Margaret Lucas Cavendish was a philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction-writer, and playwright who lived in the seventeenth century.
Participants — an eclectic mix of engineers, scientists, science fiction fans, students and dreamers — explored a mix of ideas, including how to organize and finance a century-long project; whether civilization would survive, because an engine to propel a starship could also be used for a weapon to obliterate the planet; and whether people need to go along for the trip.
Understandably, it bothers Doudna that, in science fiction, scientists are very often sinister.
The poll also established Isaac Asimov as the scientists' favourite science fiction author.
While cloning a human being remains largely the stuff of science fiction, scientists continue to develop techniques that might one day make it viable.
As befits a meeting ground for scientists and science fiction writers, the new Center for Science and the Imagination grew out of happenstance: a chance meeting last year between the novelist Neal Stephenson and Arizona State University's president, Michael M. Crow.
Europa, an ice-swaddled jovian satellite that has long fascinated both scientists and science fiction writers, just got a bit more interesting.
They hereby reflect what Dinello calls "a more positive strain of science fiction scientists, who try to help humanity, but who accidentally create a technological threat to themselves, their family, the society, or even the universe.
Scientists and science fiction authors have long speculated that because silicon atoms bond to other atoms in a manner similar to carbon, silicon could form the basis of an alternative biochemistry of life.
It's the stuff of science fiction: Scientists discover that an asteroid is heading for Earth, and we don't have any measures in place to prevent the space rock from hitting us.
Feluda, the sleuth, and Professor Shonku, the scientist in his science fiction stories, are popular fictional characters created by him.
