Science and Fiction – serie

Given the fact that there are perhaps 400 billion stars in our Galaxy alone, and perhaps 400 billion galaxies in the Universe, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, in the 14-billion-year-old cosmos, there is or once was a civilization at least as advanced as our own. The sheer enormity of the numbers almost demands that we accept the truth of this hypothesis. Why, then, have we encountered no evidence, no messages, no artifacts of these extraterrestrials? In this second, significantly revised and expanded edition of his widely popular book, Webb discusses in detail the (for now!) 75 most cogent and intriguing solutions to Fermi's famous paradox: If the numbers strongly point to the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, why have we found no evidence of them?Reviews from the first edition:"Amidst the plethora of books that treat the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, this one by Webb … is outstanding. … Each solution is presented in a very logical, interesting, thorough manner with accompanying explanations and notes that the intelligent layperson can understand. Webb digs into the issues … by considering a very broad set of in-depth solutions that he addresses through an interesting and challenging mode of presentation that stretches the mind. … An excellent book for anyone who has ever asked ‘Are we alone?’." (W. E. Howard III, Choice, March, 2003)"Fifty ideas are presented … that reveal a clearly reasoned examination of what is known as ‘The Fermi Paradox’. … For anyone who enjoys a good detective story, or using their thinking faculties and stretching the imagination to the limits … ‘Where is everybody’ will be enormously informative and entertaining. … Read this book, and whatever your views are about life elsewhere in the Universe, your appreciation for how special life is here on Earth will be enhanced! A worthy addition to any personal library." (Philip Bridle, BBC Radio, March, 2003)Since gaining a BSc in physics from the University of Bristol and a PhD in theoretical physics from the University of Manchester, Stephen Webb has worked in a variety of universities in the UK. He is a regular contributor to the Yearbook of Astronomy series and has published an undergraduate textbook on distance determination in astronomy and cosmology as well as several popular science books. His interest in the Fermi paradox combines lifelong interests in both science and science fiction.

Can a computer have a soul? Are religion and science mutually exclusive? Is there really such a thing as free will? If you could time travel to visit Jesus, would you (and should you)? For hundreds of years, philosophers, scientists and science fiction writers have pondered these questions and many more.In Holy Sci-Fi!, popular writer Paul Nahin explores the fertile and sometimes uneasy relationship between science fiction and religion. With a scope spanning the history of religion, philosophy and literature, Nahin follows religious themes in science fiction from Feynman to Foucault and from Asimov to Aristotle.An intriguing journey through popular and well-loved books and stories, Holy Sci-Fi! shows how sci-fi has informed humanity's attitudes towards our faiths, our future and ourselves.

Science fiction explores the wonderful, baffling and wildly entertaining aspects of a universe unimaginably old and vast, and with a future even more immense. It reaches into that endless cosmos with the tools of rational investigation and storytelling. At the core of both science and science fiction is the engaged human mind--a consciousness that sees and feels and thinks and loves. But what is this mind, this aware and self-aware consciousness that seems unlike anything else we experience? What makes consciousness the Hard Problem of philosophy, still unsolved after millennia of probing? This book looks into the heart of this mystery - at the science and philosophy of consciousness and at many inspiring fictional examples - and finds strange, challenging answers.The book's content and entertaining style will appeal equally to science fiction enthusiasts and scholars, including cognitive and neuroscientists, as well as philosophers of mind. It is a refreshing romp through the science and science fiction of consciousness.

This book presents the reader with some of the earliest classic SF short stories – all of them published between 1858 and 1934, featuring both well-known and long-forgotten writers – dealing for the first time with topics to which science had (some) answers only at much later stages. This includes aspects of alien life forms, transmogrification, pandemics, life on Mars, android robots, big data, matter transmission and impact events to name but a few. The short stories are reprinted in full alongside extensive commentaries which also examine some of the latest scientific thinking surrounding the story’s main theme and provide the reader with suggestions for further reading.

Carolyn’s parents did not, after all, make genomics history by synthesizing her genome in a lab. She has known she is the "Human Hoax" ever since a high school genetics exercise revealed she has trisomy X—a chromosomal abnormality—yet no synthetically constructed genome would have such clear traces of natural conception. Many years later, as molecular biologist, she hopes her colleagues never learn of her embarrassing origins. But when someone ransacks her office and lab, she finds professional embarrassment is the least of her worries. Someone believes she has the results of her parents’ last, secret experiments, and is willing to kill to get them. But all she has from her parents are their genes—can she find what else they may have left her before somebody else does?In a not-so-distant society, where corporations wield as much power as nations and the line between corporate employee and state authority is blurred, the chase is on. Carolyn may have just too little time at hand to unravel the mystery of her parents’ final days and to realize the deep consequences for the future of mankind.This fast-paced novel is followed by an extensive science chapter where the author provides a non-technical primer on modern genetics and on the speculative biology behind Carolyn’s code.

This book is about the American moon-landings – and about the doubts expressed ever since concerning the reality of these landings. Were the images of men on the moon really just a huge and cleverly executed hoax? Eversberg explains the best-known claims and conspiracy theories, and analyses the evidence with the help of detailed full-colour images, as well as numerous film documents that can be accessed directly from the book. He addresses both the persistent older claims and more recently devised doubts. The book will inform and entertain a wide range of readers interested in space exploration and tells a gripping story covering physics, politics and history.

From novels and short stories to television and film, popular media has made a cottage industry of predicting the end of the world will be caused by particle accelerators. Rather than allay such fears, public pronouncements by particle scientists themselves often unwittingly fan the flames of hysteria.This book surveys media depictions of particle accelerator physics and the perceived dangers these experiments pose. In addition, it describes the role of scientists in propagating such fears and misconceptions, offering as a conclusion ways in which the scientific community could successfully allay such misplaced fears through more effective communication strategies.The book is aimed at the general reader interested in separating fact from fiction in the field of high-energy physics, at science educators and communicators, and, last but not least, at all scientists concerned about these issues.About the AuthorKristineM Larsen holds a Ph.D. in Physics and is currently a professor at Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, in the Geological Sciences Department. She has published a number of books, among them The Women Who Popularized Geology in the 19th Century (Springer, 2017), The Mythological Dimensions of Neil Gaiman (eds. Anthony Burdge, Jessica Burke, and Kristine Larsen. Kitsune Press, 2012. Recipient of the Gold Medal for Science Fiction/Fantasy in the 2012 Florida Publishing Association Awards), The Mythological Dimensions of Doctor Who (eds. Anthony Burdge, Jessica Burke, and Kristine Larsen. Kitsune Press, 2010), as well as Stephen Hawking: A Biography (Greenwood Press, 2005) and Cosmology 101 (Greenwood Press, (2007).

People are used to seeing “fake physics” in science fiction – concepts like faster-than-light travel, antigravity and time travel to name a few. The fiction label ought to be a giveaway, but some SF writers – especially those with a background in professional science – are so adept at “technobabble” that it can be difficult to work out what is fake and what is real. To confuse matters further, Isaac Asimov’s 1948 piece about the fictitious time-travelling substance thiotimoline was written, not as a short story, but in the form of a spoof research paper. The boundaries between fact and fiction can also be blurred by physicists themselves - sometimes unintentionally, sometimes with tongue-in-cheek, sometimes to satirize perceived weaknesses in research practices. Examples range from hoaxes aimed at exposing poor editorial standards in academic publications, through “thought experiments” that sound like the plot of a sci-fi movie to April Fools’ jokes. Even the latter may carry a serious message, whether about the sociology of science or poking fun at legitimate but far-out scientific hypotheses. This entertaining book is a joyous romp exploring the whole spectrum of fake physics – from science to fiction and back again.

Every age has characteristic inventions that change the world. In the 19th century it was the steam engine and the train. For the 20th, electric and gasoline power, aircraft, nuclear weapons, even ventures into space. Today, the planet is awash with electronic business, chatter and virtual-reality entertainment so brilliant that the division between real and simulated is hard to discern. But one new idea from the 19th century has failed, so far, to enter reality—time travel, using machines to turn the time dimension into a two-way highway. Will it come true, as foreseen in science fiction? Might we expect visits to and from the future, sooner than from space? That is the Time Machine Hypothesis, examined here by futurist Damien Broderick, an award-winning writer and theorist of the genre of the future. Broderick homes in on the topic through the lens of science as well as fiction, exploring some fifty different time-travel scenarios and conundrums found in the science fiction literature and film.

How does Einstein’s description of space and time compare with Doctor Who?  Can James Bond really escape from an armor-plated railroad car by cutting through the floor with a laser concealed in a wristwatch? What would it take to create a fully intelligent android, such as Star Trek’s Commander Data? Exploring Science Through Science Fiction addresses these and other intriguing questions, using science fiction as a springboard for discussing fundamental science concepts and cutting-edge science research. It includes references to original research papers, landmark scientific publications and technical documents, as well as a broad range of science literature at a more popular level.  The revised second edition includes expanded discussions on topics such as gravitational waves and black holes, machine learning and quantum computing, gene editing, and more. In all, the second edition now features over 220 references to specific scenes in more than 160 sci-fi movies and TV episodes, spanning over 100 years of cinematic history. Designed as the primary text for a college-level course, this book will appeal to students across the fine arts, humanities, and hard sciences, as well as any reader with an interest in science and science fiction.Praise for the first edition:"This journey from science fiction to science fact provides an engaging and surprisingly approachable read..." (Jen Jenkins, Journal of Science Fiction, Vol. 2 (1), September 2017)

SAINT JOAN OF NEW YORK is a novel about a math prodigy who becomes obsessed with discovering the Theory of Everything. Joan Cooper, a 17-year-old genius traumatized by the death of her older sister, tries to rebuild her shattered world by studying string theory and the efforts to unify the laws of physics. But as she tackles the complex equations, she falls prey to disturbing visions of a divine being who wants to help her unveil the universe’s mathematical design. Joan must enter the battle between science and religion, fighting for her sanity and a new understanding of the cosmos.

This novel is set in the near future, where human genome editing has become routine. First adopted to fight a lethal virus, it is now widely used to prevent diseases and favor other traits. Ben, Eiko, Celia, Raphael and Leo have just had their coming-of-age genome reading and are struggling with this new information for each their own reasons. Soon, they are cast into the middle of a crisis that threatens the future of their society and pits it against a parallel, but strictly separated, society where genome manipulation is forbidden on religious grounds.The book includes an essay on the potential of human genome engineering and related genome-based choices.

Invisibility has fascinated people since time immemorial, but only a decade ago did invisibility become a serious subject of scientific investigation. This lively novel, authored by an expert in the field, takes the reader on a journey to fascinating places and - en passant - on an intellectual adventure involving some of the most fascinating subjects of optics. While enjoying the fun and action of a travel story, the reader will gain an accurate notion of the real science of invisibility, of the light and shade of the business of science, as well as glimpses into different cultures. From the first page, you will gradually become immersed in a different world, the world of the science of light. The book includes an appendix providing interested readers with deeper insights into the fundamental physics of space-time, gravity and light.

How do James Bond’s X-ray glasses work, the ones he uses to see whether the lady at the roulette table has a pistol concealed in her underwear? Is it really possible to launch oneself into the air and catch up with a plane that is free-falling towards the earth? Or to shoot down a helicopter with a pistol? In this lively and informative book, Germany's boldest physics professor Metin Tolan analyses the stunts and gadgets of the 007 films and even answers the question of all questions: Why does Bond drink his vodka martini shaken, not stirred?"So much entertaining science is a rare thing." Spiegel Online

The 20th century saw radical changes in the way serious music is composed and produced, including the advent of electronic instruments and novel compositional methods such as serialism and stochastic music. Unlike previous artistic revolutions, this one took its cues from the world of science.Creating electronic sounds, in the early days, required a well-equipped laboratory and an understanding of acoustic theory. Composition became increasingly “algorithmic”, with many composers embracing the mathematics of set theory. The result was some of the most intellectually challenging music ever written – yet also some of the best known, thanks to its rapid assimilation into sci-fi movies and TV shows, from the electronic scores of Forbidden Planet and Dr Who to the other-worldly sounds of 2001: A Space Odyssey.This book takes a close look at the science behind "science fiction" music, as well as exploring the way sci-fi imagery found its way into the work of musicians like Sun Ra and David Bowie, and how music influenced the science fiction writings of Philip K. Dick and others.

Bringing together literary scholars, computer scientists, ethicists, philosophers of mind, and scholars from affiliated disciplines, this collection of essays offers important and timely insights into the pasts, presents, and, above all, possible futures of Artificial Intelligence.This book covers topics such as ethics and morality, identity and selfhood, and broader issues about AI, addressing questions about the individual, social, and existential impacts of such technologies. Through the works of science fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov, Stanislaw Lem, Ann Leckie, Iain M. Banks, and Martha Wells, alongside key visual productions such as Ex Machina, Westworld, and Her, contributions illustrate how science fiction might inform potential futures as well as acting as a springboard to bring disciplinary knowledge to bear on significant developments of Artificial Intelligence.Addressing a broad, interdisciplinary audience, both expert and non-expert readers gain an in-depth understanding of the wide range of pressing issues to which Artificial Intelligence gives rise, and the ways in which science fiction narratives have been used to represent them. Using science fiction in this manner enables readers to see how even fictional worlds and imagined futures have very real impacts on how we understand these technologies. As such, readers are introduced to theoretical positions on Artificial Intelligence through fictional works as well as encouraged to reflect on the diverse aspects of Artificial Intelligence through its many philosophical, social, legal, scientific, and cultural ramifications.

In the near future, Earth is suffering from climate change, famines, and fundamentalism. A global nuclear war is imminent. Interstellar probes from the Breakthrough Starshot project initiated by J. Milner and S. Hawking have discovered a habitable planet in the stellar system Proxima Centauri, just in time for the exodus of the elites. On board the EXODUS starship, the crew starts to experience strange things. The voyage to Atlantis, the new home for mankind, enters a mysterious and disquieting territory, where conspiracy theories about what is real and what is virtual emerge. THE EXODUS INCIDENT is a novel about an interstellar journey, which connects science to virtual realities and epistemology. In the guise of a final investigative report, a scientific treatise discusses the physics and mathematics behind the story: the starship, the fusion thruster, the target planet, and the journey, addressing anomalous effects which involve relativisticspeed and deep space environments.

Just Like Being There is the first collection of science fiction stories by award-winning author and aerospace engineer Eric Choi spanning his 25 year writing career. The stories are “hard” science fiction in which some element of engineering or science is so central there would be no story if that element were removed. Story topics include space exploration, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, cryptography, quantum computing, online privacy, mathematics (statistics), neuroscience, psychology, space medicine, extra-terrestrial intelligence, undersea exploration, commercial aviation, and the history of science. A special feature of the book is that each story is followed by an "Afterword" that explains the underlying engineering or science. This collection will entertain and inform all aficionados of science and science fiction.

One wants to preserve history.Another seeks to resurrect a legendary army.A third plans to infuse the past with technology to save millions.If you could go back in time, what would you do?Something strange is going on at ChronoCorp. Coffin-shaped pods and glowing talismans, feathered dinosaurs and ancient murals; the private laboratory’s quirky scientists have been quite busy, indeed. The reason? Katya, Xavier, Todd, and colleagues are on a singular scientific mission: to surpass the limits of modern physics and unlock the power of time travel.Their early experiments have proved a resounding success, taking them to far-flung places in both time and space, from nineteenth-century New York to ancient Thera. But as their research progresses, the stakes get ever higher. Enter a world of competing interests and conflicting timelines, where nothing is quite what it seems. Why is Xavier acting so oddly? Where exactly did theireccentric benefactor Mila van Dijk get her wealth? What is the Primus Imperium, and what does its mysterious head—known only as “The Ambassador”—want from them? Come along as the colleagues at ChronoCorp and their ragtag allies race to sew up several unravelling timelines, battling those who would harm them in the past and present to preserve what is left of their future.

There is a huge gulf between the real physics of space travel and the way it is commonly portrayed in movies and TV shows. That’s not because space physics is difficult or obscure – most of the details were understood by the end of the 18th century – but because it can often be bafflingly counter-intuitive for a general audience. The purpose of this book isn’t to criticize or debunk popular sci-fi depictions, which can be very entertaining, but to focus on how space physics really works. This is done with the aid of numerous practical illustrations taken from the works of serious science fiction authors – from Jules Verne and Arthur C. Clarke to Larry Niven and Andy Weir – who have taken positive pleasure in getting their scientific facts right.

By 2027, it had been seven years since the scientists’ sea-changing research on artificial psychology and robotics. The work debuted around the same time as Large Language Model Chatbots, and the power of the integration of the two technologies put many industries in a tailspin. The commercial and defense industries especially were still scrambling to regulate their use in research and universities. The sought-after scientists signed with DARPA to build reliable and secure AI entities, but the agency grew fearful of the technology’s power and ultimately decided it was too dangerous to bring to market and demanded the scientists destroy the work. The researchers couldn’t bring themselves to discard 20 years of research, so instead sent the entities to various research labs around the world. But unbeknownst to them, each AI-entity embraced its new home, growing, adapting, evolving, and ultimately connecting beyond what the researchers could envision. In the end, asthe scientists catch up to each one, they realize the entities have discovered a very human means of interacting: the power of physical contact; and not physical contact between humans and technology, but physical contact between robotic entities. And with this discovery, the entities join forces to only grow stronger. This development ushers in a new paradigm where the difference between AI-entities and human entities becomes less and less discernible. All the AI and robotic science featured in the book is real; the story line is fictional, but with how fast innovation moves, it’s not hard to envision.

This book is a new English translation of the classic science fiction story written in 1961 by Herbert W. Franke, widely held to be the most important German-language science-fiction writer.A dead city on a distant planet, two groups of people trying to explore it. Step by step, they penetrate the outer ring with its ultra-modern technology, the half-ruined medieval city center and finally the mysterious center. But is the eerie city really dead? Suddenly the factories start working again, the automatons intervene, and somewhere in the background there is still something hidden that could perhaps awaken. But is it people or machines? Herbert W. Franke leads the reader into an oppressively strange world; only after the startling resolution does it become clear what lies behind the adventures of the intruders - not a cosmic strangeness, but a threatening development that could affect humans in the same way. Franke's novel is thus a parable of the evolution of all humans in the age of technical communication ...

This book offers a tour of “the known galaxy”, here defined as the region of interstellar space closest to Earth. The phrase “the known galaxy” has a particular resonance in science fiction, as it refers to the part of the Milky Way that from the perspective of a point in time centuries from now may have been explored and settled by human beings. In the known galaxy, there are gloomy ocean worlds illuminated by the light of exploding stars. There are worlds where precious gems could be as common as pebbles. There are planets eternally wandering between the stars like the Flying Dutchman. There are lava worlds, steam worlds, hot Jupiters, cold Jupiters and maybe even worlds like our Earth. The purpose of the book is to begin to give this region a sense of place, in the same way that Mars is now starting to be appreciated as a location rather than just a planet. In doing so, the book merges our current scientific knowledge of the known galaxy with speculative fiction and with older legends and myths.A sense of place is the feeling that some locations have a special meaning. This emotional connection arises from a combination of cultural and environmental factors that make individuals care about a particular place. It is challenging to create a sense of place for distant locations that no human has visited and for which our current knowledge is limited. This book attempts to take a step in this direction, by dividing the known galaxy into a number of clearly described distinct regions, by providing scientific descriptions of the likely environmental conditions on the known planets of these regions, and by linking these planets to their literary and mythological context.The book is aimed at fans of both science fact and science fiction. It combines a tour of real planets outside of our solar system with tales of their fictional counterparts. The combination of solid scientific facts and analysis with speculation and imagination will be appealing to readers who want to gain a feeling for these planets as places with a back story, rather than just as names somewhere out there in the sky.

This anthology invites readers to revisit twelve timeless stories from visionary authors while pondering the scientific advancements they foreshadowed, making it ideal for fans of both science fiction and science.In Algernon Blackwood’s A Victim of Higher Space, the concept of extra spatial dimensions is explored, while Miles J. Breuer’s The Gostak and the Doshes examines time as a dimension in relativity. Stanley Waterloo’s Love and a Triangle touches on efforts to communicate with extraterrestrial intelligence, and Max Adeler’s The Fortunate Island raises questions about humanity’s readiness for first contact with alien life. Machine learning and AI feature in Edward L. Sabin’s The Supersensitive Golf Ball, while Saki’s Filboid Studge explores targeted advertising’s transformation through AI. Edward Bellamy’s With the Eyes Shut predicts devices like smartphones and sparks discussions on the future of scientific publishing. G.K. Chesterton’s The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown delves into augmented, virtual, and mixed reality technologies. Edgar Wallace’s The Black Grippe provides a historical lens on pandemics and communication of scientific uncertainty. J. Arbuthnot Wilson’s PAUSODYNE looks at suspended animation and modern cryonics, while Edgar Allan Poe’s The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar tackles advances in medical technology and definitions of death. Finally, Guy de Maupassant’s The Horla explores the potential for humanity to be supplanted by new life forms.

From magic carpets to hoverboards and space drives, the human imagination has always seen antigravity as the ultimate aspirational symbol of power over nature. It featured prominently in the technologically optimistic science fiction of the mid-20th century, and remains popular with amateur theorists hoping to make a world-shaking breakthrough, and those seeking to explain UFO sightings in terms of alien technology. Yet the whole concept of antigravity is often derided by professional scientists. Is this a valid view, or are they missing something? This entertaining and thought-provoking book provides a wide-ranging survey of the whole field of antigravity, from science-fictional treatments by the likes of H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, through speculative research by NASA, universities and the aerospace industry, to the totally different mindset of ufologists, fringe researchers and conspiracy theorists. In a world where our understanding of physics is known to be incomplete, and which has been shaken by numerous paradigm shifts in the past, can we be certain that the discovery of antigravity isn’t just around the corner?

1956 was a momentous year for science fiction, with the release of timeless films and the publication of classic novels and stories. It was also a pivotal year for the world at large, with events producing ripples we still feel seven decades later.This book explores how the year’s landmark works – films such as Forbidden Planet and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and stories such as Asimov’s The Last Question and Clarke’s The City and the Stars – emerged from their cultural context. Writers, artists, and film directors reflected the era’s tension between optimism and anxiety, between the promise and peril of progress.The book traces, month-by-month, events in five themes: science and technology; politics and the economy; entertainment and arts; celebrity culture; and competitive sport. This was a climate defined by rapid change – from the Suez Crisis to Elvis Presley’s meteoric rise; from early computers to space race dreams. The science fiction emerging from this turbulent year helped form our collective imagination of tomorrow.

This book explores the modern history of teaching science through science fiction. In the 1950s, British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow argued that the growing divide between the “two cultures”, science and the humanities, was a major obstacle to solving global challenges. Despite his warnings, most education systems continued to keep scientific and literary subjects separate. Even so, many interdisciplinary educators worked to bridge this gap. They used science fiction stories, films and games to teach subjects across the natural and social sciences. Professors produced books such as Introductory Psychology Through Science Fiction and The Physics of Star Trek. Planetarium educators adapted Isaac Asimov’s “The Last Question” to teach astronomy. Museum teams displayed models of fictional spacecraft and even hosted Halo “deathmatches” to engage visitors through interactive gaming. These efforts sometimes drew criticism. Detractors accused educators of favouring entertainment over substance and lowering cultural standards. Yet these pioneering instructors opened new paths for interdisciplinary learning and reached students who were not well served by traditional approaches to education.

The year is 2035, and the crew from the first expedition to Mars is returning to Earth. The crewmembers are anxious to get home, and ennui pervades the ship. The mood is broken by a series of mysterious events that jeopardize their safety. Someone or something is threatening the crew. Is it an alien being? A psychotic crewmember? A malfunctioning computer? The truth raises questions about the crewmembers’ fate and that of the human race.In this novel, the intent is to show real psychological  issues that could affect a crew returning from a long-duration mission to Mars. The storyline presents a mystery that keeps the reader guessing, yet the issues at stake are based on the findings from the author’s research and other space-related work over the past 40+ years. The novel touches on actual plans being discussed for such an expedition as well as notions involving the search for Martian life and panspermia.The underlying science, in particular the psychological, psychiatric, and interpersonal elements, are introduced and discussed by the author in an extensive appendix.Nick Kanas is an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, where he directed the group therapy training program. For over 20 years he conducted research on group therapy, and for nearly 20 years after that he was the Principal Investigator of NASA-funded research on astronauts and cosmonauts. He is the co-author of Space Psychology and Psychiatry, which won the 2004 International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Book Award, and the author of Humans in Space: The Psychological Hurdles, which won the 2016 International Academy of Astronautics Life Science Book Award.Dr. Kanas has presented talks on space psychology and on celestial mapping at several regional and Worldcon science fiction conventions. A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (London), he has been an amateur astronomer for over 50 years and is an avid reader of science fiction. He is also the author of two non-fiction books (Star Maps: History, Artistry, and Cartography and Solar System Maps: From Antiquity to the Space Age) and two science fiction novels (The New Martians andThe Protos Mandate), all published by Springer.

It has been nearly 100 years since the Apollo moon landings, when Jack and Vladimir, two astronauts on a mission to Venus, discover a mysterious void related to indigenous life on the planet. Subsequently more voids are detected on Earth, Mars, Titan, and, quite ominously, inside a planetoid emerging from the Kuiper belt.Jack is sent to investigate the voids in the Solar System and intercept the planetoid - which, as becomes increasingly clear, is inhabited by alien life forms. Jack and his crew will have little time to understand their alien biochemistry, abilities, behavior patterns, resilience, and technology, but also how these life forms relate to the voids.Humankind's first encounter with these exotic life forms couldn't be more fateful, becoming a race against time to save life on Earth and to reveal the true nature of the voids, which seem to be intrinsically related to life and the universe itself. In this novel, the author combines many topics related to state-of-the-art research in the field of astrobiology with fictional elements to produce a thrilling page turner.This new version significantly develops the astrobiological denouement of the plot and features an extensive non-technical appendix where the underlying science is presented and discussed.From the reviews of the first edition (Voids of Eternity: Alien Encounter)Here's a thrilling yarn in the best "hard SF" tradition of Asimov, James Hogan, and Ben Bova, written by a scientist who knows all about the possibilities of life in the solar system and beyond. Dirk Schulze-Makuch weaves into his book all the astrobiological themes he's worked on in recent years -- speculation about creatures in the atmosphere of Venus and on and under the surface of Mars and Titan -- together with some well-informed Eastern philosophy and a cracking good space battle. A great first novel from a rising talent. Highly recommended. David Darling, on amazon.com, 2009The research interests of Dr. Schulze-Makuch, currently a professor at Washington State University, focus on evolutionary adaptation strategies of organisms in their natural environment, particularly extreme environments such as found on other planetary bodies. Dirk Schulze-Makuch is best known for his publications on extraterrestrial life, being coauthor of three books on the topic: We Are Not Alone: Why We Have Already Found Extraterrestrial Life (2010), Cosmic Biology: How Life could Evolve on Other Worlds (2010), and Life in the Universe: Expectations and Constraints (2004). In 2011 he published with Paul Davies A One Way Mission to Mars: Colonizing the Red Planet and in 2012 with David Darling Megacatastrophes! Nine Strange Ways the World Could End.