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"My feeling is that the chance of our surviving into the twenty-first century as working civilization is less than fifty percent but greater than zero."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Thermatite | ||
| Pure energy fuel mined on asteroids. |
| "It isn't a big one - not over five miles - but she's loaded with thermatite."
"Thermatite!" Kerry and Jem looked at each other. "What percentage alloy?"
 ('Jurisdiction' by Nat Schachner) "No percentage. It's the pure alloy. And a vein as thick as a spaceship." There's been nothing like it found in the solar system. I think this asteroid must have come from outside. The head of a comet, possibly, caught by Jupiter." Kerry whistled softly. Thermatite was almost pure energy. It would undergo atomic disintegration without giving off gamma rays - hence could be used in very cheap, very light portable atomic engines that required no shielding. |
| Technovelgy from Jurisdiction,
by Nat Schachner. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
This cool-sounding material probably derives its name from thermite, invented in 1893 (and patented in 1895) by German chemist Hans Goldschmidt. Thermite reactions are used in welding and in incendiary devices used by the military.
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Tech news articles related to works by Nat Schachner
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| GNoME AI From DeepMind Invents Millions Of New Materials |
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'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
