science themed short stories

[Nickless]

:) This is my first post here so I'd like to say hallo to everyone:
...well, hallo!

What I'm looking for are some good science/reason/technology-related short stories. This does not have to be a central issue of a story, though. It might as well be only a frame or one of the elements that play a role in a work. And I'd like to underline that I am not only interested in gibson-like sci-fi stories, but also in old-dated classics like Hawthorne's Birthmark etc.
Basically I'd be grateful if you could recommend me anything of short fiction that touches science/reason themes. :)

[OrphanPip]

Well there's Francis Bacon's The New Atlantis, which is the earliest example of science fiction I can think of. It was also a response to Thomas More's Utopia, except that Bacon was trying to suggest that his ideas of religious tolerance and collaborative scientific independence could bring about a utopia. His support of religious tolerance is a bit veiled though, essentially he just presents the fact that his utopia tolerates Jews and doesn't comment much.

There's also the incredibly bizarre Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish. She was a bit of an eccentric woman who made full use of her indulgent husband's fortune to allow her to comment on and participate in the new scientific endeavors of her time. She was the only woman present at the opening of the The Royal Society.

[Derwind]

Find Harry Harrisons short story anthologies at your local bookstore. :)

"50 in 50" is the newest one. :D

Though I'm not exactly familiar with any of Gibson's pieces or Hawthorne's "The BirthmarK" but I hope I've helped.

[Nickless]

Thanks guys, I'll try to check those titles and authors, although my local bookstore won't probably help as I live in a non-english speaking country ;) Hope I'll learn something about them from the net though.
If anybody else comes up with any other ideas, well, just share them with us;)

[ClaesGefvenberg]

It is certainly not just a short story, but how about The Right Stuff by by Tom Wolfe about the U.S. manned space program? I reread it the other day.

/Claes

[JuniperWoolf]

There's a lot in Lovecraft. Give The Reanimator a shot.

[Pecksie]

There's also the incredibly bizarre Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish. She was a bit of an eccentric woman who made full use of her indulgent husband's fortune to allow her to comment on and participate in the new scientific endeavors of her time. She was the only woman present at the opening of the The Royal Society.

Why, I've been interested in her and her books for some time. Have you read 'The Blazing World'? Is it worthwhile?

My personal suggestion is A. S. Byatt's 'Morpho Eugenia' (well, it's a novella, not a short story, but still), which deals with a Victorian naturalist's investigations (science- and love-related). Its companion novella, 'The Conjugial Angel', is about spiritualism and ghost-raising, which were very much in vogue, and caused considerable curiosity, in the nineteenth century.

[Nickless]

Find Harry Harrisons short story anthologies at your local bookstore. :)

actually I happened to find one of his works among my brother's books ;) Gonna check that, as well as the rest of the works recomended by you all.

How about any short stories similar to Carl Sagan's "Contact". You know -science as a necessary driving force of human kind's progress etc.

I'm especially interested in American authors, but you are welcome to recomend anything ;)

[rubenmark2]

Thank you all.

[Red Terror]

:) This is my first post here so I'd like to say hallo to everyone:
...well, hallo!

What I'm looking for are some good science/reason/technology-related short stories. This does not have to be a central issue of a story, though. It might as well be only a frame or one of the elements that play a role in a work. And I'd like to underline that I am not only interested in gibson-like sci-fi stories, but also in old-dated classics like Hawthorne's Birthmark etc.
Basically I'd be grateful if you could recommend me anything of short fiction that touches science/reason themes. :)

Check out some short stories by science fiction writers H. G. Wells or Isaac Asimov. I, Robot by Asimov is a collection of short stories and Wells also has a huge collection of them. Check Amazon.com.

[Whifflingpin]

Jules Verne wrote several science/reason/technology-related old-dated classics, albeit not short stories as far as I know. Ambrose Bierce, Conan Doyle & Kipling all made excursions into the genre.