Need help with a sci-fi idea - photonic man

[unsaint32]

Summary:: I want to create a superhero made of photonic molecules. I was wondering if anyone would give me some scientific pointers/advice. My premise is that a brilliant quantum computer scientist finds a way to create programmable photon molecules. Since he can program the molecules to have different characteristics, he builds "living" cells with photon DNA, photon cell components, etc. Then, ultimately a human-like creature made of those cells.

Hi, I am an aspiring comic book artist. I want to create a superhero made of photonic molecules. I was wondering if anyone would give me some scientific pointers/advice. My premise is that a brilliant quantum computer scientist finds a way to create programmable photon molecules. Since he can program the molecules to have different characteristics, he builds "living" cells with photon DNA, photon cell components, etc. Then, ultimately a human-like creature made of those cells. Is this too farfetched? Any remotely resembling scientific discoveries?

 

[BillTre]

photonic molecules

No such thing.
Molecules are made of atoms.
Photons and atoms are different in many ways.
You would have to elaborate more on how they would work in your fictional universe, before you will get any relevant responses.
To build something out of photons, you would have to prevent them from flying off at the speed of light somehow.

 

[dRic2]

Well, photons don't interact with each other, but to build complicated structures such as the DNA one must have building-blocks that can interact with each other, making bonds (otherwise you can not have a structure, even a simple one). So scientifically this is not possibile. But if we move this post to the Sci-Fi area we might work something out. In particular, why do you want this guy made of light ? What would you want him to do ?

 

[unsaint32]

No such thing.
Molecules are made of atoms.
Photons and atoms are different in many ways.
You would have to elaborate more on how they would work in your fictional universe, before you will get any relevant responses.
To build something out of photons, you would have to prevent them from flying off at the speed of light somehow.

I really appreciate your advice. But I found some information about photonic molecules from internet. Here is a simple video about it.

 

[unsaint32]

Well, photons don't interact with each other, but to build complicated structures such as the DNA one must have building-blocks that can interact with each other, making bonds (otherwise you can not have a structure, even a simple one). So scientifically this is not possibile. But if we move this post to the Sci-Fi area we might work something out. In particular, why do you want this guy made of light ? What would you want him to do ?

I really appreciate your advice. But I found some information about photonic molecules from internet. I added a video link in another reply thread.

 

[BillTre]

The things on your video seem to describe pairs or triples of photons that have some mass (?).
Even so they are moving really fast and not just sitting around (in a relative sense) like most of the molecules I interact with.
The whole object made out of photon molecules would have to go fast in one direction as a group.
Maybe it could be a state your guy acquires for periods when fast transport is needed.

 

[Klystron]

Funny aspect of science fiction (SF): authors can actually use regular things but make them seem new and exciting to the reader by inventing or applying esoteric descriptions.

Example: Detecting a beautiful woman alone in the laboratory, the mysterious stranger unfastens the closures on his upper garment releasing a torrent of infrared radiation at nearly 300 degrees Kelvin!

Simply: Feeling warm in the lab, Joe unbuttons his shirt.

Example: With total disregard for the immense molecular forces binding the hydrogen and oxygen molecules at the fluid/fluid boundary layer, Photon Man defies awesome gravitic resistance rising over 1000 mm before plunging -- smack! -- through the tense flat interface! Secondary then tertiary waves ripple from the massive impact. PM's constant burning IR radiation appears quenched as the disturbance spreads. Is this the end of Photon Man?

Simply: Joe jumps in the pool.

The prose tells the story. The greatest SF authors often avoid actual science and mathematics, brush over technical details and provide a consistent structure to build the story. Technical accuracy does not compensate for weak characters or a haphazard plot.

The OP may want to replace 'photons' with something equally exciting that can form molecules.

 

[jedishrfu]

Wheeler had explored the notion of light circling itself known as a geon but later decided that the structure was probably unstable:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geon_(physics)

 

[Demystifier]

Photons can interact and form "molecules" only in a medium. In a SF story, I guess one could assume that a photonic man can live in air. But a photonic man could not exist in empty space, which can be used in a SF story because any superhero must have his weak point, like kryptonite for Superman.

 

[Rive]

I was wondering if anyone would give me some scientific pointers/advice.
>>>stuf<<<

Look up 'technobabble' and feel free to continue on By the look of it we are not really needed.

Since he can program the molecules to have different characteristics, he builds "living" cells with photon DNA, photon cell components, etc. Then, ultimately a human-like creature made of those cells.

And the food is 'light' too?
Or will it be just 'fast'

 

[Vanadium 50]

a sci-fi idea - photonic man!

I don't think you have an idea. You have a phrase - a quite catchy one - and need an idea to "fill it in". I think that's why this isn't working for you.

 

[DrChinese]

I really appreciate your advice. But I found some information about photonic molecules from internet...

There is no such thing as a "photonic molecule", despite what "the internet" says. Although the words appear in a few papers, calling those structures a "molecule" is really meaningless. Why?

A molecule is a collection of atoms that are bound together by electromagnetic charge forces. Photons, lacking charge, cannot form bound groups in this manner. There are lots of exotic things you can do with photons, but I would not characterize creating a "molecule" as one of them.

As already mentioned by others, light has a tendency to cruise off at a high rate of speed and often in random directions. It is possible to sync a few photons together. However, such structures are so unstable as to not really resemble a structure at all. As a group, they may have interesting quantum properties - entangled multi-photon systems come to mind. But not much more in the way of structure, since independent photons only minimally interact (depending on your meaning of the word "interact"). I am thinking here of the Hanbury Brown and Twiss effect. You might could refer to laser light as being a "structure".

On the other hand: there are lots of possibilities for a story line about exotic states of matter (quarks!), including possibilities around hypothetical dark matter.

 

[jbriggs444]

The whole object made out of photon molecules would have to go fast in one direction as a group.

There is no such thing. Motion is relative. A group of "photon molecules" moving together as a group in one frame of reference is the same as a group of photon molecules at rest in another.

 

[chemisttree]

I would recast the idea as the ability of photon man to convert mass (his own mass) into photons and emit them in various ways. Laser fingers, gamma ray punch, phonon wall of sound. E=mc², so he/she wouldn’t lose much weight!
This is fiction, right?

Photon man’s kryptonite would be... a mirror? No! He also has the ability to scan the ER spectrum to find the wavelength which will be totally absorbed by his target and adjust his attack to that specific wavelength.

He can also change the nature of his emitted photons in transit by some complicated particle entanglement and change them at will. What starts out as a neutrino ray punch passes easily through a wall or planet or whatever where it is then converted to phonon energy causing a sonic disruption on the target.