BaD sCienCe

Damien Broderick · 02 Dec 1999, 17:24 · from urth-v0028.mbox · original

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From: Damien Broderick <d.broderick at english.unimelb.edu.au>
Subject: Re: (urth) BaD sCienCe
Date: Thu, 02 Dec 1999 17:24:40
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At 09:07 PM 1/12/99 -0700, mantis wrote:\

>in the sense that the scientist is working with his calculator for
>an afternoon or whatever, figuring out this and that, and furthermore, a
>supposedly scientific paper will be tarnished by any sort of mention of
>"inspiration by genre,"=20

I wonder of the usually forgotten Fred Hoyle might sneak in here? Great
audacious ideas (for his time), clunky but serviceable fiction warpped
around them. THE BLACK CLOUD is the canoincal instance, of course, but I'm
just halfway through COMET HALLEY which I've never seen anyone else in the
world mention. Came out in 1985. Amazingly CPSnovian in its corridors of
power emphasis, even as it recycles the dusky dusty cloud and fills it with
smart bacteria. (One of the refrains of the book is the intemperate
hostility of establishment science, Royal Society, et al, to wonderful off
the wall discoveries. Poor Fred.)

Damien Broderick

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