Story Burst 1
Friends!
We are excited to share our new SPiNST8 with you, and especially our weekly newsletter called Story Burst, delivered right to your inbox.
SPinST8?
In quantum mechanics, particles, sub particles, and other itty bits still being discovered are spinning and changing all the time. In fact, they don’t have any definite properties until they are observed: that famous feline called Schrödinger’s cat is a fine example of this phenomenon.
Oof, I write speculative fiction, that’s enough science business. The inspiration for us is the observer effect: our comics and stories are spinning in the Universe until you, gentle reader, see it, so please take a look!
If you have time to poke around the website and would like to share any feedback, we would love to hear it. If you read our first Story Burst and have a comment or two, we would love to hear that, too.
With love,
SPiNST8 Cate & Steve
This week’s flash story:
Dark
The coaster from ship to surface was advertised as a “devil of a ride!” She cleared the ship and hunched over, ready for the ultimate rollercoaster run. But the beautiful planet light turned to darkest space, then back again, over and over, until she realized her mistake—not devil. Dervish.
Answer Key: Episode 1
The first discovery was made at Aroa Research Center in the late 22nd Century. Amser Hughes led the experiment. The process involved two lab rats, an A and a B, a maze, and a timer. Rat B was the control. Amser’s team nicknamed the psychotropic drug cocktail injected into Rat A “quantum slurry”. They expected the cocktail to boost the rat’s ability to process information, resulting in a faster time in completing the maze, showing that some pieces of neural cognition happened at the quantum level. The difference was discernible immediately: Rat A barely paused at the turns, charging toward the finish, while Rat B plodded along, awkwardly backing out of every dead end. Amser beamed in triumph, her finger hovering over the stopwatch, ready to hit the button as Rat A reached the exit.
But then it disappeared.