Science News for Writers

Crew members of the Starship Enterprise watching an object on the ship's tele-visor screen.  Is this a reality in our near future? I t's always a tense moment when the captain of a submarine comes shallow  and raises the ship's periscope.  What's he going to see?  An anti-submarine destroyer bearing down on his ship?  A freighter or other target of opportunity? Suggested reading click on image It appears that the periscope is soon to be replaced by a screen, perhaps similar to the large visor screen on the Starship Enterprise or from the movie and television show, "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." A team of Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers has developed an underwater imaging system that allows submariners to view objects above the water's surface - without a periscope. The unique technology gets around the inevitable distortion caused by the water-surface waves when using a submerged camera because of the sharp refractive d...

Credit: Cover photo by Justin Kerr The cover of Sarah Jackson's book, "Politics of the  Maya Court"  includes an image of what appears to be a Mayan ruler talking with a mirror. T he ancient Maya lived in a virtual world much like people of today who live on Facebook or Twitter. The Mayan perspective on the material world has been explored in science, and begins to uncover parallels with today's online culture. The Maya believed that part of your identity could inhabit material objects. Maya might even name these objects, talk to them or take them to special events. They considered these items to be alive. The practice of sharing your identity with material possessions might seem unusual in a modern context. But is it this different from today's selfie-snapping, candy-crushing online culture, where social media profiles can be as important to a person's identity as his or her real-world interactions? If Facebook were around 1,400 years ago, t...

Allister Sim as Scrooge in the classic film, A Christmas Carol (1951) Some years ago, I took a screenwriting class from Cynthia Whitcomb, a screenwriter with a list of produced scripts as long as my left arm, in which the transformative power of film and fiction was a main topic. Recommended Reading by Cynthia Whitcomb Click on image Her point being that people enjoy stories in which the main character learns something about themselves and becomes a better person because of it.  Think of movies such as Casablanca.  In the beginning, the main character, Rick, is obviously miserable, pushing away all but his longtime buddy, Sam.  He especially pushes women away.  Why?   Well, that's the story.  When Ilsa, his lost love, comes back into his life Rick is forced to confront his pain, and while he chooses to give up the girl, he ends up regaining his sense of self and a purpose in life.  The story of Casablanca is the story of Rick's catharsis....

W ho was Lucrezia Borgia?  Tradition has it that she may have poisoned her second husband, Giovanni Sforza.  Rumor of the day had it that Lucretia had incestuous relations with both her father, Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI, and her brother, Cesare Borgia.   What is know for certain is that Lucretia was the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo, then a cardinal of the Catholic Church, and his mistress,  Vannozza dei Cattanei.  It is known that she was married three times, the first being annulled as never being consummated (despite her giving birth a few months after the annulment).  The second marriage ended in the death of her husband, Giovanni, and her third to  Alfonso d'Este, son of the powerful Duke of Ferrera.  This was also to be Alfonso's third marriage, which ended when Lucrezia dies ten days after she gave birth to a stillborn daughter.  She also had affairs (as did her husbands) with several political figu...

Credit: © kmiragaya / Fotolia This is a frightening report - of the first ever study of the effects of being bullied over a lifetime.   This is also useful information for any author or screenwriter to use in character development and back story. Here's the report: Impact of childhood bullying still evident after 40 years T he n egative social, physical and mental health effects of childhood bullying are still evident nearly 40 years later, according to new research by King's College London. This study is the first to look at the effects of bullying beyond early adulthood. The findings come from the British National Child Development Study which includes data on all children born in England, Scotland and Wales during one week in 1958. The study published today includes 7,771 children whose parents provided information on their child's exposure to bullying when they were aged 7 and 11. The children were then followed up until the age of 50. Dr Ryu Taki...

Are you a writer with a full-time job?  A "hobby" writer? New research out of San Francisco State demonstrates that your writing improves your job performance by making you more creative and have better relationships with co-workers. Plus, you're having fun (I hope), and just maybe you'll write the great American million-selling novel. Here's the report: Creative activities outside work  can improve job performance E mployees who pursue creative activities outside of work may find that these activities boost their performance on the job, according to a new study by an organizational psychologist.  Creative pursuits away from work seem to have a direct effect on factors such as creative problem solving and helping others while on the job, said Eschleman, an assistant professor of psychology. The study examined whether creative activity might have an  indirect impact on employees' performance by  providing them with a way to recover from th...

thegeneralreport.wordpress.com T he routes of slave trade in Eastern Europe in the medieval and pre-modern period extended all the way to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia. A recent study completed at the University of Eastern Finland suggests that persons captured during raids into areas which today constitute parts of Finland, the Russian Karelia and the Baltic Countries ended up being sold on these remote trade routes.  High demand for blonde girls and boys There was a particular demand for blonde girls and boys who were seen as exotic luxury items, and it was financially beneficial to transport them to the far-away markets.  A history of slavery from ancient times to the present. The numbers of northern people who finally reached the southern markets were not large. The study indicates that out of the thousands of persons kidnapped in the north, only a few hundred -- at most -- ended up in the Caspian Sea region and Central Asia via the Volgan and Crim...