Yeah, but the storyline is getting repetitive and the NPCs are kinda generic. Ah, Kurzgesagt. Three hours ago I was gonna take a break and just watch one, maybe two. I'm basically stripmining that channel for ideas. I at least owe them a bigger font in the acknowledgments. They're angry tube socks. People will talk, because it's easier than reading. Oh, thank god. I was worried I'd have to make that joke myself.
Just ask me, I know everything science. Seriously, if you are not finding what you want in a search, try a different search string and/or different search engines. I don't use Google anymore. I use Startpage and DuckDuckGo. Sometimes one has what I want and sometimes I need to switch to the other one. By running the question by people on the forum, they can probably steer you in the right direction. The biggest question here is, are you writing a topic out of your depth? For example you can't write hard sci-fi without at least a basic understanding of science and technology. But you could probably write a soft sci-fi story where the story was more about the people or politics and less about spaceships and star wars. A little knowledge goes a long way if, as you say. you only want the basics.
I have some basic stuff down. I can pretend to be pretty smart in a conversation as long as people I speak to aren't educated in science. But the story is more about the people, yeah. I just rely a lot on suspension of disbelief and to take some of the pressure off that, I like to try making other parts (sound) more realistic. Stuff that makes your average reader go, "Yeah, okay," and the average scientist go, "Aw, that's cute. We'll put it up on the fridge, okay? So eeeverybody can see it."
Back in the day I was sent to Ft. Huachuca, in the Arizona desert, to do a Thing. The base was host to a variety of venomous and non-venomous snakes, as well as some really nasty little scorpions. Pro-tip: Kick the rock, roll it over with your foot, then pick it up. But anyway, they brought in some snake handlers...no, not that kind, the professionals who work at Animal Control or the zoo... to give us a brief class on the local wildlife. They'd show us a slide (yes, this was pre-internet, actual Kodachrome slides) of each snake, describe its dangerous points, "personality", and how urgent the bite treatment was. Then they'd take a live one out of one of the boxes they'd brought with them. So this one venomous type was described as fairly shy and slow to anger. I wish I could tell you what he was, but it's been thirty years. Just the sort of snake to give enough of a berth to, maybe wave a stick at or gently toss some pebbles and he'd be on his way. When they lifted their exemplar out of his crate he struck the carpet three times then sunk his fangs into the handlers gaiters. No harm, no foul, but definitely not as advertised; this was one aggressive little murder-noodle.
Goodness, that snake was in a bad mood, wasn't he? I make no assumptions about rattlesnakes, whatever their touted reputation, and maintain a respectful distance. The herpetologist at Steinberg Museum of Natural History in Kansas introduced me to Crotalus helleri as a snake that well deserved its name: said every time they took it out of its cage, it did its dead level best to nail its captors. Common name: southern Pacific rattlesnake.
I'm sure, like sharks, snakes mostly just get a bad rep. Nevertheless, unless I suddenly wake up as Samuel L. Jackson, it seems like I'd best err on the side of caution.
Just based on the world/universe ending aspect of your questions I suggest looking up the channel 'Isaac Arthur' on YouTube. Lots of science going on and he draws from various journals and scientists as well as science fiction. I know he has videos about black holes including some that discuss how a civilization could survive orbiting a black hole. I find his videos interesting and I don't do much hard science in my stories. I think he also has a blog where you can ask him questions. Not sure on that, though. Good luck.
I hang out on physics forums.com. Most of the prominent members there have advanced degrees or at least talk about things that are well above the average science-adjacent people. Lots of times people interested in science have a heuristic understand of it cause the real subjects are too advanced and require background knowledge too. Almost everything the average science literate person knows about QM or GR is extremely oversimplified, there be dragons in those maths. That means that you can often not extrapolate what you know, even hard sci-fi can get that wrong. What specific type of science? “Science” is the process that we learn about literally everything. I’ll be glad to explain physics or engineering and source everything. My expertise is mostly QED, which is used in computers but I have a working understanding of both physics frameworks. That’s what you may have a hard time finding in general science forums. There is a very large gap between people who are scientifically literate, meaning they understand the concepts, and a working understanding mean thing they can actually do the maths. You can message me and I’ll gladly give you me thoughts on something if I can.
The separation between the theoretical side and the physical side in science is vast as well. That's something I get to see every day at work. I couldn't do most of the theory calculations for transmission, dose, loss, structure, etc for electron microscopes, but I certainly can rig the machine together to operate and refine it to high quality production. I find both sides of science interesting. The practical and the theoretical.
It’s the same in computer components. Math is reserved for most complicated stuff, most of the time you can look at something and say “well those are too close together.” Rarely do you actually need an exact answer to anything when making something, which is another important thing to consider. Also the more experienced you are, the more you can approximate. I highly doubt any structural engineer designing a house actually calculates weight and stuff, they just know if they put a load bearing wall in a certain spot, it’ll hold up. (I mean, now-a-days their software probably does that for them anyway, but they could do it with with blueprints if they wanted to.) Also, a lot of “doing the maths” now, really means taking the maths, rearranging it to get what you want, and then converting it to computer code to chug through it. For anyone other than mathematicians working on theory, that’s most of doing maths now.
I second DuckDuckGo. I used to love Google but they filter searches by what they want you to see, not the top result.
I think that's a reasonable plan. I have some hard science stuff in my novel that I only brush over because it's not relevant to the story.
@Bakkerbaard Stop click baiting and ask a question. I pretty much know everything and others here know a lot as well. Most of my responses include links to source as well. The suggestions already given I’d agree with also in this thread. Give us a go... MartinM
