Ben Bova is the author of more than one hundred works of science fact and fiction, and has been involved in science and high technology since the very beginnings of the space age. He has worked with leading scientists in fields such as high-power lasers, artificial hearts, and plasma dynamics and in 2001 was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is also a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society.
In his various writings, Bova has predicted solar power satellites (Powersat), the discovery of organic chemicals in interstellar space, virtual reality (Death Dream), human cloning, the discovery of life on Mars, stem cell therapy, the discovery of ice on the Moon (Moonwar), electronic book publishing and zero-gravity sex.
In Bova’s most recent novel Able One, a nuclear missile is launched by a rogue North Korean faction and explodes in space resulting in a shockwave that destroys the world’s satellites and throws global communication into chaos. The United States military satellites, designed to withstand such an assault, show that two more missiles are sitting on the launch pad in North Korea, ready to be deployed. Faced with the threat of a thermonuclear attack, the United States has only one possible defense: Able One. ABL-1, or Able One, is a modified 747 fitted with a high-powered laser able to knock out missiles in flight. But both the laser’s technology and the jet’s crew are untested. What was originally to be a training flight with a skeleton crew turns into a desperate race to destroy the two remaining nukes.
Able One, in addition to many other vivid Bova novels, is now available at http://www.vjbooks.com/.
Ben Bova received his doctorate in education in 1996 from California Coast University, a Master of Arts degree in communications from the State University of New York at Albany (1987) and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple University (1954).
His articles, opinion pieces and reviews have appeared in Scientific American, Nature, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other newspapers and magazines. He lectures regularly on topics dealing with the prospects for human immortality, the interaction of science and politics, space exploration and development, the craft of writing, and the search for extraterrestrial life. He has worked with film makers and television producers such as Woody Allen, George Lucas, and Gene Roddenberry.
