The Scientific Muse: Poems for Robert Duncan Milne

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Williams ◽  
◽  
Bet McCallum ◽  
Roy Canning ◽  
Ann Prescott ◽  
...  

Welcome to the sixth collection by Wyvern Poets, in collaboration with the University of Dundee. This booklet for Dundee’s Being Human festival programme on the theme of ‘Renewal’ celebrates the life and work of Cupar-born Robert Duncan Milne (1844-99). Milne published around sixty Science Fiction stories (some multi-part or novella length), mostly in the Argonaut and the San Francisco Examiner between 1879 and 1899. He pioneered SF themes such as climate catastrophe, cryogenics, molecular re-engineering of the body, personality transfer, scientific terrorism and drone warfare, remote surveillance and telecommunications, satellite phones and technologies for visual time travel which anticipate cinema and TV. Scotland appears to punch below its weight in relation to early science fiction, yet Milne is an extraordinary lost presence who slipped through the cracks of the canon by a series of historical accidents - until now.

Author(s):  
Wendy Highby ◽  
Jay Trask ◽  
Katherine Shull

The writer Connie Willis lives in Greeley, Colorado, home to the University of Northern Colorado (UNC). She is an alumna of UNC and has chosen to deposit her papers in its archives. A pre-eminent science fiction author, her clock- and calendar-defying tales of time travel have transported many fans and won numerous awards. Her stellar reputation in fandom and among librarians as a mentor, peer, and public intellectual is well-deserved and hard-earned. She gives generously of her time at conventions, conferences, and community events. We finally caught up with her in the latter days of Summer 2018, after the Locus Awards and the Westercon science fiction and fantasy convention, and interviewed her about her recent novella “I Met a Traveler in an Antique Land” (first appearing in Asimov’s Science Fiction in 2017 and later published by Subterranean Press in 2018). It concerns a disappearing Manhattan bookshop that may also be a harbor for endangered books. The story’s subject matter is of great relevance for archivists and librarians of the Anthropocene—as is the content of our conversation with Ms. Willis, which ranges from the insidious nature of censorship to the nobility of fighting for lost causes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Kimberly L. Yan ◽  
Nerissa U. Ko ◽  
Steven W. Hetts ◽  
Shantel Weinsheimer ◽  
Adib A. Abla ◽  
...  

Background: Sporadic brain arteriovenous malformations (BAVM) are a major cause of hemorrhagic stroke in younger persons. Prior studies have reported contradictory results regarding the risk of hemorrhage during pregnancy, and there are no standard guidelines for the management of pregnant women who present with BAVM rupture. The purpose of this study is to describe maternal and fetal outcomes and treatment strategies in patients with BAVM hemorrhage during pregnancy. Methods: We performed a retrospective review of the University of California, San Francisco Brain AVM Project database for female patients who were pregnant at the time of BAVM hemorrhage between 2000 and 2017. Clinical and angiographic characteristics at presentation, BAVM treatment, and maternal outcomes using modified Rankin scale (mRS) score at presentation and 2-year follow-up were recorded. Fetal outcomes were abstracted from medical records and maternal reports. Results: Sixteen patients presented with BAVM hemorrhage during pregnancy, 81% (n = 13) of whom were in their second or third trimester. Three patients (19%) who were in their first trimester terminated or miscarried pregnancy prior to BAVM intervention. Of the remaining 13 patients, 77% (n = 10) received emergent BAVM treatment at time of hemorrhage prior to delivery, and 85% of patients achieved BAVM obliteration and good maternal outcomes (mRS 0–2) at 2-year follow-up. All patients had uncomplicated deliveries (69% cesarean and 23% vaginal) with no reports of postnatal cognitive or developmental delays in infants at 2-year follow-up. Conclusions: Our study shows good long-term maternal and fetal outcomes in ruptured BAVM patients presenting during pregnancy, the majority who received BAVM interventional treatment prior to delivery.


2000 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-154
Author(s):  
Martin Rohmer

In Zimbabwean society, what may not be spoken sometimes becomes acceptable in song – whether to avoid social taboos and enable a wife to complain against her mother-in-law, or in broadening the boundaries of political protest. In this article, Martin Rohmer looks back to the ways in which song enabled forms of protest against forced labour and other aspects of colonial rule – in times of outward compliance as well as of direct struggle – and considers how urban theatre groups in independent Zimbabwe have adapted the tradition to their own, contemporary ends. Martin Rohmer spent almost two years studying Zimbabwean theatre when a research assistant at the University of Bayreuth, and completed his doctorate on Theatre and Performance in Zimbabwe at the Humboldt University, Berlin, in 1997. Since then he has been working in the field of cultural management for the Young Artists' Festival in Bayreuth. The present paper was first presented at the Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association in San Francisco in November 1996.


2015 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome de Groot

This article considers the childrens writer Alison Uttley, and, particularly, her engagements with debates regarding science and philosophy. Uttley is a well-known childrens author, most famous for writing the Little Grey Rabbit series (1929–75), but very little critical attention has been paid to her. She is also an important alumna of the University of Manchester, the second woman to graduate in Physics (1907). In particular, the article looks at her novel A Traveller in Time through the lens of her thinking on time, ethics, history and science. The article draws on manuscripts in the collection of the John Rylands Library to argue that Uttley‘s version of history and time-travel was deeply indebted to her scientific education and her friendship with the Australian philosopher Samuel Alexander.


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