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Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (born December 16, 1917) is an author and inventor, probably most famous for his science fiction novel . It is loosely inspired by Clarke's short story " The Sentinel", but it became its own novel while he was collaborating on a screen play with Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick approached Mr. Clarke about writing a novel for the express purpose of making "the proverbial good science-fiction movie", and the novel was still being written while the film was being made. This resulted in one of the truly unique collaborations in media history.
He has written numerous other books, including the Rama novels and several sequels to 2001, and many short stories.
There is an asteroid named in his honour, 4923 Clarke , as well as a species of Ceratopsian dinosaur, Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei , discovered in Inverloch in Australia.
Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England, and as a boy enjoyed stargazing and enthusiastically read old American science fiction magazines (magazines which made their way to England as ballast in ships). After secondary school, he was unable to afford university and consequently acquired a job as an auditor in the pensions section of the Board of Education.
During World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, he served in the Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force (often abbreviated to RAF is the air force of the United Kingdom. History Formation and Early History The Royal Flying Corps was formed by Royal Warrant on May 13, 1912 superseding the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. The Royal Na (RAF) as a radarThis article is about the device. For the fictional character in M A S H see Corporal Walter (Radar) O'Reilly. antenna (approximately 40m (130ft) in diameter) rotates on a track to observe activities near the horizon. Radar is an acronym for ra dio d etec specialist and was involved in the early warning radar defense system which contributed to the Royal Air Force's success during the Battle of BritainA major campaign of World War II, the Battle of Britain is the name for the attempt by Germany's Luftwaffe to gain control of British airspace and destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF). Secondary objectives were to destroy aircraft production and intimidate t. After the war, he obtained a first class degreeA degree is any of a wide range of awards made by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study. History The first universities were founded in Europe in the 12th and 13th cent in mathematics and physics at King's College, London.
His most important contribution may be the conception that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays. He proposed this concept in a scientific paper titled "Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?", published in Wireless World in October 1945. The geostationary orbit is now known as the Clarke orbit in his honor.
In the early 1940s, while he was in the RAF, Clarke began selling his science fiction stories to magazines. Clarke worked briefly as Assistant Editor of Science Abstracts before devoting himself to writing full-time from 1951. He has been chairman of the British Interplanetary Society and a member of the Underwater Explorers Club .
He has lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, since 1956. This inspired the locale for his novel, The Fountains of Paradise, in which he describes a space elevator. This, he figures, will ultimately be his legacy, more so than geostationary satellites, once space elevators make space shuttles obsolete.
Early in his career, Clarke had a fascination with the paranormal, and has stated that it was part of the inspiration for his novel Childhood's End. He has also said that he was one of several who were fooled by a Uri Geller demonstration at Birkbeck College. Although he has long since dismissed and distanced himself from most pseudo-science, he still advocates for research into purported instances of telekinesis and other similar phenomena.
Clarke is known to many for his television programs Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World ( 1981) and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers ( 1984).
In 1988 he was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome and has since become wheel-chair bound.
His knighthood was first announced in 1998, but then the British tabloid The Sunday Mirror published accusations of paedophilia against him [1]. The award was delayed while the allegations were investigated, and by 2000 it was clear that the story had been planted maliciously [2]. Clarke's health did not allow him to travel to London to receive the honour personally from the Queen, so the UK High Commissioner to Sri Lanka awarded him the title of Knight Bachelor at a ceremony in Colombo.
He is currently the Honorary Board Chair of the Institute for Cooperation in Space, founded by Dr. Carol Rosin.
He was the first Chancellor of the International Space University, serving from 1989 to 2004.
