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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 Autobiographies of Isaac Asimov, three volumes of autobiography anyway.) The collection was voted 13th in the 1976 Locus Award competition for the Best Single Author Collection. Contents The book includes the following stories: * "Darwinian Pool Room" (1950) * "Day of the Hunters" (1950) * "Shah Guido G." (1951) * "Button, Button (Asimov), Button, Button" (1953) * "The Monkey's Finger" (1953) * "Everest (Asimov), Everest" (1953) * "The Pause (story), The Pause" ... [...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 by .... 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Short Story Collections By Isaac Asimov
Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which study the physical world, and the social sciences, which study individuals and societies. While referred to as the formal sciences, the study of logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science are typically regarded as separate because they rely on deductive reasoning instead of the scientific method as their main methodology. Meanwhile, applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine. The history of science spans the majority of the historical record, with the earliest identifiable predecessors to modern science dating to the Bronze Age in Ancient Egypt, Egypt and Mesopotamia (). Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped the Gree ... [...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 sculpture ... [...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 a ... [...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 reach 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 for interstellar travel. A fast moving spacecraft scoops up hydrogen from the interstellar medium using an enormous funnel-shaped magnetic field (ranging from kilometers to man ...). It is surrounded by clouds that contain that 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 unwillin ... [...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 from his 1957 book ''Thoughts in the Wilderness''. 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 th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2430 A
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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'', 2010 * 43 Ariadne, a main-belt asteroid * 43rd Regiment * The international calling code for Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Proper Study
"The Proper Study" is a science fiction short story 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 Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ... Oscar Harding is experimenting with a technique he terms neurophotoscopy, by means of which brain wave patterns can be observ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Exile To Hell
"Exile to Hell" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It appeared in the May 1968 issue of ''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' and was included in the 1975 collection ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories''. The serialization of his novelization of ''Fantastic Voyage'' in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' in 1966 filled Asimov with the ambition to publish an original story there before the magazine ceased publication. He therefore wrote "Exile to Hell" in June 1967. The ''Post'' rejected the story, though, just as they would have in their heyday twenty years before (as Asimov noted in ''In Joy Still Felt''). It then occurred to Asimov that he had not submitted a story to ''Analog'' since '' Thiotimoline and the Space Age'' in 1960. The story was accepted, and appeared in the May 1968 issue. In Asimov's introduction to the story in ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories'', he notes that when the story first appeared in ''Analog,'' the pre-story blurb by editor John ... [...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'', 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 future human colonists, by cultivating Earth plants which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rain, Rain, Go Away (Asimov)
"Rain, Rain, Go Away" is a short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. A fantasy/horror story, it was based on an idea by Bob Mills, editor of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'', but rejected by him. It was instead published in the September 1959 issue of ''Fantastic Universe'' and reprinted in the 1975 collection ''Buy Jupiter and Other Stories''. Plot summary The story "Rain, Rain, Go Away" concerns a seemingly perfect family, the Sakkaros, who become neighbors of another family, the Wrights. The Wrights are puzzled at the great lengths the Sakkaros go to avoid any contact with water, such as when Mrs. Wright tells her husband that Mrs. Sakkaro's kitchen was so clean, it seemed to be never used, and when she offered Mrs. Wright a glass of water she filled the glass carefully while covered with a napkin, but Mr. Wright chalks it up to Mrs. Sakkaro being a good neighbor. The only other odd fact about the home was that the family always seems to be tanning, but at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
