Science, History, and Fiction in Everyday Life
Rendezvous with Rama (1973) is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke, set in the 2130s in the Solar System. Rama, initially mistaken for an asteroid, is instead a mysterious alien spacecraft in the shape of a 50-kilometre spinning cylinder, that…
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In 1967, Harlan Ellison put together a short-story anthology titled Dangerous Visions. Mildly put, this collection made history and “almost single-handedly [it] changed the way readers thought about science fiction.” What all the fuss was about? First of all, the quality…
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During this Christmas break (still ongoing) I was thinking about the most amazing videos I have watched in 2014, and there are many that qualify in this sense. This year has been remarkable under many aspects, for a start. Also, thanks to this blog, I…
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If there’s a stellar object that’s both scaring and fascinating at the same time is the black hole. Scientists are still debating about what its nature truly is, and recent findings only add to its mystery. An accepted definition for it…
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2312 (2012) by Kim Stanley Robinson is a SF novel about a (relatively) near future of interplanetary colonisation. Humanity has spread across the whole Solar System, settling down by many different means, from biomes in hollowed-out asteroids to cities on Mercury….
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An interview to Ken Liu, the SF Chinese-American writer, author of some excellent short stories (published on F&SF, Asimov’s, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld among others) and winner of many SF awards, has appeared on December, 17 on Amazing Stories. Regina Kanyu…
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Today is my first birthday as a blogger. The Earthian Hivemind was online first on December, 16 2013, just giving a flash report on Yutu, the Chinese Jade Rabbit on the moon. Only few lines, but I had to start…
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The Drowned World (1962) is a SF novel by J. G. Ballard, an author that has written in other literary genres and became especially famous thanks to a war novel, Empire of the Sun. Set in London in a far-away 2145, The…
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2014 will be a year to remember for space missions. No matter what achievements are awaiting us in the future (hopefully plenty), the last 12 months have seen something that will remain in history. I’m going to mention here only few…
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In addition to astrophysics and space exploration, I do also write articles about another of my favourite subjects, science in science-fiction, on this blog and elsewhere. The ones listed below have appeared in summer 2014 on Amazing Stories. Arrakis and Single…
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