More notes on science and writing

October 8th, 2007

I’m happy to see — at least, judging from the responses to my post on the RoD weblog, Notes on science for writers (and readers) — that people are interested in learning more about writing science, or just science in general. It so happens that recently I’ve been stressed and have been immersing myself in physics-y thoughts (if not physics itself) to cope. A few of those thoughts had to do with science and writing. The others would just translate into crazy stories about physicists and physics majors, e.g. speculations on hotness quotients, sexy books, and professors who steal your shoes.

Ever since I enrolled in the NIP I’ve been in love with physics. It still hasn’t chosen to requite that love, but that doesn’t stop me from seeing such beauty and elegance in the concepts that the fundamental equations sometimes leave me breathless. That kind of beauty compels you to talk about it, to share your wonder with other people; in fact, in my freshman year some of my batchmates came up with plans for an anthology of fiction and poetry written by physics majors and/or about physics, just because we wanted to show other people how much we loved the subject and maybe get them to love it as well. Its title? Freely Falling Bodies.

The plans for that anthology, along with a hundred other projects we wanted to do, melted away when we came face to face with the hard reality of life as a physics major. I haven’t forgotten, though. I want to read fiction with science that’s not only solid, but graceful as well; something that incorporates science into its structure in a natural way, with as much regard for the story and the imagery as for the correctness of the numbers and terms.

(You might be thinking — science, beautiful? Isn’t it supposed to be objective? How can you look at it with any subjectivity? –The methods and the processes we use are supposed to be objective. But then we can’t help feeling something when we look at some results: e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0 is beautiful, and so is residue theory. I have a fierce undying love for the mind-breaking questions of quantum mechanics. Things like that.)

Some possible topics for physics are listed below. Please note that I’m listing the more basic disciplines, because I think it’s better to start with these, get a good grasp of the terminology and the principles, before moving on to more advanced topics. I don’t feel a story has to be about branes or M theory for it to feel like it’s on the cutting edge of science. I’ve seen people try and come away bleeding.

Relativity and astrophysics — Black holes, of course, from the concept of frozen stars to Hawking radiation to the bending of light. The twin “paradox” has been done to death, but some illustrations of the failure of simultaneity in special relativity would make for very interesting fiction. For general relativity, the fact that gravity affects time and not only space opens up new horizons of possibilities; aside from the more obvious differences in aging, even the frequency of light, EM waves, etc. is affected by gravity. I would like to see science fiction that incorporates dark matter and dark energy. Also, the concept of an “expanding universe” — what would you feel if you knew that little by little the galaxies and stars were moving further and further apart?

Electromagnetism — I’m not just talking about opposites attracting; I want to see current and flux and fields. The elusiveness of the magnetic monopole, the symmetry (or lack of it) in the equations for the electric and magnetic fields. The emergence of the speed of light…! A thousand thousand electrons streaming downward in an incandescent waterfall. (You see, current isn’t so much adding electrons to the system and moving them from one point to another but the movement of electrons that are already there. Think water when you turn on the tap.)

Quantum mechanics — Schrodinger’s cat? Been there, done that; besides, it was just a proposed Gedanken (thought experiment) that highlighted the sheer strangeness of quantum mechanics. Play, instead, with the fundamental concepts, like what deltaxdeltap implies in a physical sense, what life would be like if quantum effects could be observed with larger objects. How crazy would people have to be to survive in a world where doors and chairs and glasses changed positions all the time, where people could sometime walk through walls or fall through floors? And what would keep people from flying apart? Take a look at the physicists behind the theories. The Einstein-Bohr arguments. The Bohr-Heisenberg relationship! de Broglie! Bohm! Bell! –I think it’s necessary to really know this before moving on to quantum gravity (not to mention strings).

Fluid dynamics — When I was a freshman I thought this field was one of the more boring areas of physics, but the years that followed quickly proved me wrong. Fluids are used to model and stand in for so many things. In fluid dynamics, I did a tiny bit of research on the phenomenon of turbulence, a complete description of which remains one of the great unsolved problems of physics. Turbulence can be seen in fire, smoke, ocean water, rivers, air — that rapid, unpredictable mixing of curves and swirls leaping out of smooth flow. What I did was verify some equations for a model Dr. M was working on, which describes turbulence as a quantum kinetic phenomenon (very roughly, atoms leaping from the ground state to the excited state). One time when he was talking about his model of turbulence Dr. M mentioned ballerinas and dolphins. If only I could remember the context.

Classical mechanics — The first field of physics we encounter, classical mechanics is often dismissed as simple and too basic. But then again, think of rotating pendulums and three-body problems and the metaphors that arise. Think of inevitable attraction, friction, terminal velocity. There’s a point where a falling object can’t fall any faster, when acceleration due to gravity is offset by the resistance to the object’s fall. Think collisions. Think energy, the white heat of motion, the unbearable restlessness of existence. What would happen if everything stopped? Do we exist because we move?

Statistical mechanics and thermodynamics — We can talk about heat and absolute zero and how there’s no such thing as cold. What I’m terribly interested in at the moment, though, is probability theory, and in connection with that, the way statistical mechanics models very complex systems. Write about classics such as the Monty Hall problem, the possibilities and choices tied to going or staying, closed and open systems, daemons, gases. Statistical mechanics has to do with the behavior of a large thing made up of very very many small things, each going its own way, so I’ve found the light, easy grace of the field a fitting lens through which to look at human behavior.

…These are just some of my favorite physics+writing ideas. I’m a little distracted at the moment (I have two exams tomorrow, both on aaiogyaoigyrmultiple regression analysis) so if I left out some things or made mistakes, please feel free to comment or ask questions.

Entry Filed under: writing