Space Cadet Research Articles

Watching Science Fiction Theatre , Seeing Television

ABSTRACT: Prior to the appearance of Rod Serling's landmark series The Twilight Zone , independent syndicator Ziv Television produced a similarly serious dramatic series, Science Fiction Theatre , that challenged the television hegemony of such popular space operas as Captain Video, Space Patrol , and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet . While lasting only 78 episodes, it was widely distributed and dubbed into many languages, bringing adult sf stories to a broader television audience than ever before. Further distinguishing it from other televised sf of the era, Science Fiction Theatre pioneered the sort of media self-consciousness that would later become a hallmark of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits . In that reflexive dimension we can see the series' efforts to make audiences aware of both the potentials and the pitfalls inherent in the still new television technology, of their own role as viewers, and of the industry's use and control over it. In sum, by watching Science Fiction Theatre , viewers were often put in the uncommon and sometimes uncomfortable position of seeing their relationship to the new media regime of television.

Equipping Space Cadets: Primary Science Fiction for Young Children by Emily Midkiff (review)

Equipping Space Cadets: Primary Science Fiction for Young Children by Emily Midkiff (review)

Equipping Space Cadets: Primary Science Fiction for Young Children by Emily Midkiff

Reviewed by: Equipping Space Cadets: Primary Science Fiction for Young Children by Emily Midkiff Karen Sands-O'Connor (bio) Equipping Space Cadets: Primary Science Fiction for Young Children. By Emily Midkiff. University Press of Mississippi, 2022. Interest in, and focus on, science fiction for children has historically been limited. There was a mini-boom in scholarship in the 1990s, with Gary Westfahl's article in Foundation (Winter 1994) on "The Genre that Evolved: On Science Fiction as Children's Literature," C. W. Sullivan III's Science Fiction for Young Readers (Greenwood 1993), and my own work with Marietta Frank, Back in the Spaceship Again (Greenwood 1999) all looking at fiction for progressively younger readers. These works tried to define what science fiction for children meant, and why it was an important genre, in literature ranging from the originally-adult-audienced work of Asimov and Bradbury to space race series from authors such as Robert Heinlein for what we now call tweens and young adults to Jane Yolen's Commander Toad and Joanna Cole's Magic School Bus series for the picture book crowd. Between 2009 and 2014, Farrah Mendelsohn wondered if children's science fiction existed in The Inter-galactic Playground (2009); Neighbors and Rankin focused on children's science fiction film and television in The Galaxy Is Rated G (2011); and several critics began to focus on the ethics and presentation of science in fields such as biotechnology and environmentalism in science fiction for children. Notably, Noga Applebaum in Representations of Technology in Science Fiction for Young People (Routledge 2009) suggested that most children's science fiction was anti-technology in contrast to science fiction for adults. Recent books have examined gender and racial diversity (Ziegler and Richards 2020; Thomas 2019), and educational issues (Kupferman and Gibbons 2019; Lindgren-Leavenworth and Manni, 2021). Emily Midkiff 's Equipping Space Cadets brings together many of these concerns, but focuses particularly on the definition of science fiction and the reading experiences of young children with it. Midkiff herself notes the fraught debate over the definition of children's science fiction in her first chapter, "Definitions and Evaluations," spending several pages over the debate between fantasy and science fiction. She argues, "Insisting that primary sf distance itself from fantasy holds children's literature to different standards than adult literature" and advocates a broad definition of science fiction for children that includes "space opera and silliness and pop culture shenanigans" (24, 25). Here, Midkiff runs up against one of the defining arguments about children's literature in general: not what it is but what it is for. Children's literature is defined by different standards than adult literature, and has been since John Newbery advertised his children's books as encompassing "Instruction with Delight." If books are meant to teach, then the scientific aspects of science fiction for children become critical—and bad science, fuzzy science, and magical explanations all push much of children's science fiction into the [End Page 340] realm of fantasy (and not necessarily good fantasy). But Midkiff is not really concerned with scientific accuracy—indeed, she is not really concerned with books in general, at least in terms of literary analysis. Her chapter on "Comprehending Genre" reveals this clearly, as her focus is on skills being developed in the reader rather than on what individual books contain. Arguing that many children learn about science fiction from film and television, particularly Star Wars and its "series, spinoffs, and films" (39), she suggests that "Children who are familiar with space travel and spaceship crews can approach the story knowing something of what to expect and use it . . . to help comprehend what they are reading" (39). This technique of using prior knowledge to make predictions and cement definitions is true of reading in general, but Midkiff 's explanation—which again advocates for a broad (or "fuzzy") definition of science fiction, does not account for how this can lead to mistakes in comprehension. All science fiction is fiction, but not all fiction is science fiction. Skilled readers can tell the difference between a story that is about a scientific principle or hypothesis (for example, a book where a character has to adjust between...

Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet and the Young Adult Reader: Understanding the Real World through Narrative Transportation Approach

Young Adult science fiction is a growing body of work in the science fiction genre that encourages its readers to envision, evaluate, and question contemporary and future real-world incidents. This paper explores the effect of narrative transportation on young adult readers of Robert Heinlein's Space Cadet, a YA science fiction novel. One of the main aspects narrative transportation theory examines is how literature fosters teens' understanding and awareness of themselves and of issues important to them. In this sense, Space Cadetengages the young adult reader with its narrative, its characters, and other significant sociopolitical notions like gender roles, the representation of “other,” and the politics of racism. Thus, by being immersed in the narrative and engaging with the explicit and implicit themes represented in the novel, transported young adult readers, we argue, may participate in changing existing social and political notions and (re)constructing their individuality through absorbing the traits, beliefs, and responsibilities of the fictitious juvenile protagonist and his experience, as well..

Other People's Families

Other People's Families Hannah Rahimi (bio) Apparently vacation means never having to cook. Evenings they drive to one of the nearby restaurants, swell up with salt and eat the leftovers for lunch, until everyone is so sick of it that finally Shira says, "I'll make something tonight." How grateful they are, except she can tell her mother-in-law Claudia is hiding disappointment that she doesn't cook something Traditional. Claudia is all about traditional. To her mind, the only thing better than traditional is Authentic. Helping herself to another taco, Claudia says an Indian restaurant just opened in Duncan. "We'll have to take the ferry over one night," she says. "Shira can tell us if it's the real deal!" To which Gabe, knowing Shira's buttons, grips her shoulder and says, "Why don't we let our chef go relax in the living room while we do the dishes." You want traditional? My family had a Sunday-night tradition of eating Kraft dinner with ketchup (and, I admit, a sprinkle of garam masala) while my father blasted his favorite Harry Belafonte and my mother scoured the Reader's Digest for knitting patterns. Is that traditional enough for you? (Is what she wants to say.) ________ Apparently marriage means vacationing with in-laws. When Gabe first brought it up, she assumed it was optional, as it had been before they were married, but then she saw his face when she casually declared she would stay home and catch up on her reading. She teaches fourth grade, which means she has a summer. People think that means her time is theirs. They are spending June in a rented cottage on Salt Spring Island, off the coast of British Columbia. The family has been coming here since Gabe was twelve. Steps from the back deck lead down to the ocean. The air smells of jasmine and pine. There are so many deer that the islanders consider them pests. They are not at their best. Claudia goes around solicitous and eager to please and shooting herself repeatedly in her Birkenstocked foot, while Mark offers smug financial advice to everyone they meet and alienates waiters with excruciating attempts at working class jocundity. Gabe tries hard, but slips into the entitlements of an only child without even realizing it. At restaurants he orders cocktails just because his parents are paying. He doesn't even like to drink! One night Claudia makes chili; everyone is taking turns now cooking, the restaurants abandoned and scorned. (Never, says Claudia, trust a place that says Chinese and Canadian cuisine. They'll put celery in everything.) She has [End Page 82] forgotten to buy cheese for the chili, which makes Mark muss up her hair and say, "Classic Claudia." He is always saying that: Classic Claudia. For their benefit he says, "Claudia here has been known to steam artichokes without water in the pan. Claudia has been known to cook up beans and rice without the rice. My beautiful space cadet," he says, nudging her in the side and looking at them, demanding complicity. Shira hates him for it. Gabe laughs easily, like he too is thinking, Classic Claudia. "It's just cheese," says Shira, but no one will meet her eye. ________ She wakes early here and takes her coffee to the porch, grateful for that brief time before anyone else is up. She has lost all desire to read. Instead she watches the ocean and lets her mind go. It goes, without fail, to Caleb. It is the thought of him that wakes her every morning, or really the feel of him, a writhing at the base of her. He is actually rendering her incapable, not just of reading but of general attention. She'll be listening to Claudia prattle on about chia seeds only to realize her mind has strayed. Worse, she'll be listening to Gabe. Over and over she luxuriates in the same memories, dipping into them for the reliable jolt of pleasure. She is scared that in this way she will wear them out, as one does repeating a word until it's senseless. ________ The family develops...

On the Construction of Transnational Accounting Policy: Dynamics of Negotiating Order between 'Space Cadets' and 'Dinosaurs'

The process of accounting policy-making is addressed within an important and evolving body of literature. This paper adds to that literature in explaining the contemporary phase of transnational accounting policy-making through efforts by the FASB and IASB to construct a set of standards accepted for worldwide market regulation. Specifically, this paper examines the process of transnational accounting policy-making through a study of seven years of debate surrounding a particular policy decision made in selecting between two conventions for the measurement of revenue. I use archival documents in the form of narrative accounts of FASB and IASB proceedings to analyze the actors involved in this particular decision, their changing discourse, and their power dynamics throughout the history of debate. I mobilize the negotiated orders perspective and concepts from institutional theory to theorize actor resources, rationales and power dynamics in the process of constructing a policy decision. The analysis reveals how board composition and power dynamics matter in determining the content of accounting standards. In addition, the analysis reveals how power is structured by two coalitions, referred to as the “Space Cadets” and “Dinosaurs”, whose membership is not only somewhat fluid but often reflects seemingly unlikely groupings of actors. Further, this study highlights the differing rationales that these two coalitions mobilize in the process of negotiating order. The findings support the importance of micro-level processes in explaining the development of macro-level accounting policy. These factors are crucial to enhancing our broader understanding of the way in which accounting standards and rules are ultimately institutionalized.

The Tumor Suppressor Gene Retinoblastoma-1 Is Required for Retinotectal Development and Visual Function in Zebrafish

Mutations in the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor gene (rb1) cause both sporadic and familial forms of childhood retinoblastoma. Despite its clinical relevance, the roles of rb1 during normal retinotectal development and function are not well understood. We have identified mutations in the zebrafish space cadet locus that lead to a premature truncation of the rb1 gene, identical to known mutations in sporadic and familial forms of retinoblastoma. In wild-type embryos, axons of early born retinal ganglion cells (RGC) pioneer the retinotectal tract to guide later born RGC axons. In rb1 deficient embryos, these early born RGCs show a delay in cell cycle exit, causing a transient deficit of differentiated RGCs. As a result, later born mutant RGC axons initially fail to exit the retina, resulting in optic nerve hypoplasia. A significant fraction of mutant RGC axons eventually exit the retina, but then frequently project to the incorrect optic tectum. Although rb1 mutants eventually establish basic retinotectal connectivity, behavioral analysis reveals that mutants exhibit deficits in distinct, visually guided behaviors. Thus, our analysis of zebrafish rb1 mutants reveals a previously unknown yet critical role for rb1 during retinotectal tract development and visual function.

Space Makers or Space Cadets? Exploring children’s perceptions of space and place in the context of a Dublin primary school

This paper discusses two interconnected themes: (1) the variegated role of space in primary school architecture; and (2), the perception of this space as a lived phenomenon from the perspective of pupils. In this context, space is not seen as being synonymous with the physical properties of a school (although this does exert an influence), but as an ‘active ingredient’ through which a particular social order is produced and sustained. Echoing the work of Lefebvre’s (1991) triadic conceptualisation of space, Markus’s (1993) meshing of architecture and power (via Foucault, 1991a, 1991b), certain extensions of ecological/ecosystemic theories of child and adolescent development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Deboutte et al., 2006; Deklerck et al., 2003), and Burke and Grosvenor (2008) on pedagogic practices and space, we argue that space, far from being a Cartesian ‘bucket’ to contain social action, is a fundamental dimension of any teaching and learning environment. More specifically, what we refer to as ‘space’ is structured (i.e. produced and organised) by the social actions of agents (pupils, teachers, parents and administrative staff) within the school environment, which is refracted back onto these agents and, in turn, structures them. By applying a predominately visually-orientated methodological approach, namely graphic elicitation and participant-generated images, the study focused on a cohort of 17 pupils in a senior primary school in Dublin. The discussion of the data explored how the pupils categorised space(s) in the primary school environment, and how their act of ‘structuring the structure’ generated complex and competing meanings. The results of this visual study indicated that it was pupils who maintained the power to appropriate spatial and social relations, creating possibilities of performance, repetition and regulation, contest and conflict within the school environment. Discussions of these results directed learning towards conceptions of space as a subject of ineluctable importance in educational and psychological research.

Made-From-TV Movies: Turning 1950s Television into Films

Media historians frequently describe a significant tension between the film and television industries when chronicling the origins of the latter, with each medium seeking to dominate the entertainm...

Diagnosis | 'Space cadet' syndrome of female FVB/n mice

Diagnosis | 'Space cadet' syndrome of female FVB/n mice

Space cadets taken for a ride

Space cadets taken for a ride

The zebrafish space cadet gene controls axonal pathfinding of neurons that modulate fast turning movements.

All vertebrates depend on neural circuits to produce propulsive movements; however, the contribution of individual neural cell types to control such movements are not well understood. We report that zebrafish space cadet mutant larvae fail to initiate fast turning movements properly, and we show that this motor phenotype correlates with axonal defects in a small population of commissural hindbrain neurons, which we identify as spiral fiber neurons. Moreover, we demonstrate that severing spiral fiber axons produces space cadet-like locomotor defects, thereby providing compelling evidence that the space cadet gene plays an essential role in integrating these neurons into the circuitry that modulates fast turning movements. Finally, we show that axonal defects are restricted to a small set of commissural trajectories, including retinal ganglion cell axons and spiral fiber axons, and that the space cadet gene functions in axonal pathfinding. Together, our results provide a rare example in vertebrates of an individual neuronal cell type that contributes to the expression of a defined motor behavior. Movies available on-line

The Mystery of Mars

The Mystery of Mars is a beautiful and informative book, aimed at young readers ages 8 to 12. The child in your life (if he or she is any kind of “space cadet”) will enjoy looking at this intelligent, comprehensive, and colorful introduction to Mars. The book wisely capitalizes on two aspects of our human nature: our love of exploration and our inability to resist a mystery Human beings of all ages love to explore, and in spite of the recent setbacks in Mars exploration, the lure of other planetary frontiers has never been stronger.

“That Space Cadet Glow”: Science Fiction Narratives in Roger Waters’s Radio K.A.O.S. and Amused to Death

“That Space Cadet Glow”: Science Fiction Narratives in Roger Waters’s <i>Radio K.A.O.S.</i> and <i>Amused to Death</i>

Organizing for the Use of Space: Historical Perspectives on a Persistent Issue ed. by Roger D. Launius

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 973 dipole oscillator and resonator, when “problems arose that under­ mined Hertz’s original claims, and indeed that undermined the character of the device itself as a stable effect-generator” (p. 3). In the meantime, historians of science and technology should find the present volume to be rewarding in many ways. Ronald Kline Dr. Kune is associate professor of the history of technology at Cornell University. Organizingfor the Use ofSpace: HistoricalPerspectives on a Persistent Issue. Edited by Roger D. Launius. San Diego: American Astronautical Society, 1995. Pp. xiii+220; illustrations, figures, tables, notes. $60.00 (hardcover); $40.00 (paper). What most unites the articles in Organizingfor the Use of Space is the background of its authors. Six of the eight are historians for NASA or the military; the other two are affiliated with universities in or near Washington, D.C. Most have been reflecting and writing on the history of the American space program for more than a de­ cade. By contrast, the papers range over a variety of subjects and periods, from rocketry in World War II, through NASA’s formation, to the Strategic Defense Initiative of the 1980s. The treatments also vary, from brief and impressionistic to de­ tailed and studiously researched. There is excellence at both ends of this spectrum. Dwayne A. Day makes exemplary use of primary sources to tell us as much as we may ever want to know about the National Aeronautics and Space Council, a body that “played only a minimal role in the formulation ofAmerican space policy for most of its . . . existence” (p. 117). At the other end, Howard E. McCurdy contributes a short piece based mainly on published sources but cen­ tered on a provocative question: how did popular culture affect fed­ eral policy-making? The other articles treat more familiar topics. R. Cargill Hall re­ minds us that Eisenhower was mainly interested in space for its mili­ tary applications. Volume editor Roger D. Launius contributes a well-written resume of U.S. space policy through 1960. The novelty is his argument that Eisenhower’s NASA administrator, T. Keith Glennan, played a critical role in fending off the coalition of space cadets, industrialists, military officers, and members ofCongress who were urging a more aggressive stance. Through his resistance, Glen­ nan succeeded in securing a balanced space program for his admin­ istration. The implication—more acceptable, probably, to historians than to the American Astronautical Society members to whom some of these papers were first addressed at a 1993 meeting—is that the Kennedy administration unbalanced the program when it trans­ formed it into “a huge scientific and technological effort with pi­ loted activities serving as the mainstay” (p. 63). 974 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Sylvia K. Kraemer’s overview of NASA’s culture mainly follows a well-beaten track with such themes as the tension between NASA’s ethos of in-house research and its practice of contracting research out. It is, however, an exceptionally well-informed reiteration. J. D. Hunley pushes beyond prior accounts of the birth of U.S. rocketry by dint ofmeticulous research and the productive device of compar­ ing the Peenemunde rocketeers’ use of academic and industry con­ sultants with the practices of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Rick W. Sturdevant’s article hews the most closely to the book’s title, laying out the air force’s organizational arrangements for space as they evolved over the course of five decades. In my opinion, how­ ever, the time is past for us to content ourselves with this kind of chronology or to limit our studies to a single organization as actor. Martin J. Collins recently exhorted us to view NASA’s program in the larger context of the combined military, intelligence, and civil­ ian efforts (Collins and Sylvia K. Kraemer, eds., Space: Discovery and Exploration, Southport, Conn.: Hugh Lauter Levin Associates for the Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum, 1994, p. 11). His injunction is equally appropriate for historians of military space. The final article, by Donald R. Baucom, is a clearly articulated account of the fight the Pentagon waged and won for control of the Strategic Defense Initiative against the High...

“NEVER QUESTION THE ASSUMPTIONS” AND OTHER SCENES FROM THE REVOLUTION

Arriving at Northwestern University in the fall of 1967 to begin graduate studies in geography, I had little notion of what lay in store for me and my classmates. We were, in short, destined to become quantitatively revolutionized by some of Bill Garrison's most devoted space cadets. Never an enthusiastic soldier in this particular revolution, I have come to value as well as to question much of what we call spatial analysis. My remarks reflect on this quixotic development and on reconciling spatial analysis and feminist geography.

Risk-Taking in Children: Age and Sex Differences

success stories throughout our history [place] a high premium on taking a chance. The pioneers took a chance; they were courageous killers of bears. These themes are instilled into the growing child without regard to sex. This is what Davy Crockett did, this is what the space cadet does. . . . Girls emerging from common patterns of babyhood suddenly learn, however, that their adult role is to be a different one [Alpenfels & Hayes, 1961, p. 107].

A Space Programme for Europe ?

I felt very honoured when asked to give this lecture in memory of one of the leading figures of the period which saw the greatest British achievements in aeronautics. The contrast between the technical situation of those times, and the uncertainties of today, immediately sprang to mind, especially in regard to British achievement (or lack of it) in space.So also, very naturally, did those occasions in the 1940's when I used to visit Mr. Chadwick to discuss the propeller problems of various Avro aircraft, both real and projected. During the course of these sessions, we often discussed future propulsion trends, including the relative merits of piston and turbine engines, propellers and jet propulsion, and so forth. I cannot honestly recall that the question of space flight ever came up, although it probably did, because propulsion is even more of a fundamental problem for flight in space than it is within the atmosphere, and even in those days I was what the Americans call “a space cadet.”

Satellites for physicists

Artificial earth satellites are really of great importance to physicists. Some of this importance is not immediately obvious and is indeed quite indirect. It seems to turn out that the satellite is a “vehicle” whereby physicists can approach the man in the street, or perhaps just the interested youngster with physics. For the satellite contains what is perhaps the fundamental element of all science: a spirit of exploration and adventure; but it is presentable at a sufficiently nontechnical level so as to make it exciting to the nonphysicist. Even if there were no other advantages to satellites, it may well be the means whereby thousands of youngsters, now space cadets, develop an interest in the physical sciences, in astronomy and in mathematics, which leads them, if properly qualified, into a scientific career. I am one who believes that the satellite has a tremendous educational aspect and that we as physicists should be prepared to use it in order to interest people in physics.