Quanta is Copyright(c)1994 Daniel K. Appelquist.
From here, you can go to the contents by issue, or go to the Quanta home page.
Looking Ahead
Daniel K. Appelquist
Ok. So I was a bit over-zealous last issue. I admit it. Starting this issue, I'm going to try and think small, or at least _smaller_. Postscript subscribers especially should find this and future issues more manageble (also due to the fact that I've switched over to a much more efficient dvi to postscript converter (DVIPS from Radical Eye software.) Quanta's form seems to have "fused" itself, but I'm still open to suggestions if anyone's interested in making them. PostScript subscribers may also notice the lack of a picture title page this issue. Well, the title page gave so many people trouble that I decided to omit it. I would like to run title pages in future issues, but I'm afraid I'm only going to be able to use pure postscript. If you'd like to submit a cover page for Quanta, feel free. It doesn't have to necessarilly have anything to do with any of the stories.
This issue, I'm printing the first submission I've received from the UK, `Alice Through the Flames' by Roy Stead. I hope to publish more of Roy's material in the future, and I'm always interested in submissions from the UK and other European countries, although, as I had to respond to one Swedish would-be Quanta writer, I only accept submissions in English.
As a side note, there is an electronically distributed fiction magazine for the Scandanavian community. It is called `Volven' and more information on it may be obtained from its editor, Rune Johansen at the address rune.johansen@odin.re.nta.uninett I'm always happy to hear about new magazines of this sort springing up. I truly believe we're on the vanguard of a new era of information exchange.
I'd like to stress the fact that I always need submissions. Right now there are no extra stories hanging around for further issues. If there is a next issue it will be because _you_, the Quanta subscribers, send me material. Quanta was originally founded as a forum for amateur creative writing, and amateur writers are the only ones that can keep it going.
There actually is one submission that I'm sure will appear in the next issue, actually. That's the second part to Jim Vassilakos's `The Harrison Chapters' the first part of which is published in this issue. Normally, I'm wary of serialized works, but chapters two and three are waiting to be printed in the next two issues, and, by that time, Jim should be finished with chapter four (at least). So look forward to those.
Correspondence
I was very intrigued by the results of the poll from last issue. Be assured that your opinions have been counted. I'll act on them as much as is possible. I wish to thank everyone for all the positive feedback. Comments like "you are doing a great job, continue!" were not uncommon in the poll replies, and I really appreciate that. Of course, those of you who thought the magazine was bad probably didn't think it was worth sending in a reply, but what the hell...
Dontin Wang from Grinnel College in Grinnel, Iowa writes:
>I won't be here over the summer to subscribe to Quanta. In fact, I will be
>graduating, and will longer be subscribing at this account... would it be
>possible to subscribe to Quanta in a more traditional manner? That is, can I
>get an annual subscription to Quanta in printed form, mailed to my postal
>address?
>
>If so, please send me the details. I would appreciate it very much.
>
>Dontin Wang
>
>WANG@GRIN1.BITNET
The answer is that I will send printed copies of Quanta. What you have to to is send me a SASE (A self addressed large envelope with enough postage on it, usually around $2.00) and a check for $3.00 to cover printing costs and my time. It is in my long range plans to make Quanta available in printed form, possibly through a small printing house. It will still be free to get Quanta electronically though.
Also, we have a reply to Norman Murray's article entitled _Biotech in and out of SF_ (publushed in the February 1990 issue).
davidsond%ac%csc@csc.isu.edu writes:
>In the Feb. 1990 issue of Quanta, talking of genetics and ethics, Norm Murray
>wrote...
> >Is it
> >morally responsible to "dial-up" a baby to order - hair, and eye
> >color, IQ, height, etc...? These are the questions that must be
> >answered by the time we get to this level of technology. Did you know
> >that in the U.S.A. it is legal to patent a new life form?
>
>
>An interesting twist to genetic patenting was heard April 10, 1990 by the
>California Supreme Court, deciding whether a leukemia patient can sue for a
>share of the profits from an anti-cancer drug derived from his blood cells.
>John Moore, a 45-year old businessman from Seattle, contends that blood cells
>from his cancerous spleen were wrongfully used by the University of California
>two researchers from UCLA, and two biotechnology companies that helped develop
>the drug. Moore said he is merely trying to defend "the rights of the
>individual patient in the case where the physician-researcher is also a
>businessman-entrepreneur." Outside of the courthouse, Moore added "Without my
>knowledge or consent, the doctors and the research institutions used a part of
>me for their own gain. They stole something from me."
>
>University attorney Allen Wagner argued that if justices rule that Moore has
>property rights to his (former) tissue, then there will be serious setbacks in
>the development of lifesaving drugs. Attorney Peter Abrahams, lawyer for
>defendant Shirley Quan (a UCLA research assistant), added that such a decision
>would have "a devastating impact on medical research." Strongest arguments
>from defense lawyers seemed to be against having to negotiate and pay for
>human tissue used in research and development.
>
>
>Opinion:
>
>If we accept paying pharmaceutical royalties, what is so horrible about a
>royalty to the genetic-lottery winner who happens to carry a unique strain
>within him. It seems naive and unreasonable to believe that such a fee would
>end genetic research. But the alternative? Without such `ownership rights'
>to our own genetic strains and tissue, larger problems are tucked within those
>Norm Murray discussed. For example, Murray would no doubt be shocked to
>discover (on his clone's twenty-first birthday) that the clone 'belongs' to
>his surgeon.
>
"Keep those letters coming," I suppose would be the appropriate thing to say here. But seriously, do. It is of great help when working on a magazine like Quanta to know that _someone_ is paying attention. Thanks.
DKA
Quanta is Copyright(c)1994 Daniel K. Appelquist.
From here, you can go to the contents by issue,
or go to the Quanta home page.