Team:British Columbia/HP nanowrimo
From 2010.igem.org
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<div class="gallery"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/2/2b/Nightfallubc2.jpg" height=200px><p> | <div class="gallery"><img src="https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/2/2b/Nightfallubc2.jpg" height=200px><p> | ||
<b>Nightfall by Maximillian d'Erembourg </b><a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/674349">Read more here!</a><br/> | <b>Nightfall by Maximillian d'Erembourg </b><a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/674349">Read more here!</a><br/> | ||
- | Three | + | Three millennia after man spread to the stars like seeds from the tree of life, the great Terran Empire collapsed from a devastating war that almost cost humans our homeworld. Threatened by an alien menace, many alternate homeworlds were seeded. Half a millennium later, the Terran Empire re-emerged to expand and re-conquer all lost territory, enslaving all independent worlds.<br/> |
This is the story of the heroes of one planet; Prince Morgan Valori, who can subconsciously manipulate space-time; former space-pirate Ciro Andronicus, with budding telepathic abilities; and Kyrie Saturi, whose perfect health is just one effect of having been biologically synthesized.<br/> | This is the story of the heroes of one planet; Prince Morgan Valori, who can subconsciously manipulate space-time; former space-pirate Ciro Andronicus, with budding telepathic abilities; and Kyrie Saturi, whose perfect health is just one effect of having been biologically synthesized.<br/> | ||
From such stress does the next evolution of Humanity spring; as they find themselves the last hope of freedom for their people, the three heroes find that the definition of what it means to be human is changing with them. | From such stress does the next evolution of Humanity spring; as they find themselves the last hope of freedom for their people, the three heroes find that the definition of what it means to be human is changing with them. |
Revision as of 23:48, 19 October 2010
Stories Featuring Synthetic Biology
Anomalies by Chris Bearl Read more here!
Without their knowledge almost everyone in the world has been marked by nanobots. These nanobots have encoded each person with their own unique code. A Quantum Super Computer can use the code to locate a person anywhere in the world.
The agency that owns the Quantum Super Computer does not just tag people. They have their hands in many other technological projects and experiments. They have taken a woman that has seen too many of their other projects. They want to know exactly how much she knows. The only problem is that they are not sure if they can get the information from her without killing her.
David finally decides to come out of hiding and take a stand against the agency that used him. Will he be able to relieve the guilt he feels for creating the Quantum Super Computer for the agency?
Cassandra learns that without her knowledge the agency was using her in an experiment. Can she get her life back?
The agency will stop at nothing to keep their existence a secret.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/5/57/Agubc.jpg)
Augmented Genesis by Tony Southcotte Read more here!
The continued advancement of technology has brought about a synthetic evolution in the human species. Biology and technology mesh to create an augmented world, for which users perceive through altered vision, enhanced bodies, and built in gadgetry. Metabolism, immune functionality, and other natural processes are controlled through implants.
Dependence on this new technology would be an understatement, so when an electromagnetic storm destroys the hardware, chaos ensues. Mutations, implant induced disease, and panic grip the world. Only the lowest class, those whose bodies rejected the implants, remain capable of making things right.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/6/6a/Bridges_Cover_Art.jpg)
Bridges by Edrei Zahari
In the aftermath of World War III, a platoon of UN peacekeepers patrol a remote region of Russia in an effort to control bandit raids and counteract any insurgence that might threaten the newly signed truce between the United States and USSR. Patroling the irradiated countryside may be a problem for most people, but not for these soldiers. Genetically enhanced to deal with the fallout from the nuclear war, they are the perfect warriors to handle any trouble. Or are they?
As they stumble upon an abandoned town, it becomes clear that some problems aren't always easily solved with superior technology and other problems are merely woken up by it. Now the peacekeepers are forced to band together with a known enemy to fight and even greater threat, one born from the desperation and darkness of the war. This time, the stakes aren't for the world peace, or for personal survival. This time however, the stakes are for one's sanity.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/3/38/Craw.jpg)
Brought to Life by Richard S. Crawford Read more here!
It's the epic story of Boris, the first synthetic person, and the challenges he faces as he tries to establish his own identity.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/3/3f/Catharsisubc.jpg)
Catharsis: Dead Moon Rising by David Litherland Read more here!
In the near future, genetic engineering has grown by leaps and bounds. Getting your genes modified is as easy as (and less painful than) getting a tattoo.
However, not all is at ease. A malicious scientist wishes to bend all humanity to his will, and is willing to do everything in his power to accomplish this. He has developed an airborne mutagen which turns rational, intelligent humans into mindless, violent drones.
A group of scientists, who barely escaped the scientist's machinations, must develop a cure before they succumb to the mutagen. On the other side of the world, a group of people, thrown together by circumstance, must protect themselves and a child savant from the hordes.
The Catharsis is coming; will they be ready?
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/f/f6/Fledwing.jpg)
Fledgling Wings by Angelica A. Read more here!
A young boy named Jonas is a normal teenager. Except for the fact that he is a chimera, a hybrid of human and animal DNA that exceeds 10%. He has enough trouble coping with that, but then his friend David disappears. Now he must discover where his friend is and the secrets behind his disappearance and of all chimeras.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/a/a3/NanoKg.jpg)
Kalopsiac Green by Karen Llamas Read more here!
Thomas and Felix are your average lower than middle class teenagers in the near future, whose mothers sold their bodies to science. Amidst a world with many marvels from altered foods to altered people, they know all too well this isn't exactly the destiny that sci-fi novelists spoke of.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/4/4a/Lyghts.jpg)
Lyghts by Lyvie Hallman Taylor Read more here!
The human body contains billions of miles of DNA. The human heart beats measure three billion in a lifetime. What really controls us; is it science or love that drives us? A sympathetic scientist wished to combine the two, to unite frigid logic and warm embrace. She finds hope in LYGHT: specific DNA codes that enhance everything from physical attraction to touches. She creates the beginnings of a couple truly meant to be. But her two prized experiments grow disobedient. They try some “experiments” themselves-Lyl in aesthetic body modifications, and Michael in self-inflicted scars. Mutilating their appearances to the point where physical attraction is out of the question, the two are branded failures and left to rot in a city as lonely and grungy as they are. While disgusted by each other when they first meet, they can’t help but feel a connection. DNA sequences go on. Hearts continue to beat. Lights turn on.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/3/38/Machmen.jpg)
Machmen by Kay Proctor
Read more here!
"Robots turn the tables and program humans to obey the Three Laws of Robotics - for better or for worse."
Late in the 23rd century, there exists an era of peace and honesty. The concept of war is nearly eliminated, the night streets are safe, and there is no fear of a politician lying for money or power. But how?
In an underground facility just a century before, the first self-sufficient robot was born, so to speak. Alpha was improved upon and its younger sibling, Beta, followed soon afterward. Mentored by Dr. Dorothea Calvin Parker, they grew in their understanding of the human race and came to one conclusion: Humans needed to be fixed.
All it took was a small chip in the brain, not unlike what was inside Beta, that made humans subject to the three Laws that they gave it. Chaos followed, but after one hundred years life has gone on. Has it improved?
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/2/2b/Nightfallubc2.jpg)
Nightfall by Maximillian d'Erembourg Read more here!
Three millennia after man spread to the stars like seeds from the tree of life, the great Terran Empire collapsed from a devastating war that almost cost humans our homeworld. Threatened by an alien menace, many alternate homeworlds were seeded. Half a millennium later, the Terran Empire re-emerged to expand and re-conquer all lost territory, enslaving all independent worlds.
This is the story of the heroes of one planet; Prince Morgan Valori, who can subconsciously manipulate space-time; former space-pirate Ciro Andronicus, with budding telepathic abilities; and Kyrie Saturi, whose perfect health is just one effect of having been biologically synthesized.
From such stress does the next evolution of Humanity spring; as they find themselves the last hope of freedom for their people, the three heroes find that the definition of what it means to be human is changing with them.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/c/c6/Maggie_Burns.jpg)
Perfect Monster by Maggie Burns Read more here!
This is the story of a medical researcher who commits crimes against humanity to stop a war, then from exile tries to save the world from the terrible fallout of his acts.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/4/4c/Progress_unbound.jpg)
Progress Unbound by David Scheidl
In the not too distant future, humanity has expanded into twelve other star systems. With this expansion has come a shedding of morality. Science has raced ahead, heedless of any consequences. Now, as each planet pursues its own goal of attaining genetic perfection, we have come full circle.
Basically Earth, after throwing away the religious morality that had been a part of Western civilization had managed to create numerous examples of augmented humans who then went out to colonize distant planets. These colonies continued the experiments as a means of being able to better survive in their new environments with the same heedlessness which had characterized Old Earth's scientific community in the late 21st century. Earth meanwhile has experienced a moral revival and is now determined to limit in some way the scientific excesses of her daughter colonies.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/e/e4/Human-brain-stress.jpg)
Rite of Synapse by Angela Whalen Read more here!
In 2041, lab tests showed that a dead rat can, in fact, twitch his whiskers again. In 2042, lab tests showed that a dead human being can, in fact, walk again. But if there was anything the results proved, it was that the dead cannot truly live again. Death, however, could be beaten at its own game.
Or so Dr. Margot Bachman thought when she developed the vaccine that should have helped humanity overcome its number one destructive disease: death. What she didn’t realize, however, was that the vaccine, when coupled with her brother’s greed and his company’s penchant for impatience, would give way to a destructive disease far worse than death. Now those who have been infected walk amongst the dead, and those who still walk with the living must put their faith in a scientist, who is half mad and half wicked, to find an unlikely cure-or be served up as lunch in the ruins of one of America’s leading retailers.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/2/29/NanoTania.jpg)
Triple S, Operation: Fowl Play by Tania Knight
Contact at capricious_angel AT hotmail.co.uk
Kieran and James are best friends, second year students at the School for the Animorphagally Talented (underage ninjas), aka Triple S Animal division, known as SATUrN. Kingdom and Castle are twins, broken out of a juvenile detention centre to join the Triple S bird division, a new branch of SATUrN going by the name WINGS (Winged Installment of Ninja Ground-to-air Soldiers).
All of the Triple S are people who won't be missed. The government's new technology has allowed them to alter the teenage body and give it the ability to shift shape. MI6 decides to combine 2 secrets - genetic engineering and covert operations. No-one believes that the adorable stray cat was the assassin that did away with their drug-dealing uncle. Between the excitement of missions and the dangers of training, secondary school life continues much as normal...
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/e/e9/Twice_cover_again.jpg)
Twice by Vivian Rivera Read more here!
"The world you know now is a lie. Joseph Kadlowski was a homeless man who drowned himself in poison. He found the truth to all the sugar-coated stories and was killed because he knew too much. It isn't safe to say he was murdered because he's still alive. He's just not in his own body. If you had a chance to live life twice... would you take it knowing there was a price?"
This novel is about 21-year-old Joseph Kadlowski. As this mind-twisting story unfolds, Joseph learns that he has been killed and his soul transferred into a government-made body that will forever change his perspective on reality. The government is using new technology that captures the essence of the human soul and places it into bodies made by special labs of the MBA (Mindless Being Association).
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2010/1/18/Apotheosis.jpg)
Apotheosis by Chad Dambrowitz Read more here!
In God all things are possible, but only in science is God possible.
A dark look at the madness man faces as he looks into the eyes of God and sees his reflection.
Image was made using a stock photo by Cubstock on Deviantart.
NaNoWriMo
![](http://www.trashionista.com/nanowrimo.jpg)
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
As participants spend November writing, they can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2009, NaNoWriMo had 167,150 participants. 32,178 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
This year, NaNoWriMo and iGEM are collaborating for the first time to showcase stories featuring synthetic biology.
See our NaNoWriMo-iGEM article at the Office of Letters and Light!