Flying On The Fringe

We often tend to assume that we know all there is to know about our world. When I was in my twenties, I worked with a secretary in her seventies who lived in a retirement village. She once told me that a friend of hers had said he thought young people must be discouraged because there was nothing new left to discover. Without hesitation, I rattled off a list of things right off the top of my head that hadn’t yet been unraveled, including how to cure cancer and all the mysteries of black holes. I finished with “the only thing we’ve really learned is how little we know.”

I still feel that way, and it’s a thrill for me each time a major new scientific discovery hits the news. May 10, EarthSky.com carried an article by Deanna Conners highlighting the “Top 10 New Species of 2016.”

Hold the phone. Not all the new species, just the top ten. Scientists estimate there are over ten million distinct species on earth, of which only about two million have been identified and cataloged. This year’s top ten include a bizarre looking fish, a sea dragon, and a new species of pre-human hominid. Intrigued? Visit earthsky.com for the details.

Where did this incredible explosion of life come from? Certainly, the perfect position of our planet in relation to the sun and the abundant presence of water enabled the propagation and differentiation of species. But scientists have for some time debated the possibility that our planet’s water, and even the building blocks of life itself, were delivered to us by a comet or asteroid.

May 27, The European Space Agency announced that it’s Rosetta Spacecraft, which has been studying the Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko for the past two years, found glycine and phosphorus on the comet. Glycine is one of the amino acids considered a building block of life, and phosphorus is a key component in DNA and cells. In addition to glycine, researchers found other organic molecules that could be precursors to the formation of glycine.

So, if life on earth didn’t begin here, where did it originate? Where in the galaxy is planet (or comet) zero?

I am declaring today Memorial Day. I may be only a lowly reporter, but Dadra, who has declared himself Provisional President of Blitzgan, surely has what he considers to be more important things on his mind. The civil war, the most recent and most destructive of this planet’s bloody history, has ended, mostly because there are not enough soldiers and not enough military hardware remaining to continue the fight.

So I, Pika RN2378, dedicate this day, Rava 43 of the year 6247, to the one and half million people who died in the last six risings of our moon. The once-proud fleet of a thousand interstellar battleships lies in a ruined minefield of debris throughout our solar system.

Why have we ripped our own world apart in such dastardly fashion? For a dream. The hope that this will be the last of Blitzgan’s wars. A chance to dismantle a history based on the subjugation of an entire species, training our offspring from childhood to be subjects willing to dedicate their lives to the direction of their superiors, designing our educational system to promote conformity and acquiescence. For thousands of years we have exported war, sending our finest youth off to distant battlefields. Always we were told by our trusted leaders that it was for our benefit, to protect us and to further security for others with whom we traded. How is the slaughter of our children to our benefit?

No, that insanity must end forever. Let others fight their own battles. We can protect ourselves without a suicidal dedication to alien wars. For the sake of our children to come, we must build a better world.

So, to all who have given their lives, through all the ages past, to the pursuit of war, go to Badalla in peace, peace everlasting. To you I dedicate this Memorial Day, to honor you and to mark the beginning of a new way of life.

I had the opportunity to attend Planet Comicon in Kansas City this weekend, my first such event. For those who don’t know, these events sprang up in just the past ten to fifteen years, originally among people in the comic book industry. They now encompass every aspect of fantasy and science fiction including comic books, video games, movies and television shows.

A lot of the participants spend days, weeks, or longer developing elaborate character costumes. Halloween taken to the max. I went primarily to see the costumes and to watch the competition. I didn’t expect to get much out of the panel presentations. Boy was I ever wrong.

There were so many interesting presentations that I found it hard to find time to eat. Two of the sessions focused on the physics behind science fiction, what might work based on real science and what suppositions are pure baloney. Dr. Dan Claes, Department Chair & Professor, HEP Physics & Astronomy, University of Nebraska, gave an artful mathematical demonstration of the physics related to Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Many of the assumptions behind Superman’s original comic book incarnation are based on valid science. He could leap tall buildings (but not fly) and had superhuman strength. His abilities would be plausible, if highly improbable, based on the assumption that his species was born on a planet with radically higher gravity and a red sun that promoted a different cell structure. The modern versions of both heroes are beyond real science, however.

Dr. Claes’s second lecture focused on the effects of radiation. Godzilla, giant ants, and other radiation-induced nasties—not plausible. Sorry monster movie buffs. The modern field of genetics offers many more possibilities. Spiderman on the other hand, might be plausible if there were other factors involved such as a rapidly-spreading radioactively altered virus that the spider transmitted.

All science fiction revolves around stretching science to its limits and trying to project ourselves into a future we can’t see. One of the limits to interplanetary travel is the damaging effect of long-term exposure to cosmic radiation that astronauts would experience. We have nothing that will adequately shield them. So Star Trek—not possible at this point in time. But new elements are discovered or created from time to time, or we may discover a way to counteract the effects, so who knows.

I am surprised and thrilled that Planet Comicon gave me many insights and inspirations for my future writing. Dr. Claes answered a major question I had for the book I am writing and seeing the alien creations of others helped me clarify how my own characters should look.

It just goes to show that a writer never knows where he or she will find inspiration. Keep an open mind and keep on trying new things.