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Coalescent
''Coalescent'' is a science-fiction novel by Stephen Baxter. It is part one of the ''Destiny's Children'' series. The story is set in two main time periods: modern Britain, when George Poole finds that he has a previously unknown sister and follows a trail to a mysterious and ancient organisation in Rome (Puissant Order of Holy Mary Queen of Virgins); and the time of Regina, a girl growing up during the ending of Roman rule in Britain, around AD 400. ''Coalescent'' was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2004. Plot summary The book consists of four distinct parts. The primary purpose of part one is the introduction of the characters, in ancient Britain and the present. Part two introduces a modern first-person view of the Order in Rome while following Regina's budding legacy centuries before. Part three hosts the clash and resolution of Poole and the Order's realities. Part four is a look eons into Humanity's Expansion into the Universe and provides a conclusion in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xeelee Sequence
The Xeelee Sequence (; ) is a series of hard science fiction space opera novels, novellas, and short stories written by British science fiction author Stephen Baxter. The series spans billions of years of fictional history, centering on humanity's future expansion into the universe, its intergalactic war with an enigmatic and supremely powerful Kardashev Type IV alien civilization called the Xeelee (eldritch symbiotes composed of spacetime defects, Bose-Einstein condensates, and baryonic matter), and the Xeelee's own cosmos-spanning war with dark matter entities called Photino Birds. The series features many other species and civilizations that play a prominent role, including the Squeem (a species of group-mind aquatics), the Qax (beings whose biology is based on the complex interactions of convection cells), and the Silver Ghosts (colonies of symbiotic organisms encased in reflective skins). Several stories in the Sequence also deal with humans and posthumans living in ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Destiny's Children
''Destiny's Children'' is a science-fiction series by Stephen Baxter. It takes place within his larger series, the ''Xeelee Sequence''. Like his previous ''Manifold Trilogy'', the books are not direct sequels to one another, but are instead thematically linked by the appearance of concepts, themes, and sometimes characters in multiple books. Examples of this include: * A coalescence is visited in all three novels. * The Kuiper Anomaly, a tetrahedral artifact that appears in the Kuiper belt, is discovered in ''Coalescent'', mentioned briefly in ''Exultant'', and finally explained in ''Transcendent''. * The characters George Poole, Michael Poole, and Rosa Poole appear in both ''Coalescent'' and ''Transcendent''. * Each book deals in some way with the future evolution of humans, both physically and sociologically. For example, ''Coalescent'' discusses the ability of humans living with limited space and resources to evolve a society that resembles insect hives. ''Transcendent'' deal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exultant (book)
''Exultant'' is a science fiction novel by British author Stephen Baxter. It is part two of the ''Destiny's Children'' series. The book was published by Victor Gollancz Ltd in September 2004. Overview Much of the book is written as large sections of prose explaining theoretical exotic-matter physics. Baxter also sketches the evolution of the Xeelee and an imaginary history of the universe in which life is ubiquitous even under the most extreme conditions. Plot summary ''Exultant'' is set in Baxter's "Xeelee Sequence" twenty thousand years into the Third Expansion of Mankind, "a titanic project undertaken by a mankind united by the Doctrines forged by Hama Druz after mankind's near extinction." The human-supremacist Interim Coalition of Governance has conquered almost the whole Milky Way — all but the alien Xeelee concentrated at the galactic core around a supermassive black hole called Chandra. The mysterious Xeelee are far more advanced but less numerous than the humans, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naked Mole Rat
The naked mole-rat (''Heterocephalus glaber''), also known as the sand puppy, is a burrowing rodent native to the Horn of Africa and parts of Kenya, notably in Somali regions. It is closely related to the blesmols and is the only species in the genus ''Heterocephalus''. The naked mole-rat exhibits a highly unusual set of physiological and behavioral traits that allow it to thrive in a harsh underground environment; most notably its being the only mammalian thermoconformer with an almost entirely ectothermic (cold-blooded) form of body temperature regulation, as well as exhibiting a complex social structure split between reproductive and non-reproductive castes, making it and the closely-related Damaraland mole-rat (''Fukomys damarensis'') the only widely recognized examples of eusociality (the highest classification of sociality) in mammals. The naked mole-rat lacks pain sensitivity in its skin, and has very low metabolic and respiratory rates. It is also remarkable for its l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clement VII
Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the most unfortunate of the popes", Clement VII's reign was marked by a rapid succession of political, military, and religious struggles—many long in the making—which had far-reaching consequences for Christianity and world politics. Elected in 1523 at the end of the Italian Renaissance, Clement came to the papacy with a high reputation as a statesman. He had served with distinction as chief advisor to Pope Leo X (1513–1521), Pope Adrian VI (1522–1523), and commendably as gran maestro of Florence (1519–1523). Assuming leadership at a time of crisis, with the Protestant Reformation spreading; the Church nearing bankruptcy; and large, foreign armies invading Italy, Clement initially tried to unite Christendom by making peace among the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reproductive Suppression
Reproductive suppression is the prevention or inhibition of reproduction in otherwise healthy adult individuals. Quote is from p. 513. It includes delayed sexual maturation (puberty) or inhibition of sexual receptivity, facultatively increased interbirth interval through delayed or inhibited ovulation or spontaneous or induced abortion, abandonment of immature and dependent offspring, mate guarding, selective destruction and worker policing of eggs in some eusocial insects or cooperatively breeding birds, and infanticide (see also infanticide (zoology)), and infanticide in carnivores) of the offspring of subordinate females either by directly killing by dominant females or males in mammals or indirectly through the withholding of assistance with infant care in marmosets and some carnivores.Saltzman, W., Leidl, K.J., Salper, O.J., Pick, R.R., Abbott, D.H. (2008) ''Hormones and Behavior'' 53: 274-286. The ''Reproductive Suppression Model'' argues that "females can optimize their li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pheromones
A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavior of the receiving individuals. There are ''alarm pheromones'', ''food trail pheromones'', ''sex pheromones'', and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Pheromones are used by many organisms, from basic unicellular prokaryotes to complex multicellular eukaryotes. Their use among insects has been particularly well documented. In addition, some vertebrates, plants and ciliates communicate by using pheromones. The ecological functions and evolution of pheromones are a major topic of research in the field of chemical ecology. Background The portmanteau word "pheromone" was coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, based on the Greek φερω ''pheroo'' ('I carry') and ὁρμων ''hormon'' ('stimulating'). Pheromones ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eusociality
Eusociality (from Greek εὖ ''eu'' "good" and social), the highest level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping generations within a colony of adults, and a division of labor into reproductive and non-reproductive groups. The division of labor creates specialized behavioral groups within an animal society which are sometimes referred to as 'castes'. Eusociality is distinguished from all other social systems because individuals of at least one caste usually lose the ability to perform at least one behavior characteristic of individuals in another caste. Eusocial colonies can be viewed as superorganisms. Eusociality exists in certain insects, crustaceans, and mammals. It is mostly observed and studied in the Hymenoptera (ants, bees, and wasps) and in Blattodea (termites). A colony has caste differences: queens and reproductive males take the roles of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 population of 1,013,240, it is the most populous city in both the Bay Area and the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area, San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 9.7 million people respectively, the List of largest California cities by population, third-most populous city in California (after Los Angeles and San Diego and ahead of San Francisco), and the List of United States cities by population, tenth-most populous in the United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of . San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, California, Santa Clara County and the main component of the San ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Semtex
Semtex is a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, PETN. It is used in commercial blasting, demolition, and in certain military applications. Semtex was developed and manufactured in Czechoslovakia, originally under the name B 1 and then under the "Semtex" designation since 1964, labeled as ''SEMTEX 1A'', since 1967 as ''SEMTEX H'', and since 1987 as ''SEMTEX 10''. Originally developed for Czechoslovak military use and export, Semtex eventually became popular with paramilitary groups and rebels or terrorism, terrorists because prior to 2000 it was extremely difficult to detect, as in the case of Pan Am Flight 103. Composition The composition of the two most common variants differ according to their use. The 1A (or 10) variant is used for drilling and blasting, mining, and is based mostly on crystalline Pentaerythritol tetranitrate, PETN. The versions 1AP and 2P are formed as hexagonal Explosive booster, booster charges; a special assem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plastic Explosive
Plastic explosive is a soft and hand-moldable solid form of explosive material. Within the field of explosives engineering, plastic explosives are also known as putty explosives or blastics. Plastic explosives are especially suited for explosive demolition. Common plastic explosives include Semtex and C-4. The first manufactured plastic explosive was gelignite in 1875, invented by Alfred Nobel. Usage Plastic explosives are especially suited for explosive demolition of obstacles and fortifications by engineers, combat engineers and criminals as they can be easily formed into the best shapes for cutting structural members and have a high enough velocity of detonation and density for metal cutting work. An early use of plastic explosives was in the warhead of the Petard demolition mortar of the British Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers (AVRE); said mortar was used to destroy concrete fortifications encountered during Operation Overlord (D-Day). The original use of Nobel 808 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
