In my first post, I mentioned a science fiction short story anthology by the name of "A Dreamer's Dozen." I mentioned its alarming rarity; when I went looking for a second copy, I could find one nowhere online. Fortunately, my local used book shop had it in stock.
The full title is of "A Dreamer's Dozen of Undiscovered Gems," and this describes it accurately. The twelve stories represented in it are rare, difficult to find and largely unknown. Each story has its own sort of charm and signature style. They are by turn comedic, touching, gripping, and provocative. One of the authors included here is someone I was shocked that I hadn't heard of before. Her name is Zenna Henderson, and her story in "Dreamer's Dozen" makes it clear that she's a writer of unusual skill and talent.
The story in "Dreamer's Dozen" which turned me onto Henderson was simply and oddly titled "Things." "Things" is about a tribe of nomadic aliens and the problems posed to them by first contact with human explorers who have landed on their planet. It is touching not so much because of the plot, but because of the characters; the non-human human angle, so to speak. In very few words she creates a rich culture and deeply sympathetic protagonists, and shows us our own culture in a new light.
After reading this, I had to do a little research on Zenna Henderson to find out why I'd never heard of her before. It turns out that she is little-known for a few reasons. For one, she wrote mainly short stories and was not primarily a novelist. Far more interesting, though, is that she dared to go where few people ventured at that time.
She wrote mainly from the 50s through the 70s, and one unique thing about her immediately struck me upon finding her in "A Dreamer's Dozen." She is the only obviously female pen name represented in the anthology. Even in the progressive genre of science fiction, sexism was rampant in the 50s and 60s; this is in fact quite clear in "Dreamer's Dozen," where several of the stories, despite their literary values, treat female characters in a ridiculously stereotyped manner. Even the women who were writing sci-fi in those days did not dare to make it known that they were female. Most adopted male-sounding or gender-ambiguous pen names. Zenna Henderson was one of very, very few who dared to be openly female while trying to establish credibility as a sci-fi author.
The other respect in which she was a pioneer is perhaps even more interesting. In the 50s and 60s, rationality and cold, hard science were considered essential elements of science fiction. The desire of sci-fi fans to bring the scientific culture of rationality and objectivity is understandable, even admirable. But in the process they shunned other parts of human nature. Using religion and spirituality in early science fiction was practically taboo. Advanced humans and aliens were supposed to be beyond all that, or at the very least not reliant on it. Henderson's work, on the other hand, is widely known for the depth and complexity of the characters' spirituality.
This aspect of her writing is readily apparent in "Things." One of the most interesting aspects of the aliens she describes is their spirituality. Their beliefs about the afterlife and the "Hidden Ones" are completely plausible, almost familiar, and completely touching in the way they connect the love of the living with the fate of the dead. This spirituality is indeed key to the story as the aliens struggle to understand the effect that the arrival of the earthmen is having on their tribe.
Such depth and complexity of spirituality is common in Henderson's works. She is best known for her short stories about "The People," human-like, psychic aliens whose spirituality is vital to their struggle to survive after crash-landing on a hostile Earth. Various religious groups, from evangelical Christians to Jews to Catholics to Wiccans have all expressed sympathy and a sense of identification with "The People" and the struggles they face reconciling their gifts and beliefs with a hostile human society.
Henderson herself must have been a remarkable person. She was a woman of faith herself, a devout Mormon, yet clearly she did not shrink from the speculative and questioning nature of science fiction. She wrote openly as a woman, despite strong sexist currents in both sci-fi and mainstream culture at that time. She delved into questions of spirituality and science at a time when spirituality was taboo. In general, she was remarkably insightful and paid no mind to the mainstream community when they told her she was wrong.
I thought I should spread the word about Zenna Henderson for the sake of all you sci-fi readers out there who may never have heard of her works. I recommend her particularly for aspiring sci-fi writers, because of the comprehensiveness of her work. One of the biggest challenges of writing science fiction is incorporating the technical scientific aspect with the subtle motivations of human characters. Henderson accomplishes this beautifully, making for an informative and captivating read.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Science: Molecular Magic
I had a great deal of difficulty deciding what to post about today. So many discoveries have been made recently that it's impossible to keep up. But I decided, at last, that one of today's discoveries is representative of an incredible trend. Ever-finer techniques of molecular analysis are allowing scientists to determine things they never thought possible.
I mentioned in my previous post that scientists have found a way to effectively take a T-Rex's temperature. The idea is, each element's chemical properties are determined by the number of protons and electrons its atoms have. However, there is a third type of molecule that does not change the elements chemical properties and contributes only to its weight: the neutron. Heavy isotopes of an element are atoms that have more neutrons than usual, allowing scientists to distinguish them from "regular" isotopes by measuring their weight.
This used to be really, really hard to do. Decades ago, it was considered a revolution when scientists learned how to measure the amount of carbon-14 in a material, which allowed them to use carbon-14's decay rate figure out how old the object was within a few thousand years. These days, scientists are making such molecular measurements with precision and ease that we could once only dream of. These have led to some extremely impressive analytical techniques.
Our "paleothermometer" is one example of that. It works by a fine analysis of the distribution of heavy isotopes within the fossils. It turns out that, at lower body temperatures, heavy isotopes clump together more during bone formation, whereas at higher body temperatures, they're more spread out. It also turns out that we now have equipment sensitive enough to detect the difference made by only a few degrees' centigrade lifetime body temperature difference. This means we can effectively analyze a dinosaur's bones and tell what its body temperature was during its lifetime. When this technique is put into practice, we may finally know once and for all whether dinosaurs were cold-blooded like lizards, or warm-blooded like us.
For more information on the paleothermometer: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100524/sc_afp/ussciencepaleontology
This is by no means the only recent, impressive use of molecular analysis. Among those making interesting use of these fine analysis techniques are archeologists, anthropologists, and astrophysicists, and geophysicists.
Archeologists and anthropologists have been doing really impressive things by using differences in regional isotope distributions to determine where a metal was mined, or what kind of food a person ate. These techniques have revealed new things about trade routes during past wars by analyzing the isotopic ratios in the metal of recovered bullets. They have revealed the diets of peoples past, by analyzing the isotopic ratios in their bones. In a few cases, this has even led to surprises; one prominent figure in Chinese history was found to have a different isotopic ratio than expected, suggesting he was from a different region of the country than originally thought. Isotopic analysis, combined with our recently developed abilities to analyze minute amounts of DNA in immense detail, are allowing us to determine ancestral lineages and world history with a precision that was never imagined in decades past.
Geophysicists have been using isotopic analysis for years to determine the age and composition of rocks. Lately, however, still more techniques have become available, allowing them to measure things that were once thought to be immeasurable. Measuring the strength of the Earth's magnetic field in the past was once thought impossible, for example. But it has since been discovered that by analyzing the orientation of tiny magnetic crystals in rocks and even man-made ceramics, it is easy to tell how strong the Earth's magnetic field was, and even what its orientation was at the time the crystal was set. These types of analysis have shown that not only has the Earth's magnetic field reversed its orientation in the past, but it strength has declined by about 14% over the last 400 years. Despite the 2012 predictions, there's no need to panic about this fact; we are probably heading into another "flip" of the Earth's magnetic field, but these flips take thousands of years--they are not the overnight calamities that 2012 theorists portray them to be.
Last, and most interesting in my opinion, molecular and small-crystal analysis have contributed to scientists' understanding of the possibility of life on Mars. You may have heard of ALH84001, a meteorite from Mars discovered in Antarctica in the 1990s. This meteorite was a big deal because it contained something that looked a lot like fossilized bacteria from Mars. At first, scientists thought the meteorite may have been contaminated by bacteria after coming to Earth. This has still not been ruled out, but in recent years molecular analysis techniques have contributed some interesting insights into the question of Martian bacteria.
For one thing, tiny metal-containing crystals found in the meteor look more like byproducts of bacterial life than inorganically formed crystals we usually see on Earth. For another, complex organic molecules called "polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons," also often associated with microbial life, have been found in the meteorite. The possibility still exists that the fossils seen in the meteorite are from Earth contamination, and that the crystals and hydrocarbons were formed by inorganic processes in deep space. But the presence of all three together is, in my mind, compelling. I think this is pretty good evidence that Mars had life, and perhaps even still does today.
For more information on the meteorite: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marslife.html
I've breezed over a lot of topics here to try to get the scope and magnitude of how important fine analysis techniques are, and how big a deal they are to modern science. If anybody has questions about a particular finding or method I've mentioned, please feel free to ask.
I mentioned in my previous post that scientists have found a way to effectively take a T-Rex's temperature. The idea is, each element's chemical properties are determined by the number of protons and electrons its atoms have. However, there is a third type of molecule that does not change the elements chemical properties and contributes only to its weight: the neutron. Heavy isotopes of an element are atoms that have more neutrons than usual, allowing scientists to distinguish them from "regular" isotopes by measuring their weight.
This used to be really, really hard to do. Decades ago, it was considered a revolution when scientists learned how to measure the amount of carbon-14 in a material, which allowed them to use carbon-14's decay rate figure out how old the object was within a few thousand years. These days, scientists are making such molecular measurements with precision and ease that we could once only dream of. These have led to some extremely impressive analytical techniques.
Our "paleothermometer" is one example of that. It works by a fine analysis of the distribution of heavy isotopes within the fossils. It turns out that, at lower body temperatures, heavy isotopes clump together more during bone formation, whereas at higher body temperatures, they're more spread out. It also turns out that we now have equipment sensitive enough to detect the difference made by only a few degrees' centigrade lifetime body temperature difference. This means we can effectively analyze a dinosaur's bones and tell what its body temperature was during its lifetime. When this technique is put into practice, we may finally know once and for all whether dinosaurs were cold-blooded like lizards, or warm-blooded like us.
For more information on the paleothermometer: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100524/sc_afp/ussciencepaleontology
This is by no means the only recent, impressive use of molecular analysis. Among those making interesting use of these fine analysis techniques are archeologists, anthropologists, and astrophysicists, and geophysicists.
Archeologists and anthropologists have been doing really impressive things by using differences in regional isotope distributions to determine where a metal was mined, or what kind of food a person ate. These techniques have revealed new things about trade routes during past wars by analyzing the isotopic ratios in the metal of recovered bullets. They have revealed the diets of peoples past, by analyzing the isotopic ratios in their bones. In a few cases, this has even led to surprises; one prominent figure in Chinese history was found to have a different isotopic ratio than expected, suggesting he was from a different region of the country than originally thought. Isotopic analysis, combined with our recently developed abilities to analyze minute amounts of DNA in immense detail, are allowing us to determine ancestral lineages and world history with a precision that was never imagined in decades past.
Geophysicists have been using isotopic analysis for years to determine the age and composition of rocks. Lately, however, still more techniques have become available, allowing them to measure things that were once thought to be immeasurable. Measuring the strength of the Earth's magnetic field in the past was once thought impossible, for example. But it has since been discovered that by analyzing the orientation of tiny magnetic crystals in rocks and even man-made ceramics, it is easy to tell how strong the Earth's magnetic field was, and even what its orientation was at the time the crystal was set. These types of analysis have shown that not only has the Earth's magnetic field reversed its orientation in the past, but it strength has declined by about 14% over the last 400 years. Despite the 2012 predictions, there's no need to panic about this fact; we are probably heading into another "flip" of the Earth's magnetic field, but these flips take thousands of years--they are not the overnight calamities that 2012 theorists portray them to be.
Last, and most interesting in my opinion, molecular and small-crystal analysis have contributed to scientists' understanding of the possibility of life on Mars. You may have heard of ALH84001, a meteorite from Mars discovered in Antarctica in the 1990s. This meteorite was a big deal because it contained something that looked a lot like fossilized bacteria from Mars. At first, scientists thought the meteorite may have been contaminated by bacteria after coming to Earth. This has still not been ruled out, but in recent years molecular analysis techniques have contributed some interesting insights into the question of Martian bacteria.
For one thing, tiny metal-containing crystals found in the meteor look more like byproducts of bacterial life than inorganically formed crystals we usually see on Earth. For another, complex organic molecules called "polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons," also often associated with microbial life, have been found in the meteorite. The possibility still exists that the fossils seen in the meteorite are from Earth contamination, and that the crystals and hydrocarbons were formed by inorganic processes in deep space. But the presence of all three together is, in my mind, compelling. I think this is pretty good evidence that Mars had life, and perhaps even still does today.
For more information on the meteorite: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/marslife.html
I've breezed over a lot of topics here to try to get the scope and magnitude of how important fine analysis techniques are, and how big a deal they are to modern science. If anybody has questions about a particular finding or method I've mentioned, please feel free to ask.
Hello, World
Hi everyone. I'm not quite sure how to begin. How do you begin a blog that's basically about everything? Well, not everything. Just science and science fiction. That leaves a lot to cover.
I've wanted to blog about these topics for a long time, but I've resisted the impulse to actually make a blog until now. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because I don't like fads. But lately, the urge to blog about my literature has been irresistible. Especially since I've come to realize that much of the literature I love has been largely lost to history.
I came to this rude awakening recently when I went searching for a second copy of one of my favorite books. "A Dreamer's Dozen" is a collection of largely overlooked sci-fi short stories, edited by Groff Conklin. Conklin himself called the stories "undiscovered gems" in the book's intro, and I didn't realize just how true this was until, having decided to lend my first copy to some friends, I went looking for a second copy to serve as backup. And I couldn't find one anywhere on the Internet.
Those of you who are veteran searchers will understand my astonishment. There isn't anything you can't find on the Internet. Usually a quick search of Amazon will turn up a dozen copies of any given book, no matter how obscure. But not this one. And then it began to bother me. Although I know many sci-fi fans, I had never heard anyone talk about "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" or "30 Days Had September." I had never heard anyone reference Zenna Henderson or J.F. Bones as a favorite author. How had these examples of great storytelling and daring speculation gone unnoticed? I started to feel a duty to let people know about these.
I soon realized that my "Dreamer's Dozen" was not the only collection of great sci-fi relatively unknown to current audiences. Many writers of the New Wave, many writers who do not write primarily in English are relatively unknown to American audiences. I'd like to do a little something to change that, and maybe help fans of classic science fiction like myself find some of these gems I've been so fortunate to stumble upon.
There's another aspect to this blog as well. You can't have science fiction without science. Science fiction relies on the scientist's speculation, about what is possible and what it means for humanity. Over the years, science fiction authors have predicted changes in human society, precisely by understanding the technological advances and scientific discoveries that were being made. I'm not only a science fiction fanatic, but also a devotee of science.
This seems a good time to say a little bit about myself. I'm a year away from earning my bachelor's degree in neuroscience, a marriage of biology and psychology which pleases me immensely. As a reader of literature, I am obsessed with how characters work; as a scientist, I am obsessed with how things in general work. Neuroscience seemed to be the best way for me of satisfying both of these curiosities, as it deals with both the physical mechanisms underlying the physical mechanisms and the psychological theories of thought and emotion. In addition to my neuroscience studies, I enjoy reading about practically every area of science. Astronomy, archaeology, biology, cosmology, paleontology, physics--you name it, I have probably been obsessed with it at some point.
Through this blog, I aim to bring a little bit of science as well as science fiction to anyone who is interested. There's so much happening in science right now it really boggles the mind. Just in the last week, the first man-made, reproductively independent species has been created, great advances have been reported in the use of gene therapy to treat previously untreatable diseases, new discoveries have been made about the orbital mechanics of planets circling other stars, and scientists have announced a way to directly measure the body temperature of dinosaurs.
So much science and so much literature, I don't know where to begin! I hope you all will enjoy the ride.
I've wanted to blog about these topics for a long time, but I've resisted the impulse to actually make a blog until now. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's because I don't like fads. But lately, the urge to blog about my literature has been irresistible. Especially since I've come to realize that much of the literature I love has been largely lost to history.
I came to this rude awakening recently when I went searching for a second copy of one of my favorite books. "A Dreamer's Dozen" is a collection of largely overlooked sci-fi short stories, edited by Groff Conklin. Conklin himself called the stories "undiscovered gems" in the book's intro, and I didn't realize just how true this was until, having decided to lend my first copy to some friends, I went looking for a second copy to serve as backup. And I couldn't find one anywhere on the Internet.
Those of you who are veteran searchers will understand my astonishment. There isn't anything you can't find on the Internet. Usually a quick search of Amazon will turn up a dozen copies of any given book, no matter how obscure. But not this one. And then it began to bother me. Although I know many sci-fi fans, I had never heard anyone talk about "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" or "30 Days Had September." I had never heard anyone reference Zenna Henderson or J.F. Bones as a favorite author. How had these examples of great storytelling and daring speculation gone unnoticed? I started to feel a duty to let people know about these.
I soon realized that my "Dreamer's Dozen" was not the only collection of great sci-fi relatively unknown to current audiences. Many writers of the New Wave, many writers who do not write primarily in English are relatively unknown to American audiences. I'd like to do a little something to change that, and maybe help fans of classic science fiction like myself find some of these gems I've been so fortunate to stumble upon.
There's another aspect to this blog as well. You can't have science fiction without science. Science fiction relies on the scientist's speculation, about what is possible and what it means for humanity. Over the years, science fiction authors have predicted changes in human society, precisely by understanding the technological advances and scientific discoveries that were being made. I'm not only a science fiction fanatic, but also a devotee of science.
This seems a good time to say a little bit about myself. I'm a year away from earning my bachelor's degree in neuroscience, a marriage of biology and psychology which pleases me immensely. As a reader of literature, I am obsessed with how characters work; as a scientist, I am obsessed with how things in general work. Neuroscience seemed to be the best way for me of satisfying both of these curiosities, as it deals with both the physical mechanisms underlying the physical mechanisms and the psychological theories of thought and emotion. In addition to my neuroscience studies, I enjoy reading about practically every area of science. Astronomy, archaeology, biology, cosmology, paleontology, physics--you name it, I have probably been obsessed with it at some point.
Through this blog, I aim to bring a little bit of science as well as science fiction to anyone who is interested. There's so much happening in science right now it really boggles the mind. Just in the last week, the first man-made, reproductively independent species has been created, great advances have been reported in the use of gene therapy to treat previously untreatable diseases, new discoveries have been made about the orbital mechanics of planets circling other stars, and scientists have announced a way to directly measure the body temperature of dinosaurs.
So much science and so much literature, I don't know where to begin! I hope you all will enjoy the ride.
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