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Douglas Preston is the New York Times best-selling author of the newly released IMPACT, recently published by Forge Books. He is the co-author, with Lincoln Child, of the famed Pendergast series of novels, including such bestselling titles as The Book of the Dead and The Wheel of Darkness, as well as The Relic, which was made into a number one box office hit film.
Doug’s solo novels include Jennie, made into a movie by Disney, and the New York Times bestsellers Tyrannosaur Canyon and Blasphemy.
Doug discusses how he explores controversial scientific theories and current events in all of his thrillers. He talks about his trip to Cambodia with National Geographic, where certain discoveries ultimately provided the background to IMPACT.

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Dr. Louis Lanzerotti is Distinguished Research Professor of Physics, New Jersey Institute of Technology. In 2004 President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Lanzerotti to the 24-member National Science Board, the governing body of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Lanzerotti chaired the blue-ribbon panel to study whether to prolong the mission of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Dr. Lanzerotti has spent more than four decades contributing to research that includes studies of space plasmas and geophysics, and engineering problems related to the impact of atmospheric and space processes on terrestrial technologies, and those in space.
He has been principal investigator or co-investigator on several NASA interplanetary and planetary missions including Voyager, Ulysses, Galileo, ACE, and Cassini. NASA has recognized Dr. Lanzerotti’s contributions to space science with the agency’s Distinguished Scientific Achievement Medal.
In our March 25, 2005 interview, Dr. Lanzerotti discussed
- The Hubble Space Telescope’s long-term mission
- NASA budget considerations
- The four-year Cassini mission to Saturn, Titan, and Saturn’s other moons
- The Ulysses mission which conducted the first-ever survey of the Sun’s environment in space from the equator to the poles, and over a wide range of solar activity conditions

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Marjorie Liu is a New York Times bestselling author of novels, short stories, novellas, and two ongoing series. Dirk & Steele is a series of novels of paranormal romance and the Hunter Kiss series focuses on urban fantasy. Marjorie has written NYX: No Way Home, for Marvel Comics, and is co-writing the ongoing series Dark Wolverine. Marjorie is also an attorney. She divides her time between the American Midwest and Beijing and Shanghai in China.
Marjorie discusses her novella Armor of Roses recently published in the anthology, INKED, as well as her work on Dark Wolverine and NYX for Marvel Comics. Marjorie talks about the new videogame Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box based on her novel Tiger Eye. She discusses her sources of inspiration and the widespread appeal of paranormal romance and urban fantasy.

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Jake Black is the author of THE AUTHORIZED ENDER COMPANION, recently published by Tor Books. Fans will be able to explore the first complete and in-depth encyclopedia of all the persons, places, things, and events in Orson Scott Card’s beloved Ender Universe.
The long-awaited volume was written under the editorial supervision of Card himself, who recently received the 2008 Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in Young Adult literature from the American Library Association. Jake Black has written for several popular franchises and characters including Smallville, Batman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Twilight, and Star Trek. He is the author of Marvel Comics’ Ender-series comic books Gold Bug, Cheater, and Recruiting Valentine.