Story Ideas – The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

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Story Ideas – The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

By Deb Gallardo

Despite the strange title, this is part of my continuing series on science-related story ideas, in hopes of stimulating Science Fiction inspiration for those aspiring to write in that genre, and to get the rest of us thinking “outside the box.” (See the Story Ideas Takeaway at the end of this article.)

I go into some science detail here because one of the keys to good Sci Fi writing is solid science. Of course merely reading what I offer here along with NASA’s articles won’t be enough to craft a novel, but all this CAN become the spark that gets your imagination working and you writing. That’s what The Story Ideas Virtuoso is all about.

Some of you may recognize that my title relates to a 1964 Pulitzer-Prize-winning play. In this Tennessee-Williams-esque drama, a young girl’s science fair project is one more point of conflict in a dysfunctional single-parent household. My take on it when I saw the film (directed by the late Paul Newman) was that the story was a metaphor. We see the mother’s toxic behavior (Gamma Rays – highly toxic to human tissue) and abuse toward her daughters (Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds reacting differently to the radiation).

What Do Gamma Rays and Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
Have to Do With Story Ideas?

This play (and film) came to mind when I received a series of NASA’s Science News emails over the past two weeks about gamma-ray bursts and a Gamma-ray Burst Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama.

Gamma ray bursts were only discovered a little over 40 years ago and still mystify astrophysicists. Experts from 25 countries met recently to discuss and debate clues to the biggest explosions since the Big Bang itself (if you believe in the Big Bang Theory — emphasis on the word “theory,” I hasten to add.)

On top of that, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has been discovering interesting cosmic data.

Here are four NASA articles that can give you more information. (All links open in new windows so you can find your way back here.)

1) The first article gives an excellent overview of gamma ray bursts.

Gamma-ray bursts were discovered in the 1960s during the Cold War. US satellites keeping an eye out for Soviet nuclear testing detected intense bursts of gamma radiation. The bursts weren’t coming from the Soviet Union, however, but from space.

Immediately, astronomers had a century-class mystery on their hands. The explosions seemed to pack more energy than a supernova, and they were totally unpredictable, coming from any and all parts of the sky at random and unexpected times. Furthermore, they were brief, some lasting just a split-second. By the time observers swung their telescopes in the direction of a blast–it was gone!

Read the entire article: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/16oct_grboverview.htm?list1128087

2) The next article talks about pulsars, which are related to gamma rays.

Pulsars were first discovered in 1967 by student radio astronomer Jocelyn Bell and her thesis advisor Tony Hewish. The radio pulses they recorded were uncannily steady–so much so that some astronomers wondered if they were picking up signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. The correct explanation was even stranger: Pulsars are spinning neutron stars packing the mass of the sun into a sphere about 20 km across. Whirling around thousands of times each hour, they beam radio pulses into the cosmos in the style of a rapidfire lighthouse.

Read the entire article: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/17oct_gammaraypulsar.htm?list1128087

3) The third article discusses gamma ray bursts created when giant stars (50 to 100 times larger than our sun) explode.

When their time is up, stars make their exits in a number of flamboyant ways. The most massive stars leave with the greatest fanfare of all – blasting out gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), tremendous explosions that rock the Universe like nothing else. These spectacular blasts, second in power only to the Big Bang, occur when stars 50 to 100 times more massive than our sun use up all their fuel and collapse. Most astrophysicists believe that gamma-ray bursts herald the formation of a black hole. All types of galaxies–spirals, ellipticals, dwarfs and irregulars–contain super-massive stars. Curiously, though, not all types of galaxies produce gamma-ray bursts.

Read the entire article: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/20oct_briefmystery.htm?list1128087

4) The final article discusses short gamma ray bursts.

For decades it was baffling. Out of the still night sky, astronomers peering through their telescopes would occasionally glimpse quick bursts of high-energy light popping off like flashbulbs at the far side of the universe. These bursts seemed impossibly powerful: to appear so bright from so very far away, they must vastly outshine entire galaxies containing hundreds of billions of stars. These explosions, called gamma ray bursts (GRBs), are by far the brightest and most energetic phenomena in the known universe, second only to the Big Bang itself. Scientists were at a loss to imagine what could possibly cause them.

Read the entire article: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/21oct_oddballs.htm?list1128087

STORY IDEAS TAKEAWAY:

Use gamma rays and their effects as an underlying theme or metaphor for another story, as in the play example above. Read up on how they function and how human tissue and DNA react, and on the current medical applications of gamma rays.
What we don’t know about gamma rays is greater than what we do know. If you are a student of science, delve into the subject and speculate on which theories are correct. Go out on a limb and predict effects that may yet be discovered that will 1) affect space travel; 2) affect living on the Moon; 3) affect adapting to life on other worlds; 4) affect human DNA long-term. You could also write about someone who invents the “perfect” protection against gamma rays. Is it real? Is it a success? If so, does it last? If not, why was s/he wrong?
What if someone discovers long and short gamma ray bursts are actually two different kinds of radiation or that previous research is mostly wrong? (Please, if you’re a scientist, don’t laugh at me. I may be so far off here that you’re in hysterics.)
What if you could go back in time, knowing about gamma rays, and change history in a positive or negative way?
What if we learn that gamma rays aren’t as big of a threat as we now think?
What if closer study of gamma ray bursts from pulsars disproves The Big Bang Theory?

As always, please feel free to leave a comment to let me know where you stand or what things you have taken away from this article. It only takes a minute. I value your commentary.

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