Hello there Reader! I hope you're having a great week.

Thank you all for your feedback on my experiment with audiobook narration - you're very kind! And to answer a couple of concerns, even if I don't end up reading it myself, I will be picking a British English voice, since the protagonist wouldn't really work with any other accent. Oh, and read on to the end for a sneak peak at a scene from the final instalment of the series (without spoilers, naturally). Speaking of British, the weather here is pretty typical for the location; it alternates between feeling like a damp autumn day and warmer than usual on an unpredictable basis. I never know whether I need a raincoat, scarf or layer of sunscreen to head outside. Still, the old reliable methods never fail - I can make it rain within the next ten minutes by spraying weedkiller on the drive, and ordering a fly-screen for the window guarantees it'll never again get warm enough to open a window until I admit defeat and put it in the attic. Since as I write this, it's officially the first day of summer, let's hope for some more stability and predictability in the weather. And ideally not 90 days of rain...

Space News

Is this the slowest pulsar ever seen?

Neutron stars, that half-way-house between a dead star and a black hole, are remarkable in and of themselves. Gravity has collapsed them so far that the protons and electrons that make up their atoms are pressed together and form neutrons - only the strength of the neutrons themselves can resist total collapse. If there's enough mass, even that fails and we get a black hole. But neutron stars exist on the fringe of our scientific understanding. They have all the spin of their parent star, but just like an ice skater tucking their arms in they've sped up incredibly. This spin can turn them into giant lighthouses, beaming radio waves out across the galaxy. If we happen to be in the path of that beam, we get a bright radio 'flash' every time it spins, usually on the order of a few milliseconds. The longest gap between pulses that we've ever seen is 76 seconds. So when astronomers accidentally found one that flashes us every 54 minutes, there was considerable excitement. Such beacons are known as pulsars, although when Jocelyn Bell and Antony Hewish spotted the first one, they playfully named it LGM-1 for 'Little Green Men'. They never seriously thought they had discovered an alien signal, and there's no suggestion that this new discovery is one either. But every time we get an anomalous result there's the chance of new science, and a 'slow pulsar' is definitely anomalous. The leading theory right now is that it's a pulsar in a binary system, and some interaction between the pulsar and the other star (or stars) is behind the strange behaviour. For more insight, I recommend this video by Dr Becky Smethurst. She's a great science communicator, able to describe complex topics very well without losing the subtle elements required for a deeper understanding. She's not afraid to dive deep into a topic either, and her enthusiasm for the subject is infectious.

Source: newatlas.com

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Strange News

Undercover in a mental hospital - in 1887

Think about all the great journalists through the ages, exposing injustice, ill-treatment and society's ills. Consider how many world-changing stories they've brought to light, and the wide-ranging changes that have resulted. Now ask yourself why you haven't heard of Nellie Bly. Naturally, as a writer in the late 1800s in the US, a woman was always going to struggle to be heard. One who lived in near-poverty, trapped by her mother's marriage to an alcoholic would need to work harder still. Her career started when, aged 21, she wrote an angry letter about gender issues to her local paper, who hired her on the spot. She worked hard, exposing conditions in factories and prisons, and even traveled to Mexico to expose the abuses of the dictatorship there. This earned her a pay rise and a promotion, but she had no intention of running the Society Pages as her editor wished. Her work was not yet done, and she left for New York. In 1887 she presented herself to a doctor, feigned the symptoms of a mental breakdown, and was promptly sent to Blackwell's Island, what was then called a 'Lunatic Asylum'. The result was an article that exposed a scandal. The series of articles described sadistic nurses, abusive conditions, and even women held against their will who had no mental issues, merely because they didn't speak English. Her fame rose, and she continued to doggedly pursue stories that revealed how women were mistreated throughout New York. As if that wasn't enough, she then decided to travel around the world in under 80 days, inspired by Jules Verne's novel. She completed the journey in 72 days, writing a best-selling book and even sparking a board game. At a time when a woman travelling alone was scandalous enough, her voyage was even more remarkable. Oh, and she decided, aged 50, to go and report from the front lines of the Great War. Add in eloping with an industrialist, being cheated out of a fortune by her partners in the business, and her own brother seizing all her assets, and you have a stranger-than-fiction heroine who frankly needs more exposure.

Source: daily.jstor.org

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Miscellany

Is the Fountain of Youth in Lewes, Delaware?

Source: Atlas Obscura

The tiniest orrery ever made.

Source: hackaday.com

Astronaut Bill Anders passed away recently. He took the 'Earthrise' photo from Apollo 8 - but it was never planned.

Source: youtube.com

And Finally

I promised you a short scene from the third novel - this is near the start, when we are starting to experience the privations and shortages caused by living under Martian colonisation.

Silence settled across the table, and I regarded my breakfast plate. A single slice of bacon, a hard-boiled egg sliced clumsily in half, a hard biscuit stamped with 'HMS Agamemnon', and a pile of fried mushrooms swam in a greasy puddle. Chambers broke the awkwardness. "Looks like you got most of the yolk today," he said, forcing some humour into his voice. "Spread it on that ship's biscuit, it'll help." "I hear we might get some tomatoes soon," quavered a small man. I recognised him as Carruthers, one of Chambers' best scientists. I had missed seeing him at the end of the table. "Tomatoes? In winter?" Jenkins countered. Carruthers flinched, and looked down. "They've a greenhouse set up," he explained to his wiped-clean plate. "Takes advantage of the constant temperature down here. I helped them set up an array of mirrored sheets to divert sunlight through some natural fissures." "Nothing grows down here but those damned mushrooms," Jenkins nodded at my plate. "Well, apart from a few bellies," he added in an uncharacteristically quiet tone, his eyes flicking away from our table. As one, the men turned to look in the suggested direction. "Don't stare," Jenkins growled, causing heads to turn from other tables towards us. The subject of attention was one of the clerical staff, a tall, lithe young woman of about twenty three. Despite her slender build, she wore a loose blouse, which hung slightly too low over her waistline. Fortunately she remained unaware of the eyes upon her as she took a seat at an empty table. "Who'd bring a child into this place?" I mused, before realising I'd spoken aloud. "I don't believe it was planned," Chambers said. "If you don't have family here it can be a lonely place." "Cold, too," Jenkins added, spearing the last of his bacon with his fork. "Temperature might be constant," he sneered at Carruthers, who shrank back even more, "but it's not exactly pleasant. Bet you even those tomatoes would like to bunk up with one another for a bit of warmth and companionship."