--- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
<snip> I seem to recall that a sci-fi author in the '70's came up with an . . . intelligent alien species who lived on the outer hulls of their interstellar starships, and absorbed miniscule amounts of energy from starlight. <snip> Anyone remember who the author was? The name of the species?
What a listserv. Just after my eyesight returned after being temporarily blinded by visions of bowling ball meteorites and urine powered telescopes, we move onto "super-intelligent space barnacles." As another thread mentioned, these may be all symptoms of severe photon deficiency. -:) I don't know the answer to your question, but maybe this link may help: The Astronomy Society of the Pacific List titled: "Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index" http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/scifi.html - see subtopic "Life Elsewhere (Plausible Examples) http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/scifi04.html#life The PASP "Good Astronomy & Physics: A Topical Index" bibliography is a sublist from the PASP's Astronomy Education Bibliographies Website - http://www.astrosociety.org/education/biblio.html PASP's Astronomy Education Bibliographies Website looks like a good resource for those interested in astronomy for public school presentations. Although seemingly off-topic, speculative science-fiction is one good way to hook young new-members into the hobby. In the faded memory of my youth, I can no longer recall which came first astronomy or science-fiction, or whether my interest in them grew together. - Canopus56 P.S. - And, as an aside for reference purposes, because it's a Utah listserv - References to Mormons in science-fiction stories http://www.adherents.com/lit/sf_lds.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com