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Antigravity

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All the Wonder that Would Be

Part of the book series: Science and Fiction ((SCIFICT))

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Abstract

As I explained in the Introduction, Danny Dunn helped shape my life. I’m surely not unique in making this claim: the Danny Dunn series got others hooked on science too. A quick internet search turns up several scientists and technologists who admit to a childhood enthusiasm for those books by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams. To give just one example, consider Sally Ride. The first American woman in space was once asked whether any books were important to her as a child. She answered: ‘There was that all-time classic Danny Dunn and the Anti-gravity Paint.’ It’s not too fanciful to suppose that this children’s novel inspired her to become an astronaut.

Professor Bullfinch took his lower lip between thumb and forefinger. ‘Hm. Then our antigravity paint actually causes us to be bounced away from an object’s mass?’

Danny Dunn and the Anti-gravity Paint

Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DCQE, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK

    Stephen Webb

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  1. Stephen Webb
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Webb, S. (2017). Antigravity. In: All the Wonder that Would Be. Science and Fiction. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51759-9_2

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