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"I was involved in a cloning project. .. to send me into outer space along with a lot of other people. Not the whole me - just a hair from my head, while I still had some. I would thus pop up in another galaxy in the distant future."
- Arthur C. Clarke
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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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| FlexRAM Liquid Metal RAM And One Particular SF Movie Robot |
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'There was a wall ahead... It was riddled with holes that were the mouths of tunnels.'
'...support the interior human structure against Jupiter’s pull.'
'Anything larger than a BB shot it picked up and placed in a tray...'
'The German chemists have discovered how to supply the needed elements in compact, undiluted form...'
'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
