Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

Apparently I would outlive you by 17 seconds.

Posted by: Anon | April 6, 2008 11:24 AM

I read this as correlated with the (sold out; my Physics professor wife and I already bought tickets):

There will be a 40th Anniversary Screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with guests Tom Hanks, Keir Dullea, and Douglas Trumbull on Friday, April 25 at 7:30 PM.

My point being that Sir Arthur C. Clarke had published a story "Take a Deep Breath" [Infinity Science Fiction, Sep 1957], anthologized 1961, which led to one of the key scenes of a great movie.

"Take a deep breath, trigger the explosive bolts - and begin!"

Professor Geoffrey Landis (NASA scientist, Hugo- and Nebula-Award-winning Science Fiction author) has researched the literatures as such:

Vacuum Exposure in Science Fiction
http://www.sff.net/people/Geoffrey.Landis/vacuum_sf.html

"2001" was neither the first nor the last science fiction story to feature a character surviving unprotected exposure to space. There are a number of science fiction stories with scenes in which a character is exposed to space without a space suit (or at least without a space helmet) and survives. Here is a brief list of some of the science fiction stories and movies that have featured scenes in which a human survives an unprotected exposure to space.

Print

* Nathan Schachner and Arthur Zagat, "Exiles of the Moon" (1931) (*)
o Letter, Wonder Stories, April 1932
* Stanley Weinbaum, "The Red Peri" (1935)
* Arthur C. Clarke (**), Earthlight (1955)
* Arthur C. Clarke, "Take a Deep Breath" (1957)
* Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
* John Varley, The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977)
* Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
* Charles Sheffield, "All the Colors of the Vacuum" (1981; collected in The MacAndrew Chronicles)
* Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, Footfall (1985)
* Stephen Baxter, "The Quagma Datum" (1989; collected in Vacuum Diagrams 1997)
* Allen Steele, "Exiles of the Morning Star" (1999)
* Gregory Benford, The Mars Race (1999)
* Ben Bova, The Precipice (2001)
* Jack McDevitt, Chindi (2002)

In addition to this list, Larry Niven's story "The Borderlands of Sol" (included in the collection Flatlander) includes a decompression scene in which the main character, although not exposed to complete vacuum, considers the possible effects of vacuum exposure, and Robert Heinlein's "Gentlemen, Be Seated!" (1948) features humans who are exposed to vacuum over a selected portion of their bodies

Movies and TV

* 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
* Mobile Suit Gundam: "Char's Counterattack" (animated, 1988)
* Star Trek, the Next Generation, "Disaster", Season 5, episode 105 (1991)
* Event Horizon (1997)
* Cowboy Bebop, "Heavy Metal Queen," Season 1, episode seven (volume 4) (animated, 1999)
Script
* Farscape: "Look at the Princess, Part Two: I Do, I Think," Season 2, episode 12 (2000)
* Titan AE (animated, 2000)
* Stargate SG-1, "Tangent" episode 12, Season 4 (2000)
* Star Trek: Enterprise: the Augments, 4th season, Episode 82 (2004)
* Stargate Atlantis, "Thirty-Eight Minutes," Episode 4 (2004)
* Battlestar Galactica: A Day in the Life, 3rd Season, episode 15, (2007)
* Sunshine (2007)

It's noteworthy that twenty years passed between the first time a human survived exposure to vacuum in film, and the second; while over the most recent ten years, eight different shows featured this.

Poetry

* Theodora Goss, Nine Seconds (2001)

Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | April 6, 2008 2:55 PM

One minute 29 seconds.

Posted by: themadlolscientist | April 6, 2008 5:41 PM

I'm thinking more like a terminally ill volunteer and a free trip into space.

Posted by: guthrie | April 6, 2008 6:15 PM