biotechnician n.
a person, esp. a laboratory technician, involved in biotechnics or biotechnology
In use since the 1940s as a term in science.
Science
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1940
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Norman L. Knight
bibliography
The process can be applied to human material—due care being taken not to tamper with the brain, which continues to be too uncertain an undertaking for the biotechnicians.
Crisis in Utopia in Astounding Science-Fiction July 22/2 -
1941
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Robert A. Heinlein
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‘What ones? And what isotopes?’…‘Will you let me finish?…I’m no biotechnician; I can’t give you details.’
Methuselah’s Children in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 161 -
1951
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Poul Anderson
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The biotechnicians had been very thorough. I was already a little undersized, which meant that my height and build were suitable—I could pass for a big Earthling. And of course my face and hands and so on were all right, the Earthlings being a remarkably humanoid race. But the technicians had had to remodel my ears, blunting the tips and grafting on lobes and cutting the muscles that move them. My crest had to go and a scalp covered with revolting hair was now on the top of my skull.
Inside Earth in Galaxy Science Fiction Apr. 17/1 -
1963
Poul Anderson
bibliography
‘How long you been here, anyways?’ ‘Myself, about a year, as a biotechnician.’
Territory in Analog Science Fact–Science Fiction June 53/1 -
1970
Poul Anderson
bibliography
She was a Canadian, a bio-technician in the organocycle department.
Tau Zero (1973) 28 -
1994
Ian McDonald
The biotechnician’s natural predilection for the small and perfectly organized led them to invest in the emerging nanotech corporadas.
Necroville (1995) 128 -
2013
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Neal Asher
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The Client is a hive creature and a hive all in one, perpetually conjoined, being born and dying all in one and able to meddle at genetic levels with its parts. It is a natural bio-technician, geneticist, and makes forms like this to interact with environments outside its preferred one.
Other Gun in Asimov’s Science Fiction Apr.–May 39
Research requirements
antedating 1940
Earliest cite
Norman L. Knight, "Crisis in Utopia"
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a 1963 cite from a reprint of Poul Anderson's 1961 "Territory".Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1952 reprint of Poul Anderson's "Inside Earth": Mike Christie verified this in its first publication (Galaxy, April 1951).
Jesse Sheidlower submitted a 1940 cite from Norman L. Knight, and a 1941 cite from Robert Heinlein.
Bee Ostrowsky submitted a 2013 cite from Neal Asher.
Last modified 2024-11-17 00:09:25
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entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
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