Max’s fiction covers many genres, most with LGBTQ protagonists
- Science Fiction
- Mystery
- Horror
- Urban fantasy/Slipstream
Max’s fiction focuses on characters you care about. Sometimes ordinary, sometimes quirky, sometimes downright evil, the conflict between the characters drives the story.
Meantime, here’s the lastest science news.
- Making diamonds at ambient pressureon April 24, 2024 at 3:15 pm
Researchers have grown diamonds under conditions of 1 atmosphere pressure and at 1025 degrees Celsius using a liquid metal alloy composed of gallium, iron, nickel, and silicon, thus breaking the existing paradigm. The discovery of this new growth method opens many possibilities for further basic science studies and for scaling up the growth of diamonds in new ways.
- Eruption of mega-magnetic star lights up nearby galaxyon April 24, 2024 at 3:15 pm
While ESA’s satellite INTEGRAL was observing the sky, it spotted a burst of gamma-rays — high-energy photons — coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope searched for an afterglow from the explosion but found none. An international team realized that the burst must have been an extra-galactic flare from a magnetar, a young neutron star with an exceptionally strong magnetic field.
- A simple ‘twist’ improves the engine of clean fuel generationon April 24, 2024 at 3:14 pm
Researchers have found a way to super-charge the ‘engine’ of sustainable fuel generation — by giving the materials a little twist. The researchers are developing low-cost light-harvesting semiconductors that power devices for converting water into clean hydrogen fuel, using just the power of the sun. These semiconducting materials, known as copper oxides, are cheap, abundant and non-toxic, but their performance does not come close to silicon, which dominates the semiconductor market.
- Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years agoon April 24, 2024 at 12:41 am
Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago in a group of marine invertebrates called octocorals, according to the results of a new study. The study focuses on an ancient group of marine invertebrates that includes soft corals, pushes back the previous oldest dated example of trait by nearly 300 million years.
- World’s chocolate supply threatened by devastating viruson April 23, 2024 at 7:59 pm
A rapidly spreading virus threatens the health of the cacao tree and the dried seeds from which chocolate is made, jeopardizing the global supply of the world’s most popular treat. Researchers have developed a new strategy: using mathematical data to determine how far apart farmers can plant vaccinated trees to prevent mealybugs from jumping from one tree to another and spreading the virus.
- This tiny chip can safeguard user data while enabling efficient computing on a smartphoneon April 23, 2024 at 7:58 pm
A new chip can efficiently accelerate machine-learning workloads on edge devices like smartphones while protecting sensitive user data from two common types of attacks — side-channel attacks and bus-probing attacks.
- Livestock abortion surveillance could protect livelihoods and detect emerging global pathogenson April 23, 2024 at 7:58 pm
A study suggests timely reporting and investigating of livestock abortions is feasible in rural areas and can provide insights into emerging infectious diseases.