Actual science in science fiction

[james_davis_nicoll]

Not applied sciences, I mean, or feats of engineering but the actual process of science. Is this a suitable topic for SF, by which I mean "can it be the seed for a story?" Or maybe better yet, "how does one use it as the seed for a story?"

One example would be the Steerswoman books. I think part of what makes that possible is that the protagonist is discovering scientific models that we are already familiar with, so the author is not saddled with the problem of coming up with a new scientific model.

I am not fussy about "Yes, this was cutting edge science 200 years ago and it still is today" stories, where whatever bit of pop-science that made the cover of DISCOVER is still new and exciting centuries from now.

Comments

a new broom sweeps generalizations cleanly

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

which is to say, you're right, except for all the other cases. :)

i don't know of anybody who works in a "secret" lab (what's that anyway?), but i personally know seven people who work for four startups that could be described as "a laboratory that isn't publically known, one assistant, and no correspondents". in two cases they're guys who got laid off from a big company and decided to see if they can turn their ideas into money.

the cost of doing science varies dramatically. in most of the labs i've been in, salary was the dominating expense, so it's no more expensive than any other professional work. where one has cheap labor (grad students, or guys chasing their dreams w/o pay), good science can be done on the cheap. otoh, sure, if the experiments need exotic materials or equipment, it's very expensive. one project i worked on was the country's largest consumer of ³²P. *that* wasn't cheap.

the control of the money varies pretty dramatically, too. a lot of work is done as you describe, with scientists running around looking for funding. but in a fair amount of industrial science, the scientists think and their managers run around looking for money. this is true of the part of the government i worked for, long time passing. other research is done on a command-and-control basis, where the company or part of the government picks the scope of the project and assigns people and resources to it.

otherwise, a fine post. :)