The simplest way to remove carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, is to grow plants – preferably trees, since they tie up more of the gas in cellulose, meaning it will not return to the air within a season or two. Plants build themselves out of air and water, taking only a tiny fraction of their mass from the soil. Gregory Benford Read Quote
As we all saw in grade school, once you learn how to read a book, somebody is going to want to write one – that’s how authors are made. Once we know how to read our own genetic code, someone is going to want to rewrite that ‘text,’ tinker with traits – play God, some would say. Gregory Benford Read Quote
As fandom grew more variegated, genzines reflected a broadening of interests, carrying personal columns of humor and reflection, science articles, amateur fiction, stylish gossip, and inevitably, thoughtful pieces on the future of fandom. Gregory Benford Read Quote
Virtuality – connection without proximity – is a major attraction in both fandom and the Net. Nobody knows you’re a dog through the U.S. mail, either. Fans could be utterly different in their fanzine persona, which may be why both fandom and the Net were invented by individualistic Americans. Gregory Benford Read Quote
Fandom grew first through individual correspondence. It was cheap and quick, continent-wide contact for a penny stamp. Gregory Benford Read Quote
Around 1930, a small new phenomenon arose in Depression-ridden America, spawned out of the letter columns in science fiction magazines: fandom. Gregory Benford Read Quote
Invoking nature with its implied supremacy ignores that many cultures have fundamentally differing ideas of even what nature is, much less how it should work. Gregory Benford Read Quote
Enzymes – plainly the most important biotechnology of our era – already permeate many industrial processes. Unlike fossil fuels, they carry chemical programming which drives complex reactions, are renewable, and work at ordinary pressures and temperatures. Gregory Benford Read Quote
Reared in rural southern Alabama, we enjoyed an idyllic Huck Finn boyhood. But education there was casual at best. Our mother and father were high school teachers and challenged the pervasive easy-going ignorance. Gregory Benford Read Quote
