#UnchartedScience Or #SciFriday , take your pick!
Turbulent Times: When Stars Approach
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160204112056.htm
Summary: Astrophysicists are using new methods to simulate the common-envelope phase of binary stars, discovering dynamic irregularities that may help to explain how supernovae evolve.
So, when you have a binary star system (like a ton of systems are, it turns out!) and the bigger one exhausts its fuel, you get this huge badass expanding envelope of starstuff as it turns into a red giant. The companion star starts sucking up this ejected hydrogen and helium — cause, you know: gravity — and as the stars circle closer, the red giant’s envelope winds up wrapped around both stars. Scientists care about watching this because how stars develop depends a lot on their initial circumstances! Plus: space explosions are best explosions.
How to make this work for your game:
• A super cool science base suspended at the edge of the envelope of a red giant and its binary partner makes a great location with a gorgeous view! A long hallway with a view of the binary and its envelope would make a gorgeous backdrop for some a Martian Karate fight.
• A failed Wild Jump drops your ship into the space between two binary stars (actually a pretty decently sized space, so whatever) — unfortunately, the gravitic distortion of the jump has pulled them onto a collision course with an exciting space opera time frame… better charge those batteries and get the jump drive back online!
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Been Here Before: How the brain builds place memories
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160204122050.htm
Summary: Neuroscientists have succeeded in activating dormant memory cells in rats. Using weak electrical impulses targeted at previously inactive cells in the hippocampus, the researchers induced the cells to recognize the exact place where the impulse had been first administered. The new study offers insight into the question of how memories are formed within our brains.
Scientists examined the granule cells — those responsible for becoming active and “mapping” memories — in laboratory rats. They applied small shocks at a specific location in a maze to rats’ dormant granules — unmapped memory centers — and found that they would “turn on.” From then on, when rats returned to that location, the granules would fire independently and automatically, like naturally “mapped” granules.
How to make this work for your game:
• A PC stays over night for surgery one time and the next thing they know, their brain is lighting up with recognition every time they hear a particular location mentioned — like the weirdest deja vu. What happened there? And if somebody wants them to feel like they need to go there so bad, why can’t they just say it to the PCs face?
• Next time your PC advances and takes a new Skill, consider saying it’s a “Prosthetic Skillset” and that you had a granule treatment to teach you to Navigate or whatever. If you’re the GM, consider offering it like an Asset and develop a move for it — something like:
When you undergo Memetic Resequencing, tell the MC what kind of training you want at your disposal and make the Acquisition move. Regardless of what you roll, your Memegraft will require regular maintenance, and of course letting someone poke your brain isn’t always a great idea, but hey whatever it’s your memory palace. If you successfully acquire the procedure, you and the MC should make a note of it and remember what a badass you are at your new thing when determining fictional positioning in the future.