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Pâté De Foie Gras (short Story)
"Pâté de Foie Gras" is a 1956 science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, originally published by ''Astounding Science Fiction''. Like Asimov's "Thiotimoline, The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline", "Pâté de Foie Gras" is a scientific spoof article, updating one of Aesop's Fables, The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs. Plot A United States Department of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture employee tells of the discovery on a farm in Texas of The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs, a goose that lays golden eggs, and how US government and academic researchers try to solve the mystery of the goose. While its eggs are valuable as pure gold, learning how the bird produces the metal is more important. After the scientists realize that the goose is unharmed despite the enzyme-catalyzed nuclear process that converts oxygen-18 to gold-197 producing gamma rays, they discover that it is immune to all radioactivity, converting any unstable isotope to ...
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Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov ( ;  – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mystery fiction, mysteries and fantasy, as well as popular science and other non-fiction. Asimov's most famous work is the ''Foundation (book series), Foundation'' series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. His other major series are the ''Galactic Empire series, Galactic Empire'' series and the ''Robot series, Robot'' series. The ''Galactic Empire'' novels are set in the much earlier history of the same fictional universe as the ''Foundation'' series. Later, with ''Foundation an ...
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Nuclear Transmutation
Nuclear transmutation is the conversion of one chemical element or an isotope into another chemical element. Nuclear transmutation occurs in any process where the number of protons or neutrons in the nucleus of an atom is changed. A transmutation can be achieved either by nuclear reactions (in which an outside particle reacts with a nucleus) or by radioactive decay, where no outside cause is needed. Natural transmutation by stellar nucleosynthesis in the past created most of the heavier chemical elements in the known existing universe, and continues to take place to this day, creating the vast majority of the most common elements in the universe, including helium, oxygen and carbon. Most stars carry out transmutation through fusion reactions involving hydrogen and helium, while much larger stars are also capable of fusing heavier elements up to iron late in their evolution. Elements heavier than iron, such as gold or lead, are created through elemental transmutations that can ...
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Gold
Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal, a group 11 element, and one of the noble metals. It is one of the least reactivity (chemistry), reactive chemical elements, being the second-lowest in the reactivity series. It is solid under standard temperature and pressure, standard conditions. Gold often occurs in free elemental (native state (metallurgy), native state), as gold nugget, nuggets or grains, in rock (geology), rocks, vein (geology), veins, and alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the native element silver (as in electrum), naturally alloyed with other metals like copper and palladium, and mineral inclusions such as within pyrite. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium (gold tellurides). Gold is resistant to ...
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Oxygen
Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal, and a potent oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as well as with other chemical compound, compounds. Oxygen is abundance of elements in Earth's crust, the most abundant element in Earth's crust, making up almost half of the Earth's crust in the form of various oxides such as water, carbon dioxide, iron oxides and silicates.Atkins, P.; Jones, L.; Laverman, L. (2016).''Chemical Principles'', 7th edition. Freeman. It is abundance of chemical elements, the third-most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen and helium. At standard temperature and pressure, two oxygen atoms will chemical bond, bind covalent bond, covalently to form dioxygen, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas with the chemical formula ...
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Fiction About Chemists
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with fact, history, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, fiction refers to written narratives in prose often specifically novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition and theory Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly expressed, so the audience expects a work of fiction to deviate to a greater or lesser degree from the real world, rather than presenting for instance only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood as not adhering to the real world, the them ...
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Hoaxes In Science
A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible. Some hoaxers intend to eventually unmask their representations as having been a hoax so as to expose their victims as fools; seeking some form of profit, other hoaxers hope to maintain the hoax indefinitely, so that it is only when skeptical people willing to investigate their claims publish their findings, that the hoaxers are finally revealed as such. History Zhang Yingyu's ''The Book of Swindles'' ( 1617), published during the late Ming dynasty, is said to be China's first collection of stories about fraud, swindles, hoaxes, and other forms of deception. Although practical jokes have likely existed for thousands of years, one of the earliest recorded hoaxes in Western history was the drummer of Tedworth in 1661. The communication of h ...
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Short Stories By Isaac Asimov
Short may refer to: Places * Short (crater), a lunar impact crater on the near side of the Moon * Short, Mississippi, an unincorporated community * Short, Oklahoma, a census-designated place People * Short (surname) * List of people known as the Short Companies * Short Brothers, a British aerospace company * Short Brothers of Sunderland, a former English shipbuilder Computing and technology * Short circuit, an accidental connection between two nodes of an electrical circuit * Short integer, a computer datatype Other uses * Short film, a cinema format, also called a short * Short (finance), stock-trading position * Short (cricket), fielding positions closer to the batsman * SHORT syndrome, a medical condition in which affected individuals have multiple birth defects * Short vowel, a vowel sound of short perceived duration * Holly Short, a fictional character in the ''Artemis Fowl'' series See also * Short time, a situation in which a civilian employee works reduced hours, ...
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The Edge Of Tomorrow (1985 Book)
''The Edge of Tomorrow'' is a collection of short science fiction stories and science essays by Isaac Asimov, published by Tor Books in July 1985. Contents *Foreword by Ben Bova *Introduction by Isaac Asimov *"Unique Is Where You Find It" (story) *"The Eureka Phenomenon" (essay) *" The Feeling of Power" (story) *"The Comet That Wasn't" (essay) *"Found!" (story) *"Twinkle, Twinkle, Microwaves" (essay) *" Pâté de Foie Gras" (story) *"The Bridge of the Gods" (essay) *"Belief" (story) *"Euclid's Fifth" (essay) *"The Plane Truth" (essay) *" The Billiard Ball" (story) *"The Winds of Change" (story) *"The Figure of the Fastest" (essay) *" The Dead Past" (story) *"The Fateful Lightning (essay) *" Breeds There a Man...?" (story) *"The Man Who Massed the Earth" (essay) *" Nightfall (story) *"The Planet That Wasn't" (essay) *" The Ugly Little Boy" (story) *"The Three Who Died Too Soon" (essay) *"The Last Question "The Last Question" is a science fiction short story by American writer ...
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Where Do We Go From Here? (anthology)
In a writing career spanning 53 years (1939–1992), science fiction and popular science author Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) wrote and published 40 novels, 383 short stories, over 280 non-fiction books, and edited about 147 others. In this article, Asimov's books are listed by year (in order of publication within a year, where known) with publisher indicated. They are divided between original works and edited books. Works of fiction are denoted by an asterisk (*) and books for children or adolescents by a dagger (†). Currently, 504 total books are listed here (357 original and 147 edited or annotated by Asimov). Original book-length works 1950 *'' Pebble in the Sky''* ( Doubleday) *''I, Robot''* (Gnome Press) 1951 *'' The Stars, Like Dust--'' * (Doubleday) *'' Foundation''* (Gnome Press) 1952 *'' David Starr, Space Ranger''*† (Doubleday) *''Foundation and Empire''* (Gnome Press) *'' The Currents of Space''* (Doubleday) *''Biochemistry and Human Metabolism'' (Williams & Wilkins ...
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The Complete Stories (Asimov)
''The Complete Stories'' is a discontinued series intended to form a definitive collection of Isaac Asimov's short stories and novels. Originally published in 1990 (Volume 1) and 1992 (Volume 2) by Doubleday (publisher), Doubleday, it was discontinued after the second book of the planned series. Altogether 88 of Asimov's Isaac Asimov short stories bibliography, 383 published short stories are collected in these two volumes. Volume 1 The first volume consists of the stories previously collected in ''Earth Is Room Enough'', ''Nine Tomorrows'', and ''Nightfall and Other Stories'' (but not the commentary from ''Nightfall and Other Stories''). In 2001, Broadway Books published a new edition of the first volume (hardback: , paperback: ). In 2024, it was republished by HarperVoyager as "Living Space and Other Stories". Volume One contains the following short stories: # The Dead Past # The Foundation of S. F. Success # Franchise (short story), Franchise # Gimmicks Three # Kid Stuff # Th ...
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Asimov's Mysteries
''Asimov's Mysteries'', published in 1968, is a collection of 14 short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, almost all of them science fiction mysteries (although, as Asimov admits in the introduction, some are only borderline). The stories were all originally published in magazines between 1954 and 1967, except for " Marooned off Vesta", Asimov's first published story, which first appeared in 1939. Four stories in the collection feature the character of Wendell Urth, who is a leading extra-terrologist (an expert on alien worlds and life originating on them). Urth is eccentric in that he has a phobia of all mechanical forms of transport (an exaggeration of Asimov's own aversion to flying). Physically Urth resembles Norbert Wiener. Urth appears in the stories when he is consulted by an agent of the Terrestrial Bureau of Investigation, H. Seton Davenport, in cases which have him baffled – a parallel with the way in which Inspector Lestrade consults Sherlock Holmes. In a fift ...
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Only A Trillion
''Only a Trillion'' is a collection of ten science essays and three scientific spoof articles by Isaac Asimov. It was the first collection of science essays published by Asimov. It was first published by Abelard-Schuman in 1957. A paperback edition published by Ace Books in 1976 included updates of outdated material (re-issued in 1980). The book was also published under the title ''Marvels of Science'' by Collier Books in 1962. The title refers to the number of atoms of astatine-215 in the top 10 miles of the Earth's crust of the North and South American continents – only a trillion. Contents # The Atoms That Vanish (first published in ''Change!'', 1957) # The Explosions Within Us (original article) # Hemoglobin and the Universe (first published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'', Feb. 1955) # Victory on Paper (first published in ''Astounding'', Sept. 1955) # The Abnormality of Being Normal (first published in ''Astounding'', May 1956) # Planets Have an Air About Them (first pub ...
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