Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook Moonbase Alpha Technical Notebook |
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Professor Bergman is, to a great degree, the father of Moonbase Alpha, having contributed more to the base's construction than anyone else. He is also a father figure for many of the base's key personnel. As a young man he was deeply involved in early space exploration efforts, however he can still remember when a visit to the Moon was considered to be only a figment of Jules Verne's imagination. To some extent, he is very much the proverbial professor. He has a brilliant mind and has been responsible for many advances in space science, but he is naive in many practical matters. In some ways, he reminds one of a 19th century scientist rather than a man of the late 20th century, though physically he is more a part of the new era than he appears. He is something of a philosopher and very much a humanist. Bergman is unusual in one respect. An early illness led to his having a mechanical heart replacement. Be- cause it responds more slowly to nervous stimuli than a normal heart does, it reduces his reactions to most emotional stresses. Whatever the situation, he is physically immune from panic. There is one drawback--a ruthless or desperate person might be able to interfere with his mechan- ical heart and upset his finely-tuned metabolism. |
