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"It is change ... that is the dominant factor in society today... the world as it will be. This means that ... every man must take on a science fictional way of thinking.""
- Isaac Asimov
 |
| Desert Cabbage | ||
| A giant plant that regulates its internal temperature even on Mars. |
Very handy for lost travelers.
| "Jim boy come here. Frank come here. Cold there. Warm here."
"...we can't go inside a cabbage It would crush us." "Do as you like, Jim. I can't skate any farther." He set one foot on a broad leaf - which flinched under the contact - and strode steadily..." Willis greeted them ecstatically. "Good boy, Frank! Good boy, Jim! Stay nice and warm all night." The Sun was slipping behind a distant dune; the sunset wind whipped coldly at them. The far edges of the plant lifted and began to curl toward them... The inner leaves were beginning to curl faster than the outer leaves. Such a leaf, four feet wide at its widest and at least ten feet long, raised up in back of Jim and curved in until it touched his shoulder... With elbows and knees and hands the two managed to occupy a roughly spherical space about five feet across and a little less than that high. The leaves closed down on them, seemed to feel them out, then settled firmly against them... Soon the last open space was covered and they were in total darkness. |
| Technovelgy from Red Planet,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Scribner in 1949 Additional resources -
|
This colorful cover version shows the desert cabbage:
(Red Planet cover by Shigeru Komatsuzaki)
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More Ideas
and Technology from Red Planet
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and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to Red Planet
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Desert Cabbage-related
news articles:
- Earth Skunk Cabbage And Martian Desert Cabbage
- Farming In Space Starts With Mycorrhiza
| What'll You Have? Extinct Animals Returned, Or Synthetic Eggshells? |
| Black Fungus Blocks Radiation |
| Lunar Biorepository Proposed For Cryo-Preservation Of Earth Species |
| Let's Make Slaver Sunflowers! Engineering Plants To Reflect Light |
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'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
