Rachel In Love

In honor of Valentine's Day a little free science fiction with a biology twist:

Pat Murphy's moving story, Rachel in Love, features a teenage girl trying to come to terms with living in a chimpanzee's body. The story won a Nebula Award for best novelette in 1987.

Tags:Pat Murphy

Peter Watts on Aliens in "Darwin's Universe"

In a recent interview with SFF World, Peter Watts discussed his recent novel Blindsight, and crafting of "realistic" aliens:

Well, I was a little tired of aliens, both literary and cinematic, that basically seem to be humans in rubber suits with one or two cultural knobs cranked to eleven. On the other hand, it's a bit too easy to throw a big black slab at the audience and say "There's no point in even trying to understand the aliens because they're, you know, alien". If something evolved in Darwin's universe, it's damn well going to adhere to certain natural laws, and that makes it tractable. So I wasn't so much breaking a convention as I was treading the razor's edge between two conventions. I tried to ensure that everything was deeply weird-- life without genes, intelligence without conventional cephalisation-- but nothing was unjustifiable.

In Blindsight, Watts introduces "vampires" that have their development rooted in science rather than fantasy:

And of course there are the vampires. That was just a kind of intellectual wank for my own amusement: I wanted to see if I could take one of the most absurd and unjustifiable creatures ever to spring from myth, and plausibly handwave a scientific justification for all those absurd elements. Again, I wasn't really shattering a convention (although I was definitely poking it with a stick and laughing at its discomfort); I was reinforcing the standard mythology using biological rationales. I didn't know if I'd be able to pull it off until I came up with the Crucifix Glitch; after that it was, Hah! Bring it on!

Watts also suggests that he's been thinking of related publications.

I still have novels incubating in my head - I'm even playing with the idea of a faux-documentary coffee-table book called "Proceedings of the First Biennial Conference on the Evolutionary and Biology of Vampires", although Tor has told me they aren't interested.

Read the whole interview. You can download many of Watts books and stories for free, but, if you want to encourage him to publish more, buy one of his books!
Tags:science fiction, Peter Watts

Biology in Science Fiction Reference Library

There are a number of books available that look at the science in science fiction which are written with the non-scientist in mind. I've included the links to some of these works below - take your pick between purchasing a copy from Amazon.com or checking out the book from the nearest library. I'll update the list as I find new books.

To Seek Out New Life: The Biology of Star Trek Amazon.com|Library Search

Life Signs: The Biology of Star Trek Amazon.com|Library Search

The Science of Star Wars Amazon.com|Library Search

The Biology of Science Fiction Cinema Amazon.com|Library Search

The Real Science Behind the X-Files Amazon.com|Library Search

Science of Jurassic Park and the Lost World Amazon.com|Library Search

The Science of Aliens Amazon.com|Library Search	The science of ... Aliens Amazon.com Library Search	Aliens and Alien Societies Amazon.com|Library Search
Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials Amazon.com|Library Search	Extraterrestrials: A Field Guide for Earthlings Amazon.com|Library Search

The Science of the X-Men Amazon.com|Library Search

The Science of Superheroes Amazon.com|Library Search

The Science of Supervillains Amazon.com|Library Search

The Science in Science Fiction: 83 SF Predictions that Became Scientific Reality Amazon.com|Library Search

Fantastic Voyages: Learning Science Through Science Fiction Films Amazon.com|Library Search

Teaching Science Fact with Science Fiction Amazon.com | Library Search

Older Books

• Biological Themes in Modern Science Fiction
  Amazon.com | Library Search
• Darwin to Double Helix: The Biological Theme in Science Fiction
  Amazon.com | Library Search
• Science Fiction Research Bibliography

Tags:science fiction, biology