Haha! Roasted!

101

In his essay “To Tell a Chemist” (1965), Asimov proposed a simple shibboleth for distinguishing chemists from non-chemists: ask the person to read the word “unionized”. Chemists, he noted, will read un-ionized (electrically neutral), while non-chemists will read union-ized (belonging to a trade union).

Breakthrough Starshot project is working towards accelerating a probe close to 20% of C. That’s a significant fraction of C in these terms.

Even if we could get to .25 C, that would be 80 years for the probe to get there, and then 20 more for the data to come back.

But yes, that is still VERY close.

Isaac Asimov is considered one of the greats of 20th century science fiction. Again, while most famous for writing science fiction he wrote much more than just that.

Isaac Asimov has won scores of Hugo Awards for stories and for Best Editor; dozens of Nebula Awards; several World Fantasy Awards; over a dozen Theodore Sturgeon Awards and Homer Awards; and multiple Sidewise Awards1. He has won Hugo Awards for Best Related Work, Best Novelette, and Best Editor.

He wrote 40 novels and a lot of short stories, and is a great read almost always. He also wrote textbooks because he was just amazing.

Correct!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrharctia_isabella

Well, presumably more than a few dozen light years away. A few dozen lightyears is nothing on a cosmic scale.

Ah, I could see that. It can be read either way, but I think the author intended it to be read this way. ‘Wow!’ As the reaction to the father’s statement that he won’t have to work if he does something he loves.

Yes how is the text supposed to for?

Interesting read. Thank you.

Same. Could use a reread. What a great book.

Goldeneye did allow this. Crazy. Hard to use other buttons though.

Perhaps your award was the friends you made all along…

If you’re still using live journal in 2024, you should win SOMETHING.

Yep. I found it fascinating. I think the version I had probably had a forward from Asimov talking about how we were wrong about guesses about Venus.

I don’t remember much else from the story except this, and the big reveal of the whodunnit. (Or more accurately the how).

There was a young adult sci fi series by Asimov called ‘Lucky Starr’ and I remember Venus was Oceanic in that one. Old old series.

Oh good. I was worried they were defenseless.

We had a Garden Spider for one summer on the corner of our porch.

She was so chill and we loved having her around. They often rebuild that beautiful web every night.

She laid a few sacs, but none of her children stuck in our yard, sadly.

Did some checking, out of curiosity.

And yeah. Interesting as hell.

We recorded 65 dBSPL (dB of sound pressure level) ultrasonic sounds 4 inches (10 cm) from tomato and tobacco plants, implying that these sounds could be detected by some organisms from up to several feet (meters) away.

https://www.sci.news/biology/plants-ultrasonic-clicks-07895.html