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New Release: Be the Sea – Clara Ward

Be the Sea - Clara Ward

QSFer Clara Ward has a new queer sci-fantasy book out (ace, bi, demi, gay, lesbian, non-binary, poly, trans): Be the Sea. In November 2039, marine scientist Wend Taylor heaves themself aboard a zero-emissions boat skippered by elusive nature photographer Viola Yang. Guided by instinct, ocean dreams, and a shared birthday in 1972, they barter stories for passage across the Pacific. Aljon, Viola’s younger cousin, keeps a watchful eye and an innovative galley. Story by story, the trio rethink secrets, flying dreams, and how they experience their own minds. When they reach Hawaiʻi and prepare to part ways, opportunity and mystery … Read more

SPACE: Titan’s Largest sea is Really Deep, Too

Titan - NASA

NASA’s epic Cassini mission at Saturn is still generating valuable scientific data more than three years after its demise. Data from one of the spacecraft’s last flybys of Titan, a large moon with the precursors of life’s chemistry, reveals that a huge lake on the surface called Kraken Mare is more than 1,000 feet ( 300 meters) deep — that’s roughly the equivalent of the height of New York City’s Chrysler Building. In fact, the lake is so deep that Cassini’s radar couldn’t probe all the way to the bottom. Back in 2014, preliminary data from this flyby suggested that … Read more

TECH: Underwater Drones

Underwater Drones

Aerial drones have buzzed their way into almost every aspect of the modern world, from photography and television news coverage, to environmental monitoring and archaeology. And many of the concepts developed for aerial drones are being adopted and adapted to work in a very different environment — underwater. Here’s a look at 23 of the many ways that drones are being used beneath the waves, by oceanographic scientists, archaeologists, militaries, commercial divers, photographers and undersea explorers. By Tom Metcalfe – Full Story at Live Science

SCIENCE: A Ball the Size of Texas

wooden ball - pixabay

What would happen if a ball the size of Texas fell into the ocean? originally appeared on Quora – the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. Answer by Dave Consiglio, Chemistry and Physics High School Teacher and Community College Professor, on Quora: What would happen if a ball the size of Texas fell into the ocean? There are lots of variables to consider here. First: Wood. So there’s lots of kinds of wood. Hardwood, softwood, etc. Let’s go with a density of around .7 g/cm^3 (which seems to be about average). Second: Speed. … Read more

News: Seas Rising Faster Than In 2800 Years

A group of scientists says it has now reconstructed the history of the planet’s sea levels arcing back over some 3,000 years — leading it to conclude that the rate of increase experienced in the 20th century was “extremely likely” to have been faster than during nearly the entire period. “We can say with 95 percent probability that the 20th-century rise was faster than any of the previous 27 centuries,” said Bob Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University who led the research with nine colleagues from several U.S. and global universities. Kopp said it’s not that seas rose faster … Read more

News: NASA Discovers Global Underground Ocean on Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Planning a sea-faring vacation to escape from the rest of the world? Don’t discount Saturn’s moon Enceladus, as NASA has just released new research that indicates a global ocean lies underneath its icy surface. Using research from the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft that is scheduled to make a flyby of Enceladus on October 28, NASA was able to detect a slight wobble on the moon that researchers say can only be accounted for by a underground ocean. “This was a hard problem that required years of observations, and calculations involving a diverse collection of disciplines, but we are confident we finally got … Read more