Research Blues

[Yeratel]

I disagree, deeply and profoundly.
Yes, you need good characters, but if good characters are all it takes to tell your story, then it does not need to be SF.  Good SF also needs ideas, the best of it are things that could not happen in a contemporary mundane setting and human reactions that also could not happen.  Sometimes even the plots could not happen.

Actually, in many cases it doesn't need to be SF. The science fiction element just gives a different perspective to the story.  The basic characters and plot for Star Wars came from Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, a samurai story set in medieval Japan, and it works just as well with katanas instead of light sabers and peasant sidekicks instead of droids.

[Yeratel]

If it doesn't have science in it, it is space opera or fantasy.  Even if the science is outdated, it has to have sciencein order to be science fiction. 

Personally, I can't stand authors who insult me by not doing their homework.  Even movies that have what I call "idiot plots" turn me off.  (Unless they are designed that way in order to be hilarious.)  If I can think of a solution before the so called scientists in the story, or a better solution, I figure the author did think it through enough.

One author who slipped my mind is Michael Crichton. In books like Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain, the biochemistry really is essential to the plot, and Crichton has the scientific background to know what he's speculating about.

[eviladam]

Think of my story like Star Gate. I'm almost sure none of that is possible, but they throw a lot of sciencey sounding stuff around. Only I want my science to be a little more grounded so that I and the reader can actually understand what's being said rather than me tossing out words like "flux capacitor" and "mobius drive" "dylithium crystals"

[Blaze]

flux capacitor -- Just a term, and acceptable without science. because it was a comedy (Space Opera, except time travel)


dilithium crystals -- We already use lithium for energy, so TOS was ahead of the curve with this.  Gene Roddenberry was interested in having plausible science, if not possible.  In TNG they've moved up to trilithium crystals.

I have long held a theory that the reason that everyone in TNG is so laid back is because the lithium leaks out of the engines and bonds withtheir blood, and so they all are on lithium....  *g*

Where is Mobius Drive from?  I can't place it off hand.  Maybe it is just named after a guy named Mobius? 

[Yeratel]

dilithium crystals -- We already use lithium for energy, so TOS was ahead of the curve with this.  Gene Roddenberry was interested in having plausible science, if not possible.  In TNG they've moved up to trilithium crystals.
I have long held a theory that the reason that everyone in TNG is so laid back is because the lithium leaks out of the engines and bonds withtheir blood, and so they all are on lithium....  *g*

So THAT'S why Jean-Luc Picard was such an unaggressive surrender monkey. I'd always thought it was because he was French.

Where is Mobius Drive from?  I can't place it off hand.  Maybe it is just named after a guy named Mobius? 

I think it's from A.F. Mobius, the German mathematician who invented the Mobius strip, a surface with only one side.

[Blaze]

But how in the world does it figure into a drive?  I know what a Moebius strip is.  a three dimensional object with only one side...  but drive?  LOL

ANd yes, that is my explanation as to why in TOS people still kicked a$s and took names and in TNG everyone is so layed back.

[Yeratel]

But how in the world does it figure into a drive?  I know what a Moebius strip is.  a three dimensional object with only one side...  but drive?  LOL

Probably just a homage, and because Mobius looks so cool and scientific when it's properly spelled with the umlaut over the o. I seem to recall a SF story one time that used black holes to power interplanetary transport, and referred to them as "Hawking gates."

[Blaze]

Or the ever loving hypercube.

[Yeratel]

Or the ever loving hypercube.

If you can't understand the scientific gobbledegook with the Star Trek Universal Translator Implant in your mastoid process, you can always just stick a Babble Fish in your ear.

[eviladam]

I forget where Mobius drive is from now. I know I read it somewhere or other. I remember in the Aliens books they used Einstien space instead of hyper space.

Okay how the hell do you have a three dimensional object with only one side? This is one of those things that's going to give me a head ache isn't it?

And they definentlly kicked ass and took names on TOS. I remember the second pilot episode, the one with Kirk, involved a crewman with mental powers. Kirk and Spock walked up casually and jumped him. It was great.

[Blaze]

Adam, google moebius strip and you will see how you can have it!

[eviladam]

Since we're on the research blues subject I need a good source on aerial combat, nasa operations, and the air force. Possibly the NSA as well. This story is really taking shape.