I'm writing a novel (science, Article)

[Popeyesays]

Well, let's see if I can mine some people's thinking on cutting edge physics.

This is a sci-fi novel set about 500 years from now.

I am postulating a "flicker" drive which moves a vessel by harnessing the electron-tunnelin phenomenon. The drive only throws a ship a few hundred meters at a time butcycles so many times a second (when outside of a gravity well) that it acheives pseudo velocities in excess of light speed. "Pseudo-velocity" because the drive is totally independent of any acceleration or decelaration - the ship disappears here, reappears there with no intervening time and no "Delta Vee" involved.

This drive and efficient magnetic bottle fusion generation are the only "fictional technology" involved. Ships have no artificial gravity control, weapons are lasers, particle beams and missiles with their own "flicker" drive. Simple fission warheads are not efficient weapons since it is almost impossible to get a missile close enough to its target for the fireball to do any damage to the target - hence the use of X-Ray detonation lasers is common.

ANy ideas on techno-babble to discuss the drive postulation and the fusion generation issues would be ver yhelpful. After all , the best techno-babble is firmly rooted in technology and science.

If anyone is interested in helping with this part of the book, kindly offer your ideas and I can send you a draft of most of the technical underlayer which is presented in an Academy lecture given by the main character of the novel. (You gotta cram this information into the first pages anyway and this seemed to be a reasonable ploy to get the job done.

Regards,
Scott

[Feathers in Hair]

That sounds really interesting! (I wish I had a background in science to be able to add further input, though!)

[nutshell]

Just make sure it's accessible. Too much tecno-babble could turn off a potential audience.

[dawny0826]

I can't offer anything accept my warm wishes to you...that your novel works out.