WINNER: Atomic Dreams
By Jérôme Cigut, UK
NY Times, 1937
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Tesla Presents Nuclear Engine
The famous inventor yesterday unveiled the machine on which he had been working reclusively for the past 10 years: a functioning heat engine, based not on combustion but on recently discovered atomic reactions.
“All it took was some plumbing skills,” the inventor said, modestly.
Washington Post, 1943
Japan Surrenders!
…Oil-starved, the Japanese navy was unable to keep pace with the US’s nuclear ships…
Detroit Free Press, 1953
Spectacular Advance!
Ford Unveils Atom-Fuelled Car!
“…With our new model ‘A’, you will never have to go to the gas station again: just drop your car off at one of our garages once a year for a regular service, and our technicians will take care of everything, including replacing the uranium rods!”
…GM is expected to follow shortly with its own model…
Wall Street Journal, 1963
Large Oil Companies Filing for Bankruptcy
NY Times, 1971
Supreme Court Rejects Mechanics’ Complaint
“…Let it be clear: there is no evidence that the plaintiffs’ cancer was caused by our products. Nuclear cars are safe and foolproof, they have been thoroughly tested, and they represent all the good things that happen when the smartest scientists and the largest companies team up to offer the best products to the American people…”
The Lancet, 1985
Substantial evidence of cancer-inducing radioactive leaks in cars
CNN, 1985
“…Absolutely no proof whatsoever… Well-maintained cars are perfectly safe…”
USA Today, 1997
Cars Can Cause Cancer, Manufacturers Admit
BBC, 1999
1998 coldest year on record: start of a new ice age?
Wall Street Journal, 2001
Detroit Car Manufacturers Considering Bankruptcy
“…Lawsuits and class actions are threatening our businesses and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that we provide…”
Financial Times, 2003
Peak uranium?
Specialists are concerned that the world’s uranium production might start to decline in coming years, as some of the main mines start to be depleted…
New Scientist, 2005
Fossil future?
Abundant, natural and safe for health – could two resources not tapped since the Second World War cure our addiction to uranium? We investigate coal and petroleum.
Jérôme Cigut is an economist fascinated by how science transforms the world
RUNNER-UP: Starfall
By Kevlin Henney, UK
“Hold me.”
I wrapped my arms around her, her and the bump, the house still shaking from the distant airburst. That had been London.
In May our group in Oxford received confirmation from the La Palma observatory. Not only was our working theory a good fit for observations, it was the best fit. The excitement swept through everyone at the centre. Our group’s work was the next and final step in understanding the forces of our universe. History would record us following and furthering the steps of Leibniz, Poincaré and others.
Leibniz’s calculus and laws of gravity and motion described the epicyclic motion of the planets around the Earth and the simpler movement of the sun and moon. Poincaré’s theory of luminiferous relativity gave space substance, something through which light could wave. His theory of rotational relativity explained the movement of all the worlds. All the worlds, but not the motionless stars. A century after his work, we determined that stars remain fixed by maintaining an equilibrium, not because they are fixed in some firmament. The force of their light and their attraction to one another balances the pull of Earth.
A slight buzz of champagne and talk of future work and Nobels kept me later than usual. I arrived home to be greeted by more good news and, for me at least, another celebratory glass. A day to remember.
That was May. A lot can happen in six months. Cosmology rarely graces the headlines. The universe is a simple and ordered place. Where is the news? More detailed work on the observations began to suggest otherwise, with implications both disturbing and newsworthy. Headlines soon rebranded the Centre for Cosmological Studies as the Chicken Licken Lab. The mocking humour fell silent when the constellations started to drift and fade.
Stars have dimmed and fallen before. But, as history tells, these comets are occasional and exceptional. The thousands of other stars remain unperturbed. But stars cannot burn forever. It seems their natural lifetime is around 6000 years. And now they are falling, together.
The house shakes.
“Hold me.”
Kevlin Henney is a software development consultant and writer
RUNNER-UP: Gaius Secundus ER
By Shaun Freney, Australia
“…and so with this new type of treatment we only need a few millilitres of interferon per cancer patient,” said Dr Arist Turtle.
“Marvellous!” proclaimed Dr Plinus Elder. “Always something new out of Africa – what is it called?”
“Homo… homeapothacary… wait, I wrote it down somewhere…”
A gurney burst through the doors, trailing emergency staff. Dr Elder approached and eyed the elderly, bloodied patient.
“Situation? Donalds, stop that bleeding. Turtle, duck eggs, stat!”
“Horseless chariot accident, sir,” said a paramedic. “Hit-and-gallop. Broken bones, lacerations, some internal damage.”
“Right, send him to X-ray. Get his humours cross-matched and perform a bile transfusion.”
Dr Turtle hurried forward, proffering three small eggs.
“Those are hen’s eggs, you fool! What do you think this is, a touch of gout?”
“Sorry sir, it’s all we have. Cutbacks, you see…”
“We’re losing him!”
The heart monitor changed from an intermittent beep to a long continuous one. Dr Elder pressed forward.
“Cardiac arrest. Beginning CPR.”
Dr Elder began to push down rhythmically on the patient’s chest, while a nurse applied a breathing mask supplying nutmeg, oxygen and pepper. No change.
Again.
Still no change.
“It’s not working. Get ready to defibrillate.” Dr Elder took a small package made of a vulture’s heart wrapped in the skin of a slaughtered she-dog and washed in the spittle of a male virgin from a nurse.
“C!”
He placed it on the patient’s chest.
Nothing.
He picked it up and held it out. “Recharging!”
Turtle leaned forward, with slight embarrassment, and spat on the package.
“C!” He placed it on the patient again.
Nothing, then the patient convulsed violently. The heart monitor began to beep again.
“Steady pulse, doctor.”
“Right, get him to surgery immediately. And leech him for a good 20 minutes.”
Dr Turtle was inspecting the patient’s head. “This man has a nasty head wound. Shouldn’t we see to this first?”
Dr Elder sighed. “If the only long-term injury he sustains is to a blood-cooling organ then he can count himself lucky. Now come, we have some stool samples to diagnose.”
Shaun Freney is completing a degree in molecular biotechnology at Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia.
- You can read all 10 short-listed stories, as well as Neil Gaiman’s comments, at newscientist.com/article/dn19845
