April 12, 1961, Baikonur Cosmodrome Sergei Korolev stood beside the scorched and blackened launch pad. Nearly an hour had gone by since the rocket had risen to the heavens, and still waves of heat gushed up over the rim of the spaceport’s flame trench....

1 On the day of my death, we arrived at the hospital at eight in the morning. Sandra had scheduled our appointment for as early as possible. “Hi Celeste, hi Mariano,” she greeted us. Sandra was wearing a white laboratory coat and her hair was drawn back in a ponytail; she had come out to the parking lot to receive us....

In the center of the zero-gravity lab, in which I was alone, a wind with the salty smell of the air eighty meters above the East China Sea was blowing at 50 kph. Floating with my body parallel to the floor while I was controlling the wind, I placed a hand on the titanium cage surrounding the round, two-meter observation stage in the middle of the room, and pulled myself toward the blue glow inside....

1 Wednesday. 00:02. Xia Mang’s biological clock woke him from a deep sleep. His daughter Weiwei was one month old today, and today would be her dormancy test. Starting tomorrow, she would be a Wednesday citizen of Shenli City, like Xia Mang and his wife Xiao An. ...

A whale must have died, I thought, as the snowfall thickened. When a whale dies it snows heavier down here. In this dark, cold, silent village of ours, the death of a whale descends as an ode to life. With my gills stretched wide and a rich, green glow shining from the lure sticking out of my forehead, I drifted through the blizzard quivering with delight....

1. Clairvoyant Mark was a very special person—when he told me that he was going to take me to see a clairvoyant, I wasn’t too surprised. “But you are a scientist!” I couldn’t help pointing out. “That doesn’t mean I worship science.”...