Tag Archives: speculative biology

*Middle-Layer – a too-epic fantasy setting

Posted on February 23, 2020 by dan

This is not the time to be starting a new project. I’ve got stuff I gotta do. And yet here I am, playing with tectonic.js.   I give you *Middle-Layer, an earthlike world. I mean really earthlike. So earthlike that … Continue reading →

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Film Analysis: A Fellow Tetrapod Story

Posted on December 25, 2019 by dan

The sun rose, and the sky separated from the Pacific Ocean. The water stayed dark, but the air above lightened and developed clouds. They shone pink and hazy, stitched by the gleaming contrails of jets. Golden Hour, thought Mike Loew, … Continue reading →

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Facebook Live: Orbital Biome

Posted on July 30, 2019 by dan

Here’s something new. Watch me experiment with Facebook Live! Thrill as I make hand-wavy explanations of aliens and try to make my finger work. What do you think? Should I make more of these?

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Orbital Aliens

Posted on July 5, 2019 by dan

Here’s a bad photo of some aliens I made. I’m thinking a lot right now about aliens that live in orbit around an Earthlike planet. Their distant ancestors evolved in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-sized gas giant in the same … Continue reading →

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Specbio Questions?

Posted on April 12, 2019 by dan

Turns out I’m moderating a panel at Eastercon next week! It’s called “Creating Fantastic Biologies” “If you want to make realistic SF aliens, or realistic fantasy species, where do you start? Our panel discuss how to create fantastic biologies and … Continue reading →

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Alternatives to water 3: literature review

Posted on February 6, 2019 by dan

Start here with my quest for alternatives to water as the solvent for speculative biochemistry, and here’s a brief side-step to talk about water vapor. It might be clear at this point that my chemistry background isn’t quite solid (ha! … Continue reading →

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I’m on GanBreeder

Posted on January 28, 2019 by dan

You want to see more of this nonsense? Follow me on GanBreeder and keep an eye out for this stuff to show up in my books 😉

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Wheeler!

Posted on January 27, 2019 by dan

Look at this lovely glasslands wheeler Joschua Knüppe drew on an alien art stream! I’m glad he’s enjoying Junction.

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Alternatives to water?

Posted on January 25, 2019 by dan

Here’s an old old specbio question. We on Earth are made of fat suspended in sugary seawater. That is, phospholipids, with one pole salty and water-loving and the other pole oily and water-hating, surround blobs of water to form cells. … Continue reading →

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Alternatives to water 2: water…vapor?

Posted on January 24, 2019 by dan

This post is a sequel to this one about alternatives to water-based biochemistry. Or maybe a side-quel, because actually I am talking about water. Water vapor! Imagine a cloud of droplets, each with some sugars dissolved in it, each surrounded by … Continue reading →

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