Motes, Utility Fog, Smart Dust & Climate Change

I've been fascinated by the idea of Smart Dust (also known as Motes) since I started doing research on how researchers calculate the global average temperature and thus decide if we are going through a period or trend of global warming or cooling. The past (and current as far as I know) method for calculating these global temperature averages involve data from land based weather stations combined with satellites in the lower troposphere and marine reports (among other methods).  

This methodology has many weaknesses:

• The land based weather stations are sprinkled around the globe but not evenly and in some cases, very far apart from one another;
• Different weather stations use different equipment for measuring temperature (some use older technology, for example);
• Not every location on the Earth even has weather stations and/or shares that data;
• There is no universally accepted "normal" temperature for Earth, yet climate data is generally reported as a departure from "normal";
• The weather stations, satellites, and ships are all at different elevations, wind conditions, latitude and longitude; adjustments for these factors are imperfect at best;
• There are dozen of different weather organizations (NOAA, NASA, EPA, GOAA, etc.) all measuring average global temperature with different results!

If you are interested in learning more, there is a great related article from NASA:

The Elusive Absolute Surface Air Temperature (SAT)

Now, some very cool reading on the topic of SmartDust and related technology:

SmartDust communication systems in the future world

The Inevitability of SmartDust
Graphene-based nano-antennas may enable cooperating smart dust swarms

In a very generalized nutshell, SmartDust or motes are teensy-tiny computers that have the ability to network. They are part of the now much-talked-about "Internet of Things". These tiny computers could in theory be programmed to check anything, weather/temperature included. 

I see huge possibility in terms of more accuracy with climate trends and even weather predictions.  With networked capability, and even the capability to fly or swim, they could reach areas of the Earth for temperature readings that are currently not possible or practical, such as the bottom of the ocean or the top of a mountain. SmartDust could be sprinkled in a much broader swath of Earth, Sky and Water, even maybe underground in caverns.  

Since these tiny computers could be programmed remotely to use the same methods of temperature measurement, be directed to migrate to the same exact elevation at the exact same time, synchronize data collection rates, or even travel an entire area in a swarm checking temperatures at various spots and various levels to get a more accurate average temperature, it would seem we could get a more universal, real-time weather trend than is possible today.

This is exactly how a major character in my novel does her climate change predictions! 

Review of The Neighbor by Ania Ahlborn

The Neighbors by Ania Ahlborn
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Well, what can I say? I bought this Kindle book with one of those Amazon promotions for books for $1.99 or such and I didn't read any reviews first. Despite that, it was a fast read and I finished the entire thing, which is not something I usually do for books that I end up giving only 2 stars to, so kudos to the author for somehow keeping my curiosity going until the very end! That said, I can't even recall any of the characters names off the top of my head and I just finished it last week - that says something...not something good.

** MAJOR SPOILERS ** NO POINT IN READING STORY AFTER YOU READ MY REVIEW!

Here are the main challenges with the book as I see it:

1.) THIN PLOT: Very thin plot that made little sense (leaving home due to mother being alcoholic and agoraphobic) and going to live in a dump with a childhood friend just 1 town away? Quitting job at supermarket that is so close by, only to apply at other supermarkets 1 town away and get rejected because he left the other job without 2 weeks notice. Really??

2.) THE NEIGHBOR: Crazy but beautiful 40-something woman as serial seducer and killer of young boys (for decades undetected!) Reason? To "replace" her son that she also killed, due to her childhood sexual abuse by her religious priest father and mother killed by a rapist? I don't even know where to begin with this one - I mean, really? It was like the author just decided to toss in every cliche reason for serial killing;

3.) THE NEIGHBOR HUSBAND: The husband just stands by, knowing everything, after his wife molests their son, eventually kills him and continues the pattern for decades. Then - suddenly! - at the end, he gets a pair of you-know-whats and stands up to her because he thinks she is falling in love with her latest boy-toy, the main character? I just wanted to poke him in the eye and find out if anyone was actually in there.

4.) DISMEMBERMENT AND MISSING BODIES: The underground bunker for chopping up her prey after killing them, carried out by the childhood friend who lives next door? He then drives the bodies "somewhere" and dumps them. None have ever been found after DECADES of this? Seems highly irregular, though I guess Jeffrey Dahmer got away with it for a long time...

5.) MOTHER COMPLEX: The whole mother-figure-sexual-attraction with the 40-something neighbor was just weird; his excitement over cookies and pancakes was overdone. At times I felt like the book was actually written by a teenage boy, but a crazy one. Maybe that is a point for the author if that was the goal!

6.) MIRACLE CURE: And the final insult...when the main character returns home to his real mother after the whole incident and she miraculously gets over her agoraphobia and alcoholism, and shocker, the house is even clean!

The more I write this review, the more I wonder why I was compelled to finish it. Oh well, on to a new book!

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Review of The Kraken Project (Wyman Ford #4) by Douglas Preston

The Kraken Project by Douglas Preston

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I should start by saying I have a long standing affinity for all Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child books written both together as a team and separately from each author. I have read all the books in the Wyman Ford series and am a fan of that character. I would say that I felt Wyman played a much lesser role in this book than in the past. In fact, I would say my impression, having finished the book, was that the main character, the one who really stuck with me after the book ended, was the AI program named Dorothy. That was quite a feat.

I felt I really got to know Dorothy as she "grew up" from an immature child to a toddler to a teenager, and finally to an adult. I began to think of her as "alive", not just a computer program. That of course is a trick of writing, not so much that an actual AI program like Dorothy has ever, or will ever, exist. Being a former programmer myself and understanding how software works, I find the idea of self-learning in the way described in the novel to be a fictional fantasy until we find a way to merge living cells (brain or other) to computer chips. Then I might believe self-awareness and self-learning is actually a realistic possibility.

** MAJOR SPOILER NEXT **

Preston waited until the very end to deliver three major pieces of information, two of which I loved, but one of which I really didn't "buy" into. These are:

1.) YES! Dorothy hacked into the President's special pace-maker/brain controller thingamajigy (forget what they called it) - this was a VERY cool idea that I did not expect or see coming at all. This in itself would make a very fascinating sequel!

2.) YES! The idea that there is another software/entity "awakening" across the internet. This again, would make a very cool sequel!

3.) NO! The big "secret" of how the "Strong AI" was programmed was to allow it to sleep, and somehow it would dream. I just can't buy that one. There was no time in the book where there was any mention of Dorothy needing sleep, even the entire time she spent in the robot with Jacob or out on the Internet, and it doesn't make sense to have software sleep. I would have needed a more technical explanation of how that would work or I can't suspend disbelief on that one.

Overall, a really fun, fast-paced read and I hope they will do a sequel (though Wyman Ford series has not generally had sequels in the past).

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Part 2, Chapter 2 Teaser: Introducing Sagan Phillips

PART 2: COMET PHILLIPS        

2032                                               

CHAPTER TWO

Greenbelt, Maryland, United States of America

Sagan Phillips' face was flush and his sandy hair tousled as he jogged easily along the gravel pathway. His rhythm changed to a walk as he hit the pavement leading around the back of the building, away from the throng of reporters. The sun had already burned the sky a white-blue and the air still held the aura of summer, despite the jolts of color already spreading through the leaves. Looking up, he marveled at how well the Earth's pure blue ceiling hid the dark, destructive vacuum of space beyond it.

Approaching the gunmetal door, Sagan slowed as the biometric beams and chemical sniffers worked him over. The door slid open with a mild whirr and welcomed him with the date and time as he stepped inside the cool, white hallway of the NASA Goddard Space Center residential wing. This place had served as his home as well as his office for over a year now, and he would miss it. If today went well, he and his team would be celebrated as heroes and the world would breathe a collective sigh of relief. There was no option for him to consider the alternative. Others had already projected out multiple disaster scenarios. Potential casualties had been calculated, evacuation plans had been drafted and secure underground bunkers were filled with key government and scientific leaders. He walked with long strides to the elevator that would bring him to the control center where the rest of his team was already assembled and waiting for him.

-------

"Faboratories" and "Cybrids"

One of the possible paths my book may take is to genetically modify humans to survive an extreme ice age (a "Snowball Earth").  There are quite a few amphibians, insects and fish that can survive freezing using a number of biological techniques.  The Wood Frog, for example, can freeze 2/3 of its body and protect its tissues with cryoprotectants (glucose in this case) so the cells are not damaged.  Many fish use "antifreeze proteins" to protect itself from freezing solid in below freezing waters, such as the Winter Flounder.  In the case of a rapid onset ice age, natural selection would not be fast enough to turn humans able to survive outside in dramatically frigid temperatures.  (As an aside, a genetic adaptation to survive extreme cold might come in handy for future astronauts!)  To combine these characteristics into humans might involve creating some sort of hybrid or Cybrid.  Freaky but very cool advances going on now!

Even if humans can find a way to make intelligent cybrids that are freeze tolerant, in the meantime, they need a way to survive in the cold before that new generation grows to adulthood (assuming that even happens). One way is through artificial heated skin or outfits. 

There is a Fabrication Laboratory ("Faboratory") out of Purdue University working on some intelligent, flexible materials, sensory skins and stretchable sensors. 

Definitely possibilities for my novel as well as for future generations!

Review of Allegiant by Veronica Roth ** MAJOR SPOILERS**

Allegiant by Veronica Roth (third book in the Divergent series)

** MAJOR SPOILERS *** 

This was one of the most disappointing third installments of a trilogy I've read so far. Two things stand out as ruining the book for me right from the start: 

1.) In the first two books, we were inside the head of Tris the entire time; but for some unknown reason (which we find out much later was probably so that the author could kill off Tris and still continue the book to its conclusion) we begin to hear the story alternating between Tris and Tobias. This would be weird but o.k., except for the fact that there seemed to be no difference in their "voices", so I kept getting confused as to whose perspective each chapter was from and would have to go back and check at the beginning of each chapter (the author shouldn't really have to put the name of the person speaking at the beginning of each chapter, even though it is courtesy - but in this case it really was necessary).

2.) The second reason is really what killed the whole series for me. Basically, the whole point of the book made zero scientific sense. I mean, not even a little. First the human race experimented with genetic modifications; that went terribly wrong and caused a big war between genetically "damaged" people and genetically "pure" people that ruined the Earth (the "Purity war"). OK, so that is weird, but I can maybe suspend disbelief on that one. But then, here's the solution they came up with: build these cities as experiments to wait for genetic purity to be born through generations (??) and those people would be identifiable because they could resist the various mind serums (like Tris). Wait, what? Oh, and most of these experiment cities failed. There are just so many things WRONG with this plot, I got kind of mad at the beginning of the book and nearly stopped reading. But after having enjoyed the first two books so much, I pushed forward. Unfortunately, Ms. Roth just distracted us with more uprisings and soap-opera style relationship interactions between Tris and Tobias. Here are a few of the ridiculous suppositions I just could not swallow:

a.) Um, if they know how to manipulate the genes in the first place, why don't they just manipulate them back to how they were?

b.) All genes have mutations, some good, some not so good, don't see how you can pin a certain modification (like a mutation) to the cause of evil and war in society (really???? I feel like we're talking Nazi stuff here, maybe that is the buried message Ms. Roth is trying for, a warning against genocide?)

c.) Um, why didn't they just test everyone with a blood test to look for "pure" genes? Why did they have to watch them on cameras in fake experiment cities letting them be tortured by fear serums, memory setting serums, etc. This makes zero sense.

d.) So Tobias is not genetically pure but somehow he can still resist the serums. Um, ok, what? Doesn't that invalidate the entire experiment? 

And on and on and on, I can't stand to even write about it anymore! 

So, warning for big Divergent fans, this book may not be what you are expecting!

SmartDust, Nanodiamonds & Bionic Plants, Oh My!

OK, I admit it, I probably went into the wrong field of study when I went to college. At the time, I had just seen "Wall Street" (1987 movie) and pictured myself as a female version of Bud Fox or Gordon Gekko. HA. One internship in a brokerage firm in Boston cured me of that, but it was too late, I was on the path to a degree in Finance, studying corporate mergers and stock options. After spending years in the financial services industry, I moved on to a career in corporate law (not a lawyer though!), then finally "converted" to the world of computer science, where I remain to this day. Computer science has given me the chance to take part in creating the "Internet of Things", visualizing "Big Data" (a phrase I detest, but that's a story for another blog), work with advanced analytics algorithm software, and assist manufacturers in becoming more and more automated. Interesting stuff.

But...the science geek part of me has never left and I can't stop reading about new technologies and scientific breakthroughs as they come out. 

If you are following me on Twitter, you are probably wondering why I'm tweeting about SmartDust and Nanodiamonds and Bionic Plants - how does that related to a publishing venture from an aspiring author? Shouldn't I be writing about sentence structure and book marketing?

Many of the ideas in my science-heavy tweets will make their way into my novel, and some I'm "saving" for future novel ideas I already have in my head. I want my stories to be realistic enough that a scientist in a relevant field would at least say "ok, this author did some research" and not shake their head in dismay at the sheer impossibility of it.  That said, I'd like to know enough that I can take emerging technology and scientific discoveries and enhance them, take them maybe a few steps further or in a new direction, all while advancing the plot in my near-future world.

My dream (of course!), is to invent something as part of my story-telling that some scientist somewhere takes notice of, and turns it into reality! The science fiction novelists I admire most have "invented" science or technology in their writing as fiction that today is real - I believe they influenced the future in a profound way with their writing! That would be the ultimate accomplishment in my book, not books sales or tours - having a real influence on the world.

Some cool links related to this idea:

Straight from science fiction novels to reality!

Science fiction ideas that became reality in 2013

And here's the a list for 2012