BBC News

Author Arthur C. Clarke, whose science fiction and non-fiction works ranged from the script for "2001: A Space Odyssey" to an early proposal for communications satellites, has died at age 90, associates have said.

Clarke had been wheelchair-bound for several years with complications stemming from a youthful bout with polio and had suffered from back trouble recently, said Scott Chase, the secretary of the nonprofit Arthur C. Clarke Foundation.

He died early Wednesday -- Tuesday afternoon ET -- at a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since the 1950s, Chase said.

"He had been taken to hospital in what we had hoped was one of the slings and arrows of being 90, but in this case it was his final visit," he said.

... and the world will be a worse place without him. :-(

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He made an important contribution not only to the science fiction genre but also to the popularisation of science.

From personal point of view - I will really miss him. I liked his books very much when I was young. My father even managed to meet him on Sri Lanka and let him sign his papernack print of Space Odyssey 2001 (I did not know yet about Clarke back then).

Peter

Arthur C. Clarke was a name I heard, read about, read, and admired all my life.
His work, his dreams, and his hopes for a better future are an ideal to learn from. I can only hope more people can learn this. He left us a lot to build on.

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For some time I've been fascinated by the idea of a space elevator as described in 3001. Arthur C. Clarke proposed using carbon dienes

which form strong molecular chains.

Much of the focus in space elevators looks at improving the tensile strength so the materials can support the weight of these massive structures. But another outside the box idea I've toyed with, using materials lighter than air. In this manner, you are not worried about the weight of objects pushing down; instead, containing gases.

Imagine a sturdy cylinder, linked to a series of sturdy cylinders. Surround each segment with a balloon containing a mixture of helium and hydrogen that makes the gas flame retardant.

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For some time I've been fascinated by the idea of a space elevator as described in 3001. Arthur C. Clarke proposed using carbon dienes

which form strong molecular chains.

Much of the focus in space elevators looks at improving the tensile strength so the materials can support the weight of these massive structures. But another outside the box idea I've toyed with, using materials lighter than air. In this manner, you are not worried about the weight of objects pushing down; instead, containing gases.

Imagine a sturdy cylinder, linked to a series of sturdy cylinders. Surround each segment with a balloon containing a mixture of helium and hydrogen that makes the gas flame retardant.

Arthur C. Clarke first proposed the space elevator in his book The Fountains of Paradise published 1979.