Getting Inspiration From Science

Are YOU Getting Inspiration from Science?

Science is one of the cornerstones of our existence. So are your characters scientific? Do they f’ing love science? And even if they don’t, it can still inform what they say and do.

Discoveries and Science

First of all, there is an enormous amount of inherent drama in trying to discover a cure for a disease. However, sometimes things go another way, where a seemingly serious breakthrough ends up having a rather different application.

For example, consider minoxidil, which is used to treat baldness. However, its original development was to be a drug to treat high blood pressure.

And research, with all its successes and failures, can spark drama.

Chemistry and Physics

Chemist characters can do everything from creating potions on the edge of magic to working in pharmacies. And your physicist characters can study the cosmos and the forces that shape it.

Or maybe they build nuclear weapons, and experience all sorts of doubts and moral crises due to that.

Furthermore, any of these characters can teach at the high school or collegiate (or graduate school) levels. Go back far enough in time, and you’ll find that a lot of discoveries in these areas overlap with philosophical pursuits.

Biology, Paleontology/Anthropology, and Geology

Maybe a biologist character could unleash a plague or study alien creatures. And a geologist character could warn of an impending volcano eruption (this would be a vulcanologist, actually), or maybe help find fossil fuels or alternatives.

For an anthropology character, like the characters in African Escape, the drama in the plot can come from discoveries. Or, like in that story, from less than fully legal attempts to get the goods out of the country of origin.

Engineering

Of course, a lot of the more practical end of scientific work comes in the form of engineering. Character Craig Firenze is a former engineer, who ended up going into public relations because he had a gift for gab.

Engineering can also lead to works about inventions, like in the short story Water. Or explore the actions of what are essentially proto-engineers. That is, do you know anyone who takes stuff apart all the time?

That person, even if they’re still a small child, might be a good (eventual) candidate for engineering school.

Astronomy

Beyond discoveries, astronomers may be checking the minutiae of dozens if not hundreds of photographs, to determine if anything has changed or moved. These days, much of this work is done with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

Astronomers may be looking for life on other worlds, or for the worlds themselves. Or, they may be looking for anything which threatens to slam into our planet. Which would make for a rather bad day all around.

There are instruments in orbit around Earth, and there are others in rather remote parts of the globe. Hence your astronomer characters could be traveling at times.

The Art and Science of Medicine

Beyond finding cures or performing routine checks, doctors also handle people at their most vulnerable. And they see the weak, the sick, the dying, and the naked.

Some physicians find humor in the absurd, like in M*A*S*H. Psychiatrists can work with the insane or just the troubled. And that can spill over into marriage counseling, or helping people figure out how to come out of the closet.

Plus, there are people who are essentially chronically troubled.

And, of course, there is caring for people who (currently) have an incurable disease, such as Alzheimer’s.

Keep in mind: just because a physician (or nurse practitioner, etc.) doesn’t cure a patient, it does not mean anyone has committed malpractice. Sometimes, there just isn’t a cure. Yet.

Takeaways

So whether your characters are blinded with science or just need to get a sprain treated by the local barber surgeon, scientific observations and pursuits can often inspire great writing.