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I should maybe clarify the role played by the "Cold War" background in my novel. It's actually not the central thrust of the story, although I am planning to explore it in significant detail (my ultimate goal being to require as little as possible suspension of disbelief on the part of my...

Thanks for the response! I think this will help. Very interesting point about Cosmism. I had actually never heard of this idea until now, but I think it may bear looking into...

Right now I'm in the process of fleshing out the back story for a possible novel. One of the central characters is a former Soviet scientist who developed a reliable method of cryogenic suspended animation as part of program for eventual manned missions to the outer solar system. It was also...

I was recently reading an article in the newspaper about a study by the National Institutes of Health that cataloged over 10,000 species of microbes living on healthy people. The average person carries several pounds worth of microbes, many of which perform essential functions for keeping the...

Though I didn't mention this in my initial post, your idea is very close to what I had in mind. I'm planning to have the colonists discover the ruins of a temple and city complex left behind thousands of years ago by visitors from a vanished civilization (in my fictional universe, this...

In my book series, the main antagonist is going to be a totalitarian culture descended from a long-lost human colonization effort in the Proxima Centauri system. They are completely isolated from the rest of the human race for the next 200 years after arrival and undergo a massive cultural and...

They actually are quite intelligent, but they've been deliberately engineered so that most of their raw intelligence is channeled into functions such as stalking prey, assessing strengths/weaknesses of an opponent, etc. The idea behind their creation is to produce a soldier that is able to act...

This is a description I've written up for a breed of super-soldier I'm hoping to feature in my book series. At the moment, it's for personal use only, since I want to avoid info-dumping on my readers. Just so it's clear, these soldiers are genetically engineered using human DNA and they've...

I think might need to nail down a little better what I'm talking about (admittedly, it's still a little vague in my mind). In terms of the "effects" I'm talking about regarding the planet's in our own solar system, I'm thinking along the lines of radio emissions. These are emmitted naturally by...

I'm not actually planning to have them move planets into different orbits or alter their position in any way. Rather, they will taking advantage of a rare natural planetary alignment in order to produce destructive energy which will then be directed at a major agricultural region, shutting down...

For a book I'm writing, I plan to feature a cabal of conspirators harnessing a rare alignment of various planets in their star system in order to generate destructive force on their home planet. All the while, they disguise their efforts as legitimate scientific research similar to that of CERN...

In the first book set in my fictional universe, I'm planning to detail the uncovering of a plot by a secretive cabal of conspirators to take over an entire planet. Their plans are to gradually infiltrate its government, swiftly execute a coup/takeover which will give them absolute power over the...

In my fictional universe, I'm thinking that real world military ranks would tend to last for a significant amount of time just as present-day nations would last for a significant amount of time (a unified government does not arise on Earth until the late twenty-third century). At the same time...

In my book series, I'm hoping to somewhat plausibly portray the operations and structure of a space-based military force. One of my big pet peeves with much contemporary space opera is the automatic transplantation of naval ranks and terminology to an outer space setting. To me this represents a...

I'm actually thinking that this technology would be used for more of a "stop" rather than "slow down" function. That being said, I also want to have it hedged about with clear, rational rules and limits to its use. I'm trying to stay as far as possible from pure fantasy while still portraying a...

While recently watching part of the pilot episode of the original "Lost in Space" series, I noted the rather unique way that the Robinson family was placed in suspended animation aboard their ship. Their ship was equipped with some kind of electromagnetically-based technology that allowed only...

I think I've finally figured out a way to make the longevity of the Alignment seem at least marginally plausible. In another post in the Sci-Fi Lounge, I queried about the probable social effects of widely available life-extension technology (specifically, the human lifespan extended to 250...

I'm thinking that most people under Centauri rule would rebel if they could, but are fundamentally unable. There is, for one thing, the very nature of a command economy; it's very hard to rebel against an authority with the ability to cut off your access to basic necessities of life such as food...

That's actually pretty close to the angle I'm planning to take. The Centauri invasion of 2275 takes place following several decades of "Unification Wars" within the Solar System (basically wars between Earth and its off-world colonies) which leave all the warring factions economically devastated...