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Buy Jupiter And Other Stories
''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'' is a 1975 collection of short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. Each story is introduced by a short account of how it came to be written and what was happening in Asimov's life at the time, and follows on from where ''The Early Asimov'' (1972) left off. In the introduction, Asimov explains that his objective is to tell enough of his autobiography in his short story collections so that his editors will stop asking him to write an actual autobiography. (However he eventually wrote three volumes of autobiography anyway.) Contents The book includes the following stories: * " Darwinian Pool Room" (1950) * "Day of the Hunters" (1950) * "Shah Guido G." (1951) * " Button, Button" (1953) * " The Monkey's Finger" (1953) * "Everest" (1953) * " The Pause" (1954) * " Let's Not" (1954) * " Each an Explorer" (1956) * " Blank!" (1957) * " Does a Bee Care?" (1957) * " Silly Asses" (1958) * " Buy Jupiter" (1958) * " A Statue for Father" (1959) * " Rain, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silly Asses
"Silly Asses" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was published in the February 1958 issue of ''Future Science Fiction'', after having been twice rejected by other outlets. It was subsequently included in the collections ''Have You Seen These?'' in 1974 and ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'' in 1975. It runs to less than two pages in paperback. Plot summary The people of Earth have developed atomic power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b .... As such, they are recorded by Naron the Rigellian, the long-lived Keeper of the galactic records, as having achieved maturity. But when the keeper learns that they have not yet penetrated space and that they test their atomic weapons on their own planetary surface, he strikes them from the record, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Short Story Collections By Isaac Asimov
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Light Verse (short Story)
"Light Verse" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the September–October 1973 issue of ''The Saturday Evening Post''. It later appeared in the collections '' Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'' (1975), ''The Complete Robot'' (1982), and ''Robot Dreams'' (1986). The author has reported that he wrote the initial draft in one session and later had to change hardly a word in the final revision. This story details a small portion of the life of Avis Lardner, the widow of an astronaut, William J. Lardner. Plot summary After her husband's death, Mrs. Lardner receives a large pension, which she invests wisely, becoming very wealthy. She buys many valuable jeweled artifacts from a number of countries, and displays them in her home. She then takes up the art of light-sculpture, which fascinates many, but she refuses to sell her works and only paints them for her parties. Mrs. Lardner had become notable not only for the light sculptures, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thiotimoline To The Stars
Thiotimoline is a fictitious chemical compound conceived by American biochemist and science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It was first described in a spoof scientific paper titled "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline" in 1948. The major peculiarity of the chemical is its "endochronicity": it starts dissolving before it makes contact with water. Asimov went on to write three additional short stories, each describing different properties or uses of thiotimoline. Chemical properties In Asimov's writings the endochronicity of thiotimoline is explained by the fact that in the thiotimoline molecule, there is at least one carbon atom such that, while two of the carbon's four chemical bonds lie in normal space and time, one of the bonds projects into the future and another into the past. Thiotimoline is derived from the bark of the (fictitious) shrub ''Rosacea karlsbadensis rufo'', and the thiotimoline molecule includes at least fourteen hydroxy groups, two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Take A Match
"Take a Match" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in Robert Silverberg's 1972 anthology '' New Dimensions II'' and reprinted in the 1975 Asimov collection ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories''. Plot summary An interstellar spaceship is stranded between the stars, but out of distance of the interstellar gases that the drive requires as fuel (the drive technology is not fully explained, but is possibly similar to a Bussard Ramjet The Bussard ramjet is a theoretical method of spacecraft propulsion proposed in 1960 by the physicist Robert W. Bussard, popularized by Poul Anderson's novel ''Tau Zero'', Larry Niven in his ''Known Space'' series of books, Vernor Vinge in his ...). It is surrounded by clouds that do contain the required fuel, but with excessive quantities of impurities that can't be filtered out. Anton Viluekis, the Fusionist, a highly sensitive (and eccentric) individual who is in charge of the ship's power, is unwi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Greatest Asset
"The Greatest Asset" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was written as a counterpoint to his story " 2430 A.D." with the intention of refuting, rather than illustrating, the same quotation by writer and social commentator J. B. Priestley. It was published in the January 1972 issue of ''Analog'' and reprinted in the 1975 collection ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories''. The quotation by Priestley runs: "2430 A.D." had been commissioned by ''Think'', the house magazine of IBM, but was rejected because it confirmed Priestley's quote. ''Think'' requested another story refuting the quote. The rejection of "2430 A.D." came when Asimov's marriage to his first wife was coming to an end. On July 3, 1970, he moved out of his house in West Newton, Massachusetts and took up residence in the Cromwell Hotel in New York City. After settling in, Asimov felt the need to write something, to prove to himself that the disruption of his life had not impaired his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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43 may refer to: * 43 (number) * one of the years 43 BC, AD 43, 1943, 2043 * Licor 43, also known as "Cuarenta Y Tres" ("Forty-three" in Spanish) * George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, nicknamed "Bush 43" to distinguish from his father * "Forty Three", a song by Karma to Burn from the album ''Appalachian Incantation Appalachian may refer to: * Appalachian Mountains, a major mountain range in eastern United States and Canada * Appalachian Trail, a hiking trail in the eastern United States * The people of Appalachia and their culture ** Appalachian Americans, e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Proper Study
"The Proper Study" is a science fiction short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ... by American writer Isaac Asimov. Inspired by a painting of a head surrounded by random psychedelic designs, it was commissioned by ''Boys' Life'', and published in the September 1968 issue. (The other story commissioned for the picture was ''The Faun''. by Poul Anderson.) ''The Proper Study'' was reprinted in the 1975 collection ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories''. The title is taken from a quote by Alexander Pope ("The proper study of mankind is man."). Plot summary In a future world where the United States is ruled by a military dictatorship, Professor Oscar Harding is experimenting with a technique he terms neurophotoscopy, by means of which brain wave patterns can be obse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Key Item
Multivac is the name of a fictional supercomputer appearing in over a dozen science fiction stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. Asimov's depiction of Multivac, a mainframe computer accessible by terminal, originally by specialists using machine code and later by any user, and used for directing the global economy and humanity's development, has been seen as the defining conceptualization of the genre of computers for the period (1950s–1960s). Multivac has been described as the direct ancestor of HAL 9000. Description Like most of the technologies Asimov describes in his fiction, Multivac's exact specifications vary among appearances. In all cases, it is a government-run computer that answers questions posed using natural language, and it is usually buried deep underground for security purposes. According to his autobiography ''In Memory Yet Green'', Asimov coined the name in imitation of UNIVAC, an early mainframe computer. Asimov had assumed the name "Univac" denoted a com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exile To Hell
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suffer exile, but sometimes social entities like institutions (e.g. the papacy or a government) are forced from their homeland. In Roman law, ''exsilium'' denoted both voluntary exile and banishment as a capital punishment alternative to death. Deportation was forced exile, and entailed the lifelong loss of citizenship and property. Relegation was a milder form of deportation, which preserved the subject's citizenship and property. The term diaspora describes group exile, both voluntary and forced. "Government in exile" describes a government of a country that has relocated and argues its legitimacy from outside that country. Voluntary exile is often depicted as a form of protest by the person who claims it, to avoid persecution and prosecut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Founding Father (Asimov)
"Founding Father" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the October 1965 issue of ''Galaxy Science Fiction'',Asimov, I. ''In Joy Still Felt'' (Avon 1980), page 361 and reprinted in the 1975 collection ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories''. It was inspired by a cover painting of a space-helmeted face backed by several crosses, provided by the magazine's editor, Frederik Pohl. The story was nominated for the 1966 Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Plot summary An exploratory spacecraft of the Galactic Corps, charged with opening up planets for human colonisation, sometimes by terraforming, crash-lands on an alien planet. They find that the ecology is heavy in ammonia, making the atmosphere unbreathable by humans, and the soil unsuitable for the Earth-type plants they have brought for colonisation. As they are unable to take off again, the crew spend their time trying to adjust the environment to make it suitable for possible futur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
