REAL SCIENCE STILL FIRES THE IMAGINATION

It’s always interesting to follow the top science stories and let your imagination run free. For any SF writer, I’d say it’s an essential exercise. Over the past week:

Remember all the fuss in 2006 when Pluto was downgraded from planet status to the new category of “dwarf planet”? That was because other bodies just as large had been discovered beyond Pluto’s orbit (Eris, Haumea, and others) and within the asteroid belt (Ceres). Scientists got their first good look at one called Makemake recently when it passed it front of distant stars. Unlike Pluto, Makemake appears to have no atmosphere, although its covering of methane ice might vaporize when its orbit brings it to its closest approach to the sun. Dwarf planets aren’t exactly hospitable, but they’d be a whole lot more accessible than the gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. Even the concept of asteroids or dwarf planets being converted into giant luxury resorts isn’t so far-fetched. A continent-sized skating rink, anyone?

Meanwhile, John Grotzinger, project scientist with NASA’s Mars Rover mission told an NPR reporter that a chemistry lab aboard the Curiosity rover had made a discovery that would be one for the history books, but he refused to elaborate until the data has been thoroughly checked. That set off a flurry of speculation—the discovery might be anything from definite signs of life (my own opinion) to proof of space aliens (I really doubt it). Definitive proof of life beyond Earth will finally give science fiction writers license to embody just about any setting we can imagine with exotic species (we do it anyway, but we’d really love to be able to say, “I told you so.”)

A third story involved the hunt for the ultimate sub-atomic particle, the famous Higgs boson, the proposed particle at the very root of physical structure that would complete our picture of why objects have mass. Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland are nearly certain that they’ve found it (or at least confirmed its existence by observing its by-products). Yet there’s been a measure of disappointment in the announcements. The particle appears to behave exactly according to theory, but that’s the problem. If it had been found to have unexpected properties, that would have been a step toward confirming some of the more exotic theories of physics. As it is, the straightforward Higgs boson just adds support to the current model of the universe. So what’s left to discover? To the particle physicists I say, “Don’t worry”—in 1900 Lord Kelvin is reputed to have said, “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now; All that remains is more and more precise measurement.” It may have been a misquote, but the opinion wasn’t uncommon at the end of the Victorian era. It wasn’t true then and it isn’t true now.

I’m still confident that the universe is as limitless as our imagination.

ROGUE PLANET!

Rogue Planet sounds like a great title for a science fiction movie, doesn’t it? But in the astronomy community a rogue planet is a planet drifting through the galaxy without a sun of its own to orbit, and a team using the Canada France Hawaii Telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea and the Very Large Telescope in Chile has just found one. They searched an area of the sky with hundreds of millions of stars and came up with only one candidate they believe is a homeless planet. It’s about a hundred light years away from us (so it’s not a danger—don’t worry). What scientists don’t know is whether it formed out in the void from interstellar debris and dust, as stars do (but couldn’t get a light), or if it was somehow torn away from the solar system where it originally belonged.

This is where the science fiction writer in me kicks in.

Some may remember the 70’s TV show Space 1999 in which nuclear waste stored on the Moon explodes and sends the Moon hurtling off through space, carrying the crew of Moonbase Alpha with it. In essence, the Moon becomes a spaceship for interstellar travellers (never mind that it would take centuries to get anywhere).

Flash back to the rogue planet: What if a very advanced race discovered that its sun had become unstable and was going to go supernova in the foreseeable future? What options would they have? They could evacuate their solar system in giant craft like space versions of Noah’s Ark, but they’d have to have a new home in mind: somewhere far enough to escape the effects of the exploding star, but not too far—human beings and animals aren’t meant to live out our lives in metal cans. Or, presuming they’ve harnessed nuclear fusion and mastered the manipulation of protective energy fields, they could escape in the biggest spaceship of all: their home planet. No need to immediately cull the population or somehow select those who deserve to survive. Just pull up stakes and head for the stars.

Naturally, it’s not that simple, but is the technology inconceivable? No.

So maybe we’ll encounter such a planet when we venture out into deep space, or maybe one will come calling on us. After so long in the cold void, how would they react to feeling the warmth of a real sun for the first time? Maybe like Canadians in the Springtime!

YOU ARE WHAT YOU READ

When we writers create a work of fiction we want it to have an impact. We want readers to identify with the characters, and in most cases we have an important theme or message we want to get across that, we hope, will stay with the reader for years to come.

I decided some time ago that fiction really all comes down to character. Novels that are heavy on plot but light on character might be entertaining reads while they last (Dan Brown’s books come to mind), but probably won’t stick with you. If the characters are really minimal, the book will flop—the reader can’t identify with the protagonist so they won’t much care what happens to them.

A recent study claims that fictional characters can change our lives.

Researchers Geoff Kaufman of Dartmouth College and Lisa Libby of Ohio State University believed that novel readers vicariously experience what the character in a good novel goes through. So much so, that we may begin to behave more like the character. They mention the example of Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird. If you strongly bonded with Atticus while reading the book, you might focus more on ethical behavior in your own life (unfortunately, the reverse could be true if you’re deeply immersed in a book about a charismatic serial killer!) Kaufman and Libby ran test subjects through a number of creative scenarios that showed this kind of behavior alteration, but they don’t know how long the effect lasts (you can read more about their research here. Still, they believe that books we love enough to read and re-read will likely make a lasting impact on our lives.

One other interesting note: Kaufman says this phenomenon only applies to written works because when we’re watching a movie or TV show we’re positioned as spectators. It’s only while reading that we truly imagine ourselves as the character and therefore act accordingly.

For my fellow writers this is both a responsibility and an opportunity. Let’s make the most of it!

IS THE MAN IN THE MOON A WARNING?

For thousands of generations humans have looked up at the Moon and imagined a face in its features: the Man in the Moon, smiling gently upon us from his perch high in the heavens. A pleasant thought, right? But maybe also a warning—a warning of a threat from space that we on Earth have no way to stop.

Japanese scientists announced last week in the journal Nature Geoscience that they had used spectral analysis to measure the composition of minerals in the 3000-kilometre-wide Procellarum Basin, the giant flat space that makes up the largest part of the Man in the Moon’s face. Then they’d compared those results with rock samples brought back from the Moon by Apollo astronauts. Their conclusion? The Procellarum basin is a newer feature than most of the Moon’s craters, and was most likely caused by the strike of one giant asteroid that ripped off a huge portion of the crust and produced a new one, about 3.9 billion years ago.

That’s not just an interesting factoid (and a serious romantic buzzkill) but also a reminder that a huge chunk of space rock like that might one day have Earth in its sights.

You can get two fairly similar versions of that scenario in the movies Armageddon and Deep Impact, both released in 1998. The newer movie Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, a quirky but often sweet romantic comedy starring Steve Carell and Kiera Knightley, has just come out on video and is worth a look (but note that Bruce Willis isn’t in the cast, and adjust your expectations accordingly). I’ve explored the killer asteroid idea in some old blog posts and in my short story “Saviour” which you can read by following this link. In “Saviour” the man in charge of the mission to save humankind from the approaching cosmic doom takes a rather unorthodox approach.

“Saviour” was significantly inspired by another movie called Sharkwater in which filmmaker Rob Stewart showed that sharks are on the path to extinction, thanks to the inexplicable human taste for shark fin soup (among other things). Stewart has now produced a follow-up to Sharkwater due in movie theatres next spring that’s even more disturbing. Ocean scientists pointed out to him that by the 2040’s not only will sharks be gone, virtually every other species of fish and sea mammal will also be wiped out, due to indiscriminate overfishing, pollution, and global warming. The movie goes on to show the forecast consequences of climate change on the rest of the planet. Revolution expresses a message of hope, but its premise is certainly dire. And it’s not fiction.

So what’s the connection between climate change extinctions and a killer asteroid? For that you’ll have to read “Saviour”. But consider: if a giant space rock ever is found to be on a collision course with Earth, will it be a terrible twist of fate?

Or the universe protecting itself from us?