Research – Page 13 – Queer Sci Fi

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New Drug Makes HIV Self Destruct

November 8, 2016 by scott

Scientists have claimed they have created a ‘breakthrough’ drug that can make HIV cells ‘self-destruct’ without harming the body. The drug, which was added to test tubes containing the blood of 10 HIV patients, was found to decrease the viral load by 97%. Abraham Loyter and Assaf Friedler at Hebrew University said they used a peptide in the drug that could case several copies of the virus’ DNA to enter the infected cell, causing the cell to self-destruct. By Joe Morgan – Full Story at Gay Star News

New Discoveries Day

November 1, 2016 by scott

Hey all, Welcome to New Discoveries Day – a day once a month (usually on the last day of the month) when we discuss recent discoveries that fascinate us and that could spawn plot bunnies (or plot squirrels or plot mongeese – your plot animal of choice). So chime in and let us know about any new discoveries you ran across in the last month – links are always appreciated. Thanks to Freddy MacKay for the great idea! –Scott Come Join the Chat!

Is There a Cure for HIV?

October 5, 2016 by scott

The results of a recent HIV treatment trial run by several British institutions are promising, and may mean the discovery of a cure for HIV. Fifty patients took part in the trial, conducted by Imperial College London, University College London, King’s College London and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The NHS also supported the research. In one patient there no sign of the virus after a months long trial. The man, aged 44 and a social worker in London, told the Times: ‘It would be great if a cure has happened. My last blood test was a couple of weeks … Read more

New Discoveries Day!

October 1, 2016 by scott

For Writers: Death in the Future

August 7, 2016 by scott

Every society has its ways of dealing with death. Some enforce long mourning periods in ritual dress. Some cover mirrors. Some hold celebrations of life. And of course there are countless individual variations as well. I once read a great book by a terrible author whose name I won’t share here, where telling the whole truth about a person, both the good and the bad, had become a tradition. It fascinated me – this idea that we do a disservice to people by only saying the good things about them after they have passed. On the practical side, cemeteries take … Read more

Where No Gay Has Gone Before: Men on Mars!

July 22, 2016 by scott

For the past fifty years, we’ve been sending spacecraft tour next-door neighbor, Mars. Starting with Mariner 4 in 1965, which did the first flyby. The Soviets achieved the first soft landing with the Mars 3 probe in 1971. Long before those milestones, sci-fi authors have looked to the Red Planet with their own speculative fiction such as Mars being inhabited by aliens (Percival Lowell’s 1895 Mars) and Earthlings on Mars (Ray Bradbury’s 1950 The Martian Chronicles). Now such fiction could become reality in the next twenty years. Although the minimum distance between Earth and Mars is roughly 35 million … Read more

We Already Invented the Wheel. Where the Boys Aren’t – Part 1.

July 28, 2016July 5, 2016 by John Allenson

When I started thinking of the topic of women only societies I quickly realized that I perceived of two separate types of story under the same label of ‘Lesbian Utopia’. While there is a LOT of overlap in the way people have written about societies where a group of women have separated from the mainstream mixed society, (Amazons,) and single-sex worlds I’ve decided to treat the two as separate topics. After all, it’s not as if we talk way too much about women. I’ll talk about Warrior Women in a later article dedicated to her history. There is enough information … Read more

We Already Invented the Wheel. Introduction

July 28, 2016June 21, 2016 by John Allenson

So, this is my first column and I’ll take the opportunity to introduce myself and the basic topics of this column. I’m what is politely called an Independent Scholar of Speculative Fiction. I’ve delivered two papers on the subject of Aboriginal Canadians in Canadian Futurism. Back in the early 90s I’d edited a bibliography of Queer Positive Speculative Fiction which indicated whether content was Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Other-Gender. I also co-wrote an article for the (sadly) defunct Body Politic on Gay/Lesbian subtext in mainstream comic books. After some 20 years of writing slash, I took a Master Class with the … Read more

Reflections on The Great Mirror of Male Love

August 16, 2015August 15, 2015 by scott

Gomen nasai! I’m Jim Comer and I read, edit, and post on QueerSF. This is the third of an irregular series of dispatches from the front: I read very widely across the fields of history, science, language and religion, and want to make sure that the QUILTBAGs back home are suitably informed. For writers and readers, here is the third in a series of book reviews, on tales of same-sex love (“nanshoku”) in Japan. I hope that you enjoy it. Reflections on The Great Mirror of Male Love, by Ihara Saikaku J. Comer Reading a text from another place, and … Read more

Article: When ‘Womanless Weddings’ Were Trendy

July 14, 2015 by scott

Image from A. F. Weaver Collection/Portal to Texas History

History holds some of best quirks, don’t you think? How rich is a world that has a fundraising event like this one: When ‘Womanless Weddings’ Were Trendy Definitions of marriage in America keep expanding, but for most of the country’s history, the word “wedding” has called to mind images of a woman in a white dress and a man in a black tuxedo. And traditionally, June was the most popular month to get hitched. So, there’s no better time to reminisce about a once-popular community ritual — still perhaps practiced occasionally — that would seem to be on the edge … Read more