AGE IS ALL IN THE MIND

When optimists assure us that age is just a state of mind, even they know they don’t mean it literally. But as with virtually every other body function, it may be that aging is controlled by our brains. In a study published this month in the journal Nature, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York discovered that the aging process in mice can be controlled by manipulating a molecule called NF-kB in the hypothalamus—a nut-sized part of the brain that has long been known to control many other things like body metabolism and growth. The NF-kB is a signaler affecting the levels of a hormone called GnRH, which has been linked to neuron regeneration. By stimulating NF-kB the scientists could accelerate the aging of the mice, but by blocking the NF-kB and injecting the mice with additional GnRH they were able to slow the aging process and extend the lifespan of the mice by as much as 20%. And it wasn’t only that the mice lived longer, but they were less susceptible to age-related health problems, including chronic conditions related to inflammation.

A study from Yale University earlier this year found that a single gene in mice, the Nogo Receptor 1, appeared to be the switch controlling the maturation of the mouse brain. With the Nogo receptor chemically switched off, the brains of older mice re-acquired the ‘plasticity’ of adolescent mouse brains, enabling better learning, less mental decline, and perhaps even better healing from brain damage. (Did the re-adolescent mice start giving attitude, I wonder?)

Of course, this is another research story Of Mice And Men—it will be years before we can expect to find any of these methods translated for humans. But it’s the job of SF writers to predict from current trends. What will we do when people can live much longer lives?

Say we routinely live an extra forty or fifty years—will we be willing to add those years to our working lives? Or will we expect our retirement to somehow exceed our money-earning years?

How will younger people rise within company structures if all of the plum executive positions are locked up by elders who refuse to go away? What would motivate a young worker in a scenario like that? And then there’s the question of innovation: wouldn’t the oldsters with the power be inclined to maintain the status quo? The same would almost surely be true of government. Slowing aging might put the brakes on progress, both technical and social. And, especially if the age-retarding treatments were expensive, the power gap between rich and poor would become ever more firmly entrenched.

The costs of a longer-lasting population would also be high, financially and ecologically. Our economies can’t afford more people who aren’t producing goods and wealth, and our planet can’t sustain many more mouths to feed. Maybe from the beginning of our working lives it would be mandatory to set aside ten or twenty percent of our income for investments to support us in our later years. Maybe, like China, governments would be forced to regulate the number of offspring we have. Maybe you would be allowed to get the longevity treatment only if your children agreed to be sterilized and remain childless.

The Fountain of Youth sounds like one giant can of worms to me.

THE WORLD'S SMALLEST MOVIE

Most of the time I post about big issues—BIG as in outer space. But innerspace fascinates me too. Recently, I’ve been shopping around an SF thriller novel I’ve written that takes the reader down to the molecular level. So I got a kick out of this story:

IBM decided to illustrate some of the methods they’re using to explore the limits of data storage. They created the world’s smallest movie. "A Boy and His Atom" is a simple animated stick-figure story--it looks like an early Pong game. What makes it special is that it was created by moving carbon monoxide molecules around with an electron scanning microscope and then using the same microscope to capture each frame of the movie. Amazing!

You can read more here, and watch the video itself on YouTube. Be sure to continue watching to see how it was done.

Maybe it will show kids that science can be cool, and start some future scientists on their career path. I hope so. It also shows that the universe is still ripe with potential at the sub-atomic level, and we’re making progress. I’d better get my novel sold before science catches up with my story.

If there are any agents or editors reading this who cut their SF teeth on “Fantastic Voyage”, drop me a line!

SCIENCE ANYONE? ANYONE AT ALL...?

I’ve posted before about Mars One, the Dutch-based project that plans to send four astronauts to found a colony on Mars in the year 2023. They officially began taking applications on April 22 and at last word have received 30,000 of them. They expect at least 500,000 by the end of August when the application window ends. Half a million people claiming they want to make a one-way trip to live on Mars for the rest of their (possibly very short) lives!

The applicants have come from all over the world. I found it really disturbing when one article I read quoted a 39-year-old bookseller in China offering his reasons for going, including that “the air must be a lot fresher and easier to breathe than here.” Uh…that would be a No. No breathable air. Temperatures that make Antarctica look good. No liquid water, no plants, no animals, no shopping malls, no hospitals, no restaurants, theatres, hockey rinks, ball fields…. No fresh supplies if a subsequent rocket malfunctions, either. And no escape from your three human companions. Do I need to go on?

My point is, how many of these applicants really know anything about Mars? How many people anywhere know any better? About real conditions in space? Or anything involving Astronomy? Particle Physics? Microbiology? Science…anyone?

We have vastly more scientific knowledge available to us than at any time in human history, often no more than a few mouse clicks away. Some of the most amazing scientific television programming is ready for public consumption all day every day. We have higher and higher rates of education, including college and university. But how many people really pay attention to all this science? Even the most basic stuff about our bodies, our planet, our solar system? If you think the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of us is large (and it is), I’d have to believe that the gap between the science nerds and the average population is even larger, and growing all the time.

While huge numbers of people spend their nights watching “celebrities” risk life and limb on the dance floor and high diving board, and the antics of buffoonish rednecks in all their grotesque variety, the founders of tech companies are making the money and staking their territory in the future of the race.

The nerds won’t have any problem inheriting the Earth, ‘cause the rest of us just aren’t paying attention.

CARS TO PROTECT US FROM OURSELVES

In my part of the world the police have declared this week to be Distracted Driving Week because last year more people were killed in highway car accidents involving distracted drivers than in accidents involving alcohol. That’s really saying something.

Distracted driving can include drinking a coffee or talking to a passenger, but most often we think about cell phone calls, tinkering with a GPS, applying makeup, and especially texting.

Really, with Facebook Home on our phones to alert us whenever a friend sneezes, and Twitter to make sure we don’t miss a single Kim Kardashian labour pain, how can we be expected to pay attention to something as trivial as what lies ahead of us on the road? This whole ‘controlling a speeding car’ thing is seriously cramping our style when it comes to what we actually want to be doing.

The answer? Robotic cars, of course. They’ve been a dream of science fiction writers almost since the genre began.

Since 2006 when the Lexus LS arrived in North America we’ve had cars that will park themselves. Now you can get different versions of that feature even on cars as low-priced as the Ford Focus. Mostly they use ultrasonic sensors to determine the measure of the parking space and guide the car into it.

But why have a driver at all? There are cars that can drive themselves. There have been for a while. In 2010 an Italian company named VisLab sent a convoy of vehicles more than eight thousand miles from Italy to China and several of them were unmanned the whole way. Mind you, the ones that did it with no human intervention were following the track of a vehicle just ahead of them that did have humans tweaking the course from time to time. But the technology has improved by leaps and bounds since then. With arrays of laser and radar sensors and other navigation systems that would put many fighter jets to shame, autonomous cars are proving their stuff. And more and more of their systems are making their way into commercial cars: gadgets that will warn you if you steer out of your lane (and steer you back), warn you of a potential front collision, and even hit the brakes for you in an emergency. The robotic cars that gets the most attention are the self-driving cars from Google. They’re already legally allowed on roads for testing purposes in Nevada, Florida, and California.

Experts at the Society of Automotive Engineers 2013 World Congress recently predicted that fully driverless cars won’t be commercially available before 2025, but I think they’re being pessimistic. Whenever that day arrives, it should spell the end of distracted driving, shouldn’t it?

Just please, nobody teach the robots how to tweet!

SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH GOOGLE-COLOURED GLASSES

If you can’t remember how you ever lived without your smartphone, you’ve probably heard about Google’s big project Google Glass. If you haven’t, come out of your cave and, well, Google it. Glass is what they call an augmented reality (AR) head mounted display (HMD). That means a mini computer that you wear like a pair of sunglasses which will display information in front of your eyes and take pictures or video of what you’re seeing. It won’t exactly replace your smartphone for now because it will need to be tethered to your phone by Bluetooth to make use of cellular data services where WiFi isn’t available. But it will have pretty amazing capabilities, controlled by voice commands. Within the next few months it will be tested out by a corps of volunteers and then made available to the public.

As a science fiction writer, I’ve thought about where this kind of technology will lead us within the next decade or two.

On the good side, it might make it more feasible than ever for you to work from home. Just remember that your boss will want to access the headset feed and see whatever you’re seeing. So no surreptitious glances to catch a few moments of Ellen or Dr. Oz, and be sure to remove the headset when you take a bathroom break.

One or two politicians in the States are already making noise about banning Google Glass while driving (too distracting). But a few years from now I’ll bet police will want us to wear connected headsets, so they can catch us speeding or running red lights, and subpoena the video feeds of accident or crime witnesses. They might get permission for that, too. After all, the F.B.I. is pushing hard right now to be able to monitor cellular calls and texting in real time. And, of course, Homeland Security can get just about anything they want in the name of battling terrorism.

Insurance companies will support the police in these measures. In fact, you can bet they’ll offer reduced premiums if you let them tap your headset feed (and thereby confirm that you’re not smoking, drinking excessively, using drugs, or engaging in high risk behaviours).

But it won’t all be business. What about Reality entertainment? Imagine getting home from work and immediately twinning yourself for the rest of the night with a next-generation Kardashian, or even Lindsay Lohan still milking her notoriety. Why, you wouldn’t have to miss a second of her binge drinking, judge baiting, and rehab sampling. Up close and really personal.

Suddenly those one-way expeditions to Mars don’t sound so bad.