Easy to Follow Steps to Successful Science Fiction Writing

Writing a science fiction novel requires different skills to that of a normal novel.

It is important that you research your topic well, people reading your books will often have a lot of knowledge on the subject area so it is important that you research your facts fully. It is probably a good idea to read a lot of science fiction books before you start so that you can get an idea as to how they should be written, and how others do this.

Most science fiction novels have a main conflict, as this is science fiction it can be a little different, make sure that you think outside the box. Deciding your setting and time frame is important, most science fiction novels are written in the near or far distant future and often involve more than just planet earth! You need to have a very good imagination and be creative and original with both your ideas and language used. The world you create for the reader needs to be convincing, it also needs to remain consistent throughout so that the reader finds it believable. It is becoming increasingly hard to invent new realities but with some care and imagination it is not impossible.

To help you with this, if you are not already a fan of the genre, make sure that you read past and present science fiction. As well as sparking off your ideas, it can help you to avoid inadvertently developing copycat realities. For example, a 1990s sci-fi series often seemed to have episodes that were rooted in existing films and books - after a while it lost its appeal as the ideas were not original.

A common mistake when writing science fiction is confusing it with fantasy. Fantasy novels are normally those that involve events that would be impossible to actually occur in real life, whereas science fiction is about scientific events that could technically happen within our world. Unless you are writing fantasy, make sure that any science is plausible although it has been said that science and magic are very close. Imagine someone from the dark ages seeing something as simple as an electric light being switched on... to us it is very understanding but to them it would seem like magic. But beware of making your novel just about the science and the fiction, make sure there is a solid plot in there too.

The characters, as in all novels are a vital ingredient. Make sure that they are believable and that the reader can relate to them. To achieve that, it is essential to plan and explore each of the key characters thoroughly. Work out their mannerisms, their way of speaking and how they communicate with other people very carefully.

So good luck writing your science fiction book, when the manuscript is finally prepared and you believe it is ready to submit it to the publisher, have it read and appraised by a professional service. The benefits are two-fold, firstly, it can help you to refine your novel and eliminate clumsy prose and secondly, having an error free manuscript with correct spelling, punctuation and grammar can help to keep your work off the slush pile. But beware of endlessly re-working your manuscript as there is the danger that it will never reach the publisher.

Is Biomass Technology Right For Your Business?

Biomass technology is not a new technology, and it is certainly not a passing fad. Biomass technology has been in use since the time of the cave men, when the very first fire was lit and organic matter was burned. Today, biomass technology has progressed well beyond burning organic material to create fire, and it is now possible to use biomass energy to power your plant or manufacturing facility. With all the advances, however, biomass has stayed true to its roots of being a simple, reliable, and green source of energy.

Is Biomass Technology Right For You?

Biomass technology makes use of organic matter in plants and other natural materials in order to produce energy or electricity. In some cases, your plant or manufacturing facility may already be generating enough organic waste that you can entirely meet your energy needs just by harvesting the energy from your own waste materials. These situations, obviously, are the best ones for the use of biomass since you have your own source of natural "fuel" right there available to you.

In other cases, the requisite amount of biomass will need to be obtained. Biomass power can still be an effective and efficient choice in many of these instances, however, as long as a plan is in place for getting the needed biomass.

Considerations in Incorporating Biomass Technology

When making the decision as to whether to use biomass technology for your energy or power needs, the easy availability of biomass is only one consideration, albeit an important one. Other things to think about in deciding whether biomass is right for you include:

* Whether you are using coal-fired boilers. If so, you may be able to take advantage of co-firing to harness the power of biomass. Co-firing involves burning both biomass and coal simultaneously, reducing your coal consumption without the need to build any new facilities. With co-firing, you may reduce the consumption of coal by up to 20 percent.

* Government regulations that impact your energy consumption and your business, both now and in the future. The government is cracking down on energy use and on those who cause air pollution through their manufacturing process. With the government imposing ever-stricter environmental regulations, you need a plan to comply with environmentally friendly requirements, both now and in the future. Biomass technology allows you to ensure that you are doing your part for the planet so you won't have a problem as regulations grow ever-tighter.

Making the Choice to Switch to Biomass Technology

With all these benefits, it is easy to see why many businesses and manufacturing plants are considering a change to biomass.

If you want to ensure that you are protected against rising costs of coal and oil; reduce dependence on rapidly-disappearing natural resources; ensure that you will be in compliance with all future government environmental regulations; and potentially save your company money on energy in the process, then biomass technology may be right for you.

Media Versus Educational Institutions

Many things have been said about media, its relation with education and the institutions of education, as well as co-action between them. But the point which has been rarely and scarcely stressed upon, and requires to be emphasized with the force and vigour it deserves, is that the media by itself is the most powerful medium of education at large. When I talk about media, I mean it to be inclusive of both the print-media and electronic media. There is an umbilical relation between the media and educational institutions, as both are deeply correlated, collateral as well as complementary to each other.

Education on Air

So far as the print-media (news papers/magazines/periodicals/journals) is concerned, it has, somehow, been playing its role in educating the people positively to some extent, but unfortunately, the electronic media (radio, television etc.,) is not delivering the goods in this respect. Being a medium of infotainment, it is, in fact, supposed to be a means of not merely educating the masses on a much wider scale, but also a tool of promoting and developing the national ethos, culture, moral values, ethics and social manners on the nation-wide scale.

Media is the most powerful instrument of not only spreading, inculcating and ingraining the values and traditions among our new generation, but also strengthening them in the mindset of the old one. It is the government' responsibility to use electronic media for the above-mentioned purposes and it has the powers, necessary resources and machinery to do so, but, alas, it has, until now, failed to take any concrete step in the direction. Government is therefore well-advised to press its machinery to use the centrally-administered media as a tool to provide education on air.

Media's role compared with formal Institutions of Educations

It is an irrefutable fact that the media can prove an effective and useful tool in providing education to the masses. In this respect, media's role starts exactly from where the role being played by the formal institutions such as schools, colleges and universities comes to an end. The media has not merely an obligation to inform the people what has happened, and what is happening in the surroundings, in the society, across the country and around the world, but it has also a bounden duty to enlighten the masses what actually must have been there and, in deed, what now must be there under the sky.

Art, Culture and Literature

The media has another function to perform and that is to take care of social manners and ethical values among the people, to preserve and promote them besides developing indigenous art, culture and literature.

A few words about literature: whatever is written is simply defined as literature. However, whatever is written with an accuracy of the language and punctuation of the grammar is, by definition, termed to be the "classic literature," whereas whatever is printed, published, broadcast and telecast by the print-electronic media is nothing but the "literature in haste." And this exactly is the domain of media.

Reverse Gear

Now the question arises what is the media doing now-a-days? Hasn't it put the vehicle on the reverse gear and isn't driving it in quite opposite direction? Is the media playing its role, doing its functions in any respect honestly and sincerely? Is it delivering the goods in letters and in spirit? The answer is, alas, a horrible "No."

It is extremely deplorable, disappointing and sorry state affairs to see that in the name of art and culture, the Western art and culture are being promoted and boosted, and on the contrary, the indigenous arts and cultures, are, unfortunately, being weakened and relegated day by day, throwing the young generation straightaway into the "lap of the Western Culture" on a wholesale scale.

Failure of the Educational System

The role being played by our formal educational establishments is even worse. Our system of education is still based on some elements of the British policy- getting rid of which the sooner, is the better because they are, on the one hand, laying negative and harmful impact on the emerging talents of our promising students and on the other, extirpating the very roots of Indian culture. Despite having gained geo-political freedom, we are yet to be able to get ourselves released from the yoke of mental- intellectual bondage of our Anglo-American masters in certain spheres of life, especially in economy, science and technology. In the name of imparting education, our students are virtually made "the book-addicts", rather turned into the "book-worms." Instead of pushing ahead and encouraging them to pursue and develop their instinctively creative talents and skills, the students are, unfortunately, being encouraged to strictly go by the books from the beginning to the end, throughout their lives. Main emphasis is on theory and not on practice.

Consequently, now the nation India can boast of producing the best "imitators" in almost every sphere of life but is not in a position to proudly claim to have produced any original thinkers and scientists except Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, S.Chandrashekher, Hargobind Khurana, Amartya Sen, Venkatramana Ramakrshnan and a few other exceptions in recent history. Even a handful of those born with inner creative talents and high skills, are compelled to go abroad due to the lack of necessary facilities, proper incentives, lucrative compensations and encouragement in the country. In the field of science and technology, we are still dependent on the highly developed Western nations to a large extent, and India's glory has been lost somewhere in the dustbin of history.

Total Overhauling needed

Unless the whole structure of the polity, which has been reduced to an abominably, abhorrently stinking rot, is overhauled and restructured, policies putting the educational system on a sound footing, and guiding the media towards its real functions, are framed afresh and implemented vigorously and vehemently, as well as suitable amendments are incorporated in the relevant portions of the Constitution in order to enact and enforce necessary laws for the purposes, the situation will not improve and India will not emerge as a totally free and independent nation in every field of life, in the truest sense of the term. In respect of media, it is more essential and imperative, especially in view of the growing greed to earn as much money as possible, even if it is at the expense of the barest minimum requisites of the common people. That the greed has overshadowed the super values and lofty human sentiments of love, affection, compassion, sympathy, honesty, sincerity and above all -- the spirit of sacrifice -- has been brought to the fore by the greedy, selfish and self-serving T.V. journalists/photographers, who, while reporting, always tend to prefer capturing images of even the bleeding and dying persons attacked by miscreants or injured in road accidents, to going to their rescue. An instance pointing out to the bitter truth was reported from Chennai, where a police officer attacked while on his motorbike by unidentified assailants, bled to death because of delayed medical attention on January 8, 2010. A convoy of ministers passed by, stopped, looked at the sub-inspector of Tamil Nadu police, R. Vetrivel lay profusely bleeding on the road, and simply passed off. None of them felt it necessary to take any action. On the other hand, a T.V. cameraman was so keen to capture the images that he, too, did not consider it necessary to take trouble of going to his aid.

The images were flashed by several TV news channels including 9 O'CLOCK NEWS. Although, the channels' aim was to wag a finger at the ministers, who impotently stood around doing nothing, the same charge could be leveled on the cameraman, who was busy filming the scene, instead of rushing the man to the hospital. However, we can put the same question to ourselves; how many times do we stop when we witness a road accident? Is it fair on our part to be quick to shake our heads at the ministers, when many of us might not have stopped for any Vetrivel either? What does such an occasion demand from a journalist, who happens to be a human being? Should he shoot the event and pass off or physically intervene in it?

Arguments or Lame Excuses?

Argument goes like this that journalists' job is just to report what happens, as clearly as possible. The journalist is like a doctor in the emergency room, strictly in accordance with one analogy- one that is iconic given the images of dying Vetrivel. One sees a lot of suffering, but it is more important to put one's feeling aside and just work on the story. Many journalists, the world over-feel, think and act in the same fashion - especially those covering wars and unprecedented disasters. A journalist should never forget that he is a human being first and a professional last. Apart from reason and intellect, super human sentiments of love, mercy, sympathy, mutual consideration and cooperation, going to the rescue of helpless and extending a helping hand to the needy in distress, are the attributes that distinguish human beings from animals, and human nature demands that these qualities should never, in any case, be dominated by greed to earn money at the cost of lives, and the selfish urge to go ahead in the race of sweeping into the net all sorts of comfort and luxury of mundane life for the sake of the self and kith and kin, pushing behind, and sometimes, treading over others in the race.

Ruthless Machines

The tremendous greed for money has virtually turned the professionals into the "ruthless machines," and journalists are no exception. By preferring to capture footages, the T.V. photographer, in fact, proved his mercilessness. It is, of course, the economic conditions that determine how images are produced and broadcast for the viewers.

We are so accustomed to having our television journalists dramatize the news, and act like drama-mongers that they have lost our trust. Almost every televised event seems like infotainment, a soap opera, or trick for ratings. In this context, it is very difficult not to see almost every thing the news media does with an intensely suspicious eye. The panel discussions over regulation on television have been time and again raised as a way to control the runaway speed of television news, but this doesn't seem to address the more intricate problem.

Syed Ahmedullah is a professional Journalist with an experience spread over about 40 years in Urdu and English Journalism. The subjects other than media he enjoys, include public health care and other social problems.

Is Online Education Better?

When the Web became easy to access by almost anyone anywhere in the world, almost all kinds of connections and businesses became available. One of these is online education.

In the past, higher education through an on-campus class is conducted by a professor or instructor. Today, aided by technology for fast and instant communications, formal education can be had online.

Basics

First, you are taught how to access the class manager website. The first instruction is how to create a username and a profile.

With these, you will be able to access assignments, the class syllabus, and readings. You will also be able to access chat boards where everyone (instructors and your classmates) interact. The class manager site is also where to download and turn in your assignments.

Communications is done by way of instant messenger services and emails. Classes are set so that students can have specific assignments for specific dates. All these are flexible. Classes are designed as fast or as slow as the individual student can make it.

The benefits of this new development in education are varied. Some are clearly obvious.

Accessibility

Accessibility is one big advantage going for online education. This is also one of the main differences between an online class and its traditional counterpart conducted in an on-campus classroom.

One scenario is about students being unable to have the time to physically attend their classes. The person might be working, a housewife with children, or maybe has some other full-time commitments.

With online education, you can set your own schedule of classes and directly focus your energies on your lessons. You decide your own time for discussing with other students, consulting with your professor and studying the lesson modules.

Individualized instructions

Students learn concepts in their own way at their own pace. Lessons are learned by listening to them (audio) or reading them (printed from downloads). Some lessons are video-taped or presented in PowerPoint (audio-visual) by instructors and can be viewed by the students just like in a classroom.

In traditional classrooms, some students are naturally shy to speak up. With online studies, any one can "talk" as much as one wants, without pressure. This is by way of online chat and instant messaging.

Advisers

In online education, you have your online education counselors. Their job is to guide you through the whole program and help make decisions.

These counselors work within your schedule. You can set your virtual meetings with them tailor-made to your time availabilities.

Fast communication

By its very nature, online education focuses on more communications. The instructor and other students are available through message boards and emails, both of which are instantaneous.

In real life meetings, it is very hard to get everyone into a group. With the ease of online accessibility, meeting with all the classmates to discuss or chat on a project can be done almost anywhere and almost at anytime.

Benefits

Online education works best for students with troubles in traditional learning environments. People with fulltime daily commitments (work or care of children, etc.) or with disabilities can benefit with the flexibilities of online education. Is it a better alternative? That, of course, would depend ultimately on the student.

Emerging Technology: Processor Boundaries Breached

When we compare the micro processors that are used on laptops and smart phones to the insanely fast core processors of desktops, the desktops would always sweep the competition. Aside from being relatively faster compared to micro processors, the core processors can handle multi tasking and heavily loaded programs that we run on our desktops.

But there is an emerging technology that can give a promising result of nearing the gap between micro and core processors. In a report of communications breakthrough, a team of scientists in the University of Pittsburgh claimed to a successful generation of a new frequency comb, which entails dividing a single color of light into a series of evenly spaced spectral lines for a variety of uses, that spans more than 100 terahertz (THz, or 1 trillion cycles per second) bandwidth (zdnet).

Terahertz has never been reached and applied to any processors that we have on the market, and if this will be applied to future laptops and smart phones the new technology can make them 1000x faster. This can certainly complete the mobile solutions that we want to have on our devices.

Emerging technology: introducing the new 3D printer

3D scans can now be printed in a matter of seconds using a new technique, known as two photon lithography, which was developed by researchers at the Vienna University of Technology.

Professor Jürgen Stampfl, a professor from the Institute of Materials Science and Technology at the TU Vienna said the technique, until now, used to be quite slow. With this improvement, the scientists that spear headed the research are now developing the two photon lithography to be used for medical applications. As of the moment they are also making improvements to use the 3D printer and its technology to be used in the creation of tailor made components for nano technology or biomedical technology.

The nano printer is using a liquid resin that is put on the right spots by the use of a focused laser beam. With the help of movable mirrors, the point of the laser beam is guided as it goes through the resin leaving a trail of a solid polymer. The end result is a small sculpture measuring just about hundreds of micrometers in length. But it is very detailed, and with a printing speed of a few meters in just 5 seconds it's definitely an improvement by leaps and bounds.

How to Get Accredited Online Education

The interesting thing now is that a lot of people embrace Online Education and Distance Learning. There are many reasons for such increase in the number of people who are undergoing their higher education degrees online. The reason why a lot of people from all walks of life are pursuing online degree programs is because of the quality of the courses.

Regardless of where you carry on your education, whether in the normal school settings or on the Internet, the lecturer is responsible for seeing you succeed. There are benefits that you get from lecturers and professors who supervise your online education. For instance, you can easily email them or even do voice connections with your supervisors as the need arises.

If you enroll for an online course, you will have access to lecturers and professors that are at the peak of their fields of studies. With the Internet, teachers or professors are not restricted by geography. Your computer becomes your classroom by way of an online education program. The only setback associated with continuing education in normal school settings is size of classrooms. Usually classes that are held in normal school settings are very large, so having access to a teacher or professor on one on one coaching can be a challenging task.

Also, studying online, you are in cordial relationship with your professor or teacher regardless of the fact that your location is far away from your teacher, because you can link up with your teacher directly on the internet. Online students enjoy their studies and experience better connection and have access with their teachers than what is experienced by students in the traditional schools settings.

Following the foregoing, I believe that you would like to consider furthering your education online, especially if you have a day job and a family to maintain while needing higher education. Think about this. You have nothing to lose but lots of gains to make, especially the convenience and stress free nature of studying at your own time and in the comfort of your home.

Employment Opportunities for Those Seeking a Science Career

The world of science encompasses almost every living and non-living thing in this world. That means that you have a plethora of careers to choose from and the choice is literally endless. To help you out, we listed a few steps that you can follow while choosing your career in science.

Know What You Like

As a student, you may have liked some subjects in science. Science careers require a lot of curiosity, competitiveness along with persistence and a tendency towards independent research. Try to match your skills with the qualities you have and this will provide an idea of what you would can choose for the future. Ideally, the science stream is divided into three sub divisions: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. Some people also consider mathematical sciences and computer sciences as a part of the science stream.

Careers in biology - There are a thousand different careers that you can pursue in biology. You can choose to specialize in human biology, animal biology, plant biology, etc and pursue a range of different professions like cytologist, doctor, dentist, pharmacist, cell biologist, marine biologist, pest controller, soil scientist, botanist etc.

Careers in chemistry - Science majors you can specialize in include biochemistry, chemical engineering, toxicology, inorganic chemical research, etc. Research and teaching careers in chemistry are always an option in the chemical field as well.

Careers in physics - Physics careers involve theoretical foundations and computations and most physics professionals work in fields that require research, handling of mechanical devices etc. You can choose to be a physicist, biophysicist etc.

Careers in mathematical science - The mathematical field can be divided into several subcategories for research and for practical applications. For example, students with a mathematical and software major can specialize in academia, education, strategic planning, information systems, operations research, software planning, design and development, and quantitative analysis. A mathematics and finance major can specialize in stock market analysis, portfolio management, prediction of movement in money markets, strategic financial management, option pricing etc. A statistics professional can work as an analyst in any field, predictive modeling specialization, security and defense.