Science fiction uses scientific language as a form of artistic expression.  With that in mind, today’s post is part of a series here on Planet Pailly called Sciency Words.  Every Friday, I’ll bring you a new and interesting scientific word to help us all expand our scientific vocabularies together.  Today’s word is:

LOCAL FLUFF

Yes, this is a real science term.  No, it has nothing to do with porn.

As you’re probably aware, you live on the planet Earth.  Earth is located in the Solar System, and the Solar System is located inside a region of space known as the Local Fluff.  Scientists currently estimate this region is roughly 30 light-years across. What’s fluffy about it?  Well, it’s a cloud of hydrogen gas slightly denser than the interstellar medium surrounding it.

In a high tech, Science Fiction future, the Local Fluff might become very important.  Just as rivers and mountain ranges helped determine the political boundaries of nations here on Earth, gas clouds like the Local Fluff might one day be used to draw the borders between intergalactic space empires.

Our Solar System is located close to the outer edge of the Local Fluff.  Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbor, is just over the border, inside another hydrogen cloud called the G-Cloud (which also has nothing to do with porn).  To find out more about the Local Fluff, click here.

Science fiction uses scientific language as a form of artistic expression.  With that in mind, today’s post is part of a series here on Planet Pailly called Sciency Words.  Every Friday, I’ll bring you a new and interesting scientific word to help us all expand our scientific vocabularies together.  Today’s word is:

RECENCY BIAS

Recency bias: (noun) the human tendency to place greater emphasis and importance on recent events rather than events farther back in time.  Whenever a piece of good news or bad news seems to overshadow everything that ever happened before, that’s recency bias at work.

You might notice the effects of recency bias on the stock market, where the slight change in the value of a stock today is perceived as more significant than the greater, gradual changes that occurred over the course of a year.  You’ll also catch it in political commentaries whenever you hear someone claim that the current President, Congress, etc is the best/worst in history.  It can also come up in sports, art, literature… pretty much anything.

You might even encounter recency bias in your own life.  I often experience it whenever I have writer’s block.  My difficulty composing one stupid sentence for a current writing project somehow convinces me that I suck at writing and at life, despite the fact that I’ve had writer’s block before and despite the fact that I always find a way to get through it.

Of course it is always possible that, when the stock market starts slipping, that it really does mean the economy is about the collapse.  It’s also possible that our current political leaders are the best or worst ever, or that the newest rookie player for your favorite sports team really will change the game forever.  These things are possible… but kind of unlikely.

So before you jump to conclusions, check yourself for recency bias.  Make sure you’re not just thinking about the latest headlines or your most current headache.  Just remember to keep things in the context of history.

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Did you already know this word?  If so, please share another sciency word in the comments below.  That way, we can all keep expanding our sciency vocabularies together!

Science fiction uses scientific language as a form of artistic expression.  With that in mind, today’s post is part of a series here on Planet Pailly called Sciency Words.  Every Friday, I’ll bring you a new and interesting scientific word to help us all expand our scientific vocabularies together.  Today’s word is:

QUBIT

The spelling of this word drives me bonkers.  It’s pronounced “Q-bit.”  There’s no need for that “u.”  Just replace it with a hyphen, and no one would be confused about the pronunciation.  Unfortunately, the spelling “qubit” has been around long enough already that it’s unlikely to change.

Anyway… qubits are the bits of quantum computers.  Where a bit in a regular computer stores information as either a 0 or a 1, a qubit takes advantage of the weird and wacky laws of quantum mechanics to store information as a 0, a 1, or as a 0 and 1 at the same time.

To put it another way, regular computers think in terms of yes or no.  A quantum computer can think in terms of yes, no, or maybe.  This allows quantum computers to do multiple simultaneous calculations, making them much faster than those simple minded, binary code machines we already know and love.

At the moment, quantum computers are still in development, and they’re only useful for specific, highly complex calculations.  But sooner or later, these things with all their strange, little qubits will be coming to a desktop near you, and then you’ll all get to share my frustration with this awkwardly spelled word.  Presumably by then we’ll also have to learn how to say qubytes, kiloqubytes, megaqubytes, and so on.

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Did you already know this word?  If so, please share another sciency word in the comments below.  That way, we can all keep expanding our sciency vocabularies together!

Science fiction uses scientific language as a form of artistic expression.  With that in mind, today’s post is part of a series here on Planet Pailly called Sciency Words.  Every Friday, I’ll bring you a new and interesting scientific word to help us all expand our scientific vocabularies together.  Today’s word is:

COMPULSATOR

Compulsator: (noun) a device used to collect energy from a low-powered source then release it as a high-powered pulse.  The term is short for compensated pulsed alternator.

Think of it like a savings account at a bank.  If you deposit a small amount of money each day, at some future point in time you’ll be able to withdraw a large sum of cash for a major purchase.  In a similar way, by accumulating small amounts of energy in a compulsator, you’ll be able to generate a huge burst of power later on when you need it.

The most common use for compulsators is in a weapon called a rail gun.  The compulsators store energy as inertia in a spinning rotor then release it all at once to fire a projectile.  At the moment, rail guns are still experimental, but they—and the compulsators that make them work—will probably be common terms for soldiers fighting in futuristic, Sci-Fi wars.

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Did you already know this word?  If so, please share another sciency word in the comments below.  That way, we can all keep expanding our sciency vocabularies together!

P.S.: I decided to focus on the term compulsator rather than rail gun today because a) I think the word compulsator is less well known and b) in the future, I suspect engineers will integrate the compulsator into other new weapon technologies besides the rail gun.

P.P.S.: At the moment, I have yet to find an example of a compulsator being used for a peaceful purpose.  If anyone knows of one, please share it in the comments below.