The biology revolution

As some of you know, I am a (semi) retired research scientist in the field of biology. Much, maybe most, biological research is now molecular. Molecular biology started with the deconstruction of a DNA molecule by Watson and Crick in '53, very close to my birth date. The development of PCR in '84 by Mullis was the first key step in molecular technology.

Molecular biology has turned out to be far more complex than it first appeared so, as yet, practical impacts of molecular research have been felt mainly in the field of identification. Bioengineering is still largely a matter for science fiction but that will change. Drug companies are moving out of random screening of likely organic molecules into a race for gene-based designer drugs.

Bioengineering is likely to have the most tremendous impact on our social system because, unlike the products of the industrial revolution and the electronic revolution, it will affect us directly.

The interesting point about technology is not that it gives new or better gadgets but that it changes society itself. Consider how sewage systems, pesticides, mass transport, electronic media and contraceptive pills have changed the way we do things, the way we think, our very morality.

Molecular technology will challenge our society and conventions of morality as has no other technology because it will be used to change ourselves and create new life.

The churches seem to have no idea what is about to hit. The CoE vicars that I have spoken to seem mainly worked up about cloning copies of individuals. That will be the least of our issues. We will start by eradicating genetic disease and then run straight into problems with the definition of 'disease'. Does that include cosmetics such as nose size, hight, breast size, or penis size? Will we have generations of little girls all looking like the contemporary celeb bimbo or should we just make showgirls with extra long legs?

Is it a good idea to up the anti-cancer immune response to people working with cancerous materials? How about manufacturing worker classes to do specific jobs?

Good SF is about people, not things.

So, here is a challenge.

What bioengineering development's impact on society do you think would make a good SF story?

The return of the prodigal - hard-work-to-write books

Ok, I am baaaaack.....

Life, life at last.....

Sorry folks - it's been a monumentous couple of weeks with the net access going down, power going down, proofs for DRAGON'S RING needing to be rushed through, and finally, on a more personal front, our visa allowing us to emigrate to Australia coming through too. South Africa - that I had once been so hopeful about - has been on a slowly increasing slide with crime and corruption leading into an abyss. The murder rate has now climbed to 87 per day (from medical records - the government records show a decline from 52...) collaping healthcare, and corruption everwhere, and while the country is far from Zimbabwe, with patches of wonderful success, I am afraid I am calling it a day. It may recover and become the dream rainbow nation, but I believe that's a long way off, and some distance down before it starts to turn. I will always have an affection for the place and people (and many are good people) but it's time to move on.

Ok -on the subject of writing again: In the discussion of genres and sub-genres it always strikes me there is one sf sub-genre -- which I love -- which no one else seems to acknowledge exists. Yes, now that you mention it, that is typical of me - loving something no-one else even admits is there... officially anyway. Authors... because it is hard-work-to-write (and the pool of authors who CAN do it is even smaller than the pool that can write humor), and readers because they don't realise it is hard-work-special-clever-author-required. It's what I call the 'problem solving subgenre' and its a nearly extinct branch of hard sf (generally) but you do get right across the spectrum (even into fantasy). You might say it was the sf version of a whodunnit: the science-howdunnit - the clues and cues are there hidden in plain sight, but the problems seem insurmountable. Yet a bit of science and thought and there is your answer. Yeah, no dreadnoughts slugging it out with pyrotechnics in deep space, and no superhero stuff - except as background special effects. Just thinking, really. Poul Anderson wrote a fair number of these (you might say he was the real master, and I wouldn't disagree with you, although Heinlein and Asimov wrote quite a number too) -- since then, Larry Niven a good few. Other subgenre examples - in Space Opera for eg is Jack Vance's BLUE WORLD and in alternate history Sprauge de Camp's LEST DARKNESS FALL or Eric Flint's 1632 (alternate history really lends itself to this more easily - the solutions have been thought of elsewhere. If it is done well, it still takes a lot of research and ingenuity on the part of the author.) The trouble is it really takes a scientist or an engineer -- or someone who will research the subject damned carefully to write them -- and someone who has the many-ways-to-skin-a-cat attitude. Often, let's be honest, character is neglected for clever science. Still, I love the science-howdunnit dearly. But there seem to be a shortage of authors out there doing this sort of thing (or maybe a shortage of publishers buying it).

Anyone got any recommendation of authors who do this, possibly more recently (although I'd be nostalgic/curious about your ideas on old ones)?

And do you have to be a scientist to enjoy these?