Blog Posts - Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers

Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers

About BSFW
- Policies & Procedures
We Demand Stories
Author Bios
Join BSFW!
- Contact Us
- BSFW Members Page
Kaleidocast
Support BSFW

Speculative Fact #342: Global Seed Vaults and Gene Banks

2/13/2017

Svalbard is a small archipelago off the North coast of Norway, and lies at such a high latitude that it is permanently covered in a thick layer of permafrost. It is also the site of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
         Since the early eighties, the gene bank has stored over 10,000 seeds from 300 different species. The seeds, representing a genetically diverse sampling, are kept in sealed cold rooms and can theoretically be stored for hundreds of years. The hope is that these seeds could be used to replant species that have been endangered due to various crises.
          Perhaps because of the vault's remoteness and exclusive access (typically only scientists visit the site), many conspiracy theories also surround it. Some subscribe to the idea that companies are promoting GMO versions of crops and storing the original organic ones in seed vaults like the one in Svalbard. While there is no evidence to suggest that it has such a nefarious purpose, it could make for an interesting story premise.
        This could also pique your interest in the concept of gene banks in general. What if we’re required to store the genes of a variety of species in suspended animation in order to avoid mass extinctions? As we continue to deplete natural resources and suffer from global climate change, gene banks might become a tantalizing hope that future generations can repopulate a dying planet.
        You could be writing an apocalyptic themed story. In John Christopher's “The Death of Grass" and Cormac McCarthy's “The Road" a notable loss of plant life is a key aspect of the story. Perhaps mischievous villains are attempting to sabotage gene banks in order to hasten a doomsday scenario. Perhaps the hero is like Noah and must use a genetic ‘ark’ to restore the Earth’s diversity of life - and reverse the damage done by the blind generations of the past.

Jonathan Hernandez

Speculative Fact #341: Time Crystals and Mcguffins

1/30/2017

Matter is much more complex than the gas, liquids, and solids we were taught about in school. In the laboratory, scientists have gone beyond plasma, supersolids, and Bose-Einstein condensates to explore forms of matter predicted by theoretical physics.
            While most matter is in equilibrium with its surroundings, a team of researchers at the University of California believe they have found a candidate for non-equilibrium matter: time crystals. These curious crystals oscillate not just in space but in time. They appear to exhibit motion, even at their lowest energy state, like tiny perpetual motion machines. While the theories behind the concept are abstract, there are already suggestions that time crystals could be used in quantum computing. This may also open the door for discussion about other theoretical forms of matter like Rydberg molecules and photonic matter.
            Sometimes, speculative fiction makes use of exotic materials with mysterious or amazing properties. These materials are given funny or derisive names like unobtainium or handwavium because they often seem contrived or convenient depending on the needs of the story. Marvel’s Adamantium, Star Trek’s dilithium crystals, and the element naquadah in the Stargate television series are prime examples, but there are many others both in popular media and literature. The geriatric spice melange in Frank Herbert’s Dune series are so tightly bound to the main plot and premise that the story would fall apart without its presence.
            Perhaps your story requires some sort of mcguffic with unusual properties. Perhaps brave explorers travel the galaxy to get this “stuff” the same way bold fur traders traveled across the wide expanse of the territories of the United States (which helped to settle it). Maybe the “bad guys” need it for a super weapon and the heroes need to stop them.

Jonathan Hernandez

Speculative Fact #340: Carbon and Silicon Based Life?

12/12/2016

Carbon is a very abundant and versatile element. Whether it’s fine powered graphite or diamonds (the hardest naturally occurring substance on Earth), you can make more compounds with Carbon than with all the other elements of the periodic table combined. So, it makes sense that life is based on the stuff.
            Scientists and Science Fiction writers, when imagining alien life, have wondered if an alien biochemistry can be based on elements like Silicon (which has some similar properties). From the Demons of Keith Laumer’s A Plague of Demons to the alien xenomorphs in the Aliens franchise, it has been amusing to imagine life either based either wholly or partially on carbon’s sibling.
            While Carbon-Silicon bonds are typically done artificially, a research team in Caltech recovered a bacterium named Rhodothermus marinus from its native hot springs and mutated its DNA repeatedly. Their goal was to see if an enzyme called cytochrome c would bond the two elements together more readily, and it did.
            In addition to possible industrial applications in the future, studying this enzyme could lead to a better understanding of how organic and inorganic chemistry blend (or don’t). In the far future this could be the key to a cybernetic union between humans and machines, or the synthesis of a wholly new form of life…

Jonathan Hernandez

Speculative Fact #339: Student Made Space Settlements

11/21/2016

It is an old and often quoted maxim that children and young people are our future. The observation is sometimes met with skepticism and derision, but some clever and gifted students make the point clear every year in an annual contest.
Starting in 1994, the international NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest is sponsored by NASAs Ames Research Center, San Jose State University, and the National Space Society (NSS). Students up to the 12th year compete with dizzying and bold designs for space habitats (like space stations, but with the capacity to house tens of thousands of people like a small artificial world) using impressive research and calculations.
The 2016 winner, Project Divinity, was the brain child of five South Korean students under the direction of their instructor. It draws an ambitious plan to not just populate a space habitat with 10,000 inhabitants but also host a space vehicle industry which could promote development and economic growth.
A previous winning team from Toronto, Canada (Asten from 2009) came up with the ingenious idea of using premade modular components to make construction in space simpler. One ambitious proposal (Maui from 2013) imagines a floating chemical factory in Saturn’s atmosphere much like Cloud City from The Empire Strikes Back.
Much as wisdom oft comes from the mouth of babes, the bright eyed and brilliant engineers of tomorrow are giving us fertile fodder for our outlandish stories and may be intimating how it will look.

Jonathan Hernandez

Speculative Fact #338: Supersolids Confirmed

11/14/2016

In school we were taught about the phases of matter: gas, liquid, and solids, with plasma being a bonus. The other, more exotic forms of matter like Bose–Einstein condensates are not typically observed in nature or at least in any kind of environment we would call comfortable.
            While Bose-Einstein condensates have been called superfluids because of their unique fluid-like behavior, research scientists from MIT and ETH Zurich have witnessed the birth of so-called supersolids.
            When the temperature of atoms are dramatically lowered near absolute zero, atoms enter the same quantum state and exhibit unusual properties. The researchers were able to get their Bose-Einstein condensates to behave not only like solids but also like a fluid.
            As writers of speculative fiction, we love our exotic materials and alloys and fancy sounding unobtanium. A material that behave as both a liquid and solid could be a needed component for some advanced device central to your story. Maybe your heroes are looking for this material, or your villains have stolen it from them.

Jonathan Hernandez

Speculative Fact #337: Rebuilding Humans for Space

11/3/2016

Humans aren't built for deep space. Multiple studies have shown all the systems in the human body that start to break down after a short time. Exposure to radiation, weakened muscles, bone deterioration. These are some of the problems that the 100 Year Starship Group tries to solve.

100 Year Starship Group are researchers, engineers, and business people focused on the technologies they believe will lead to human deep space travel. One of their projects involves "bone micro-encapsulation." They want to make a product, a topical cream, that would accelerate bone and tissue regrowth after an injury. There's a clear need for this in hospitals and on battlefields. But how might this apply to a community of astronauts? Might the research into making this product a reality reveal the processes involved in bone growth and allow us to modify the human genome (CRISPR- Cas)? Could we design astronauts from birth? Would we be creating a subspecies of human being evolved specifically for life in space? What would be the implications of that on those of us left planet side? How would we treat them?

If we take seriously the possibility of human beings leaving Earth, these are some questions that need answers, or at the very least, stories.

-Rob Cameron

Speculative Fact #336: Haunted Houses

10/31/2016

To help inspire and frighten you this Halloween, let us visit the haunted house. Haunted sites are not just a staple of speculative fiction (think of stories like Dreams in the Witch-House and The Rats in the Walls by HP Lovecraft), but have been with humanity for ages. It seems that as long as there have been humans, there have been scary tales and people being entertained by them.

Amityville is a notorious site in Long Island New York, but a number of areas in the city (yes, Brooklyn too) have had reports of haunting as well. The Chelsea Hotel, with its long history and famous patronage, has spawned a number of ghost stories. Too, there are a host of old bars, apartments, and sometimes even alleys where you might feel a deathly chill.

While reports of haunting draw criticism and skepticism, they have been used repeatedly as a source of inspiration. Some of the eyewitness accounts themselves are chilling or even disturbing. With some artistic embellishment and reimagining, your story could scare even the most dubious reader.

Jonathan Hernandez

Speculative Fact #335: The Road to Mars

10/17/2016

The White House has recently unveiled a bold desire to send humans to Mars by the 2030s. The wealthy entrepreneur Elon Musk has an even bolder vision to begin settling colonists on the red planet.
A crewed mission to Mars must address a number of complications (especially prolonged radiation exposure and low gravity). It would be the longest and farthest journey in human history. While there are many skeptics and obstacles, the buzz about Mars raises the stakes…and story possibilities.
Martian colonies are certainly not a new concept in speculative fiction (i.e. The Red Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson). As we get closer to the possibility of a Mars colony you may find new inspiration. Perhaps your story is an allegory for the European colonization of the New World or is focused on the economics behind settlement. Would a human settlement lead to the extinction of native microbial life? What if the terraforming of Mars also meant a strain on its environment as heavy industry did on Earth?

-Jonathan Hernandez

Speculative Fact #334: Dung Beetles, the Cartographers of the Stars

10/12/2016

Dung Beetles. These insects are the butt of many jokes and yet, the subject of intense study. Their nomadic lifestyle requires them to travel great distances with their...luggage. They often do it alone, usually without the aid of smart phones or Google. They never stop to ask directions. So, it was even more impressive when researchers realized some time ago that they tend to travel in a straight line. In case you're wondering, that's very odd. They don't get lost, even over long distances. Finally we have some idea as to how they do it.

It's all in their dance. The dung beetle gets atop its ball of feces and does a kind of jig, spinning and turning on the mound. As it does so, it takes pictures of the night sky and the stars. Once done, it climbs down and continues it's journey, using these star maps as their guide.

Researchers confirmed this by creating their own "night sky" in a controlled environment with star formations that don't exist in the real world. The beetles still used them to navigate the experimental terrain. They lost their bearings when the sky was covered, like what might happen on a cloudy night.

This is an amazing evolved trait that demonstrates the interconnectedness of all things, big and small. How might you use this insight in your own story?

-Rob Cameron

Speculative Fact #333: The Real African Samurai

9/29/2016

This is NOT Yasuke. Read on to find the real African Samurai

Not to be confused with the manga Afro Samurai, Yasuke was an African servant who was brought to Japan from the Congo or Mozambique, in 1579. He came there with Italian Jesuit priests.

Most of his life is a mystery. Researchers believe his real name could be Yasufe. Yasufe impressed Oda Nobunga, a powerful daimyo of late 16th century Japan, with his size, power, and understanding of Japanese. Nobunga insisted that he stay (after he reportedly demanded that Yasufe's body be scrubbed because Nobunga thought his black skin was painted on.).

Yasufe became close to the Nobunga clan. When Oda Nobunga was betrayed and killed by Akechi Mitsuhide, Yasufe tried to protect Nobunga's son. Unfortunately they were also ambushed.

This is where Yasufe's trail runs cold. After the defeat, he was returned to the Jesuits. After that, nobody knows what happened to him. Perhaps he was waylaid by vengeful kami? You should finish his story in the most amazing way possible.

The Speculative Facts

The purpose of this page is to inspire and inform writers. Come to find that spark from the Picture Prompt of the Month, the Speculative Facts, our latest Pinterest Pins and the News Feed. Come to BSFW meetings to take your story through its paces and on to publication.

Speculative Fact contributions are researched and written by Jonathan Hernandez and Rob Cameron

The Muse Tweets

Tweets by @BSF_WRITERS

Pinterest Picture Prompt

Just in time for Halloween!

create social website

Supportive Writers, Serious Fun

Proudly powered by Weebly

About BSFW
- Policies & Procedures
We Demand Stories
Author Bios
Join BSFW!
- Contact Us
- BSFW Members Page
Kaleidocast
Support BSFW