Alan E. Nourse
7 Quotations from Alan E. Nourse
| carbon-based adj. | 1960 Nine Planets 79 Of course, we have no factual basis on which to speculate that non-carbon-based, non-water-or-colloid-based, nonprotoplasmic life does exist on Mercury any more than we can justifiably assume that it does not. We have every justification, however, in speculating that life, in order to exist, need not be life-as-we-know-it. It need not be carbon-based, it need not conform to any of the conditions required by carbon-based life-as-we-know-it here on Earth. |
| carbon-based adj. | 1960 Nine Planets 76 The life that we have observed—the life-as-we-know-it-on-Earth—can be defined in terms of these criteria. Carbon is the building stone, an element with a great affinity for multiple kinds of chemical combinations resulting in stable compounds. For carbon-based life, water is the solvent, and as far as we can determine it is the only solvent that could possibly fill the bill. The energy-producing chemical reaction is biochemical, an oxidation-reduction reaction which produces energy in the form of heat. Finally, carbon-based life of this sort demands an abundant supply of oxygen to allow the reaction to proceed. |
| earthborn adj. | 1960 Nine Planets 192 Nothing draws men like the search for treasure, and the asteroids may turn out to be a treasure trove to surpass the wildest dreams of an Earth-born prospector. |
| Earthside adj. | 1960 Nine Planets 68 We can study the Sun from Earth-side laboratories, but what we can see and learn from our observation is enormously limited by the atmospheric blanket between our telescopes and outer space. |
| planet-bound adj. | 1960 Nine Planets 280 Conceivably, the cosmic histories will look upon the First Era of any intelligent race as the planetbound era, and consider the Second Era begun only when the race has lifted itself by the bootstraps up through the planet’s gravitational field and into space beyond its atmosphere. |
| psi n. | 1955 Brain Sinner in Planet Stories Spring 71/2 The alien stepped closer, concentrating all his psi-faculties on the farmer’s mind. |
| tri-v n. | 1956 in Galaxy Science Fiction Jan. 9/1 I followed the news stories like a tri-V serial and then I was heartbroken when they just disappeared. |