Re: before Crichton

[Jeff Hecht <jeff.hecht@sff.net>]

Only one other science-fiction story, a novelette called "Metal" is credited to 
Robert R. Olsen, in Robert Silverberg's anthology New Dimensions 8, published 
in 1978. I just happen to have a copy around. It describes Olsen as "a 
thirty-year old Chicaogan currently living in Arizona. Robert Olsen has two 
degrees in geology... He notes that his hobbies are 'science fiction, 
rockhounding and metallic varieties of rock music." 

At 2:27 PM -0600 7/5/10, Richard W. Travsky wrote:
>On Mon, 5 Jul 2010, James Farlow wrote:
>
>> Does anybody have the citation for a rather clever little SF story that 
>> anticipated Crichton's _Jurassic Park_ in having a dinosaur reconstructed 
>> from DNA? The story was called "Paleontology: an Experimental Science", or 
>> something like that. It was written as a series of GSA abstracts, and part 
>> of the fun was that each successive abstract had one fewer author, due to 
>> "lab accidents" with the resurrected dinosaur.
>
>http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/pseudosc/atmoviedna.htm
>...
>There's a truly delightful story in the August, 1974 issue of Analog science 
>fiction magazine called Paleontology: An Experimental Science by Robert R. 
>Olsen. The author seems to be using a pseudonym but is clearly intimately 
>familiar with geology. The story contains so many elements that occur in the 
>two Jurassic Park films that I really wonder if there's a connection. The 
>story even ends with the reconstructed T-Rex getting loose in San Diego!
>...

-- 
Jeff Hecht,    science and technology writer
Boston Correspondent, New Scientist magazine
Contributing Editor        Laser Focus World
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