An ode to sci-fi

With the frenzy of activity going on these days at CERN, whether the elusive "God's particle - Higgs Boson" would be found at the end of the collision of high energy proton beams in the world's longest/largest particle collider, whether the string theory would at last be vindicated against all those who claimed to be nothing more than Humbug, with hawkings betting 100$ on the fact that Bosons would continue to be elusive, i got into this weird mood after a long time.
Where i feel a certain peace in getting lost in myriad possibilities about life and evolution of the universe, we being a part of it. The more weirder the ideas are, the more peaceful i feel. Right now i feel like picking up something like Eater or Furious Gulf and reading them with a cup of hot coffee . To imagine how a magnetic field could evolve to become paradimensional intelligent being or to wander in an alternate space-time like an esty.
There are these rumours created around the experiment, like mini blackholes would be created in the accelerator, which would suck in everything and ultimately the world would end. I think they are pretty baseless, because the safety of the experiment has been substantiated by thousand of scientists. There are some extremely curious to the extent of being perilous, people like my friend K, who is actually hoping that something would go wrong. According to him, an experiment is more interesting when things go wrong.
Anyways, so this got reminded me of this brilliant short story written by Asimov called the "The last question". It was sent to me by my friend AG. Now, if I am skywalker, He is ObiWan of sci-fiction. We have a Yoda too ;) ( Right AG ? I dont know how SWK would look with pointy ears though :D).The flavour is similar to what Doughlas Adams 's Hitchiker's Guide to Galaxy about the "ultimate question" of life,universe and everything, but has a very skilful ending.
I recently watched the whole series of star-wars (all 6 in 2 days), on being loathed by my friend A, on calling myself a sci-fi fan, without having watch the The great Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi in action. She then asked me what did i think of it from the sci-fiction perspective. I found myself carefully contemplating for an answer. "Hard core science fiction for sure", I said. On why i didnt like it that much, I concluded that i got used to the benefords and baxters too soon. For that matter, I am guilty of not being able to enjoy even "The time machine" by H.G wells. Which brought up a question, how does one grade a good science fiction ?
Firstly, the novelty of the ideas, which are supported by enough science, again it shouldnt be just any theory out of thin air, they should mainly be an extrapolation of science we already know today, the more unexplored realm it is, the better. (Like a living magnetic field or BiCentinnial Man, Btw I think Asimov is the best person who has explored the thin line between artificial intelligence and cognition) .
Second the normal consistency of the story against the backdrop of science.
And third, the ending. Sometimes its a message, ( like the humorous one in THGTG, God's last message to the humans ? - "Sorry for the inconvenience" -- I laughed out loud for some 10 minutes at that one ), sometimes a shock ( "The last question" , it just "fits" ).

*Sigh*, I need a hard core science fiction novel right now !

Got this brilliant link: