The Trine - Story Related Links
The following are links to sites I've found while doing research for this story. The list isn't exhaustive, since I've intentionally left out sites I think might give spoilers, but my hope is that there's enough here to let you figure out if the story is right for you (or give you something extra to read afterwards). However, I ask that you try not to infer too many specifics based on what you find on these sites. I write fiction, not fact, and will completely ignore reality if I think it'll make the story better.
The Links
The Telegraph - World's youngest female karate black belt arrives in UK
Real-world example used as a basis for the background I created for Nika.
Just an example of what Nika's black belt looks like. What can I say, I like visuals.
This video shows the triple spinning jump kick I try to describe for Nika's demonstration. I'm simply amazed at what the human body can do.
900 degree kick on YouTube.com
This video shows the vertical spinning hook/axe kick (hard to tell what it is from the video), as well as the upside-down hook kick I try to describe for Nika's demonstration (it also shows lots of cool board breaking). Again, when I was doing the research for this part of the story (I'm a green belt in Taekwon-Do, but I'm nowhere near this level), I kept marveling at how I just wasn't going far enough in my descriptions for what Nika was capable of. She's supposed to be special and at the top of her game (and better than everyone else), but the people in these videos are 'normal' human beings and are completely defying gravity and moving faster than I'd thought possible (I love martial arts movies, so I've seen a ton of spectacular stunts, but I know most of that is done with wires or lots of takes to get it right; these people don't have wires and they're performing live). I love finding out what I thought was far-fetched is actually real.
Free form martial arts demonstration on YouTube.com
This video shows a pretty cool free form demonstration of various spinning jump kicks.
Article discusses noncoding DNA (usually referred to as junk DNA), which is basically all the DNA code that doesn't appear to actively do anything, but is part of our code nonetheless. Gave me some great ideas (not necessarily grounded in actual science) about what that 'noncoding' stuff might hide or do if it was suddenly activated.
A chimera basically has two or more sets of DNA. Another fun jumping off point for my brain.
Maybe I'm just a geek, but finding out about this little bugger really got my brain going.
Great jumping off point for learning about nanotechnology.
The Jargon file was published as The New Hacker's Dictionary and is basically a glossary of hacker jargon. Since Robyn is a hacker, I figured I should know a little of the lingo.
The 10 Youngest College Students of All Time
Genuises exist. Gives real-world examples, which I used as a basis for the background I created for Zoe.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Outlook Handbook - Biological Scientists
Basic overview of what a biological scientist does, which I used (along with a bunch of other sites) to help me figure out some of what's involved in Zoe's occupation as a microbiologist/geneticist.