What could a scientist in my Star Wars fan fic be working on?

I’m trying to write a story about a scientist who is working on something in the era of the New Republic. He does not believe in the Force. I just need something for him to be researching. It really isn’t that important to the story; it just has to sound cool and scientific. Also it can’t have already been done in Legends or Canon. I want a fresh idea.

It cannot be

A time machine A teleporter A matter replicator A singularity Weapon Any type of droid Anything to do with holograms A food synthesizer Anything to do with the Force or Midi-chlorians A shrink ray A freeze ray pico and femtotechnology A Dyson sphere or any type of megastructure. Liquid metal armor or a nano morph Any improvements on the hyperdrive Limb regeneration Hyperspace nullifier Holodeck Knowledge Transfer (Instant learning like in the Matrix) Philosophers Stone Kinetic weapons Solar sail Anything to do with kyber crystals Gene editing Improvements on deflector shields Mech suit Exosuit Gender change Anything to do with anti-aging In canon, during the Empire, scientists were researching methods to control droids, lasers that can punch through deflector shields and ship scale disintigrators. These ideas are therefore taken. Any ideas?

A scientist? In the Star Wars Universe? I am sorely tempted to reply "nothing" since science clearly has no basis upon which to operate in that universe.

Maybe he can be researching a strange microorganism that he found in the blood of some people but not others. Since he doesn't believe in the Force, he'd treat it as a scientific problem rather than a mystical one.

Oh, wait, you said no midichlorians. Well, since you've excluded everything relevant to the universe and, as was stated above , the Star Wars universe is blatantly unscientific, then just make up anything you like.

Edited by Fighteer on Jan 26th 2019 at 7:16:17 AM

Okay, somehow I edited and it double posted instead. Whoopsie.

Edited by Fighteer on Jan 26th 2019 at 7:16:12 AM

Make it an engineering problem instead. He could be working on an active shielding system to reduce the wear and tear on Republic cruisers in atmospheres, or a 360° VR interface for the newest Y-Wing upgrade package.

Terraforming, maybe? Star Wars already has science soft enough to spread on your toast, so...

"I thought I had the laws of thermodynamics worked out in my lab, and then this Jedi guy named Luke stopped by for a visit. All the forces changed! The equations no longer held! Then he left, and it all went back as before! What is happening??"

I think that would fall under studying the Force. Since it is broadly accepted as a thing in the Star Wars 'verse, the idea that a scientist could not know about it would be rather odd. Equally odd is that it hasn't been measured, tested, and incorporated into actual physics and engineering. (Some accounts of how the Death Star works say that it uses Khyber crystals in its core, which means that Imperial scientists have figured out exactly this.)

Again, you just have to accept certain elements for the premise to work.

Maybe the scientist could get all meta and be studying how distances and travel times seem to constantly vary depending on how urgent the journey is and who's taking it.

Edited by Fighteer on Jan 28th 2019 at 2:07:32 PM

It was Dr. Nicholas Subplot who originally discovered narativium, based on the theory that the universe we know is actually a work of fiction in some other universe.

Edited by DeMarquis on Jan 28th 2019 at 4:45:46 AM

Any more ideas?

You may as well just make up some technobabble. You’ve pretty much excluded anything of any potential relevance to the Star Wars universe, so just say he’s researching negative quantum energy theory or something silly like that.

A way of increasing reactor output by 20 percent. This doesn't sound exciting until you realize that EVERYTHING a warship uses from weapons to shields to engines are all power intensive and increasing the power output by 20 percent increases the fighting potential by 20 percent.

The thermal insulation properties of Ewok fur. For... reasons.

Hyperspace life forms.

Does anybody have any other ideas? I’m trying to look for something that was never researched until the era of the New Republic like kyber crystals weren’t until the Empire used them for a superlaser and even then, they had been used in weapons formation in the past. I’m looking for something that presumably hasn’t been thought of in the 25,000 years of time where almost everything has already been done.

Well, what kinda tech are you looking for? What kind of implications does it have and how does it fit into the story?

It can be anything as long as it sounds cool. It can’t be something that could’ve been thought of in 25,000 years. It has to be something the scientist is working on in the era of the New Republic and it is semi-important to the story.

I think that a galaxy-wide network of Internet-equivalent would be a serious game-changer in the Star Wars 'verse. But well, nihil sub sole novum. It's not super likely that there's anything that hasn't been thought up in 25,000 years by a galaxy of 100 quadrillion sentients, and we can't exactly comb the entire Legends corpus to make sure that the ideas haven't popped up there either.

It is interesting to note that scientists do occasionally pop up in Star Wars: besides the Kaminoans who came up with the advanced cloning procedures, you also have Dr, Nuvo Vindi from the Clone Wars, who was obsessed with creating bioweapons for the Seperatists. There was also one, I believe, in the old Jedi Apprentice novels who went after Qui Gon, but my knowledge of that series is fuzzy at best.

Edited by AzurePaladin on Feb 14th 2019 at 2:58:21 PM

Yes. That was Jenna Zan Arbor. She kidnapped Qui-Gon to study the Force by draining his blood. Probably the only time midi-chlorians were cool.

I was down to 3 ideas. A Guided recirprocating deflector shield from someone on abovetopsecret forums, Synthetic coaxium from FFG forums and The Dynamics of an Asteroid Field on Sjgames. I decided against the shield because it was too wordy and could be a game changer. The coaxium I felt ruined the rarity of hyperfuel and the asteroid belt analyzation was good but their are likely billions of asteroid fields in the galaxy. Who the hell cares about plotting one.

I found an idea in archeology. Thanks for all your help guys!!!

Archeology would make him an anthropologist, not a scientist.

Okay so my archeology idea didn’t work. My scientist is called upon by the New Republic to investigate why the supermassive black hole is more active than usual and sucking in things from a further range. I just need something for the scientist to be studying before he is called away. It has to sound fresh and cool.

This time I found an idea. For real this time. Thanks for all your help!!!