Destroy All Onions!

I heard the news last night that Arthur C Clarke had died. Although he died an old man at 90, it’s still sad news. He was a proper science fiction writer, not just someone who wrote imaginary stories set in the future. I guess he will be most famous as the author of the story that led to the epic film 2001, but that doesn’t really do him justice. He probably ought to be more famous for conceiving the idea of the geostationary orbit, on which all of our satellite communications is based.

Although I have to admit that in my mind he’ll always be associated with his television series Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, which I dimly remember from my childhood. I don’t remember much about the content of the show; only the image of the mysterious crystal skull from the opening titles, and a tone of hushed awe for these phenomena that science couldn’t explain. I suppose nowadays it would all be a bit channel 5, but it obviously struck me at the time.

But perhaps in these troubled times in which we live, what we will miss most is the loss of a gifted communicator who looked into the future and believed that science could help us make a better world.