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Tables of Contents for Borderlands of Science
Chapter/Section Title
Page #
Page Count
Introduction
1
4
The Borderlands of Science
What you are reading
5
2
Defining science fiction
7
1
The good, the bad, and the simply awful
7
5
What Kind of writer?
12
6
Three times ten to the fourteenth furlongs per fortnight
18
4
The Realm of Physics
The small world: atoms and down
22
3
Quantum paradoxes
25
2
Quantum teleportation
27
2
Relativity
29
1
Special relativity
29
4
General relativity
33
1
Beyond the atom
34
5
Strange physics: superconductivity
39
4
Super properties
43
3
Meanwhile, electricity
46
3
Superconductivity and statistics
49
3
High-temperature superconductors
52
2
Making it work
54
5
Physics in the Large
Stars
59
5
Stellar endings
64
3
Black holes
67
8
Physics in the Very Large
Galaxies
75
1
The Age of the universe
76
2
Early days
78
3
All the way back
81
3
The missing matter
84
3
The end of the universe
87
2
The Big Crunch
89
1
At the eschaton
90
1
Expansion forever
91
2
Life in the far future
93
3
Complications from the cosmological constant
96
5
The Constraints of Chemistry
Isaac Asimov and the Timonium engine
101
5
The limits of Strength
106
1
The production of energy
107
4
Organic and inorganic: building an alien
111
4
Building a Horse
115
2
Fullerenes: a chemical surprise
117
3
A burning home: the oxygen planet
120
3
The Limits of biology
The miracle molecule
123
5
The mystery of sex
128
5
Viruses, RNA, prions, and the origin of life
133
5
Local, or universal? Life elsewhere
138
2
Aging and immortality
140
3
Aging: a second look
143
2
Tissue engineering
145
6
New Worlds for Old
Mercury
151
2
Venus
153
3
Earth
156
1
The Moon
157
2
Mars
159
2
The Moons of Mars
161
1
The asteroid belt
162
1
Jupiter
163
5
Saturn
168
3
Uranus
171
2
Neptune
173
3
Pluto and the limits of the solar system
176
2
Planets around other stars
178
13
Spaceflight
The Ways to space
191
1
Rocket spaceships
192
3
Measures of Performance
195
2
Mass drivers
197
1
Ion rockets
198
1
Nuclear reactor rockets
198
1
Pulsed fission rockets
199
1
Pulsed fusion
200
2
Antimatter rockets
202
2
Photon rockets
204
1
Space travel without reaction mass
205
1
Gravity swingbys
205
2
Solar sails
207
1
Laser beam propulsion
208
1
The Bussard Ramjet
209
2
Hybrids
211
1
Laser-powered rockets
211
1
Ram Augmented Interstellar Rocket (RAIR)
212
1
The vacuum energy drive
212
1
Launch without rockets
213
1
The beanstalk
214
5
Theme and variations
219
1
The launch loop
220
1
Space colonies
221
2
Solar power satellites
223
6
Far-out Alternatives
Problems of interstellar travel
229
1
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
230
2
The choice of signal carrier
232
6
Beam me up
238
2
A Helping hand from relativity
240
1
Faster than light
241
2
Wormholes and loopholes
243
4
Deus ex Machina
Computer limits
247
4
Biological computers
251
7
Quantum computers: making a virtue of necessity
258
2
Where are the robots?
260
2
Nanotechnology: the anything machine
262
2
Artificial life and assisted thought
264
3
Chaos: The Unlicked Bear-Whelp
Chaos: new, or old?
267
1
How to become famous
268
2
Building models
270
3
Iterated functions
273
7
Sick curves and fractals
280
4
Strange attractors
284
4
Future War
The Invisible Man
288
2
Death rays
290
2
The ultimate personal weapon
292
3
Cyborgs
295
1
Cleaning up after nuclear war
296
5
Beyond Science
Scientific heresies
301
1
Dinosaur doom
302
3
Gaia: the Whole Earth Mother
305
3
Dr. Pauling and Vitamin C
308
3
Minds an machines
311
4
Diseases from space
315
3
Cold fusion
318
4
No Big Bang
322
3
Free energy
325
2
Wild powers
327
2
Beyond the edge of the world
329
2
One last heresy
331
8
The End of Science
339
6
Appendix: Science Bites
345
38
References
383
6
Index
389