The novel that I read for this project was The Kill Order. This novel has many examples of accurate science found in it, which makes it perfect for this project. It is a novel that I would recommend to any avid science fiction reader. The novel The Kill Order was written by James Dashner, and is the prequel to the Maze Runner trilogy. It was published in the year 2012. In this novel, the main character Mark is surviving in a post-apocalyptic world. The earth has been hit by solar flares, frying almost anything electronic and killing anyone who was not underground or otherwise protected. The result of this is the fall of civilization and a permanent spike in global warming, flooding coastal areas and raising the air temperature to a scorching level in most areas. In the early chapters of the story, a giant metal airship, called a Berg, came flying over the makeshift town where Mark and his friends have found residence. From this ship came a group of men, who were wielding tube-like weapons. Eventually, these people began shooting darts from these weapons, attacking the residents of the village with them. It is soon revealed that those darts were bio-weapons, containing an incredibly contagious and lethal virus, nicknamed the Flare. This virus killed almost all of the people it struck almost immediately, however it has begun to take longer and longer to kill. The virus has been mutating at an incredibly fast rate, to the point of affecting every individual differently. The majority of the novel is centered around the efforts of Mark and his friends Trina, Alec, and Lana to find the source of this disease and the cure, as they know that they are also probably infected. Along the way, they find Deedee, a young girl who was shot ... ... middle of paper ... ... what happened in the novel. Also, the results of the rise in heat and global warming were accurate, including rising sea levels and a permanently warmer climate. In the novel, it is said that the rising sea levels and temperatures forced any survivors to move up into the slightly cooler mountainous areas, such as the Appalachians. There was also the accurate scientific fact, found on page 89, that a virus is more effective if it kills less quickly, due to having more time to replicate. It is because of these accurate facts that the author's science fiction writing was believable. The novel The Kill Order, written by James Dashner, is in the science fiction genre. As such, it contains many examples of correct, believable, and scarily possible science. This is what makes a science fiction book authentic, and entertaining to both the casual reader and the scientist.
I think the most obvious factual claim would be global warming. The whole time she is looking for evidence and proof of the global warming. She talked to a man named Hansen, who "Decided that a planet whose atmosphere could change in the course of a human lifetime was more interesting then one that was going to continue, for all intents and purposes, to broil away forever."(pg 98) He was comparing Earth to Venus whose surface temperature was 876 degrees. It was believed that the temperature was so high due to a smoggy haze, but soon after that it was found out that the atmosphere was 96% carbon-dioxide.
Later, Mark was in a motorcycle accident where he almost died, but he survived. After the accident he became a different person and angrier. Mark had an affair with a fifteen-year-old girl. Barbara even told the girl 's mother, but she didn 't care for some reason. Mark found out and became angry, but his mood swung so fast he was ready to have sex with Barbara again.
A similar message that appears in his book that appeared in the aforementioned speech was the impact of the media speculation. The book addresses this in two examples. One was presented with the news of a lawsuit that an island called Vantu would file against the EPA; yet the lawsuit would never move forward due to it only serving a purpose to launder money and raise awareness to global warming that was never proven to affect the island. The other was shown to be environmental scientist who received their funding from environmental organizations, such as NERF in the book. These scientists would often have to go against their findings and report what the organizations wanted them to, or possibly lose their funding. Additionally, the book profoundly took opposition to the claim of global warming. This is presented in the form of the main character, Peter Evans, who has been manipulated into believing everything that the media has told him about global warming. It isn’t until John Kenner is introduced, that Peter begins got learn the truth about global warming. The author uses specific evidence to back his claims, specifically he uses a wide array of resources to verify his claim that Antarctica is not in fact melting, but getting colder and thickening. Furthermore, another essential concept that that book introduces is environmental extremists, or bioterrorism. These characters in the book would stop at nothing to make sure that everyone believed in global warming, and tried to destroy parts of the world to succeed in their mission. Bioterrorists are best represented as a warning of what could happen if people continue to buy into the media’s lies without having conclusive evidence to back up their
Throughout the novel the characters are put in these situations which force them to obtain information about the people they thought they knew. The center of finding out who everyone is was brought into play through the death of Marie. The story is told by David, only twelve years old, who sees his family an community in a different light for who they truly are under there cover. By doing his own little investigations, often times eavesdropping, David saw through the lies, secures and betrayals to find the truth.
At the end she risks her life and becomes a pretty to become and experiment to David’s moms to test a cure to the brain lesions created when they go ... ... middle of paper ... ... o save them from going through a transformation that will change them forever. The moral of the book is you don’t have to get surgery to look a certain way.
Ryan White: My Own Story is about a boy who was diagnosed with AIDS at 13 years old, and how he and his family dealt with the hate and overall environment of his hometown concerning the disease. When Ryan White was born, he was diagnosed with a disease called hemophilia. He later contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion when he was only 13. Despite his disease, Ryan White just wanted to be like everybody else and live a normal life. He loved to hang out with friends and was a straight A student. His hometown of Kokomo, Indiana did not accept him because they thought his disease was contagious. The White family suffered from discrimination, which was very emotional and resulted in many hard times. Ryan was frequently in the hospital for many scans and tests, and in addition to the disease, his parents went through a divorce.
The Best Science Fiction of the Twentieth Century. Ed. Orson Scott Card. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2001. 212-217.
One of the main themes of this novel is the fight against cancer. All three of the main characters struggle with cancer. Hazel struggles with her terminal lung cancer, and Isaac has to have his eyes removed because of cancer. Augustus, who has already lost a leg to Osteoscarcoma, struggles with his cancer returning. However, they all learn through this that their cancer does not control them. They still live their lives to the fullest that they can, and make the best of what they have.
Bradbury's 1980 collection, 'The Stories of Ray Bradbury', covers a wide range of topics, none of which is truly science fiction. His novels included 'Fahrenheit 451', Dandelion Wine, and 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'. 'Fahrenheit 451' was made into a motion picture in 1966, and 'The Martian Chronicles' later appeared both as a motion picture and a television miniseries.
1. I believe that Dr. Zuger chose the people she did because she was trying to get a large amount of differences of infections the patients could contract and also show the patients' similarities in lifestyle and the similarities in the way in which they grew up to try and educate people on the lifestyle one must live to put oneself at higher risk for contracting this terrible disease. The characters all seemed to have come from a home without much love from their family members, or they had something major missing in their life that could have caused a great amount of stress not normally experienced in an average person's life. All of them were uneducated and careless leading us to believe that Dr. Zuger was trying to show that education and responsibility are the best ways to prevent one's contraction of this disease. Some of them got HIV from reckless lifestyles such as drug use involving needle sharing to prostitution while others got it merely by having sex with casual partners. The decision to pick this array of patients again strengthens the fact that Dr. Zuger is trying to tell us that it is possible to get AIDS in many ways and that just because one is having casual sex does not mean that he is immune from its effects. These are probably a few reasons why Dr. Zuger chose them for her book.
[Verne is acknowledged as one of the world's first and most imaginative modern science fiction writers. His works reflect nineteenth-century concerns with contemporary scientific innovation and its potential for human benefit or destruction. In the following excerpt from an interview with Gordon Jones, he commends the imaginative creativity with which Wells constructs his scientific fantasies and stresses the difference between Wells's style and his own.]
Tiptree, James Jr. Houston, Houston, Do You Read?: Science Fiction: The SFRA Anthology. Ed. Warrick. Green Bay, WI: Harper Collins, 1988. 434-474.
Nine of the eleventh hottest years in the 20th century have occurred since 1985 which is not consistent with a natural trend. Glacier Shrinkage is occurring at a much faster rate than can be explained by natural trends. Even when the heat effects of volcanoes and other misleading weather phenomena that would make the temperature of the earth seem higher than it actually is being taken out of consideration studies show that the surface temperature of the earth has been increasing at a rate of 0.17 degrees Celsius per decade. These figures are not consistent with a natural trend, and, when one considers the tens of thousand of years in which humans have inhabited the earth, and that humans have really only started burning fossil fuels heavily since the industrial revolution, and the fact that the world’s population is only going to increase, this number is dauntingly
The movie, The Day After Tomorrow, addresses the issue of global warming. The movie?s portrayal of the events caused by global warming was extreme and not very believable. Some of the information is backed up by science but most is completely off the wall and nonrealistic.
Everything that the book talks in the first chapters are only a few of the reasons why the planet keeps getting warmer. People have heard in the news and read books about global warming, but most never paid much attention to any of it. The author David Archer emphasizes that all humans are adding climate change problems across the globe by just the simple fact of charging a cell phone. Most of the things we do to contribute to climate change are necessary in daily life, but people could definitely learn to save power or we could use the car less and help save us from weather