patients standard health points. I have a spray that sterilizes and preps torn skin for nano repair. And closest to this article, I've got liquid gauze used in the field that sprays on clear then whitens and tightens hold over a wound and changes color if the wound starts to go South during transport.


Next, the sad news that chocolate is going the way of the dinosaurs. Don't fret, it's not anytime soon but still, it gives pause for thought. When you're writing, what of today's commodities will not be around, in proximity, or evolved into something else? To tell the truth, I haven't really explored this concept in many of my works but it has intrigued by the ideas and will definitely infuse some of this in my next works. Thinking beyond just the fact that a yummy treat will be going away, we need to think of the full implications. Cocoa beans are a commodity that hold up several small countries, makes a living for thousands of business owners and workers. Anything going away can cause an infrastructure meltdown at many levels. This concept could be the basic setting for a story, backgrounds for characters, and drivers for conflict between antagonist and protagonist. OH! It could also be the barrier between love interests and/or friends. The ideas are limitless!

Okay, I'm starting to get too excited so I better hurry and get to the most exciting find. What we Sci-Fi geeks have been waiting for...Light bending camouflage. 'Nuff said. Check it out. I'm struck speechless and typeless yet again at this news. There's been work on military flight camouflage but this new metamaterial research is going to open up doors for all kinds of smaller scale ideas and more field battle uses. I imagine a futurist Patton play. Not just creating a false military site, but hiding our military posts, our men in the field, our ground vehicles, and our small reconnaissance flyers. My debut novel is set primarily is space and in military outpost planets, so my military concepts did not include the need to hide. It's just so easy in the vastness of space without camouflage technology. However, my current trilogy might benefit from this. I will have to explore it and see if it would fit without being one of those SF tech overkills. I like to make sure my SF tech blends into the background like one puzzle piece in the whole picture.

So that's my quick science update. I hope you enjoyed them. What have you all seen in the new lately that would impact the future and the way we SFRers write?


Good writing all!