Plausible Scientific Speculation

Instead of trying to alter the ecology of Mars, wouldn't it be easier to shove it out of the solar system and invite a better planet to come stay there? Humans have a diplomacy bonus according to the authority on such matters, Master of Orion.

Addendum

I realize nobody uses hep anymore, but by the time science fiction happens, it might be back.

Future Fields of Study

By the time your science fiction story happens, people probably will have gotten it together and realized we should talk about rock-science, star-science, and snake-science instead of those weirdo terms we use today. For one thing, those different endings are confusing. Who would know just from hearing it that astrology is the fake one? Furthermore, I don't think hepatologists are particularly hep, not to mention with it, though I could be mistaken.

Occult Science Fiction

Is the skoton an evil basic particle of electromagnetism or something else entirely? You'd better figure it out for your unhinged scifi setting, free of the bounds of rationality or convention.

The More Modern Prometheus

"I have created life!" the scientist proclaimed.
"That's great, though that sounds more like an engineering problem!" the crowd cheered.
"I have decided not to be evil," the scientist's creation announced.
"I really don't see why that was in question!" the crowd cheered.
The End

"That was an awfully short story."
"That's right. You're now trapped in a world where stories lack conflict . . . Forever! Muhahaha!"
"Nooooooo!"
Finis

Important Science Question

Does each asteroid have its own god, or is there a single asteroid belt god?

A New Dawn for Science Fiction

We've decided to call it Techno Romance from now on, so update all your folders.

The Most Stinging Loss

While the adults talked of adult things, the children met up with their cast-off flutes and their patched drums. They played songs together, or that was how they thought of it, and those unskilled sounds brought a man who heard them to reminisce.
"Long ago, in Palthea, they banned music and dancing. Did you ever hear about that?"
The other adults admitted they had never known that about Palthea, and therefore he elaborated for them. "They banned it back when, oh, must have been when Turer IV was alive. He succeeded his uncle who was known as a bit of a, well, there was a public appetite for finer morals after that. There was a whole downpour of new restrictions and such. Anything sounded good to people as long as it sounded likely to make someone less happy.
"Most of them were pulled back in the years and decades following, when people got to thinking they had overdone it, but the prohibitions on music and dance stayed. You'd never have recognized it as a human country if you'd seen it. Not a single instrument, not a voice raised a pure expression of joy.
"Well, the consequences couldn't be avoided for long. Palthea became the best governed country there was. It surged ahead in philosophy, in science, in history, and economics. They had long conversations and spoke in paragraphs with subordinate clauses. They didn't try to speak in lyrics, like they hoped to write the next big hit. Didn't have much time for putting things all emotional, either. Just communication and reason. Pretty soon, Palthea was the greatest country in the world. If you ever wondered why we're nothing but a dependent on Palthea's good will, well, you can stop wondering about it now."
"Maybe we should ban music too."
"Maybe we should. Maybe we should have done that a long time ago." The adults looked at the children, who were just getting into an argument about what song they should mangle, and they thought a lot of new things.
Finis