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"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl

Tiny Nuclear Generator  
  A complete nuclear-based generator of power no bigger than a walnut.  

What happens when a user of superior technology encounters the less sophisticated? Trader Hober Mallow shows his personal force-shield to a tech-man from further out in the provinces.

"Where's the power?"

Mallow's finger fell upon the largest knob, dull in its leaden case.

The tech-man looked up, and his face was congested with blood. "Sir, I am a tech-man, senior grade. I have twenty years behind me as supervisor and I studied under the great Bler at the University of Trantor. If you have the infernal charlatanry to tell me that a small container the size of a - of a walnut, blast it, holds a nuclear generator, I'll have you before the Protector in three seconds."

Technovelgy from Foundation and Empire, by Isaac Asimov.
Published by Doubleday in 1952
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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Foundation and Empire
  More Ideas and Technology by Isaac Asimov
  Tech news articles related to Foundation and Empire
  Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov

Tiny Nuclear Generator-related news articles:
  - Liquid Semiconductor Nuclear Battery Big As A Penny

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