Best Research Discoveries

[Mouse]

I bet we all have to research some fascinating stuff for our work, right? What's one of the most interesting things you've read about in the search for knowledge? (And hey, maybe some of the facts will help others).

I've just discovered that for burials in catacombs, the caskets had to be lined with lead. This made nasty gases build up inside the coffins and, sometimes, they exploded. To get round it, holes were drilled in and a little pipe thingy was put inside and lit with a match, which sometimes burned for days. This burnt off all the nastiness. Cool, eh?

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

I heard about coffins needing to be lined with lead. I would suspect it would have something to do with radiation, but I doubt that would be from the bodies, more to preserve them of it.


For me, I would have to say just general psychology.

 

[Galacticdefender]

Physics related stuff. Orbital mechanics, etc. When I first learned that thrust is only required for a short time to get something to go fast (if it is powerful enough), I totally rewrote all of my space combat to make it fit more with the hard-ish SF feel of my stories.

 

[nightdreamer]

1. The math of constant-acceleration relativistic flight. This topic became fodder for a minor blog entry some time ago: http://duane.duane-n-lisa.net/wordpress/?p=48. I never did go back and figure out, or find online, the constant-thrust solutions.

2. The Nazis really did embark on some farfetched research projects toward the end of WWII. Because far too much material on the subject comes from the sort of sources that also spend a lot of time thinking about alien abduction, government conspiracies to cover up antigravity, and how the Illuminati rule the world, it's hard to find out exactly what went on. But for my purposes it is enough to know that there were such projects.

3. Various "mystic" locations and unexplained artifacts. There are quite a few, like the Antikythera Mechanism, Baigong Pipes, Truk Lagoon.

4. Alternate systems of biochemistry. Did you know that boron structures could potentially have more variability than carbon-based structures?

That's all that comes to mind right now.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

That there are some very sick people out there, who do very sick things to others. Two days researching torture led me to that conclusion. I also learnt a lot about the psychiatry of dictators, and stress disorders in survivors of trauma.

On a happier note, Chrispy's scientific posting on my non-scientifically plausible outlines have always been entertaining. Particularly the musical snake tracking system, to be imbibed at the point of requirement...

Oh, and the cultural nuances around traditional barge boat painting, that was pretty cool.

 

[HareBrain]

Did you know that boron structures could potentially have more variability than carbon-based structures?

I learned that otters are cute.

 

[HoopyFrood]

One of my best finds is about the Fox Sisters, who started the Spiritualism movement. Went through life being really famous and successful mediums and got a mighty following...and then one of them went and revealed that they'd made all the ghostly rappings by moving and clicking the joints in their toes and knees!

Damnit, I feel like I'm amassed loads of random facts over the years and they always go out of my head at times like this...

EDIT: Otters are the cutest things ever. They hold hands while they sleep! And look sassy while working out how cups fit together:

 

[nightdreamer]

Damnit, I feel like I'm amassed loads of random facts over the years and they always go out of my head at times like this...

Elegantly stated!

 

[Mouse]

Those otters made me come over all female. Too flipping cute!

I've read books on torture, springs. Horrible, yet fascinating, stuff!

 

[HoopyFrood]

Those otters made me come over all female. Too flipping cute!

They haven't failed to hit everyone right in the Cute so far! The tiny high fives at the end get me.

 

[JoanDrake]

Sometime in the middle/late years of the 19th century there were a series of loud booms repeatedly heard on the shoreline of the Indian Ocean. I think they were heard mainly in Bombay, (Mumbai, more properly) I forget what they were called nor if they were ever definitively explained.

Does anyone remember what they were called, or know anything more about them? Not even remembering the name I'm lost to do any net research.

The Indian Ocean seems to have more strange things and odd places than most others. I'm not talking about Bermuda Triangle stuff (though it has it's share of mysterious disappearances), but just odd and unexplained phenomena

 

[JoanDrake]

Those otters made me come over all female. Too flipping cute!

I've read books on torture, springs. Horrible, yet fascinating, stuff!

I think I'm going to start a website on Otters and Kittens.

Daniel P. Mannix wrote a rather definitive "History of Torture". Something of a cult classic among books, from what I understand.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Komodo dragons are capable of parthenogenesis (lady dragons can lay viable eggs without a man-dragon's involvement).

 

[nubins]

That there is evidence of other universes and theory related to it, that actually, universes "pop" into existence all the time, possibly each time shuffling the law of physics so that things behave differently. We can never interract or go these other universes, but there is something about them that we can see through itnerractions with our own universe. This was all from one of the incredibly smart science guys off of the discovery series "the universe" .. obviously he explained it better than me.

 

[psychotick]

Hi Joan,

I think you're talking about the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, the loudest sound ever known in recorded history. The booms were heard around the world.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Mouse]

Daniel P. Mannix wrote a rather definitive "History of Torture". Something of a cult classic among books, from what I understand.

Not seen that one! Intriguing. I looked at one that had rather gruesome pics in.

Komodo dragons are capable of parthenogenesis (lady dragons can lay viable eggs without a man-dragon's involvement).

Now if only all females could do that!

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Umm for my naughty fairy stories I was looking up gnome porn.

Perhaps not fascinating but the easily most unforgettable piece of research involved a group of men on a beach in Norway wearing nothing but gnome hats. Let's just say it was obviously not summer.

 

[Mouse]

Ha! That's the reason you were looking up gnome porn? "Research."

 

[AnyaKimlin]

lol yeah I wrote the story . It is about a group of four male fairies in leather hotpants with a detective agency. Gnobit the gnome has received threats that his bits will be shattered -- leaving him unable to earn a living. He's a gnome porn star.

I also know all about the inner workings and makeup of fire extinguishers and bankers lamp for a spy story with Sherlock Foam with his hose ready for action and Dr Watt with beam and golden shaft.

 

[Mouse]

Heh! Sounds excellent.