I’ve been badly remiss in keeping up the blog these last few months. The good news is that book projects are the source of this egregious procrastination. But it also means I’ve missed sharing some book news.

CUTTING-EDGE AUGMENTED REALITY and CUTTING-EDGE VIRTUAL REALITY released this fall. The two titles are part of the Cutting-Edge STEM series from Lerner Publications designed for grades 3-5. If, like me, you think AR and VR are mostly used for entertainment, you might be interested to learn the huge variety of applications I encountered while researching these books.

Augmented reality pops up in sports broadcasts and Pokemon, but it’s also being used to plan surgeries and bring the past to life in museums. Virtual reality is being used to help treat phobias and to help paraplegics regain some muscle control.

I have another book releasing January 1, 2019, also from Lerner Publications. Stay tuned!

Science News

I’ve missed sharing SO much science news, but here are a few highlights I’ve been following:

• The Mars InSight Lander made a successful touchdown on Mars yesterday (November 26, 2018). I never get tired of watching mission coverage of big space news.
• Marine mammal scientists have been able to use new, higher resolution satellites to track whales from space. This breakthrough may help researchers learn more about whale behavior and monitor whale populations.
• And one more tidbit, the European Space Agency’s GAIA mission released its much-anticipated map of 1.7 billion (yes, that’s billion with a “B”!) stars. Scientists have already used the data to discover that our Milky Way galaxy has a thing for eating other galaxies.