A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse) is a building where plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings. A miniature greenhouse is known as a cold frame.

A greenhouse is a structure with different types of covering materials, such as a glass or plastic roof and frequently glass or plastic walls; it heats up because incoming visible solar radiation (for which the glass is transparent) from the sun is absorbed by plants, soil, and other things inside the building. Air warmed by the heat from hot interior surfaces is retained in the building by the roof and wall. In addition, the warmed structures and plants inside the greenhouse re-radiate some of their thermal energy in the infra-red, to which glass is partly opaque, so some of this energy is also trapped inside the glasshouse. However, this latter process is a minor player compared with the former (convective) process. Thus, the primary heating mechanism of a greenhouse is convection. This can be demonstrated by opening a small window near the roof of a greenhouse: the temperature drops considerably. This principle is the basis of the autovent automatic cooling system. Thus, the glass used for a greenhouse works as a barrier to air flow, and its effect is to trap energy within the greenhouse. The air that is warmed near the ground is prevented from rising indefinitely and flowing away.

Although there is some heat loss due to thermal conduction through the glass and other building materials, there is a net increase in energy (and therefore temperature) inside the greenhouse.

Greenhouses can be divided into glass greenhouses and plastic greenhouses. Plastics mostly used are PEfilm and multiwall sheet in PC or PMMA. Commercial glass greenhouses are often high tech production facilities for vegetables or flowers. The glass greenhouses are filled with equipment like screening installations, heating, cooling, lighting and may be automatically controlled by a computer.

Uses

Greenhouses protect crops from too much heat or cold, shield plants from dust storms and blizzards, and help to keep out pests. Light and temperature control allows greenhouses to turn inarable land into arable land, thereby improving food production in marginal environments.

Because greenhouses allow certain crops to be grown throughout the year, greenhouses are increasingly important in the food supply of high latitude countries. One of the largest greenhouse complexes in the world is in Almeria, Spain, where greenhouses cover almost . Sometimes called the sea of plastics.

Greenhouses are often used for growing flowers, vegetables, fruits, and tobacco plants. Bumblebees are the pollinators of choice for most greenhouse pollination, although other types of bees have been used, as well as artificial pollination. Hydroponics can be used in greenhouses as well to make the most use of the interior space.

Besides tobacco, many vegetables and flowers are grown in greenhouses in late winter and early spring, and then transplanted outside as the weather warms. Started plants are usually available for gardeners in farmers' markets at transplanting time. Special greenhouse varieties of certain crops such as tomatoes are generally used for commercial production.

The closed environment of a greenhouse has its own unique requirements, compared with outdoor production. Pests and diseases, and extremes of heat and humidity, have to be controlled, and irrigation is necessary to provide water. Significant inputs of heat and light may be required, particularly with winter production of warm-weather vegetables.

Because the temperature and humidity of greenhouses must be constantly monitored to ensure optimal conditions, a wireless sensor network can be used to gather data remotely. The data is transmitted to a control location and used to control heating, cooling, and irrigation systems.

History

The idea of growing plants in environmentally controlled areas has existed since Roman times. The Roman emperor Tiberius ate a cucumber-like vegetable daily. The Roman gardeners used artificial methods (similar to the greenhouse system) of growing to have it available for his table every day of the year. Cucumbers were planted in wheeled carts which were put in the sun daily, then taken inside to keep them warm at night. The cucumbers were stored under frames or in cucumber houses glazed with either oiled cloth known as "specularia" or with sheets of selenite (a.k.a. ''lapis specularis''), according to the description by Pliny the Elder.

The first modern greenhouses were built in Italy in the 13th century to house the exotic plants that explorers brought back from the tropics. They were originally called ''giardini botanici'' (botanical gardens). The concept of greenhouses soon spread to the Netherlands and then England, along with the plants. Some of these early attempts required enormous amounts of work to close up at night or to winterize. There were serious problems with providing adequate and balanced heat in these early greenhouses. Today the Netherlands has many of the largest greenhouses in the world, some of them so vast that they are able to produce millions of vegetables every year.

The French botanist Charles Lucien Bonaparte is often credited with building the first practical modern greenhouse in Leiden, Holland to grow medicinal tropical plants.

Originally on the estates of the rich, with the growth of the science of botany, greenhouses spread to the universities. The French called their first greenhouses ''orangeries'', since they were used to protect orange trees from freezing. As pineapples became popular ''pineries'', or pineapple pits, were built. Experimentation with the design of greenhouses continued during the Seventeenth Century in Europe as technology produced better glass and construction techniques improved. The greenhouse at the Palace of Versailles was an example of their size and elaborateness; it was more than long, wide, and high.

In the nineteenth Century the largest greenhouses were built. The conservatory at Kew Gardens in England is a prime example of the Victorian greenhouse. Although intended for both horticultural and non-horticultural exhibition these included London's Crystal Palace, the New York Crystal Palace and Munich’s Glaspalast. Joseph Paxton, who had experimented with glass and iron in the creation of large greenhouses as the head gardener at Chatsworth, in Derbyshire, working for the Duke of Devonshire, designed and built the first, London's Crystal Palace. A major architectural achievement in monumental greenhouse building were the Royal Greenhouses of Laeken (1874–1895) for King Leopold II of Belgium.

In Japan, the first greenhouse was built in 1880 by Samuel Cocking, a British merchant who exported herbs.

In the Twentieth Century the geodesic dome was added to the many types of greenhouses. A notable example is the Eden Project, in Cornwall.

Greenhouse structures adapted in the 1960s when wider sheets of polyethylene film became widely available. Hoop houses were made by several companies and were also frequently made by the growers themselves. Constructed of aluminium extrusions, special galvanized steel tubing, or even just lengths of steel or PVC water pipe, construction costs were greatly reduced. This meant many more greenhouses on smaller farms and garden centers. Polyethylene film durability increased greatly when more effective inhibitors were developed and added in the 1970s. These UV inhibitors extended the usable life of the film from one or two years up to 3 and eventually 4 or more years.

Gutter-connected greenhouses became more prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s. These greenhouses have two or more bays connected by a common wall, or row of support posts. Heating inputs were reduced as the ratio of floor area to roof area was increased substantially. Gutter connected greenhouses are now commonly used both in production and in situations where plants are grown and sold to the public as well. Gutter connected greenhouses are commonly covered with a double layer of polyethylene film with air blown between to provide increased heating efficiencies, or structured polycarbonate materials.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands has some of the largest greenhouses in the world. Such is the scale of food production in the country that in 2000, greenhouses occupied 10,526 hectares, or 0.25% of the total land area of the Netherlands.

Greenhouses began to be built in the Westland area of the Netherlands in the mid-nineteenth century. The addition of sand to bogs and clay soil created fertile soil for agriculture, and around 1850, grapes were grown in the first greenhouses, simple glass constructions with one of the sides consisting of solid wall. By the early 20th century, greenhouses began to be constructed of nothing but glass, and they began to be heated. This also allowed for the production of fruits and vegetables that did not ordinarily grow in the area. Today, the Westland and the area around Aalsmeer have the highest concentration of greenhouse agriculture in the world. The Westland produces mostly vegetables, besides plants and flowers; Aalsmeer is noted mainly for the production of flowers and potted plants. Since the twentieth century, the area around Venlo (in Limburg) and parts of Drenthe have also become important regions for greenhouse agriculture.

Since 2000, technical innovations include the "closed greenhouse", a completely closed system allowing the grower complete control over the growing process while using less energy. Floating greenhouses are used in watery areas of the country.

The Netherlands has around 9,000 greenhouse enterprises that operate over 10,000 hectares of greenhouses and employ some 150,000 workers, efficiently producing €4.5 billion worth of vegetables, fruit, plants, and flowers, some 80% of which is exported.

Greenhouse ventilation

Ventilation is one of the most important components in a successful greenhouse. If there is no proper ventilation, greenhouses and their plants become prone to a myriad of problems.

Ventilation serves four major purposes within the greenhouse:

Regulating the temperature

Ensurance of plenty of fresh air to photosynthesize

Good ventilation prevents pest infestations

Encouraging important pollination within the greenhouse

In greenhouses recirculation fans can be used in parallel or series ventilation.

See also

Bioshelter

Biosphere 2

Conservatory (greenhouse)

Garden conservatory

Greenhouse effect

Phytotron

Royal Greenhouses of Laeken in Belgium

Seasonal thermal store

Tessellated roof

The Eden Project

Vertical farming

High tunnel

Cold frame

Row cover (Cloche)

References

Notes

Bibliography

Cunningham, Anne S. (2000) ''Crystal palaces : garden conservatories of the United States'' Princeton Architectural Press, New York, ISBN 1-56898-242-9 ;

Lemmon, Kenneth (1963) ''The covered garden'' Dufour, Philadelphia;

Muijzenberg, Erwin W B van den (1980) ''A history of greenhouses'' Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Wageningen, Netherlands;

Vleeschouwer, Olivier de (2001) ''Greenhouses and conservatories'' Flammarion, Paris, ISBN 2-08-010585-X ;

Woods, May (1988)''Glass houses: history of greenhouses, orangeries and conservatories'' Aurum Press, London, ISBN 0-906053-85-4 ;

External links

Enoshima Jinja Shrine Botanical Garden

North Carolina State University Greenhouse Food Production website

Organic Greenhouse Tomato Production

Planning and Building a Greenhouse

Category:Agricultural buildings Category:Horticulture and gardening Category:Garden features

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Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
name	Isaac Asimov
birth name	Isaak Yudovich Ozimov
birth date	Between October 4, 1919 and January 2, 1920
birth place	Petrovichi, Russian SFSR
death date	April 06, 1992
death place	New York City, New York, United States
nationality	American
ethnicity	Russian Jewish
occupation	Novelist, short story writer, essayist, historian, Professor of biochemistry, textbook writer, humorist | genre Science fiction (hard SF), popular science, mystery fiction, essays, literary criticism
movement	Golden Age of Science Fiction
notableworks	The ''Foundation Series'', the ''Robot Series'', ''Nightfall'', ''The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science'', ''I, Robot'', ''Planets for Man''
debut works	"Marooned Off Vesta", an S.F. short story
religion	Atheistic Humanism
influences	Clifford D. SimakJohn W. Campbell, Jr.H.G. WellsStanley G. WeinbaumEdward GibbonHumanism
signature	Isaac Asimov signature.svg
website	http://www.asimovonline.com }}

Isaac Asimov ( ; born Isaak Yudovich Ozimov, ; ; c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and over 9,000 letters and postcards. His works have been published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (The sole exception being the 100s: philosophy and psychology, although he did write a foreword for ''The Humanist Way'', which is published in the 100s).

Isaac Asimov is widely considered a master of hard science fiction and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, he was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov's most famous work is the ''Foundation'' Series; his other major series are the ''Galactic Empire'' series and the ''Robot'' series, both of which he later tied into the same fictional universe as the Foundation Series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson. He wrote many short stories, among them "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short science fiction story of all time. Asimov wrote the ''Lucky Starr'' series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.

The prolific Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much non-fiction. Most of his popular science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Examples include his ''Guide to Science'', the three volume set ''Understanding Physics'', ''Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery'', as well as numerous works on astronomy, mathematics, the Bible, William Shakespeare's works and chemistry subjects.

Asimov was a long-time member and Vice President of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, a crater on the planet Mars, a Brooklyn, New York elementary school, and one Isaac Asimov literary award are named in his honor.

Biography

Asimov was born sometime between October 4, 1919 and January 2, 1920 in Petrovichi in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (near the modern border with Belarus) to Anna Rachel Berman Asimov and Judah Asimov, a family of Jewish millers. While his exact date of birth is uncertain, Asimov himself celebrated it on January 2.

The family name derives from озимые (''ozimiye''), a Russian word for winter grains in which his great-grandfather dealt, to which a patronymic suffix was added. His name in Russian was originally ''Isaak Ozimov'' (Russian: Исаак Озимов); but he was later known in Russia as ''Ayzyek Azimov'' (Айзек Азимов), a Russian Cyrillic adaptation of the American English pronunciation. Asimov had two younger siblings; a sister, Marcia (born Manya, June 17, 1922-April 2, 2011), and a brother, Stanley (July 25, 1929-August 16, 1995).

His family emigrated to the United States when he was three years old. Since his parents always spoke Yiddish and English with him, he never learned Russian. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York City, Asimov taught himself to read at the age of five and remained fluent in Yiddish as well as English. Asimov wrote of his father, "My father, for all his education as an Orthodox Jew, was not Orthodox in his heart", and "he didn't recite the myriad prayers prescribed for every action, and he never made any attempt to teach them to me."

His parents owned a succession of candy stores, and everyone in the family was expected to work in them.

Education and career

Asimov began reading science fiction pulp magazines at a young age. His father, as a matter of principle, forbade reading the pulps, as he considered them to be trash, but Asimov persuaded him that the science fiction magazines had "Science" in the title, so they were educational. Around the age of eleven, he began to write his own stories, and by age nineteen—after he discovered science fiction fandom—he was selling stories to the science fiction magazines. John W. Campbell, then editor of ''Astounding Science Fiction,'' had a strong formative influence on Asimov and eventually became a personal friend.

Asimov attended New York City Public Schools, including Boys High School, in Brooklyn, New York. From there he went on to Seth Low Junior College for two years, then to Columbia University for the remainder of his master's degree, from which he graduated in 1939, eventually returning to earn a PhD in biochemistry in 1948. In between, he spent three years during World War II working as a civilian at the Philadelphia Navy Yard's Naval Air Experimental Station. After the war ended, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving for almost nine months before receiving an honorable discharge. In the course of his brief military career, he rose to the rank of corporal on the basis of his typing skills, and narrowly avoided participating in the 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.

After completing his doctorate, Asimov joined the faculty of the Boston University School of Medicine, with which he remained associated thereafter. From 1958, this was in a non-teaching capacity, as he turned to writing full-time (his writing income had already exceeded his academic salary). Being tenured meant that he retained the title of associate professor, and in 1979 the university honored his writing by promoting him to full professor of biochemistry. Asimov's personal papers from 1965 onward are archived at the university's Mugar Memorial Library, to which he donated them at the request of curator Howard Gottlieb. The collection fills 464 boxes, or seventy-one meters of shelf space.

Personal life

Asimov married Gertrude Blugerman (1917, Canada–1990, Boston) on July 26, 1942. They had two children, David (b. 1951) and Robyn Joan (b. 1955). After a separation in 1970, he and Gertrude divorced in 1973, and Asimov married Janet O. Jeppson later that year.

Asimov was a claustrophile: he enjoyed small, enclosed spaces. In the third volume of his autobiography, he recalls a childhood desire to own a magazine stand in a New York City Subway station, within which he could enclose himself and listen to the rumble of passing trains while reading.

Asimov was afraid of flying, only doing so twice in his entire life (once in the course of his work at the Naval Air Experimental Station, and once returning home from the army base in Oahu in 1946) He seldom traveled great distances, partly because his aversion to flying complicated the logistics of long-distance travel. This phobia influenced several of his fiction works, such as the Wendell Urth mystery stories and the Robot novels featuring Elijah Baley. In his later years, he found he enjoyed traveling on cruise ships, and on several occasions he became part of the cruises' "entertainment", giving science-themed talks on ships such as the RMS ''Queen Elizabeth 2''.

Asimov was an able public speaker and was a frequent fixture at science fiction conventions, where he was friendly and approachable. He patiently answered tens of thousands of questions and other mail with postcards, and was pleased to give autographs. He was of medium height, stocky, with mutton chop whiskers and a distinct Brooklyn accent. His physical dexterity was very poor. He never learned to swim or ride a bicycle; however, he did learn to drive a car after he moved to Boston. In his humor book ''Asimov Laughs Again'', he describes Boston driving as "anarchy on wheels".

Asimov's wide interests included his participation in his later years in organizations devoted to the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan and in The Wolfe Pack, a group of devotees of the Nero Wolfe mysteries written by Rex Stout. Many of his short stories mention or quote Gilbert and Sullivan. He was a prominent member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the leading Sherlock Holmes society. He was also a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of his fictional group of mystery solvers the Black Widowers.

In 1984, the American Humanist Association (AHA) named him the Humanist of the Year. From 1985 until his death in 1992, he served as president of the AHA, an honorary appointment; his successor was his friend and fellow writer Kurt Vonnegut. He was also a close friend of ''Star Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry, and earned a screen credit on ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' for advice he gave during production (generally, confirming to Paramount Pictures that Roddenberry's ideas were legitimate science-fictional extrapolation).

Illness and death

Asimov suffered a heart attack in 1977, and had triple bypass surgery in December 1983. When he died in New York City on April 6, 1992, his brother Stanley reported heart and kidney failure as the cause of death. He was survived by his second wife, Janet, and his children from his first marriage. Ten years after his death, Janet Asimov's edition of Asimov's autobiography, ''It's Been a Good Life'', revealed that the myocardial and renal complications were the result of an infection by HIV, which he had contracted from a blood transfusion received during his bypass operation. Janet Asimov wrote in the epilogue of ''It's Been a Good Life'' that Asimov had wanted to "go public," but his doctors convinced him to remain silent, warning that the anti-AIDS prejudice would likely extend to his family members. Asimov's family considered disclosing his condition after his death, but the controversy that erupted when Arthur Ashe announced his own HIV infection (also contracted from a blood transfusion during heart surgery) convinced them otherwise. Ten years later, after most of Asimov's doctors had died, Janet and Robyn Asimov agreed that the AIDS story should be made public.

Writings

Overview

thumb|right|Rowena Morrill depicts Asimov enthroned with symbols of his life's work Asimov's career can be divided into several time periods. His early career, dominated by science fiction, began with short stories in 1939 and novels in 1950. This lasted until about 1958, all but ending after publication of ''The Naked Sun''. He began publishing nonfiction in 1952, co-authoring a college-level textbook called ''Biochemistry and Human Metabolism''. Following the brief orbit of the first man-made satellite Sputnik I by the USSR in 1957, his production of nonfiction, particularly popular science books, greatly increased, with a consequent drop in his science fiction output. Over the next quarter century, he wrote only four science fiction novels. Starting in 1982, the second half of his science fiction career began with the publication of ''Foundation's Edge''. From then until his death, Asimov published several more sequels and prequels to his existing novels, tying them together in a way he had not originally anticipated, making a unified series. There are, however, many inconsistencies in this unification, especially in his earlier stories.

Asimov believed that his most enduring contributions would be his "Three Laws of Robotics" and the Foundation Series (see ''Yours, Isaac Asimov,'' p. 329). Furthermore, the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' credits his science fiction for introducing the words ''positronic'' (an entirely fictional technology), ''psychohistory'' (which is also used for a different study on historical motivations) and ''robotics'' into the English language. Asimov coined the term ''robotics'' without suspecting that it might be an original word; at the time, he believed it was simply the natural analogue of words such as mechanics and hydraulics, but for robots. Unlike his word ''psychohistory'', the word ''robotics'' continues in mainstream technical use with Asimov's original definition. ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' featured androids with "positronic brains" giving Asimov full credit for "inventing" this fictional technology. His fictional writings for space and time are similar to the writings of Brian W Aldiss, Poul Anderson and Gregory Benford.

Science fiction

Asimov first began reading the science fiction pulp magazines sold in his family's confectionery store in 1929. He came into contact with science fiction fandom in the mid-1930s, particularly the circle that became the Futurians. He began writing his first science fiction story, "Cosmic Corkscrew", in 1937, but failed to finish it until June 1938, when he was inspired to do so after a visit to the offices of ''Astounding Science Fiction''. He finished "Cosmic Corkscrew" on June 19, and submitted the story in person to ''Astounding'' editor John W. Campbell two days later. Campbell rejected "Cosmic Corkscrew", but encouraged Asimov to keep trying, and Asimov did so. Asimov sold his third story, "Marooned Off Vesta", to ''Amazing Stories'' magazine in October, and it appeared in the March 1939 issue. He continued to write and sometimes sell stories to the science fiction pulps.

In 1941, he published his 32nd story, "Nightfall", which has been described as one of "the most famous science-fiction stories of all time". In 1968 the Science Fiction Writers of America voted "Nightfall" the best science fiction short story ever written. In his short story collection ''Nightfall and Other Stories'' he wrote, "The writing of 'Nightfall' was a watershed in my professional career ... I was suddenly taken seriously and the world of science fiction became aware that I existed. As the years passed, in fact, it became evident that I had written a 'classic'".

"Nightfall" is an archetypal example of social science fiction, a term coined by Asimov to describe a new trend in the 1940s, led by authors including Asimov and Heinlein, away from gadgets and space opera and toward speculation about the human condition.

By 1941 Asimov had begun selling regularly to ''Astounding'', which was then the field's leading magazine. From 1943 to 1949, all of his published science fiction appeared in ''Astounding''.

In 1942 he published the first of his ''Foundation'' stories—later collected in the ''Foundation Trilogy'': ''Foundation'' (1951), ''Foundation and Empire'' (1952), and ''Second Foundation'' (1953)—which recount the collapse and rebirth of a vast interstellar empire in a universe of the future. Taken together, they are his most famous work of science fiction, along with the Robot Series. Many years later, due to pressure by fans on Asimov to write another, he continued the series with ''Foundation's Edge'' (1982) and ''Foundation and Earth'' (1986), and then went back to before the original trilogy with ''Prelude to Foundation'' (1988) and ''Forward the Foundation'' (1992). The series features his fictional science of Psychohistory in which the future course of the history of large populations can be predicted.

His positronic robot stories—many of which were collected in ''I, Robot'' (1950)—were begun at about the same time. They promulgated a set of rules of ethics for robots (see Three Laws of Robotics) and intelligent machines that greatly influenced other writers and thinkers in their treatment of the subject. One such short story, "The Bicentennial Man", was made into a film starring Robin Williams.

The 2004 film ''I, Robot'', starring Will Smith, was based on a script by Jeff Vintar entitled ''Hardwired'', with Asimov's ideas incorporated later after acquiring the rights to the ''I, Robot'' title. It is not related to the ''I, Robot'' script by Harlan Ellison, who collaborated with Asimov himself to create a version that captured the spirit of the original. Asimov is quoted as saying that Ellison's screenplay would lead to "the first really adult, complex, worthwhile science fiction movie ever made". The screenplay was published in book form in 1994, after hopes of seeing it in film form were becoming slim.

Besides movies, his Foundation and Robot stories have inspired other derivative works of science fiction literature, many by well-known and established authors such as Roger MacBride Allen, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford and David Brin. These appear to have been done with the blessing, and often at the request of, Asimov's widow Janet Asimov.

In 1948 he also wrote a spoof chemistry article, "The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline". At the time, Asimov was preparing his own doctoral dissertation, and for the oral examination to follow that. Fearing a prejudicial reaction from his graduate school evaluation board at Columbia University, Asimov asked his editor that it be released under a pseudonym, yet it appeared under his own name because of a mistake by the publisher. During his oral examination shortly thereafter, Asimov grew concerned at the scrutiny he received. At the end of the examination, one evaluator turned to him, smiling, and said "Mr. Asimov, tell us something about the thermodynamic properties of the compound thiotimoline". The stuttering Asimov was sent out of the room then. After a 20-minute or so wait, he was summoned back into the Examination Room and congratulated as "Dr. Asimov."

In 1949, the book publisher Doubleday's science fiction editor Walter I. Bradbury accepted Asimov's unpublished novelette "Grow Old Along With Me" (40,000 words) for publication, but requested that it be extended to a full novel of 70,000 words. The book appeared under the Doubleday imprint in January 1950 with the title of ''Pebble in the Sky''. The Doubleday company went on to publish five more original science fiction novels by Asimov in the 1950s, along with the six juvenile Lucky Starr novels, under the pseudonym of "Paul French". Doubleday also published collections of Asimov's short stories, beginning with ''The Martian Way and Other Stories'' in 1955. The early 1950s also saw the Gnome Press company publishing one collection of Asimov's positronic robot stories as ''I, Robot'' and his ''Foundation'' stories and novelettes as the three books of the ''Foundation Trilogy''. More positronic robot stories were republished in book form as ''The Rest of the Robots''.

When new science fiction magazines, notably ''Galaxy'' magazine and ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'', appeared in the 1950s, Asimov began publishing short stories in them as well. He would later refer to the 1950s as his "golden decade". A number of these stories are included in his ''Best of'' anthology, including "The Last Question" (1956), on the ability of humankind to cope with and potentially reverse the process of entropy. It was his personal favorite and considered by many to be equal to "Nightfall". Asimov wrote of it in 1973:

In December 1974, the former Beatle Paul McCartney approached Asimov and asked him if he could write the screenplay for a science-fiction movie musical. McCartney had a vague idea for the plot and a small scrap of dialogue; he wished to make a film about a rock band whose members discover they are being impersonated by a group of extraterrestrials. The band and their impostors would likely be played by McCartney's group Wings, then at the height of their career. Intrigued by the idea, although he was not generally a fan of rock music, Asimov quickly produced a "treatment" or brief outline of the story. He adhered to McCartney's overall idea, producing a story he felt to be moving and dramatic. However, he did not make use of McCartney's brief scrap of dialogue, and probably as a consequence, McCartney rejected the story. The treatment now exists only in the Boston University archives.

Beginning in 1977, Asimov lent his name to ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' (now ''Asimov's Science Fiction'') and penned an editorial for each issue. There was also a short-lived ''Asimov's SF Adventure Magazine'' and a companion ''Asimov's Science Fiction Anthology'' reprint series, published as magazines (in the same manner as the stablemates ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's'' and ''Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine's'' "anthologies").

Popular science

During the late 1950s and 1960s, Asimov shifted gears somewhat, and substantially decreased his fiction output (he published only four adult novels between 1957's ''The Naked Sun'' and 1982's ''Foundation's Edge'', two of which were mysteries). At the same time, he greatly increased his non-fiction production, writing mostly on science topics; the launch of Sputnik in 1957 engendered public concern over a "science gap", which Asimov's publishers were eager to fill with as much material as he could write.

Meanwhile, the monthly ''Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' invited him to continue his regular non-fiction column, begun in the now-folded bimonthly companion magazine ''Venture Science Fiction Magazine'', ostensibly dedicated to popular science, but with Asimov having complete editorial freedom. The first of the ''F&SF'' columns appeared in November 1958, and they followed uninterrupted thereafter, with 399 entries, until Asimov's terminal illness. These columns, periodically collected into books by his principal publisher, Doubleday, helped make Asimov's reputation as a "Great Explainer" of science, and were referred to by him as his only pop-science writing in which he never had to assume complete ignorance of the subjects at hand on the part of his readers. The popularity of his first wide-ranging reference work, ''The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science'', also allowed him to give up most of his academic responsibilities and become essentially a full-time freelance writer.

Asimov wrote several essays on the social contentions of his time, including "Thinking About Thinking" and "Science: Knock Plastic" (1967).

The great variety of information covered in Asimov's writings once prompted Kurt Vonnegut to ask, "How does it feel to know everything?" Asimov replied that he only knew how it felt to have the ''reputation'' of omniscience—"Uneasy". (See ''In Joy Still Felt,'' chapter 30.) In the introduction to his story collection ''Slow Learner,'' Thomas Pynchon admitted that he relied upon Asimov's science popularizations (and the ''Oxford English Dictionary'') to provide his knowledge of entropy.

It is a mark of the friendship and respect accorded Asimov by Arthur C. Clarke that the so-called "Asimov-Clarke Treaty of Park Avenue", put together as they shared a cab ride along Park Avenue in New York, stated that Asimov was required to insist that Clarke was the best science fiction writer in the world (reserving second-best for himself), while Clarke was required to insist that Asimov was the best science writer in the world (reserving second-best for himself). Thus the dedication in Clarke's book ''Report on Planet Three'' (1972) reads: ''"In accordance with the terms of the Clarke-Asimov treaty, the second-best science writer dedicates this book to the second-best science-fiction writer."''

Coined terms

Asimov coined the term "robotics" in his 1941 story ''Liar!'', though he later remarked that he believed then that he was merely using an existing word, as he stated in ''Gold'' ("The Robot Chronicles"), though while acknowledging the Oxford Dictionary reference, he incorrectly states that the word was first printed about one third of the way down the first column of page 100, Astounding Science Fiction, March 1942 printing of his short story ''Runaround'' .

Asimov also coined the term Spome in a paper entitled, “There’s No Place Like Spome” in ''Atmosphere in Space Cabins and Closed Environments'', originally presented as a paper to the American Chemical Society on September 13, 1965. It refers to any system closed with respect to matter and open with respect to energy capable of sustaining human life indefinitely.

Other writings

In addition to his interest in science, Asimov was also greatly interested in history. Starting in the 1960s, he wrote 14 popular history books, most notably ''The Greeks: A Great Adventure'' (1965), ''The Roman Republic'' (1966), ''The Roman Empire'' (1967), ''The Egyptians'' (1967) and ''The Near East: 10,000 Years of History'' (1968).

He published ''Asimov's Guide to the Bible'' in two volumes—covering the Old Testament in 1967 and the New Testament in 1969— and then combined them into one 1,300-page volume in 1981. Complete with maps and tables, the guide goes through the books of the Bible in order, explaining the history of each one and the political influences that affected it, as well as biographical information about the important characters. His interest in literature manifested itself in several annotations of literary works, including ''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'' (1970), ''Asimov's Annotated Paradise Lost'' (1974), and ''The Annotated Gulliver's Travels'' (1980).

Asimov was also a noted mystery author and a frequent contributor to ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''. He began by writing science fiction mysteries such as his Wendell Urth stories but soon moved on to writing "pure" mysteries. He only published two full-length mystery novels but he wrote several stories about the Black Widowers, a group of men who met monthly for dinner, conversation, and a puzzle. He got the idea for the Widowers from his own association in a stag group called the Trap Door Spiders and all of the main characters (with the exception of the waiter, Henry, whom he admitted resembled Wodehouse's Jeeves) were modeled after his closest friends.

Toward the end of his life, Asimov published a series of collections of limericks, mostly written by himself, starting with ''Lecherous Limericks'', which appeared in 1975. ''Limericks: Too Gross,'' whose title displays Asimov's love of puns, contains 144 limericks by Asimov and an equal number by John Ciardi. He even created a slim volume of Sherlockian limericks (and embarrassed one fan by autographing her copy with an impromptu limerick that rhymed 'Nancy' with 'romancy'). Asimov featured Yiddish humor in ''Azazel, The Two Centimeter Demon''. The two main characters, both Jewish, talk over dinner, or lunch, or breakfast, about anecdotes of "George" and his friend Azazel. Asimov's ''Treasury of Humor'' is both a working joke book and a treatise propounding his views on humor theory. According to Asimov, the most essential element of humor is an abrupt change in point of view, one that suddenly shifts focus from the important to the trivial, or from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Particularly in his later years, Asimov to some extent cultivated an image of himself as an amiable lecher. In 1971, as a response to the popularity of sexual guidebooks such as ''The Sensuous Woman'' (by "J") and ''The Sensuous Man'' (by "M"), Asimov published ''The Sensuous Dirty Old Man'' under the byline "Dr. 'A'" (although his full name was printed on the paperback edition, first published 1972).

Asimov published two volumes of autobiography: ''In Memory Yet Green'' (1979) and ''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980). A third autobiography, ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'', was published in April 1994. The epilogue was written by his widow Janet Asimov a decade after his death. ''It's Been a Good Life'' (2002), edited by Janet, is a condensed version of his three autobiographies. He also published three volumes of retrospectives of his writing, ''Opus 100'' (1969), ''Opus 200'' (1979), and ''Opus 300'' (1984).

In 1987, the Asimovs co-wrote ''How to Enjoy Writing: A Book of Aid and Comfort''. In it they offer advice on how to maintain a positive attitude and stay productive when dealing with discouragement, distractions, rejection and thick-headed editors. The book includes many quotations, essays, anecdotes and husband-wife dialogues about the ups and downs of being an author.

Asimov and ''Star Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry developed a unique relationship during ''Star Trek's'' initial launch in the late 1960s. Asimov wrote a critical essay on ''Star Trek's'' scientific accuracy for ''TV Guide'' magazine. Roddenberry retorted respectfully with a personal letter explaining the limitations of accuracy when writing a weekly series. Asimov corrected himself with a follow-up essay to ''TV Guide'' claiming despite its inaccuracies, that ''Star Trek'' was a fresh and intellectually challenging science fiction television show. The two remained friends to the point where Asimov even served as an advisor on a number of ''Star Trek'' projects.

In 1973, Asimov published a proposal for calendar reform, called the ''World Season Calendar''. It divides the year into four seasons (named A–D) of 13 weeks (91 days) each. This allows days to be named, e.g., "D-73" instead of December 1. An extra ''Year Day'' is added for a total of 365 days.

Awards

1957Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award, for ''Building Blocks of the Universe'' 1960Howard W. Blakeslee Award from the American Heart Association for ''The Living River'' 1962Boston University's Publication Merit Award 1963special Hugo Award for "adding science to science fiction" for essays published in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 1963Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1965James T. Grady Award of the American Chemical Society (now called the James T. Grady-James H. Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry) 1966Best All-time Novel Series Hugo Award for the ''Foundation'' series 1967Westinghouse Science Writing Award 1972Nebula Award for Best Novel for ''The Gods Themselves'' 1973Hugo Award for Best Novel for ''The Gods Themselves'' 1973Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for ''The Gods Themselves'' 1977Hugo Award for Best Novelette for ''The Bicentennial Man'' 1977Nebula Award for Best Novelette for ''The Bicentennial Man'' 1981An asteroid, 5020 Asimov, was named in his honor 1983Hugo Award for Best Novel for ''Foundation's Edge'' 1983Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel for ''Foundation's Edge'' 1987Nebula Grand Master award, a lifetime achievement award 1992Hugo Award for Best Novelette for ''Gold'' 1995Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book for ''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' 1996A 1946 Retro-Hugo for Best Novel of 1945 was given at the 1996 WorldCon to ''The Mule'', the 7th Foundation story, published in Astounding Science Fiction 1997Posthumous induction into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame 2009A crater on the planet Mars, Asimov, was named in his honor

14 honorary doctorate degrees from various universities

Writing style

Characteristics

One of the most common impressions of Asimov's fiction work is that his writing style is extremely unornamented. In 1980, science fiction scholar James Gunn, professor emeritus of English at the University of Kansas wrote of ''I, Robot'':

Gunn observes that there are places where Asimov's style rises to the demands of the situation; he cites the climax of "Liar!" as an example. Sharply drawn characters occur at key junctures of his storylines: In addition to Susan Calvin in "Liar!" and "Evidence", we find Arkady Darell in ''Second Foundation,'' Elijah Baley in ''The Caves of Steel'' and Hari Seldon in the Foundation prequels. Asimov addresses this criticism at the beginning of his book ''Nemesis'':

Some details of Asimov's imaginary future technology as he described in the 1940s and 1950s have not aged well. For example, he described powerful robots and computers from the distant future using punched cards or punched tape and engineers using slide rules. In one dramatic scene in ''Foundation and Empire,'' a character gets the news by buying a paper at a vending machine. Of course, this charge could be leveled at virtually any writer of science fiction and has little critical impact.

In addition, his stories also have occasional internal contradictions: names and dates given in The Foundation Series do not always agree with one another, for example. Some such errors may plausibly be due to mistakes the characters make, since characters in Asimov stories are seldom fully informed about their own situations. Other contradictions resulted from the many years elapsed between the time Asimov began the Foundation series and when he resumed work on it; occasionally, advances in scientific knowledge forced him to revise his own fictional history. Other than books by Gunn and Patrouch, there is a relative dearth of "literary" criticism on Asimov (particularly when compared to the sheer volume of his output). Cowart and Wymer's ''Dictionary of Literary Biography'' (1981) gives a possible reason:

In fairness, Gunn's and Patrouch's respective studies of Asimov both take the stand that a clear, direct prose style is still a style. Gunn's 1982 book goes into considerable depth commenting upon each of Asimov's novels published to that date. He does not praise all of Asimov's fiction (nor does Patrouch), but he does call some passages in ''The Caves of Steel'' "reminiscent of Proust." When discussing how that novel depicts night falling over futuristic New York City, Gunn says that Asimov's prose "need not be ashamed anywhere in literary society".

Although he prided himself on his unornamented prose style (for which he credited Clifford D. Simak as an early influence), Asimov also enjoyed giving his longer stories complicated narrative structures, often by arranging chapters in non-chronological ways. Some readers have been put off by this, complaining that the nonlinearity is not worth the trouble and adversely affects the clarity of the story. For example, the first third of ''The Gods Themselves'' begins with Chapter 6, then backtracks to fill in earlier material. (John Campbell advised Asimov to begin his stories as late in the plot as possible. This advice helped Asimov create "Reason", one of the early Robot stories. See ''In Memory Yet Green'' for details of that time period.) Patrouch found that the interwoven and nested flashbacks of ''The Currents of Space'' did serious harm to that novel, to such an extent that only a "dyed-in-the-kyrt Asimov fan" could enjoy it. Asimov's tendency to contort his timelines is perhaps most apparent in his later novel ''Nemesis,'' in which one group of characters live in the "present" and another group starts in the "past", beginning fifteen years earlier and gradually moving toward the time period of the first group.

In 2002, Donald Palumbo, an English professor at East Carolina University, published ''Chaos Theory, Asimov's Foundations and Robots, and Herbert’s Dune: The Fractal Aesthetic of Epic Science Fiction''. This includes a review of Asimov's narrative structures that compares them with the scientific concepts of fractals and chaos. Palumbo finds that though the traditional interests of literature (such as symbolism and characterization) are often somewhat lacking or even absent, a fascination with the Foundation and Robot metaseries remains. He determines that the purposeful complexities of the narrative build unusual symmetric and recursive structures to be perceived by the mind's eye. This volume contains some of the most scholarly and in-depth criticism of Asimov to date.

Limitations

;Alien life''' Asimov was also criticized for the general absence of sexuality and of extraterrestrial life in his science fiction. Asimov once explained that his reluctance to write about aliens came from an incident early in his career when ''Astounding'''s editor John Campbell rejected one of his science fiction stories because the alien characters were portrayed as superior to the humans. He decided that, rather than write weak alien characters, he would not write about aliens at all. Nevertheless, in response to these criticisms he wrote ''The Gods Themselves'', which contains aliens, sex, and alien sex. The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1972, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1973. Asimov said that of all his writings, he was most proud of the middle section of ''The Gods Themselves'', the part which deals with those themes.

In the Hugo Award-winning novella "Gold", Asimov describes an author clearly based on himself who has one of his books (''The Gods Themselves'') adapted into a "compu-drama", essentially photo-realistic computer animation. The director criticizes the fictionalized Asimov ("Gregory Laborian") for having an extremely nonvisual style making it difficult to adapt his work, and the author explains that he relies on ideas and dialogue rather than description to get his points across.

;Gender and social issues Others have criticized him for a lack of strong female characters in his early work. In his autobiographical writings, such as ''Gold'' ("Women and Science Fiction"), he acknowledges this and responds by pointing to inexperience. His later novels, written with more female characters but in essentially the same prose style as his early SF stories, brought this matter to a wider audience. For example, the August 25, 1985 ''Washington Post'''s "Book World" section reports of ''Robots and Empire'' as follows:

It may be noted, however, that in fact ''The Naked Sun'' (1957) deals with social issues as a core part of its central setting and motivation, depicts genetic engineering in the guise of eugenics as a fundamental part of that society, presents the reader with inverted arcologies where a single person is the focal point of the artificial environment as well as a hero who hails from a "normal" arcology on Earth. Meanwhile, totally artificial birth, although not specifically cloning, is the aim of the leaders of the society, sexual want is the major driving force of the main female character (albeit veiled in 1950s sensibilities), and the entire story is used to make the point that too much order is ultimately a stagnant dead end to be avoided.

Views

Religion

Isaac Asimov was an atheist, a humanist, and a rationalist. He did not oppose religious conviction in others, but he frequently railed against superstitious and pseudoscientific beliefs that tried to pass themselves off as genuine science. During his childhood, his father and mother observed Orthodox Jewish traditions, though not as stringently as they had in Petrovichi; they did not, however, force their beliefs upon young Isaac. Thus he grew up without strong religious influences, coming to believe that the Torah represented Hebrew mythology in the same way that the ''Iliad'' recorded Greek mythology. As his books ''Treasury of Humor'' and ''Asimov Laughs Again'' record, Asimov was willing to tell jokes involving God, Satan, the Garden of Eden, Jerusalem, and other religious topics, expressing the viewpoint that a good joke can do more to provoke thought than hours of philosophical discussion.

For a brief while, his father worked in the local synagogue to enjoy the familiar surroundings and, as Isaac put it, "shine as a learned scholar" versed in the sacred writings. This scholarship was a seed for his later authorship and publication of ''Asimov's Guide to the Bible'', an analysis of the historic foundations for both Old and New Testaments. For many years, Asimov called himself an atheist; however, he considered the term somewhat inadequate, as it described what he did not believe rather than what he did. Eventually, he described himself as a "humanist" and considered that term more practical. He did however continue to identify himself as a non-observant Jew as stated in his introduction to Jack Dann's anthology of Jewish science fiction, ''Wandering Stars'': "I attend no services and follow no ritual and have never undergone that curious puberty rite, the bar mitzvah. It doesn't matter. I am Jewish."

In his last volume of autobiography, Asimov wrote, "If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul." The same memoir states his belief that Hell is "the drooling dream of a sadist" crudely affixed to an all-merciful God; if even human governments were willing to curtail cruel and unusual punishments, wondered Asimov, why would punishment in the afterlife not be restricted to a limited term? Asimov rejected the idea that a human belief or action could merit infinite punishment. If an afterlife of just desserts existed, he claimed, the longest and most severe punishment would be reserved for those who "slandered God by inventing Hell".

Politics

Asimov became a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party during the New Deal, and thereafter remained a political liberal. He was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War in the 1960s and in a television interview during the early 1970s he publicly endorsed George McGovern. He was unhappy about what he considered an "irrationalist" viewpoint taken by many radical political activists from the late 1960s and onwards. In his second volume of autobiography, ''In Joy Still Felt,'' Asimov recalled meeting the counterculture figure Abbie Hoffman; Asimov's impression was that the 1960s' counterculture heroes had ridden an emotional wave which, in the end, left them stranded in a "no-man's land of the spirit" from which he wondered if they would ever return.

Social issues

Asimov considered himself a feminist even before Women's Liberation became a widespread movement; he joked that he wished women to be free "because I hate it when they charge". More seriously, he argued that the issue of women's rights was closely connected to that of population control. Furthermore, he believed that homosexuality must be considered a "moral right" on population grounds, as must all consenting adult sexual activity that does not lead to reproduction. He issued many appeals for population control, reflecting a perspective articulated by people from Thomas Malthus through Paul R. Ehrlich.

Environmental issues

Asimov's defense of civil applications of nuclear power even after the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant incident damaged his relations with some of his fellow liberals. In a letter reprinted in ''Yours, Isaac Asimov,'' he states that although he would prefer living in "no danger whatsoever" than near a nuclear reactor, he would still prefer a home near a nuclear power plant than in a slum on Love Canal or near "a Union Carbide plant producing methyl isocyanate" (referring to the Bhopal disaster).

In the closing years of his life, Asimov blamed the deterioration of the quality of life that he perceived in New York City on the shrinking tax base caused by the middle class flight to the suburbs. His last non-fiction book, ''Our Angry Earth'' (1991, co-written with his long-time friend science fiction author Frederik Pohl), deals with elements of the environmental crisis such as global warming and the destruction of the ozone layer.

Other authors

Asimov stated, both in his autobiography and in several essays, that he enjoyed the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien. He paid tribute to ''The Lord of the Rings'' in a "Black Widowers" story. (In his letter to Charlotte and Denis Plimmer, who had previously interviewed him for ''Daily Telegraph Magazine'', Tolkien said that he enjoyed the science fiction of Isaac Asimov.)

Influence

Paul Krugman, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, has stated that it was Asimov's concept of psychohistory that inspired him to become an economist.

John Jenkins, who has reviewed the vast majority of Asimov's written output, once observed: }}

Selected bibliography

Including all titles, charts, and edited collections, there are currently 515 items in Asimov's bibliography—not counting his individual short stories, individual essays, and criticism. For his 100th, 200th, and 300th books (based on his personal count), Asimov published ''Opus 100'' (1969), ''Opus 200'' (1979), and ''Opus 300'' (1984), celebrating his writing; he did not choose to do this for his 400th book, however. Asimov's writings span across all major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification except for Philosophy. However, if his foreword for ''The Humanist Way'' is included, he has been published in all categories.

According to UNESCO's ''Index Translationum database'', Asimov is the world's 17th most-translated author, just behind Arthur Conan Doyle and ahead of Pope John Paul II.

There is an online exhibit displaying features, visuals, and descriptions of some of the over 600 books, games, audio recordings, videos, and wall charts included in the West Virginia University Libraries’ virtually complete Asimov Collection. Many first, rare, and autographed editions are in the Libraries’ Rare Book Room. Book jackets and autographs are presented online along with descriptions and images of children’s books, science fiction art, multimedia, and other materials in the collection.

For a listing of Asimov's books in chronological order within his future history, see the Foundation Series list of books.

Science fiction

"Greater Foundation" series

The Robot series was originally separate from the Foundation series. The Galactic Empire novels were originally published as independent stories. Later in life, Asimov synthesized them into a single coherent 'history' that appeared in the extension of the ''Foundation'' series.

The Robot series:

(first Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)

(second Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)

(third Elijah Baley SF-crime novel)

(sequel to the Elijah Baley trilogy)

Galactic Empire novels:

Original Foundation trilogy:

, Published with the title 'The Man Who Upset the Universe' as a 35c Ace paperback, D-125, in about 1952

Extended Foundation series:

(last of the Foundation series)

(occurs before "Foundation")

(occurs after "Prelude to Foundation" and before "Foundation")

Lucky Starr series (as Paul French)

''David Starr, Space Ranger'' (1952)

''Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids'' (1953)

''Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus'' (1954)

''Lucky Starr and the Big Sun of Mercury'' (1956)

''Lucky Starr and the Moons of Jupiter'' (1957)

''Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn'' (1958)

Norby Chronicles (with Janet Asimov)

Norby, the Mixed-Up Robot (1983)

''Norby's Other Secret'' (1984)

''Norby and the Lost Princess'' (1985)

''Norby and the Invaders'' (1985)

''Norby and the Queen's Necklace'' (1986)

''Norby Finds a Villain'' (1987)

''Norby Down to Earth'' (1988)

''Norby and Yobo's Great Adventure'' (1989)

''Norby and the Oldest Dragon'' (1990)

''Norby and the Court Jester'' (1991)

Novels not part of a series

Novels marked with an asterisk * have minor connections to the Foundation series.

''The End of Eternity'' (1955) *

''Fantastic Voyage'' (1966) (a novelization of the movie)

''The Gods Themselves'' (1972)

''Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain'' (1987) (not a sequel to ''Fantastic Voyage,'' but a similar, independent story)

''Nemesis'' (1989) *

''Nightfall'' (1990), with Robert Silverberg

''The Ugly Little Boy'' (1992), with Robert Silverberg (aka: ''Child of Time'')

''The Positronic Man'' (1993) *, with Robert Silverberg

Short story collections

''See also List of short stories by Isaac Asimov''

Mysteries

Novels

''The Death Dealers'' (1958), republished as ''A Whiff of Death''

''Murder at the ABA'' (1976), also published as ''Authorized Murder''

Short story collections

Black Widowers series

''Tales of the Black Widowers'' (1974)

''More Tales of the Black Widowers'' (1976)

''Casebook of the Black Widowers'' (1980)

''Banquets of the Black Widowers'' (1984)

''Puzzles of the Black Widowers'' (1990)

''The Return of the Black Widowers'' (2003)

Other mysteries

''Asimov's Mysteries'' (1968)

''The Key Word and Other Mysteries'' (1977)

''The Union Club Mysteries'' (1983)

''The Disappearing Man and Other Mysteries'' (1985)

''The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov'' (1986)

Nonfiction

Popular science

Collections of Asimov's essaysoriginally published as monthly columns in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction # ''Fact and Fancy'' (1962) # ''View from a Height'' (1963) # ''Adding a Dimension'' (1964) # ''Of Time, Space, & Other Things'' (1965) # ''From Earth to Heaven'' (1966) # ''Science, Numbers and I'' (1968) # ''The Solar System and Back'' (1970) # ''The Stars in Their Courses'' (1971) # ''The Left Hand of the Electron'' (1972) # ''The Tragedy of the Moon'' (1973) # ''Of Matters Great & Small'' (1975) # ''The Planet that Wasn't'' (1976) # ''Quasar, Quasar, Burning Bright'' (1977) # ''Road to Infinity'' (1979) # ''The Sun Shines Bright'' (1981) # ''Counting the Eons'' (1983) # ''X Stands for Unknown'' (1984) # ''The Subatomic Monster'' (1985) # ''Far as Human Eye Could See'' (1987) # ''The Relativity of Wrong'' (1988) # ''Out of the Everywhere'' (1990) # ''The Secret of the Universe'' (1990)

Other science books by Asimov

''The Chemicals of Life'' (1954) ISBN 9780451624185

''Inside the Atom'' (1956) ISBN 978-0-200-71444-0

''Only a Trillion'' (1957) ISBN 978-0441631216

''Building Blocks of the Universe'' (1957; revised 1974) ISBN 0200710990 ISBN 978-0200710992

''The World of Carbon'' (1958) ISBN 978-0020913504

''The World of Nitrogen'' (1958) ISBN 978-0020914006

''Words of Science and the History Behind Them'' (1959) ISBN 978-0395065716

''The Clock We Live On'' (1959) ISBN 978-0200711005

''Asimov on Numbers'' (1959) ISBN 978-0517371459

''The Wellsprings of Life'' (1960) ISBN 978-0-451-03245-4

''Life and Energy'' (1962) ISBN 978-0380009428

''The Human Body: Its Structure and Operation'' (1963) ISBN 978-0451024305, ISBN 978-0451627070 (revised)

''The Human Brain: Its Capacities and Functions'' (1963) ISBN 978-0451628671

''Planets for Man'' (with Stephen H. Dole) (1964, reprinted by RAND 2007) ISBN 978-0-8330-4226-2

''The Intelligent Man's Guide to Science'' (1965)

* The title varied with each of the four editions, the last being ''Asimov's New Guide to Science'' (1984) ISBN 978-0140172133

''The Universe: From Flat Earth to Quasar'' (1966) ISBN 9780380015962

''The Neutrino'' (1966) ASIN B002JK525W

''Is Anyone There?'' (1967), ISBN 0385084013 – where he used the term Spome

''Photosynthesis'' (1968) ISBN 978-0465057030

''Our World in Space'' (1974) ISBN 978-0821204344

''Please Explain'' (1975) ISBN 978-0440968047

''Asimov On Astronomy'' (1975) ISBN 978-0517279243

''Asimov On Physics'' (1976) ISBN 978-0385009584

''The Collapsing Universe'' (1977), ISBN 0-671-81738-8

''Extraterrestrial Civilizations'' (1979) ISBN 978-0449900208

''Visions of the Universe'' with coauthor Kazuaki Iwasaki (1981) ISBN 978-0939540013

''Exploring the Earth and the Cosmos'' (1982) ISBN 978-0517546673

''Understanding Physics'' (1988) [1966] ISBN 978-0880292511

*Vol. I, Motion, Sound, and Heat ISBN 978-0451003294

*Vol. II, Light, Magnetism, and Electricity ISBN 978-0451619426

*Vol. III, The Electron, Proton, and Neutron ISBN 978-0451626349

''Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery'' (1989), second edition adds content thru 1993, ISBN 9780062701138

''Asimov's Chronology of the World'' (1991) ISBN 9780062700360

''Isaac Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space'' (1991) ISBN 9780449220597

''Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos'' (1991) ISBN 9781439509005

''Mysteries of deep space: Quasars, Pulsars and Black Holes'' (1994) ISBN 9780836811339

''The Moon'' (2003), revised by Richard Hantula ISBN 978-1591021223

''The Sun'' (2003), revised by Richard Hantula ISBN 978-1591021223

''Jupiter'' (2004), revised by Richard Hantula ISBN 978-1591021230

''The Earth'' (2004), revised by Richard Hantula ISBN 978-1591021773

''Venus'' (2004), revised by Richard Hantula ISBN 978-0-8368-3877-0

Annotations

''Asimov's Annotated "Don Juan"''

''Asimov's Annotated "Paradise Lost"''

''Asimov's Annotated "Gilbert and Sullivan"''

''Asimov's The Annotated "Gulliver's Travels"''

''Familiar Poems, Annotated''

Guides

''Asimov's Guide to the Bible'', vols I and II (1981), ISBN 0-517-34582-X

''Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare'', vols I and II (1970), ISBN 0-517-26825-6

Autobiography

''In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1920–1954'', (1979, Doubleday)

''In Joy Still Felt: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov, 1954–1978'', (1980, Doubleday)

''I. Asimov: A Memoir'', (1994, Doubleday)

* ''It's Been a Good Life'', (2002), condensation of Asimov's three volume biography by his widow, Janet Jeppson Asimov

Other Nonfiction

''Opus 100'' (1969), ISBN 0-395-07351-0

''Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor'' (1971)

''The Sensuous Dirty Old Man'' (1971), ISBN 0-451-07199-9

''Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology'' (1972), ISBN 0-385-17771-2

''Lecherous Limericks'' (1976), ISBN 0-449-22841-X

''More Lecherous Limericks'' (1976), ISBN 0-802-77102-5

''Still More Lecherous Limericks'' (1977), ISBN 0-802-77106-8

''Opus 200'' (1979), ISBN 0-395-27625-X

''Our Federal Union'' (1975), ISBN 0-395-2283-3

''Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts'' (1979), ISBN 0-517-36111-6

''A Grossery of Limericks'', with John Ciardi (1981), ISBN 0-393-33112-1

''The Roving Mind'' (1983) (collection of essays). New edition published by Prometheus Books, 1997, ISBN 1-573-92181-5

''Opus 300'' (1984), ISBN 0-395-36108-7

''Limericks, Two Gross'', with John Ciardi (1985), ISBN 0-393-04530-7

''Asimov Laughs Again'' (1992)

Selected Books by Dewey Decimal Category

''Hallucination Orbit: Psychology In Science Fiction'', (000)

''Asimov's Guide to the Bible'', (200)

''Why are the Rain Forests Vanishing?'', (300)

''Words from History'', (400)

''Realm of Numbers'', (500)

''The Human Body: Its Structure and Operation'', (600)

''Visions of the Universe'', (700)

''The Do-It-Yourself Bestseller: A Workbook'', (800)

''The Greeks: A Great Adventure'', (900)

Television and film appearances

"To Tell The Truth", CBS, approximately 1968, playing the "real" Isaac Asimov.

''The Nature of Things'' 1969

"ABC News" coverage of Apollo 11, 1969, with Fred Pohl, interviewed by Rod Serling

"David Frost" interview program, August 1969. This is the show in which Frost asked Asimov if he had ever tried to find God and, after some initial evasion, Asimov answered, "God is much more intelligent than I—let him try to find me."

''The Dick Cavett Show'' 1970

''Target... Earth?'' 1980

''NBC TV, 1982 "Speaking Freely" interviewed by Edwin Newman'' 1982

ARTS Network talk show hosted by Studs Terkel and Calvin Trillin, approximately 1982. Other guests included Harlan Ellison and James Gunn.

''Oltre New York'' 1986

''Voyage to the Outer Planets and Beyond'' 1986

''Bill Moyers interview'' 1988

''Stranieri in America'' 1988

References

Sources

Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green'' (1979, ISBN 0-380-75432-0).

:''In Joy Still Felt'' (1980, ISBN 0-380-53025-2). :''I. Asimov: A Memoir'' (1994). ISBN 0-385-41701-2 (hc), ISBN 0-553-56997-X (pb). :''Yours, Isaac Asimov'' (1996), edited by Stanley Asimov. ISBN 0-385-47624-8. :''It's Been a Good Life'' (2002), edited by Janet Asimov. ISBN 1-57392-968-9.

Goldman, Stephen H., "Isaac Asimov", in ''Dictionary of Literary Biography,'' Vol. 8, Cowart and Wymer eds., (Gale Research, 1981), pp. 15–29.

Gunn, James. "On Variations on a Robot", ''IASFM'', July 1980, pp. 56–81.

:''Isaac Asimov: The Foundations of Science Fiction'' (1982). ISBN 0-19-503060-5. :''The Science of Science-Fiction Writing'' (2000). ISBN 1-57886-011-3.

External links

Isaac Asimov Home Page

Isaac Asimov Wikia Page that contains overview to some of his books

{Work in Progress} (one work, the 1952 short story "Youth")

15-Book Reading Order as Suggested by Asimov From "Author's Note" of "Prelude to Foundation" Doubleday 1988 hardcover edition

Guardian Books "Author Page", with profile and links to further articles.

Real-life robots obey Asimov's laws

Isaac Asimov: A Prolific and Polymathic American Writer

Isaac Asimov was Born 90 Years Ago Today by ''The Los Angeles Times'', January 2, 2010

P.S. 99: The Isaac Asimov School for Science and Literature

Frederik Pohl on Asimov

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Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
Name	Stephen Hawking
Birth name	Stephen William Hawking
Birth date	January 08, 1942
Birth place	Oxford, England, United Kingdom
Residence	United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Fields	Applied mathematicsTheoretical physicsCosmology
Workplaces	Cambridge UniversityCalifornia Institute of TechnologyPerimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
Alma mater	Oxford UniversityCambridge University
Doctoral advisor	Dennis Sciama
Academic advisors	Robert Berman
Doctoral students	Bruce AllenRaphael BoussoFay DowkerMalcolm PerryBernard CarrGary GibbonsHarvey ReallDon PageTim PrestidgeRaymond LaflammeJulian Luttrell
Known for	Black holesTheoretical cosmologyQuantum gravityHawking radiation
Influences	Dikran TahtaAlbert Einstein
Awards
Spouse	Jane Hawking(m. 1965–1991, divorced)Elaine Mason(m. 1995–2006, divorced)
Signature	Hawkingsig.svg }}

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist and cosmologist, whose scientific books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for 30 years, taking up the post in 1979 and retiring on 1 October 2009. He is now Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and a Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. He is known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes. He has also achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include the runaway best seller ''A Brief History of Time'', which stayed on the British ''Sunday Times'' best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.

Hawking's key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding gravitational singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein–Hawking radiation).

Hawking has a motor neurone disease that is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a condition that has progressed over the years and has left him almost completely paralysed.

Early life

Stephen Hawking was born on 8 January 1942 to Dr. Frank Hawking, a research biologist, and Isobel Hawking. He had two younger sisters, Philippa and Mary, and an adopted brother, Edward. Though Hawking's parents were living in North London, they moved to Oxford while his mother was pregnant with Stephen, desiring a safer location for the birth of their first child. (London was under attack at the time by the Luftwaffe.) According to Hawking, a German V-2 missile struck only a few streets away.

After Hawking was born, the family moved back to London, where his father headed the division of parasitology at the National Institute for Medical Research. In 1950, Hawking and his family moved to St Albans, Hertfordshire, where he attended St Albans High School for Girls from 1950 to 1953. (At that time, boys could attend the Girls' school until the age of ten.) From the age of eleven, he attended St Albans School, where he was a good, but not exceptional, student. When asked later to name a teacher who had inspired him, Hawking named his mathematics teacher Dikran Tahta. He maintains his connection with the school, giving his name to one of the four houses and to an extracurricular science lecture series. He has visited it to deliver one of the lectures and has also granted a lengthy interview to pupils working on the school magazine, ''The Albanian''.

Hawking was always interested in science. Inspired by his mathematics teacher, he originally wanted to study the subject at university. However, Hawking's father wanted him to apply to University College, Oxford, where his father had attended. As University College did not have a mathematics fellow at that time, it would not accept applications from students who wished to read that discipline. Hawking therefore applied to read natural sciences, in which he gained a scholarship. Once at University College, Hawking specialised in physics. His interests during this time were in thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics. His physics tutor, Robert Berman, later said in ''The New York Times Magazine'':

Hawking was passing, but his unimpressive study habits resulted in a final examination score on the borderline between first and second class honours, making an "oral examination" necessary. Berman said of the oral examination:

After receiving his B.A. degree at Oxford in 1962, he stayed to study astronomy. He decided to leave when he found that studying sunspots, which was all the observatory was equipped for, did not appeal to him and that he was more interested in theory than in observation. He left Oxford for Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he engaged in the study of theoretical astronomy and cosmology.

Career

Almost as soon as he arrived at Cambridge, he started developing symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, known colloquially in the United States as Lou Gehrig's disease), a type of motor neurone disease which would cost him almost all neuromuscular control. During his first two years at Cambridge, he did not distinguish himself, but, after the disease had stabilised and with the help of his doctoral tutor, Dennis William Sciama, he returned to working on his PhD.

Hawking was elected as one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society in 1974, was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1982, and became a Companion of Honour in 1989. Hawking is a member of the Board of Sponsors of the ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists''.

In 1974, he accepted the Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar visiting professorship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to work with his friend, Kip Thorne, who was a faculty member there. He continues to have ties with Caltech, spending a month each year there since 1992.

Hawking's achievements were made despite the increasing paralysis caused by the ALS. By 1974, he was unable to feed himself or get out of bed. His speech became slurred so that he could be understood only by people who knew him well. In 1985, he caught pneumonia and had to have a tracheotomy, which made him unable to speak at all. A Cambridge scientist built a device that enables Hawking to write onto a computer with small movements of his body, and then have a voice synthesiser speak what he has typed.

Research fields

Hawking's principal fields of research are theoretical cosmology and quantum gravity.

In the late 1960s, he and his Cambridge friend and colleague, Roger Penrose, applied a new, complex mathematical model they had created from Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity. This led, in 1970, to Hawking proving the first of many singularity theorems; such theorems provide a set of sufficient conditions for the existence of a gravitational singularity in space-time. This work showed that, far from being mathematical curiosities which appear only in special cases, singularities are a fairly generic feature of general relativity.

He supplied a mathematical proof, along with Brandon Carter, Werner Israel and D. Robinson, of John Wheeler's no-hair theorem – namely, that any black hole is fully described by the three properties of mass, angular momentum, and electric charge.

Hawking also suggested upon analysis of gamma ray emissions that after the Big Bang, primordial mini black holes were formed. With Bardeen and Carter, he proposed the four laws of black hole mechanics, drawing an analogy with thermodynamics. In 1974, he calculated that black holes should thermally create and emit subatomic particles, known today as Bekenstein-Hawking radiation, until they exhaust their energy and evaporate.

In collaboration with Jim Hartle, Hawking developed a model in which the universe had no boundary in space-time, replacing the initial singularity of the classical Big Bang models with a region akin to the North Pole: one cannot travel north of the North Pole, as there is no boundary. While originally the no-boundary proposal predicted a closed universe, discussions with Neil Turok led to the realisation that the no-boundary proposal is also consistent with a universe which is not closed.

Along with Thomas Hertog at CERN, in 2006 Hawking proposed a theory of "top-down cosmology," which says that the universe had no unique initial state, and therefore it is inappropriate for physicists to attempt to formulate a theory that predicts the universe's current configuration from one particular initial state. Top-down cosmology posits that in some sense, the present "selects" the past from a superposition of many possible histories. In doing so, the theory suggests a possible resolution of the fine-tuning question: It is inevitable that we find our universe's present physical constants, as the current universe "selects" only those past histories that led to the present conditions. In this way, top-down cosmology provides an anthropic explanation for why we find ourselves in a universe that allows matter and life, without invoking an ensemble of multiple universes.

Hawking's many other scientific investigations have included the study of quantum cosmology, cosmic inflation, helium production in anisotropic Big Bang universes, large N cosmology, the density matrix of the universe, topology and structure of the universe, baby universes, Yang-Mills instantons and the S matrix, anti de Sitter space, quantum entanglement and entropy, the nature of space and time, including the arrow of time, spacetime foam, string theory, supergravity, Euclidean quantum gravity, the gravitational Hamiltonian, Brans-Dicke and Hoyle-Narlikar theories of gravitation, gravitational radiation, and wormholes.

At a George Washington University lecture in honour of NASA's fiftieth anniversary, Hawking theorised on the existence of extraterrestrial life, believing that "primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare."

Losing an old bet

Hawking was in the news in July 2004 for presenting a new theory about black holes which goes against his own long-held belief about their behaviour, thus losing a bet he made with Kip Thorne and John Preskill of Caltech. Classically, it can be shown that information crossing the event horizon of a black hole is lost to our universe, and that thus all black holes are identical beyond their mass, electrical charge and angular velocity (the "no hair theorem"). The problem with this theorem is that it implies the black hole will emit the same radiation regardless of what goes into it, and as a consequence that if a pure quantum state is thrown into a black hole, an "ordinary" mixed state will be returned. This runs counter to the rules of quantum mechanics and is known as the black hole information paradox.

Human spaceflight

At the fiftieth anniversary of NASA in 2008, Hawking gave a keynote speech on the final frontier exhorting and inspiring the space technology community on why we (the human race) explore space.

At the celebration of his sixty-fifth birthday on 8 January 2007, Hawking announced his plan to take a zero-gravity flight in 2007 to prepare for a sub-orbital spaceflight in 2009 on Virgin Galactic's space service. Billionaire Richard Branson pledged to pay all expenses for the latter, costing an estimated £100,000. Stephen Hawking's zero-gravity flight in a "''Vomit Comet''" of Zero Gravity Corporation, during which he experienced weightlessness eight times, took place on 26 April 2007. He became the first quadriplegic to float in zero-gravity. This was the first time in forty years that he moved freely, without his wheelchair. The fee is normally US$3,750 for 10–15 plunges, but Hawking was not required to pay the fee. A bit of a futurist, Hawking was quoted before the flight saying: }} In an interview with ''The Daily Telegraph'', he suggested that space was the Earth's long term hope. He continued this theme at a 2008 Charlie Rose interview.

Existence and nature of extraterrestrial life

Hawking has indicated that he is almost certain that alien life exists in other parts of the universe and uses a mathematical basis for his assumptions. "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like." He believes alien life not only certainly exists on planets but perhaps even in other places, like within stars or even floating in outer space. He also warns that a few of these species might be intelligent and threaten Earth. Contact with such species might be devastating for humanity. "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," he said. He advocated that, rather than try to establish contact, humans should try to avoid contact with alien life forms.

Illness

Stephen Hawking is severely disabled by a motor neurone disease known as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sometimes known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Hawking's illness is markedly different from typical ALS because if confirmed, Hawking's case would make for the most protracted case ever documented. A survival for more than ten years after diagnosis is uncommon for ALS; the longest documented durations, other than Hawking's, are 32 and 39 years and these cases were termed benign because of the lack of the typical progressive course.

When he was young, he enjoyed riding horses. At Oxford, he coxed a rowing team, which, he stated, helped relieve his immense boredom at the university. Symptoms of the disorder first appeared while he was enrolled at University of Cambridge; he lost his balance and fell down a flight of stairs, hitting his head. Worried that he would lose his genius, he took the Mensa test to verify that his intellectual abilities were intact. The diagnosis of motor neurone disease came when Hawking was 21, shortly before his first marriage, and doctors said he would not survive more than two or three years. Hawking gradually lost the use of his arms, legs, and voice, and as of 2009 has been almost completely paralysed.

During a visit to the research centre CERN in Geneva in 1985, Hawking contracted pneumonia, which in his condition was life-threatening as it further restricted his already limited respiratory capacity. He had an emergency tracheotomy, and as a result lost what remained of his ability to speak. He has since used an electronic voice synthesiser to communicate.

The DECtalk DTC01 voice synthesiser he uses, which has an American English accent, is no longer being produced. Asked why he has still kept it after so many years, Hawking mentioned that he has not heard a voice he likes better and that he identifies with it. Hawking is said to be looking for a replacement since, aside from being obsolete, the synthesiser is both large and fragile by current standards. As of mid 2009, he was said to be using NeoSpeech's VoiceText speech synthesiser.

In Hawking's many media appearances, he appears to speak fluently through his synthesiser, but in reality, it is a tedious drawn-out process. Hawking's setup uses a predictive text entry system, which requires only the first few characters in order to auto-complete the word, but as he is only able to use his cheek for data entry, constructing complete sentences takes time. His speeches are prepared in advance, but having a live conversation with him provides insight as to the complexity and work involved. During a TED Conference talk, it took him seven minutes to answer a question.

He describes himself as lucky, despite his disease. Its slow progression has allowed him time to make influential discoveries and has not hindered him from having, in his own words, "a very attractive family." When his wife, Jane, was asked why she decided to marry a man with a three-year life expectancy, she responded, "Those were the days of atomic gloom and doom, so we all had a rather short life expectancy." On 20 April 2009, Cambridge University released a statement saying that Hawking was "very ill" with a chest infection, and was admitted to Addenbrooke's Hospital. The following day, it was reported that his new condition was "comfortable" and he would make a full recovery from the infection.

As popular science advocate

Hawking has played himself on numerous television shows and has been portrayed in many more. He has played himself on a ''Red Dwarf'' anniversary special, played a hologram of himself on the episode "Descent" of ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'', appeared in a skit on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', and appeared on the Discovery Channel special ''Alien Planet''. He has also played himself in several episodes of ''The Simpsons'' and ''Futurama'', and has had an action figure made of his ''Simpsons'' likeness. In 2008, Hawking was the subject of and featured in the documentary series ''Stephen Hawking, Master of the Universe'' for Channel 4. In September 2008, Hawking presided over the unveiling of the 'Chronophage' (time-eating) Corpus Clock at Corpus Christi College Cambridge. His actual synthesiser voice was used on parts of the Pink Floyd song "Keep Talking" from the 1994 album ''The Division Bell'', as well as on Turbonegro's "Intro: The Party Zone" on their 2005 album ''Party Animals'', Wolfsheim's "Kein Zurück (Oliver Pinelli Mix)".

Recognition

Acclaim

On 19 December 2007, a statue of Hawking by renowned late artist Ian Walters was unveiled at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology, University of Cambridge. In May 2008, the statue of Hawking was unveiled at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town. The Stephen W. Hawking Science Museum in San Salvador, El Salvador is named in honour of Stephen Hawking, citing his scientific distinction and perseverance in dealing with adversity. Stephen Hawking Building in Cambridge opened on 17 April 2007. The building belongs to Gonville and Caius College and is used as an undergraduate accommodation and conference facility.

Distinctions

Hawking's belief that the lay person should have access to his work led him to write a series of popular science books in addition to his academic work. The first of these, ''A Brief History of Time'', was published on 1 April 1988 by Hawking, his family and friends, and some leading physicists. It surprisingly became a best-seller and was followed by ''The Universe in a Nutshell'' (2001). Both books have remained highly popular all over the world. A collection of essays titled ''Black Holes and Baby Universes'' (1993) was also popular. His book, ''A Briefer History of Time'' (2005), co-written by Leonard Mlodinow, aims to update his earlier works and make them accessible to an even wider audience. In 2007 Hawking and his daughter, Lucy Hawking, published ''George's Secret Key to the Universe'', a children's book focusing on science that has been described as "like ''Harry Potter'', but without the magic." The book includes information on Hawking radiation.

Hawking supports the children's charity SOS Children's Villages UK.

Awards and honours

1975 Eddington Medal

1976 Hughes Medal of the Royal Society

1979 Albert Einstein Medal

1981 Franklin Medal

1982 Order of the British Empire (Commander)

1985 Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society

1986 Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences

1988 Wolf Prize in Physics

1989 Prince of Asturias Awards in Concord

1989 Companion of Honour

1999 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society

2003 Michelson Morley Award of Case Western Reserve University

2006 Copley Medal of the Royal Society 2008 Fonseca Prize of the University of Santiago de Compostela 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour in the United States

Personal life

Hawking revealed that he did not see much point in obtaining a doctorate if he were to die soon. Hawking later said that the real turning point was his 1965 marriage to Jane Wilde, a language student. After gaining his PhD at Trinity Hall, he became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. Jane Hawking (née Wilde), Hawking's first wife, cared for him until 1991 when the couple separated, reportedly because of the pressures of fame and his increasing disability. They had three children: Robert, Lucy, and Timothy. Hawking then married his nurse, Elaine Mason (who was previously married to David Mason, the designer of the first version of Hawking's talking computer), in 1995. In October 2006, Hawking filed for divorce from his second wife amid claims by former nurses that she had abused him.

In 1999, Jane Hawking published a memoir, ''Music to Move the Stars'', detailing the marriage and his breakdown; in 2010 she published a revised version, ''Travelling to Infinity, My Life with Stephen''. Hawking's daughter, Lucy, is a novelist. Their oldest son, Robert, emigrated to the United States, married, and has a son. After a period of estrangement, Hawking and his first family were reconciled in 2007.

His view on how to live life is to "seek the greatest value of our action".

Hawking was asked about his IQ in a 2004 newspaper interview, and replied, "I have no idea. People who boast about their I.Q. are losers." Yet when asked "Are you saying you are not a genius?", Hawking replied "I hope I'm near the upper end of the range."

Hawking strongly opposed the US-led Iraq War, calling it "a war crime" and "based on lies". In 2004, he personally attended a demonstration against the war in Trafalgar Square, and participated in a public reading of the names of Iraqi war victims.

Religious views

In his early work, Hawking spoke of "God" in a metaphorical sense, such as in ''A Brief History of Time'': "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we should know the mind of God." In the same book he suggested the existence of God was unnecessary to explain the origin of the universe. His 2010 book ''The Grand Design'' and interviews with the ''Telegraph'' and the Channel 4 documentary ''Genius of Britain'', clarify that he does "not believe in a personal God". Hawking writes, "The question is: is the way the universe began chosen by God for reasons we can't understand, or was it determined by a law of science? I believe the second." He adds, "Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing."

His ex-wife, Jane, said during their divorce proceedings that he was an atheist. Hawking has stated that he is "not religious in the normal sense" and he believes that "the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws." In an interview published in ''The Guardian'' newspaper, Hawking regarded the concept of Heaven as a myth, stating that there is "no heaven or afterlife" and that such a notion was a "fairy story for people afraid of the dark."

Hawking contrasted religion and science in 2010, saying: "There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works."

Selected publications

Technical

''Singularities in Collapsing Stars and Expanding Universes'' with Dennis William Sciama, 1969 Comments on Astrophysics and Space Physics Vol 1 No.1

''The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time'' with George Ellis, 1973, ISBN 0-521-09906-4

''The Nature of Space and Time'' with Roger Penrose, foreword by Michael Atiyah, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-691-05084-8

''The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind'', (with Abner Shimony, Nancy Cartwright, and Roger Penrose), Cambridge University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-521-56330-5 (hardback), ISBN 0-521-65538-2 (paperback), Canto edition: ISBN 0-521-78572-3

''Information Loss in Black Holes'', Cambridge University Press, 2005

''God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History'', Running Press, 2005 ISBN 0762419229

Popular

''A Brief History of Time'', (Bantam Press 1988) ISBN 055305340X

''Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays'', (Bantam Books 1993) ISBN 0553374117

''The Universe in a Nutshell'', (Bantam Press 2001) ISBN 055380202X

''On The Shoulders of Giants. The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy'', (Running Press 2002) ISBN 076241698X

''A Briefer History of Time'', coauthored with Leonard Mlodinow, (Bantam Books 2005) ISBN 0553804367

''The Grand Design'', coauthored with Leonard Mlodinow, (Bantam Press 2010) ISBN 0553805371

Children's fiction

These are co-written with his daughter Lucy.

''George's Secret Key to the Universe'', (Random House, 2007) ISBN 9780385612708

''George's Cosmic Treasure Hunt'', (Simon & Schuster, 2009) ISBN 9781416986713

Films and series

''A Brief History of Time'' (1991)

''Stephen Hawking's Universe'' (1997)

''Horizon: The Hawking Paradox'' (2005)

''Masters of Science Fiction'' (2007)

''Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe'' (2008) ''Into The Universe with Stephen Hawking'' (2010) A list of Hawking's publications through the year 2002 is available on his website.

See also

Basic concepts of quantum mechanics

Many-worlds interpretation, or flexiverse

Susskind–Hawking battle – see Black hole information paradox

References

Further reading

A layman's guide to Stephen Hawking

Ferguson, Kitty (1991). ''Stephen Hawking: Quest For A Theory of Everything''. Franklin Watts. ISBN 0-553-29895-X

Highly influential in the field. A much cited centennial survey.

Pickover, Clifford, ''Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them'', Oxford University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0195336115

External links

Stephen Hawking's web site

Stephen Hawking's page on Academia.edu

The Life of Stephen Hawking – slideshow by ''The First Post''

Video: Stephen Hawking – discussion of two views of the universe

Videos: Stephen Hawking's concept of God, The role of God within the no boundary cosmology and Imaginary time

;Dated

Stephen Hawking says universe not created by God

Public Lectures, including debate with Roger Penrose 1996–2006

''Hawking celebrates own brief history'', 7 January 2002, BBC

"Leaping the Abyss", interview in ''Reason'' by Gregory Benford 2002-04-01

2002-03-24

''Black holes turned "inside out"'', 22 July 2004, BBC

''Return of the time lord'', Interview about "A Brief History of Time", 27 September 2005, The Guardian.

Stephen Hawking touches on God and science – Physicist says Pope John Paul told scientists not to study universe's origins msnbc June 2006

Press Release from the Catholic League on misquote of Pope by Hawking 2006-06-16

BBC interview 2008-12-05

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Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
name	Carl Sagan
birth date	November 09, 1934
birth place	Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
residence	United States
nationality	American
death date	December 20, 1996
death place	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
death cause	Pneumonia
education	Rahway High School
alma mater	University of Chicago,Cornell University
field	Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Astrobiology, Space science, Planetary science
work institutions	Cornell University Harvard University Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory University of California, Berkeley
alma mater	University of Chicago (B.A.), (B.Sc.), (M.Sc.), (Ph.D.)
known for	Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) ''Cosmos: A Personal Voyage'' ''Cosmos'' Voyager Golden Record Pioneer plaque ''Contact'' ''Pale Blue Dot''
prizes	Oersted Medal (1990) NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (twice) Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction (1978) National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal (1994) }}

Carl Edward Sagan () (November 9, 1934 December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in the space and natural sciences. During his lifetime, he published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he advocated skeptical inquiry and the scientific method. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

Sagan became world-famous for his popular science books and for the award-winning 1980 television series ''Cosmos: A Personal Voyage'', which he narrated and co-wrote. A book to accompany the program was also published. Sagan also wrote the novel ''Contact'', the basis for the 1997 film of the same name.

Early life

Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to a Ukrainian Jewish family. His father, Sam Sagan, was an immigrant garment worker from Kamenets-Podolsk, Ukraine; his mother, Rachel Molly Gruber, a housewife. Carl was named in honor of Rachel's biological mother, Chaiya Clara, in Sagan's words, "the mother she never knew." Sagan graduated from Rahway High School in Rahway, New Jersey, in 1951.

He had one sister, Carol, and the family lived in a modest apartment near the Atlantic Ocean, in Bensonhurst, a Brooklyn neighborhood. According to Sagan, they were Reform Jews, the most liberal of the three main Jewish groups. Both Sagan and his sister agree that their father was not especially religious, but that their mother "definitely believed in God, and was active in the temple ... and served only Kosher meat." During the height of the Depression, his father had to accept a job as a theater usher.

According to biographer Keay Davidson, Sagan's "inner war" was a result of his close relations with both his parents, who were in many ways "opposites." Sagan traced his later analytical urges to his mother, a woman who had known "extreme poverty as a child," and had grown up almost homeless in New York City during World War I and the 1920s. She had her own intellectual ambitions as a young woman, but they were blocked by social restrictions, because of her poverty, her being a woman and wife, and her Jewish religion. Davidson notes that she therefore "worshiped her only son, Carl. He would fulfill her unfulfilled dreams."

However, his "sense of wonder" came from his father, who was a "quiet and soft-hearted escapee from the Czar." In his free time, he gave apples to the poor, or helped soothe labor-management tensions within New York's "tumultuous" garment industry. Although he was "awed" by Carl's "brilliance, his boyish chatter about stars and dinosaurs," he took his son's inquisitiveness in stride, as part of his growing up. In his later years as a writer and scientist, Sagan would often draw on his childhood memories to illustrate scientific points, as he did in his book, ''Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors''. Sagan describes his parents' influence on his later thinking:

:''My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method.''

1939 World's Fair

Sagan recalls that one of his best experiences was when he was four or five years old, his parents took him to the 1939 New York World's Fair. The exhibits became a turning point in his life. He later recalled the moving map of the "America of Tomorrow" exhibit: "It showed beautiful highways and cloverleaves and little General Motors cars all carrying people to skyscrapers, buildings with lovely spires, flying buttresses — and it looked great!" At other exhibits, he remembered how a flashlight that shined on a photoelectric cell created a cracking sound, and how the sound from a tuning fork became a wave on an oscilloscope. He also witnessed the future media technology that would replace radio: television. Sagan wrote:

:''Plainly, the world held wonders of a kind I had never guessed. How could a tone become a picture and light become a noise?''

He also saw one of the Fair's most publicized events, the burial of a time capsule at Flushing Meadows, which contained mementos of the 1930s to be recovered by Earth's descendants in a future millennium. "The time capsule thrilled Carl," writes Davidson. As an adult, Sagan and his colleagues created similar time capsules, but ones that would be sent out into the galaxy. These were the Pioneer plaque and the ''Voyager Golden Record'' records, all of which were spinoffs of Sagan's memories of the World Fair.

World War II

During World War II, Sagan's family worried about the fate of their European relatives. Sagan, however, was generally unaware of the details of the ongoing war. He writes, "Sure, we had relatives who were caught up in the Holocaust. Hitler was not a popular fellow in our household ... But on the other hand, I was fairly insulated from the horrors of the war." His sister, Carol, said that their mother "above all wanted to protect Carl ... She had an extraordinarily difficult time dealing with World War II and the Holocaust." Sagan's book, ''The Demon-Haunted World'' (1996), included his memories of this conflicted period in his life, where his family dealt with the realities of the war in Europe, but tried to prevent it from undermining his optimistic spirit.

Inquisitiveness about nature

Soon after entering elementary school, he began to express a strong inquisitiveness about nature. Sagan recalled taking his first trips to the public library alone, at the age of five, when his mother got him a library card. He wanted to learn what stars were, since none of his friends or their parents could give him a clear answer: :''I went to the librarian and asked for a book about stars ... And the answer was stunning. It was that the Sun was a star but really close. The stars were suns, but so far away they were just little points of light ... The scale of the universe suddenly opened up to me. It was a kind of religious experience. There was a magnificence to it, a grandeur, a scale which has never left me. Never ever left me.''

About the time he was six or seven, he and a close friend took trips to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. While there, they went to the Hayden Planetarium and walked around the museum's exhibits of space objects, such as meteorites, and displays of dinosaurs and animals in natural settings. Sagan writes about those visits: :''I was transfixed by the dioramas — lifelike representations of animals and their habitats all over the world. Penguins on the dimly lit Antarctic ice; ... a family of gorillas, the male beating his chest, ... an American grizzly bear standing on his hind legs, ten or twelve feet tall, and staring me right in the eye.''

His parents helped nurture his growing interest in science by buying him chemistry sets and reading materials. His interest in space, however, was his primary focus, especially after reading science fiction stories by writers such as Edgar Rice Burroughs, which stirred his imagination about life on other planets, such as Mars. According to biographer Ray Spangenburg, these early years as Sagan tried to understand the mysteries of the planets, became a "driving force in his life, a continual spark to his intellect, and a quest that would never be forgotten."

Education and scientific career

He attended the University of Chicago, where he participated in the Ryerson Astronomical Society, received a bachelor of arts with general and special honors in 1954, a bachelor of science in 1955, and a master of science in physics in 1956 before earning a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics in 1960. During his time as an undergraduate, Sagan worked in the laboratory of the geneticist H. J. Muller. From 1960 to 1962 Sagan was a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. From 1962 to 1968, he worked at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Sagan lectured and did research at Harvard University until 1968, when he moved to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He became a full Professor at Cornell in 1971, and he directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies there. From 1972 to 1981, Sagan was the Associate Director of the Center for Radio Physics and Space Research at Cornell.

Sagan was associated with the American space program from its inception. From the 1950s onward, he worked as an advisor to NASA, where one of his duties included briefing the Apollo astronauts before their flights to the Moon. Sagan contributed to many of the robotic spacecraft missions that explored the solar system, arranging experiments on many of the expeditions. He conceived the idea of adding an unalterable and universal message on spacecraft destined to leave the solar system that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find it. Sagan assembled the first physical message that was sent into space: a gold-anodized plaque, attached to the space probe Pioneer 10, launched in 1972. Pioneer 11, also carrying another copy of the plaque, was launched the following year. He continued to refine his designs; the most elaborate message he helped to develop and assemble was the Voyager Golden Record that was sent out with the Voyager space probes in 1977. Sagan often challenged the decisions to fund the Space Shuttle and Space Station at the expense of further robotic missions.

Sagan taught a course on critical thinking at Cornell University until he died in 1996 from pneumonia, a few months after finding that he was in remission of myelodysplastic syndrome.

Scientific achievements

Sagan's contributions were central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of the planet Venus. In the early 1960s no one knew for certain the basic conditions of that planet's surface, and Sagan listed the possibilities in a report later depicted for popularization in a Time-Life book, ''Planets''. His own view was that Venus was dry and very hot as opposed to the balmy paradise others had imagined. He had investigated radio emissions from Venus and concluded that there was a surface temperature of . As a visiting scientist to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he contributed to the first Mariner missions to Venus, working on the design and management of the project. Mariner 2 confirmed his conclusions on the surface conditions of Venus in 1962.

Sagan was among the first to hypothesize that Saturn's moon Titan might possess oceans of liquid compounds on its surface and that Jupiter's moon Europa might possess subsurface oceans of water. This would make Europa potentially habitable for life. Europa's subsurface ocean of water was later indirectly confirmed by the spacecraft Galileo. Sagan also helped solve the mystery of the reddish haze seen on Titan, revealing that it is composed of complex organic molecules constantly raining down onto the moon's surface.

He further contributed insights regarding the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter as well as seasonal changes on Mars. Sagan established that the atmosphere of Venus is extremely hot and dense with pressures increasing steadily all the way down to the surface. He also perceived global warming as a growing, man-made danger and likened it to the natural development of Venus into a hot, life-hostile planet through a kind of runaway greenhouse effect. Sagan and his Cornell colleague Edwin Ernest Salpeter speculated about life in Jupiter's clouds, given the planet's dense atmospheric composition rich in organic molecules. He studied the observed color variations on Mars' surface and concluded that they were not seasonal or vegetational changes as most believed but shifts in surface dust caused by windstorms.

Sagan is best known, however, for his research on the possibilities of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation.

He is also the 1994 recipient of the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences for "distinguished contributions in the application of science to the public welfare." He was denied membership in the Academy, reportedly because his media activities made him unpopular with many other scientists.

Sagan's ability to convey his ideas allowed many people to better understand the cosmos — simultaneously emphasizing the value and worthiness of the human race, and the relative insignificance of the Earth in comparison to the universe. He delivered the 1977 series of Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in London. He hosted and, with Ann Druyan, co-wrote and co-produced the highly popular thirteen-part PBS television series ''Cosmos: A Personal Voyage'' modeled on Jacob Bronowski's ''The Ascent of Man''.

Sagan was a proponent of the search for extraterrestrial life. He urged the scientific community to listen with radio telescopes for signals from intelligent extraterrestrial life-forms. So persuasive was he that by 1982 he was able to get a petition advocating SETI published in the journal ''Science'' and signed by 70 scientists including seven Nobel Prize winners. This was a tremendous turnaround in the respectability of this controversial field. Sagan also helped Dr. Frank Drake write the Arecibo message, a radio message beamed into space from the Arecibo radio telescope on November 16, 1974, aimed at informing extraterrestrials about Earth.

Sagan was chief technology officer of the professional planetary research journal ''Icarus'' for twelve years. He co-founded the ''Planetary Society'', the largest space-interest group in the world, with over 100,000 members in more than 149 countries, and was a member of the SETI Institute Board of Trustees. Sagan served as Chairman of the Division for Planetary Science of the American Astronomical Society, as President of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union, and as Chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

At the height of the Cold War, Sagan became involved in public awareness efforts for the effects of nuclear war when a mathematical climate model suggested that a substantial nuclear exchange could upset the delicate balance of life on Earth. He was one of five authors — the "S" of the "TTAPS" report as the research paper came to be known. He eventually co-authored the scientific paper hypothesizing a global nuclear winter following nuclear war. He also co-authored the book ''A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race'', a comprehensive examination of the phenomenon of nuclear winter.

''Cosmos'' covered a wide range of scientific subjects including the origin of life and a perspective of our place in the universe. The series was first broadcast by the Public Broadcasting Service in 1980, winning an Emmy and a Peabody Award. It has been broadcast in more than 60 countries and seen by over 500 million people, making it the most widely watched PBS program in history. In addition, ''Time'' magazine ran a cover story about Sagan soon after the show broadcast, referring to him as "creator, chief writer and host-narrator of the new public television series Cosmos, [and] takes the controls of his fantasy spaceship."

Sagan also wrote books to popularize science, such as ''Cosmos'', which reflected and expanded upon some of the themes of ''A Personal Voyage'', and became the best-selling science book ever published in English; ''The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence'', which won a Pulitzer Prize; and ''Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science''. Sagan also wrote the best-selling science fiction novel ''Contact'' in 1985, based on a film treatment he wrote with his wife in 1979, but he did not live to see the book's 1997 motion picture adaptation, which starred Jodie Foster and won the 1998 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Adaption.

thumb|left|Pale Blue Dot: Earth is a bright pixel when photographed from "Voyager 1" six billion kilometers out (past Pluto). Sagan encouraged NASA to generate this image. He wrote a sequel to ''Cosmos,'' ''Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space'', which was selected as a notable book of 1995 by ''The New York Times''. He appeared on PBS' Charlie Rose program in January 1995. Sagan also wrote an introduction for the bestselling book by Stephen Hawking, ''A Brief History of Time''. Sagan was also known for his popularization of science, his efforts to increase scientific understanding among the general public, and his positions in favor of scientific skepticism and against pseudoscience, such as his debunking of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction. To mark the tenth anniversary of Sagan's passing, David Morrison, a former student of Sagan, recalled "Sagan's immense contributions to planetary research, the public understanding of science, and the skeptical movement" in ''Skeptical Inquirer''.

Sagan hypothesized in January 1991 that enough smoke from the 1991 Kuwaiti oil fires "might get so high as to disrupt agriculture in much of South Asia ..." He later conceded in ''The Demon-Haunted World'' that this prediction did not turn out to be correct: "it ''was'' pitch black at noon and temperatures dropped 4°–6°C over the Persian Gulf, but not much smoke reached stratospheric altitudes and Asia was spared." A 2007 study noted that modern computer models have been applied to the Kuwait oil fires, finding that individual smoke plumes are not able to loft smoke into the stratosphere, but that smoke from fires covering a large area, like some forest fires or the burning of cities that would be expected to follow a nuclear strike, would loft significant amounts of smoke into the stratosphere.

In his later years Sagan advocated the creation of an organized search for near Earth objects that might impact the Earth. When others suggested creating large nuclear bombs that could be used to alter the orbit of a NEO that was predicted to hit the Earth, Sagan proposed the Deflection Dilemma: If we create the ability to deflect an asteroid away from the Earth, then we also create the ability to deflect an asteroid towards the Earth — providing an evil power with a true doomsday bomb.

Billions and billions

From ''Cosmos'' and his frequent appearances on ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', Sagan became associated with the catchphrase "billions and billions". Sagan stated that he never actually used the phrase in the ''Cosmos'' series. The closest that he ever came was in the book ''Cosmos'', where he talked of "billions ''upon'' billions": }}

However, his frequent use of the word ''billions'', and distinctive delivery emphasizing the "b" (which he did intentionally, in place of more cumbersome alternatives such as "billions with a 'b'", in order to distinguish the word from "millions" in viewers' minds), made him a favorite target of comic performers, including Johnny Carson, Gary Kroeger, Mike Myers, Bronson Pinchot, Penn Jillette, Harry Shearer, and others. Frank Zappa satirized the line in the song "Be In My Video", noting as well "atomic light". Sagan took this all in good humor, and his final book was entitled ''Billions and Billions'' which opened with a tongue-in-cheek discussion of this catchphrase, observing that Carson himself was an amateur astronomer and that Carson's comic caricature often included real science.

The popular perception of his characterization of large cosmic quantities continued to be a sense of wonderment at the vastness of space and time, as in his phrase "The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth." However, this famous saying was widely misunderstood, as he was in fact referring to the world being at a "critical branch point in history" as in the following quote from ''Cosmos: A Personal Voyage'', Episode 8: "Journeys in Space and Time":

"Those worlds in space are as countless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth. Each of those worlds is as real as ours and every one of them is a succession of incidents, events, occurrences which influence its future. Countless worlds, numberless moments, an immensity of space and time. And our small planet at this moment, here we face a critical branch point in history: what we do with our world, right now, will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants. It is well within our power to destroy our civilization and perhaps our species as well."

Sagan units

As a humorous tribute to him, a ''sagan'' has been defined as a unit of measurement equal to at least four billion, since the lower bound of a number conforming to the constraint of ''billions and billions'' must be two billion plus two billion.

Social concerns

Sagan believed that the Drake equation, on substitution of reasonable estimates, suggested that a large number of extraterrestrial civilizations would form, but that the lack of evidence of such civilizations highlighted by the Fermi paradox suggests technological civilizations tend to destroy themselves rather quickly. This stimulated his interest in identifying and publicizing ways that humanity could destroy itself, with the hope of avoiding such a cataclysm and eventually becoming a spacefaring species. Sagan's deep concern regarding the potential destruction of human civilization in a nuclear holocaust was conveyed in a memorable cinematic sequence in the final episode of ''Cosmos'', called "Who Speaks for Earth?" Sagan had already resigned from the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board and voluntarily surrendered his top secret clearance in protest over the Vietnam War. Following his marriage to his third wife (novelist Ann Druyan) in June 1981, Sagan became more politically active — particularly in opposing escalation of the nuclear arms race under President Ronald Reagan.

In March 1983, Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative — a multi-billion dollar project to develop a comprehensive defense against attack by nuclear missiles, which was quickly dubbed the "Star Wars" program. Sagan spoke out against the project, arguing that it was technically impossible to develop a system with the level of perfection required, and far more expensive to build than for an enemy to defeat through decoys and other means — and that its construction would seriously destabilize the nuclear balance between the United States and the Soviet Union, making further progress toward nuclear disarmament impossible.

When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared a unilateral moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons, which would begin on August 6, 1985 — the 40th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima — the Reagan administration dismissed the dramatic move as nothing more than propaganda, and refused to follow suit. In response, American anti-nuclear and peace activists staged a series of protest actions at the Nevada Test Site, beginning on Easter Sunday in 1986 and continuing through 1987. Hundreds of people were arrested, including Sagan, who was arrested on two separate occasions as he climbed over a chain-link fence at the test site.

Personal life and beliefs

Sagan was married three times — in 1957, to biologist Lynn Margulis, mother of Dorion Sagan and Jeremy Sagan; in 1968, to artist Linda Salzman, mother of Nick Sagan; and in 1981, to author Ann Druyan, mother of Alexandra Rachel (Sasha) Sagan and Samuel Democritus Sagan. His marriage to Druyan continued until his death in 1996.

Isaac Asimov described Sagan as one of only two people he ever met whose intellect surpassed his own. The other, he claimed, was the computer scientist and artificial intelligence expert Marvin Minsky.

Sagan wrote frequently about religion and the relationship between religion and science, expressing his skepticism about the conventional conceptualization of God as a sapient being. For example:

Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Others — for example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein — considered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws.

In another description of his view of God, Sagan emphatically writes:

The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.

Despite his criticism of religion, Sagan denied that he was an atheist, saying "An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid." In reply to a question in 1996 about his religious beliefs, Sagan answered, "I'm agnostic." Sagan maintained that the idea of a creator of the universe was difficult to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that could challenge it would be an infinitely old universe. According to his last wife, Ann Druyan, he was not a believer: }}

In 2006, Ann Druyan edited Sagan's 1985 Glasgow ''Gifford Lectures in Natural Theology'' into a book, ''The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God'', in which he elaborates on his views of divinity in the natural world. Sagan is also widely regarded as a freethinker or skeptic; one of his most famous quotations, in ''Cosmos'', was, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" (called the "Sagan Standard" by some). This was based on a nearly identical statement by fellow founder of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, Marcello Truzzi, "An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof." This idea originated with Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827), a French mathematician and astronomer who said, "The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness."

Late in his life, Sagan's books elaborated on his skeptical, naturalistic view of the world. In ''The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'', he presented tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent ones, essentially advocating wide use of critical thinking and the scientific method. The compilation ''Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium'', published in 1997 after Sagan's death, contains essays written by Sagan, such as his views on abortion, and his widow Ann Druyan's account of his death as a skeptic, agnostic, and freethinker.

Sagan warned against humans' tendency towards anthropocentrism. He was the faculty adviser for the Cornell Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. In the ''Cosmos'' chapter "Blues For a Red Planet", Sagan wrote, "If there is life on Mars, I believe we should do nothing with Mars. Mars then belongs to the Martians, even if the Martians are only microbes."

Sagan was a user and advocate of marijuana. Under the pseudonym "Mr. X", he contributed an essay about smoking cannabis to the 1971 book ''Marihuana Reconsidered''. The essay explained that marijuana use had helped to inspire some of Sagan's works and enhance sensual and intellectual experiences. After Sagan's death, his friend Lester Grinspoon disclosed this information to Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson. The publishing of the biography, ''Carl Sagan: A Life'', in 1999 brought media attention to this aspect of Sagan's life. Not long after his death, widow Ann Druyan had gone on to preside over the board of directors of NORML, a foundation dedicated to reforming cannabis laws.

In 1994, engineers at Apple Computer code-named the Power Macintosh 7100 "Carl Sagan" in the hope that Apple would make "billions and billions" with the sale of the PowerMac 7100. The name was only used internally, but Sagan was concerned that it would become a product endorsement and sent Apple a cease and desist letter. Apple complied, but engineers retaliated by changing the internal codename to "BHA" for "Butt-Head Astronomer". Sagan then sued Apple for libel, a form of defamation, in federal court. The court granted Apple's motion to dismiss Sagan's claims and opined in dicta that a reader aware of the context would understand Apple was "clearly attempting to retaliate in a humorous and satirical way", and that "It strains reason to conclude that Defendant was attempting to criticize Plaintiff's reputation or competency as an astronomer. One does not seriously attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase 'butt-head'." Sagan then sued for Apple's original use of his name and likeness, but again lost. Sagan appealed the ruling. In November 1995, an out of court settlement was reached and Apple's office of trademarks and patents released a conciliatory statement that "Apple has always had great respect for Dr. Sagan. It was never Apple's intention to cause Dr. Sagan or his family any embarrassment or concern."

Sagan briefly served as an adviser on Stanley Kubrick's film ''2001: A Space Odyssey''. Sagan proposed that the film would suggest, rather than depict, extraterrestrial superintelligence.

Sagan and UFOs

Sagan had some interest in UFO reports from at least 1964 when he had several conversations on the subject with Jacques Vallee. Though quite skeptical of any extraordinary answer to the UFO question, Sagan thought scientists should study the phenomenon, at least because there was widespread public interest in UFO reports.

Stuart Appelle notes that Sagan "wrote frequently on what he perceived as the logical and empirical fallacies regarding UFOs and the abduction experience. Sagan rejected an extraterrestrial explanation for the phenomenon but felt there were both empirical and pedagogical benefits for examining UFO reports and that the subject was, therefore, a legitimate topic of study."

In 1966, Sagan was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project Blue Book, the U.S. Air Force's UFO investigation project. The committee concluded Blue Book had been lacking as a scientific study, and recommended a university-based project to give the UFO phenomenon closer scientific scrutiny. The result was the Condon Committee (1966–1968), led by physicist Edward Condon, and in their final report they formally concluded that UFOs, regardless of what any of them actually were, did not behave in a manner consistent with a threat to national security.

Ron Westrum writes that "The high point of Sagan's treatment of the UFO question was the AAAS's symposium in 1969. A wide range of educated opinions on the subject were offered by participants, including not only proponents such as James McDonald and J. Allen Hynek but also skeptics like astronomers William Hartmann and Donald Menzel. The roster of speakers was balanced, and it is to Sagan's credit that this event was presented in spite of pressure from Edward Condon". With physicist Thornton Page, Sagan edited the lectures and discussions given at the symposium; these were published in 1972 as ''UFOs: A Scientific Debate''. Some of Sagan's many books examine UFOs (as did one episode of ''Cosmos'') and he claimed a religious undercurrent to the phenomenon.

Sagan again revealed his views on interstellar travel in his 1980 ''Cosmos'' series. In one of his last written works, Sagan argued that the chances of extraterrestrial spacecraft visiting Earth are vanishingly small. However, Sagan did think it plausible that Cold War concerns contributed to governments misleading their citizens about UFOs, and that "some UFO reports and analyses, and perhaps voluminous files, have been made inaccessible to the public which pays the bills ... It's time for the files to be declassified and made generally available." He cautioned against jumping to conclusions about suppressed UFO data and stressed that there was no strong evidence that aliens were visiting the Earth either in the past or present.

Death

After a long and difficult fight with myelodysplasia, which included three bone marrow transplants, Sagan died of pneumonia at the age of 62 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, on December 20, 1996. He was buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Ithaca, New York.

Posthumous recognition

The 1997 movie ''Contact'', based on Sagan's novel of the same name and finished after his death, ends with the dedication "For Carl".

In 1997, the Sagan Planet Walk was opened in Ithaca New York. It is a walking scale model of the solar system, extending 1.2 km from the center of The Commons in downtown Ithaca, NY, to the Sciencenter, a hands-on museum. The exhibition was created in memory of Carl Sagan, who was an Ithaca resident and Cornell Professor. Professor Sagan had been a founding member of the museum's advisory board.

The landing site of the unmanned Mars Pathfinder spacecraft was renamed the ''Carl Sagan Memorial Station'' on July 5, 1997.

Sagan's son, Nick Sagan, wrote several episodes in the ''Star Trek'' franchise. In an episode of ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' entitled "Terra Prime", a quick shot is shown of the relic rover Sojourner, part of the Mars Pathfinder mission, placed by a historical marker at Carl Sagan Memorial Station on the Martian surface. The marker displays a quote from Sagan: "Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I was with you." Sagan's student Steve Squyres led the team that landed the Spirit Rover and Opportunity Rover successfully on Mars in 2004.

Asteroid 2709 Sagan is also named in his honor.

On November 9, 2001, on what would have been Sagan's 67th birthday, the NASA Ames Research Center dedicated the site for the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Cosmos. "Carl was an incredible visionary, and now his legacy can be preserved and advanced by a 21st century research and education laboratory committed to enhancing our understanding of life in the universe and furthering the cause of space exploration for all time", said NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. Ann Druyan was at the Center as it opened its doors on October 22, 2006.

Sagan has at least three awards named in his honor:

The Carl Sagan Memorial Award presented jointly since 1997 by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and the Planetary Society,

The Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science presented since 1998 by the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (AAS/DPS) for outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public — Carl Sagan was one of the original organizing committee members of the DPS, and

The Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science presented by the Council of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP) — Sagan himself was the first recipient of the CSSP award in 1993. In 2006, the Carl Sagan Medal was awarded to astrobiologist and author David Grinspoon, the son of Sagan's friend Lester Grinspoon.

On December 20, 2006, the tenth anniversary of Sagan's death, a blogger, Joel Schlosberg, organized a Carl Sagan "blog-a-thon" to commemorate Sagan's death, and the idea was supported by Nick Sagan. Many members of the blogging community participated.

August 2007 the Independent Investigative Group IIG awarded Sagan posthumously a Lifetime Achievement Award. This honor has also been awarded to Harry Houdini and James Randi.

In 2008, Benn Jordan, also known as "The Flashbulb", released the album ''Pale Blue Dot: A Tribute to Carl Sagan''.

In 2009, clips from Carl Sagan's ''Cosmos'' were used as the basis for ''A Glorious Dawn'', the first video produced for the Symphony of Science, an educational music video production by composer John Boswell. Musician Jack White later released this song as a vinyl single under his record label Third Man Records. Additional clips were used in several followup videos which featured Sagan alongside other noted scientists and proponents of rational thinking, such as Richard Dawkins, Richard Feynman, Brian Greene, Lawrence M. Krauss, Bill Nye, and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

In 2010, the 76th anniversary of Carl Sagan's birth, the second "Carl Sagan Day" was celebrated on November 6.

Awards and honors

Annual Award for Television Excellence — 1981 — The Ohio State University — PBS series ''Cosmos''

Apollo Achievement Award — National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal — National Aeronautics and Space Administration (twice)

Emmy — Outstanding Individual Achievement — 1981 — PBS series ''Cosmos''

Emmy — Outstanding Informational Series — 1981 — PBS series ''Cosmos''

Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal — National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Helen Caldicott Leadership Award — Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament

Hugo Award — 1981 — ''Cosmos''

Humanist of the Year — 1981 — Awarded by the American Humanist Association

In Praise of Reason Award — 1987 — Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

Isaac Asimov Award — 1994 — Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal

John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award — American Astronautical Society

John W. Campbell Memorial Award — 1974 — ''Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective''

Joseph Priestley Award — "For distinguished contributions to the welfare of mankind"

Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific — 1974

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal — Awarded by the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation

Locus Award 1986 — ''Contact''

Lowell Thomas Award — Explorers Club — 75th Anniversary

Masursky Award — American Astronomical Society

Miller Research Fellowship — Miller Institute (1960–1962)

Oersted Medal — 1990 — American Association of Physics Teachers

Peabody Award — 1980 — PBS series ''Cosmos''

Prix Galbert — The international prize of Astronautics

Public Welfare Medal — 1994 — National Academy of Sciences

Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction — 1978 — ''The Dragons of Eden''

SF Chronicle Award — 1998 — ''Contact''

Named the "99th Greatest American" on the June 5, 2005, ''Greatest American'' show on the Discovery Channel

Publications

''Planets'' (LIFE Science Library), Sagan, Carl, Jonathan Norton Leonard and editors of Life, Time, Inc., 1966

''Intelligent Life in the Universe'', I.S. Shklovskii coauthor, Random House, 1966, ISBN 1-892803-02-X, 509 pgs (note: republished in 1998 by Emerson-Adams Press)

''UFOs: A Scientific Debate'', Thornton Page coauthor, Cornell University Press, 1972, 310 pgs

''Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence''. MIT Press, 1973, 428 pgs

''Mars and the Mind of Man'', Sagan, Carl, et al., Harper & Row, 1973, 143 pgs

''Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective'', Jerome Agel coauthor, Anchor Press, 1973, ISBN 0-521-78303-8, 301 pgs

''Other Worlds''. Bantam Books, 1975

''Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record'', Sagan, Carl, et al., Random House, ISBN 0-394-41047-5, 1978

''The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence''. Ballantine Books, 1978, ISBN 0-345-34629-7, 288 pgs

''Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science''. Ballantine Books, 1979, ISBN 0-345-33689-5, 416 pgs

''Cosmos''. Random house, 1980. Random House New Edition, May 7, 2002, ISBN 0-375-50832-5, 384 pgs

''The Cold and the Dark: The World after Nuclear War'', Sagan, Carl et al., Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985

''Comet'', Ann Druyan coauthor, Ballantine Books, 1985, ISBN 0-345-41222-2, 496 pgs

''Contact''. Simon and Schuster, 1985; Reissued August 1997 by Doubleday Books, ISBN 1-56865-424-3, 352 pgs

''A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race'', Richard Turco coauthor, Random House, 1990, ISBN 0-394-58307-8, 499 pgs

''Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are'', Ann Druyan coauthor, Ballantine Books, October 1993, ISBN 0-345-38472-5, 528 pgs

''Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space''. Random House, November 1994, ISBN 0-679-43841-6, 429 pgs

''The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark''. Ballantine Books, March 1996, ISBN 0-345-40946-9, 480 pgs (note: the book was first published and copyrighted in 1995 with an errata slip inserted)

''Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium'', Ann Druyan coauthor, Ballantine Books, June 1997, ISBN 0-345-37918-7, 320 pgs

''The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God'', Carl Sagan (writer) & Ann Druyan (editor), 1985 Gifford lectures, Penguin Press HC, November 2006, ISBN 1-59420-107-2, 304 pgs

References

Further reading

External links

The Carl Sagan Portal

BBC Radio program "Great Lives" on Carl Sagan's life

A Man whose time Has come — Interview with Carl Sagan by Ian Ridpath, New Scientist 1974 July 4

Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization

Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science, presented by the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (AAS/DPS)

Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the Universe, SETI Institute

Carl Sagan's Life and Legacy as Scientist, Teacher, and Skeptic, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Cosmos — Full Episodes and Clips streaming online for free — Hulu, Cosmos online for free

A Tribute to Carl Sagan: Our Place in the Universe, The Skeptics Society

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Andrew Teisher Weaver (born February 12, 1959) is a former professional road bicycle racer from the United States, who won the bronze medal in the Men's Team Road Race at the 1984 Summer Olympics. His winning teammates in Los Angeles, California were Ron Kiefel, Clarence Knickman, and Davis Phinney. Weaver was also a member of the 1979 Pan American Games US team and won a Gold medal at the 1983 Pan American Games. He is a nine-time National Cycling Champion.

Andrew Weaver received a bachelor's degree in Architecture from the University of Florida and a Masters in Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Weaver is a practicing architect and established Weaver+Associates Architects in 1994. He is a Registered Architect in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Maine specializing in resort/golf-related projects, private institutional, sports and multi-family projects.

References

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Architecture Week database

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