What if…and Scientific American’s Visions Series

I’ve been writing these “What if” entries for only a couple of weeks now, but it looks like Scientific American had a similar idea with their “Visions” series.

I wasn’t aware of this series when I began my “What if” posts, so please don’t think me a copycat. I think there is a bit of daylight between our two concepts.

In the “Visions” series, Charles Q. Choi takes real-life, cutting-edge science and writes a brief story about that scientific concept. He also does a bit of analysis of the concept. So far, he has written stories about using bugs as sensor devices and assassins, mining asteroids for rare metals, and cheap and easy DNA analysis, among other ideas.

In my “What if” posts, I don’t focus exclusively on scientific concepts. Although at times I will introduce some new science, I will also use a bit of social or political commentary or a historical person or concept, and use it as a jumping-off point for story creation. I don’t actually write a full story.

So where does that leave me? Well, first, please go read the “Visions” posts. Scientific American is a great publication, and they deserve the eyeballs (but please also read my “What if” posts). Second, I should probably be careful about drafting a “What if” post based on a Scientific American article, just in case. Third, should I decide to actually write a story based on one of my “What if” posts, not only will it be longer than the “Visions” stories, but it will also include far less multimedia embedding (as in zero), and I hope Scientific American will not come after little old me for doing so.

I thought I should probably say something due to the appearance of similarity. But really, this post is more about introducing you to another great set of stories.