By Jayant V. Narlikar
This selection of technological know-how fiction writings by way of Jayant V. Narlikar bargains readers a special glimpse into the world-famous Indian astrophysicist’s bright and hugely inventive techniques and stories.
The fictional fabric includes a witty brief tale ("The infrequent idol of Ganesha") that cleverly explores the potential effects of a mirror-symmetric person within the context of cricket try out fit performances, in addition to the fast paced, gripping technological know-how fiction mystery "The go back of Vaman": whilst an alien box is unearthed by way of a group of scientists, the large power technological purposes of its contents convey quite a few felony components at the scene – but if the genuine risk turns into obvious it's virtually too past due to avoid wasting humanity.
Last yet now not least, the booklet offers readers with huge insights into the genesis and clinical historical past of the fictitious fabric provided during this quantity, besides an autobiographical account of the author’s life-long curiosity in technological know-how fiction and his contributions to the genre.
About the author:
Jayant V. Narlikar is the world over recognized for his paintings in cosmology, specifically for championing versions replacement to the traditional big-bang concept. He used to be president of the cosmology fee of the overseas Astronomical Union from 1994 to 1997. He has acquired a number of nationwide and overseas awards and honorary doctorates - he's a Bhatnagar awardee, in addition to recipient of the M.P. Birla award, the Prix Janssen of the French Astronomical Society and an affiliate of the Royal Astronomical Society of London. he's Fellow of the 3 Indian nationwide technological know-how academies in addition to of the 3rd international Academy of Sciences. way past his medical examine, Prof. Narlikar is well known as a technology communicator via his books, articles and radio/TV courses and he used to be venerated through the UNESCO in 1996 with the Kalinga Award.
He made his debut in technological know-how fiction writing in 1974, through successful the head prize within the tale writing festival geared up through the Marathi Vidnyan Parishad, a non-governmental association engaged in technology popularization.
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Example text
His job demanded it. He nodded and got up. ’ Arul’s question came nearly an hour after the discussion had started, an hour during which Laxman had hardly spoken. Take any committee and you The Container 39 will find its discussion dominated by two or three members, and it is not usual for such people to have something relevant to say. Today’s discussion was essentially a monologue by Navin, which frequently took off in a tangential direction. Arul, who vainly struggled to control the situation, finally had to appeal to Laxman, knowing that he rarely saw eye to eye with Navin.
S office was at the end of a long verandah. ’s room. ’ In the past Shankar’s briefing had often been useful. ‘Can’t say Mr Navin. ’ Shastri Bhavan—the seat of the Ministry’s secretariat. So the matter was ‘official’. ’ Shankar’s reverence for his boss required ‘he’ to be pronounced with sufficient gravity to justify the capital ‘H’. ’—the name was unfamiliar to Navin. ‘The director of the Basic Research Institute in Bombay, Mr Navin. ’ It suddenly dawned on Navin that the ‘urgent’ matter must concern the news item that had interested him in the morning paper.
They do look sinister. But then, we may be influenced by our ideas of what a benign robot should look like. On the other hand, I suspect that the “artist” who drew these figures shared our reaction. ’ Emboldened by this sympathetic response, Raghavan advanced his own conjecture. ‘One normally does not associate feelings with robots—but somehow these robots don’t appear to be the benevolent kind, do they? Arul did not reply. A shiver ran through Raghavan’s body as he matched his ideas with the surroundings.
