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Science Fiction
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"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders."
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![]() You'll want an alternative to just sitting in your economy class seat all the way to Mars.
Bear uses the word in a humorous context:
Chemically, cosmoline is a homogeneous mixture of oily and waxy long-chain, non-polar hydrocarbons. It is always brown in color, but can differ in viscosity and shear strength. Cosmoline melts at 113–125 °F (45–52 °C) and has a flash point of 365 °F (185 °C).
Its most common use is in the storage and preservation of some firearms, hand tools, machine tools and their tooling, and marine equipment. Entire vehicles can be preserved with cosmoline. Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass recently disclosed that ancient Egyptian mummification practices from the third to fifth dynasties utilized a chemical compound molecularly similar to cosmoline.
Cosmoline is also frequently applied to automotive disc brake rotors at the factory, to prevent corrosion inside the box before the rotor is placed into service on a vehicle. It is easily removed by spraying brake cleaner on the braking surfaces of the rotor.
Compare to cold sleep from Robert Heinlein's 1956 novel The Door into Summer, eternity drug from AE van Vogt's 1944 story Far Centaurus and (for healing)
Gobathian from Clifford Simak's 1961 novel Time is the Simplest Thing. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
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'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
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'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
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