What could a scientist in an advanced civilization with FTL be working on?

[Maximum7]

I’m trying to write a story about a scientist in a highly advanced, super society. They have Faster than light propulsion and have colonized several galaxies. For his work, he wins the Far Future equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Physics (but in the story it could be something in the fields of physics, chemistry or biology). What could he have done to win this prize? Science heavy ideas obviously encouraged. The year is 2400 A.D.

[Shostak]

Artificial gravity and superluminal communication would be very useful to such a civilization.

[khorboth]

At this point, a lot of things would be pretty esoteric. Take a look at recent Nobel laureates and you'll see that they largely don't make much sense to the average person. So, you could do something along those lines. For instance:

A method of reducing sensor energy drain while increasing resolution

Producing a solid proof of objects smaller than previously observed.

Demonstration of transmission reception of detailed data from a neutron star farther than previously thought possible.

etc.

[Michele]

Immortality. What else.

[ericthered]

If you want to be tongue in cheek about it, they could either be investigating why FTL doesn't result in time travel, or trying to make time travel work*

*The key is a privileged frame, which by current understanding physics doesn't exist. But knowing that just opens up a bunch of new questions, and several nobel prizes could be awarded when people answer them. Why is there a privledge reference frame? what exactly is it? Can you cheat it? What particles/forces make it tick? Is there a theory of relativity underneath the theory of relativity?

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A theory of quantum gravity is always fun, and its physic's current holy grail. It also involves immense amounts of energy, which can be fun to play with.

[EltonRobb]

Originally Posted by Michele

Immortality. What else.

Ascension.

[The Colonel]

This thread:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread...ight=star+wars

seems to cover a lot of the same ground, you may be able to find some ideas there...

[Black Leviathan]

20th Century Anthropology

[Irish Wolf]

What's the rest of the tech level like? Harry Turtledove had a fairly brilliant short story, "The Road Not Taken", based on the idea that the rules underlying FTL are so different from the rest of physics that those races who discovered FTL never developed things like sophisticated metallurgy, advanced firearms, or computing devices. So a starship lands its wooden hull on Earth, confident that they can easily overwhelm us because we don't have FTL, and find their leather armor and flintlocks aren't a lot of use against tanks and Kevlar body armor and automatic rifles...

[Maximum7]

Originally Posted by Irish Wolf

What's the rest of the tech level like? Harry Turtledove had a fairly brilliant short story, "The Road Not Taken", based on the idea that the rules underlying FTL are so different from the rest of physics that those races who discovered FTL never developed things like sophisticated metallurgy, advanced firearms, or computing devices. So a starship lands its wooden hull on Earth, confident that they can easily overwhelm us because we don't have FTL, and find their leather armor and flintlocks aren't a lot of use against tanks and Kevlar body armor and automatic rifles...

Like Star Trek