Gregory Benford Popular Books
Gregory Benford Biography & Facts
Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the department of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of Reason magazine. Benford wrote the Galactic Center Saga science fiction novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). The series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient electromechanical life. In 1969 he wrote "The Scarred Man", the first story about a computer virus (based on a real computer virus he had spread), published in 1970. Biography Benford was born in Mobile, Alabama and grew up in Robertsdale and Fairhope. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa, he received a Bachelor of Science in physics in 1963 from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, followed by a Master of Science from the University of California, San Diego in 1965, and a doctorate there in 1967. That same year he married Joan Abbe, with whom he had two children. Benford modeled characters in several of his novels after his wife, most prominently the heroine of Artifact. She died in 2002. Benford has an identical twin brother, James (Jim) Benford, with whom he has collaborated on science fiction stories. Both got their start in science fiction fandom, with Gregory being a co-editor of the science fiction fanzine Void. Benford has said he is an atheist. He has been a long-time resident of Laguna Beach, California. Writing career Gregory Benford's first professional sale was the story "Stand-In" in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (June 1965), which won second prize in a short story contest based on a poem by Doris Pitkin Buck. In 1969, he began writing a science column for Amazing Stories. Benford tends to write hard science fiction which incorporates the research he is doing as a practical scientist. He has worked on collaborations with authors William Rotsler, David Brin and Gordon Eklund. His time-travel novel Timescape (1980) won both the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. The scientific procedural novel eventually loaned its title to a line of science fiction published by Pocket Books. In the late 1990s, he wrote Foundation's Fear, one of an authorized sequel trilogy to Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. Other novels published in that period include several near-future science thrillers: Cosm (1998), The Martian Race (1999) and Eater (2000). Benford has served as an editor of numerous alternate history anthologies, as well as collections of Hugo Award winners. He has been nominated for four Hugo Awards (for two short stories and two novellas) and 12 Nebula Awards (in all categories). In addition to Timescape, he won the Nebula for the novelette "If the Stars Are Gods" (with Eklund). In 2005 the MIT SF Society awarded him the Asimov Prize. Benford was a guest of honour at Aussiecon Three, the 1999 Worldcon. He remains a regular contributor to science fiction fanzines, for example Apparatchik (defunct as of 1997). In 2016 Benford was the recipient of the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society Forry Award Lifetime Achievement Award in the Field of Science Fiction. Contributions to science and speculative science Gregory Benford is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of California, Irvine. With more than 200 scientific publications, his research encompassed both theory and experiments in the fields of astrophysics and plasma physics. His research has been supported by NSF, NASA, AFOSR, DOE and other agencies. He is an ongoing advisor to NASA, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and the CIA. Benford's work in physics at the University of California focused on theoretical and experimental plasma physics, including studies of extremely strong turbulence, particularly in astrophysical contexts, and studies of magnetic structures from the Galactic Center to large-scale galactic jets. Working in collaboration with, among others, science fiction writers Cramer, Forward, and Landis, Benford worked on a theoretical study of the physics of wormholes, which pointed out that wormholes, if formed in the early universe, could still exist in the present day if they were wrapped in a negative-mass cosmic string. Such wormholes could potentially be detected by gravitational lensing. In 2004, Benford proposed that the harmful effects of global warming could be reduced by the construction of a rotating Fresnel lens 1,000 kilometres across, floating in space at the Lagrangian point L1. According to Benford, this lens would diffuse the light from the Sun and reduce the solar energy reaching the Earth by approximately 0.5% to 1%. He estimated that this would cost around US$10 billion. His plan has been commented on in a variety of forums. A similar space sunshade was proposed in 1989 by J. T. Early, and again in 1997 by Edward Teller, Lowell Wood, and Roderick Hyde. In 2006, Benford pointed out one possible danger in this approach: if this lens were built and global warming were avoided, there would be less incentive to reduce greenhouse gases, and humans might continue to produce too much carbon dioxide until it caused some other environmental catastrophe, such as a chemical change in ocean water that could be disastrous to ocean life. Benford serves on the board of directors and the steering committee of the Mars Society. He has advocated human cryopreservation, for example by signing an open letter to support research into cryonics, being a member of Alcor, and by being an advisor to a UK cryonics and cryopreservation advocacy group. Gregory Benford retired from the University of California in 2006 in order to found and develop Genescient Corporation. Genescient is a new generation biotechnology company that claims to combine evolutionary genomics with massive selective screening to analyze and exploit the genetics of model animal and human whole genomes. Scientific awards and recognition Phi Beta Kappa Woodrow Wilson Fellow Fellow of the American Physical Society Visiting Fellow Cambridge University University of Turin University of Bologna. 1995 Lord Prize for contributions to science 2006 Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Irvine Benford's law of controversy Benford's law of controversy is an adage from the 1980 novel Timescape: Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available. The adage was quoted in an international drug policy article in a peer-reviewed social science journal. Selected bibliography Galactic Center Saga In the Ocean of Night (1977) Across the Sea of Suns (1984) Great Sky River (1987) Tides of Light (1989) Furious Gulf (1994) Sailing Bright Eternity (1996) "A Hunger for the Infinite" a novella published in the 1999 anthology Far Horizons References External links Gregory Benford official website Archived 2022-04-11 at the Wayback Machine Gregory Benford at the Internet Speculative Fiction Dat.... Discover the Gregory Benford popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gregory Benford books.
Best Seller Gregory Benford Books of 2024
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Zeitschaft
Gregory BenfordWohin führt uns die Technik? Die nahe Zukunft: Die Welt steht vor dem ökologischen Kollaps. Eine Gruppe von Wissenschaftlern versucht, eine Botschaft in die Vergangenheit zu senden...
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The Best of Gregory Benford
Gregory BenfordThis is a monumental collection of thirtyeight Gregory Benford stories, including some of the best science fiction of the last fifty years, chosen from the more than two hundred he...
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Eater
Gregory BenfordDie Erde am AbgrundAls Wissenschaftler im selben Abschnitt des Weltraums kurz hintereinander zwei GammastrahlenBlitze beobachten, sind sie sicher, dass sie von einem Schwarzen Loch...
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Gregory Benford
George SlusserGregory Benford is perhaps best known as the author of Benford’s law of controversy: “Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.” That maxim is ...
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Himmelsfluss
Gregory BenfordWir sind nicht willkommenDie ersten Kolonien im All sind gegründet, die Menschheit beginnt, sich in der Galaxis auszubreiten. Von der Hoffnung getrieben, dort eine Vielzahl intelli...
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Im Meer der Nacht
Gregory BenfordSind wir eine Gefahr für alle anderen? 1948: Der Astronom Walter Blade entdeckt den Kleinplanet Ikarus, der seine exzentrische Bahn zwischen Mars und Merkur zieht und sich der Erde...
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The Palencar Project
David G. HartwellFive original short stories inspired by the same John Jude Palencar painting. From David Hartwell's introduction:One day I was walking down the hall past the Tor Books art departme...
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Explorers
Gardner DozoisDistant planets, galaxies, alien racesthe universe is vast and filled with an almost unimaginable range of possibilities. But imagine it we can. Here are more than twenty stories f...
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The End of the World
Martin H. Greenberg & Robert SilverbergBefore The Road by Cormac McCarthy brought apocalyptic fiction into the mainstream, there was science fiction. No longer relegated to the fringes of literature, this explosive coll...
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Cosm
Gregory BenfordEin Universum in der NussschaleIm Supercollider des Brookhaven National Laboratory, dem mächtigsten Zyklotron der Welt, schießt man schwere Atomkerne aufeinander, um so die Bedingu...
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Chiller
Gregory BenfordOriginally published under the pen name, Sterling Blake, Chiller is one of Gregory Benford's most thrilling convergences of science and imagination. What happens when cryonics work...
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The Galactic Center Companion
Gregory BenfordDeath came in on sixteen legs.So begins a novella set in the Galactic Center series, “A Hunger for the Infinite.” Now this novella and much other writing about the science and fict...
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Das Rennen zum Mars
Gregory BenfordAuf dem Weg zum roten PlanetenDie erste bemannte Mission zum Mars verläuft ganz anders, als sich das viele vorstellen: Da der NASA die nötigen Mittel fehlen, wird ein Preisgeld aus...
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Worldmakers
Gardner DozoisWhen mankind moves out to the stars, the colonists of the future will remake the worlds they inhabit in their image. Included here are twenty stories from the most imaginative writ...
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In leuchtender Unendlichkeit
Gregory BenfordDie letzte Schlacht hat begonnenIm Herzen der Galaxis, am Rande eines Schwarzen Lochs, befindet sich ein sicheres RaumZeitKontinuum, in dem die verschiedensten Lebensformen Schutz ...
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Eater
Gregory BenfordImpending personal tragedy is dimming the brilliant light of Dr. Benjamin Knowlton's world. On the threshold of their greatest achievement, the renowned astrophysicist's beloved wi...
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If The Stars Are Gods
Gregory Benford & Gordon EklundA collaboration of two science fiction greats, Gregory Benford and Gordon Eklund, the original "If The Stars Are Gods" was quite well received when it appeared in the spring of 197...
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Wider die Unendlichkeit -
Gregory BenfordKlirrende KälteIm ewigen Eis versucht eine kleine Kolonie Menschen, den JupiterMond Ganymed durch Terraforming bewohnbar zu machen. Dabei stoßen sie auf ein uraltes Wesen, das Alep...
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The Stars in Shroud
Gregory BenfordThe first novel by New York Times bestselling author Gregory Benford, "The Stars in Shroud" original story was a Hugo and Nebula nominee.The alien Quarn strike suddenly at the hear...
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Nature Futures 1
Henry GeeThis book brings together 97 short stories that seek to answer the question ‘what will the future look like?' First published in the leading science journal Nature, these 900word t...
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Lichtgezeiten
Gregory BenfordWelches Überlebenskapital hat der Mensch?Im Zentrum der Galaxis befindet sich ein riesiges Schwarzes Loch, das unerbittlich Sonnen verschlingt. In dieser unheimlichen Sternenwelt f...
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The Hard SF Renaissance
David G. Hartwell & Kathryn CramerA major anthology of the "hard SF" subgenrearguing that it's not only the genre's core, but also its future.Something exciting has been happening in modern science fiction. After ...
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Against Infinity
Gregory BenfordA gripping, masterfully written adventure set against the violent beauty of a planet in the throes of cataclysmic transformation, “Against Infinity” is Gregory Benford's timeless p...
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Durchs Meer der Sonnen
Gregory BenfordAufbruch ins All2056: Mehr als 50 Jahre nach der Entdeckung des Kleinplaneten Ikarus und der noch intakten Computertechnologie eines fremden Volkes ist das erste interstellare Schi...
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Anomalies, a Collection of Short Fiction
Gregory BenfordA Collection of science fiction ranging from comic to apocalyptic, the stories of Anomalies challenge concepts of time, space and science. And all the while, Author Gregory Benford...
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Down The River Road
Gregory BenfordA backwoods fantasy in a riverland derived from mysterious science indistinguishable from magic, by a master of SF time exploration. Gregory Benford takes readers along on one man'...
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Fifty in Reverse
Bill FlanaganFrom TV personality and radio host Bill Flanagan comes a “funny and sharp” (Rosanne Cash, Grammy Award–winning singer/songwriter and bestselling author) timetraveling adventure nov...
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Im Herzen der Galaxis
Gregory BenfordAuf dem Weg ins UnbekannteDie Argo ist ein gigantisches Raumschiff, das mit dem verbliebenen Rest der Menschheit an Bord unterwegs ins Herz der Galaxis ist, ständig auf der Flucht ...
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Artefakt
Gregory BenfordDie Büchse der PandoraDie amerikanische Archäologin Claire Anderson entdeckt auf dem Peloponnes in einem Grab einen seltsamen Kalksteinblock, in dem rätselhafte Lichterscheinungen ...
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Heart of the Comet
Gregory Benford & David BrinDavid Brin and Gregory Benford come together again to issue a new edition of their bold collaboration about our near human future in space, planting our boots . . . and staking our...