26 / 26
Mar 2021

When it comes to the science part of sci-fi, I prefer it to be (1) as realistic as possible, with some twist to make it fiction (it's not a research paper after all), but still believable, and/or (2) just show the tech or crazy stuff as normal and part of people's everyday life. I'm usually not a fan of technobabble or random words thrown in to sound sciency, so unless I like the story a lot, I'm out :sweat_smile:

For my current comic, I tried to make the genetic explanation of people having superpowers as realistic as possible, but that was kind of cheating since I do molecular biology research in real life. Also, one of the main characters, Claudia, was inspired by a failed project I did in grad school using nanoparticles, and I thought it was hilarious how in fiction (and to conspiracy theorists), nanoparticles are this borderline magical thing that does everything, but in reality they are such a pain to work with.

Here's the thing in case someone is interested. The art starts quite rough, sorry ^^

There's a things called "internal consistency" and "suspension of disbelief" that's pretty important for making light sci-fi and fantasy to work.

Thank you so much! haha I know. My consultant's face after reading my manuscript and storyboard was :fearful: :persevere::kissing_heart:

Summary

Summary

I cant say dedication, at least the first 10 years I kinda abandoned it because life so I only kept reading eugenics stuff and for the past 10 years I retake the idea for study the other things based on my first manuscript and what I wanted to talk about in the story. Im kinda surprised some of the things I wrote as "history" in my worldsetting are becoming true and not in a positive way wich will lead to the story´s present time... sadly, I know people will pay less importance to the science/philosophy/politics things than to the social or the romantic things in my story oTL I see that coming as well

Im alien to these sciences as well. Studying about them even if in a general way made my mind blown a lot of times but I was happy everytime I found a solution to a point of my original plot and taht it was a possible way to be real made me feel too relieved (so i dont have to rewrite it lol)
Yes! talking about things that are real (or could become real under certain circumstances) makes it for the reader a closer experience to these things/situations if they had to meet them.

@Azifri so cool molecular biology!! The word Nanoparticles sounds magical tho lol *subscribed *

You're amazing! Like I've said in the original post, I do love incorporating from real science a lot, but I also leave room for other things and limitations, having the patience to stick to realism is really something else. I like the idea of realistic superpowers quite a lot, what kind you've got for example? It got me thinking about My Hero Academia, where some stuff is explained to some degree (though still bending the rules), but lots is straight up pulled out of... somewhere not sciency at all.

And no such thing as cheating when it comes to knowledge you can base off, come on! :sweat_smile: The more the merrier.

That gives me hope that some day maybe I'll return to a big project of mine that I put aside over 6 years ago in favour of this one I'm publishing now. :') It would need lots of reworking and editing at this point, though.

@noenoh thank you, hope you like the story ^^

(had to look up My Hero Academia because I haven't watched it)

My explanation isn't really that sophisticated either; the same way we have a genome and an epigenome, I imagined we have a metagenome (not the most creative name but it conveys the message), which is basically a more complex level of gene regulation that can also modify the genome over time (like transposons, it can rearrange itself), and this would be the explanation for people leveling up their powers during their life. I sorta got the idea when studying developmental biology and induced pluripotent stem cells, and trying to understand how master regulator genes work as well as genes that are located in the sequence of other genes, making everything so complicated but it somehow works :confused: In my comic, not everyone has a metagenome, and people who have one may only have it to some degree (there will be a multiverse explanation as to why people of some worlds have a metagenome and others don't, but that will be mentioned much later), so there is also a limit on how much someone can "evolve" it, and cases where having a metagenome is detrimental to people's health. There is also the genome editing thing, which applies to the metagenome as well if people know what to modify.

Yeah, it's all BS but I have fun coming up with it :grin:

I'm a scientist by training and worked in medical research for a bit so it's hard for me NOT to get all scientific about my work... but in all honesty I've only ever read one author of hard sci-fi who actually knew how to write good fiction. :x (Greg Egan, if you're wondering). Everyone else just reads like a neat science idea wrapped up in cardboard caricatures. So I do not really value the lack of imagination of hard sci-fi that much, because IMO you can have a perfectly scientific story about a completely made up magic concept, so long as the characters approach their world with the curiosity of a scientist (Fullmetal Alchemist is an example of some really good sci-fi writing, and the story was about literal magic).

The core plot of Engram (my comic) is SORTA based on a theoretical concept in physics but if I'm being honest it's mostly magic. I've learned to have fun with it and not question it too much, because telling an enjoyable story > justifying it through our current limited (AND CONSTANTLY EVOLVING) understanding of the universe.

But then other stuff I've written was like near-future first encounter with an alien life form (spoiler alert: it was bacteria) and that's all right my alley of getting all science-y.

I like the idea of metagenome, so even with more artistic freedom, you can create a reason for these superpowers on people and for how rare and detrimental is for them, since nanoparticles are actually not really safe for human manipulation irl and I like how you included it on the biologyc area rather than just the materials (its different than the actual crispr cas9 manipulation wich leads to artificial powers in sci fi??? but you are still using genetic modif in your story too ) and seems justificable if it happens naturaly (even if not really possible but oh hey its sci fi). Idk for me makes sense xD

Summary

idk what Im talking about Im just hyped for the nerdy stuff here

Oooh, I love this! Yes for drawbacks!! I'll be looking forward to reading on that, once I get enough time to read through what you've published already.:ok_hand:

And you can do surprising things that are outside of our current physics if you lay a foundation for it - explain that there was a revolution in quantum mechanics or whatever is in the story. At one time, the end-all was Newtonian mechanics. Everything we observed could be explained by it..... until we found things that weren't.

I totally agree that the flow of the story should come first - that's why I asked what elements are incorporated into it, not the other way around. :wink: And FMA is such a good example indeed! Also, love the encounter in the form of bacteria.

Oh, the nanoparticles are meant to replace biological components so people can be controlled like living puppets :innocent: it's a different aspect in the story.

The human induced gene-editing I just left vague, because how it's done it's not that important in the story, only that it's not safe when done in excess or with bad intentions.

Also I must say

This is only because our world is one of those where people have no metagenome. In a different world it would make perfect sense! xD

What I love most about science fiction is that it has a huge range. Space ships and aliens are sci-fi but so is a self-contained circuit of Tesla coils that also create thunderstorms.

The science I use depends on the story. I tend to research whatever subject that strikes my fancy. My genius MC is an engineer but she also knows a great deal about history, anthropology, astrophysics, art, and more. She reads anything she can get her hands on but her knowledge-base is expanded by the supercomputer in her brain.

I really like sci-fi, but I often use the term 'Science Fantasy' for my comic, because it really is. There's a lot of magic, and not too much actual science in there. :sweat_02:

That said, I try to approach what I call 'runeology' in-universe a bit more like an actual science, in that it's kind of a 'science of magic' type discipline with theories and formulae underpinning how rune spells work, how to write them and so-on.

Don't ask me what those theories and formulae ARE, but they... exist. My protagonist knows a lot more about it than I do, I would have flunked that class rather catastrophically. :cry_02:

This thread is nuts. I didn't know people actually put that much science into their stories. I haven't gotten the chance to do too much of that myself, but I do think science is a great tool to keep parts of your story grounded - which in turn, makes the fantastical parts more fantastical. that said, some things are more interesting when they're mysterious, so it might not be a good idea to try to answer any question any reader could possibly ask. it's a dope tool, but you gotta know where to use it.

if you wanna see a cool example of real-life science in fiction, check out Dr.Stone. it's essentially a shonen anime, but instead of superpowers, there's accurate real-life science, and it's awesome.

Yup! And the best part about that is that's how science actually works. We think we know shit about shit until we realize we don't actually know shit about shit because some new shit just got found

I think it comes with the interests, when someone is really invested in a topic, they often want to include it in something they make. The research itself then isn't viewed as just means to achieve a goal (knowledge), but also as a part of the fun the person enjoys.

As for examples, I think Tokyo Ghoul has an interesting takes on the biology side, at least the manga does, not sure about the anime. Similar with Parasyte: The Maxim.