Word: martianize
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...such popularization and simplification. After all, science has a long tradition, often violated to be sure, of modesty and understatement, even of calculated obfuscation, so that only an elite priesthood will be privy to its secrets. Other than the irrepressible Sagan, how many scientists would buzz a simulated Martian volcano, as he does in one Cosmos sequence; or rummage through a re-creation of the famed library of Alexandria, pretending to read long-lost papyrus scrolls; or attempt to explain the paradoxes of special relativity while bicycling through the hills of Tuscany, where the young Einstein once wandered? Sagan also...
...hook worked its way in deeper when Carl also stumbled into science fiction. He was especially taken with the Martian tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs, who wrote of sensuous princesses, six-legged beasts of burden, evil warlords and a Virginia gentleman named John Carter, who miraculously transported himself to the Red Planet simply by gazing at it. The dark-eyed youngster, looking up at the night sky from a Brooklyn lot, tried vainly to follow his hero into space. It was a dream that Sagan has never forgotten. Phobos, the name of one of the moons of Mars, now appears...
Only one mind could have produced these plots: that of Ray Bradbury, author of the classic Martian Chronicles and the gloomily prophetic Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury has long been considered one of the great long-distance runners of fantasy and science fiction. But he is also a sprinter; his poignant and ironic short stories have been anthologized for more than 30 years. Bradbury's latest book is a highly personal selection of those works: Martian adventures, nostalgic reminiscences about small-town Midwestern life in the '20s and '30s, and several evocative anecdotes about Ireland. But its best pieces...
...they sent back 51,539 photographs, including a final series of color views of Tharsis Ridge, site of three major volcanoes with an average elevation of 17 km (10.8 miles) and two smaller ones. Besides confirming past volcanic activity, Viking provided closeup glimpses of the reddish, rocky Martian soil, monitored weather changes including violent dust storms and discovered significant quantities of water (as atmospheric vapor, polar ice and permafrost). But Viking failed to find any signs of life, although biological tests showed certain quirky chemical activity in the soil...
Despite the orbiter's death last week, the JPL controllers will still get occasional glimpses from the Martian surface. One lander remains operational and, although it has lost its partner in the Martian sky, it has been programmed to keep its antenna pointed directly to earth and send a weekly report from Mars until it too finally runs out of fuel...