Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Sir Arthur C. Clarke passes away at 90

From the Sydney Morning Herald

It's a sad day in the history of Science Fiction writing today, with the passing of Sir Arthur C. Clarke at the age of 90.

It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge his great contributions to Science and the Arts. Like Jules Verne, Clarke was a visionary in science fiction, often grasping scientific concepts well before they were even known to be possible by his peers in the scientific community.

Throughout his life he wrote more than 80 books, among them the seminal 2001: A Space Odyssey. His final book, written in 2007 with Stephen Baxter, was entitled 'Firstborn'; the third in a trilogy called 'A Time's Odyssey.'

He was knighted in 2000 by the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka due to his inability to meet the Queen personally,

In 2001, NASA named their "Odyssey" Mars rover after his most famous work.

In 2007, upon his 90th birthday, he proclaimed that he had completed "90 orbits around the sun".

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