Alan E. Nourse was an American physician and writer whose science fiction often drew on medicine, biology, ethics, technology, and the social consequences of scientific change. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1928, Nourse served in the United States Navy and trained as a doctor before building a writing career that included both fiction and nonfiction. His medical background gave many of his stories a distinctive seriousness, especially when dealing with illness, institutions, research, human vulnerability, and the moral responsibilities of scientific knowledge.Nourse wrote numerous short stories and novels during the mid-twentieth-century science fiction magazine era and became known for clear storytelling, plausible speculation, and ethical conflict. His best-known works include The Bladerunner, which later lent its title to the film Blade Runner, though the film was not based on Nourse's novel. His fiction remains of interest to readers of classic science fiction, medical science fiction, Golden Age science fiction, social speculation, dystopian futures, and the development of science fiction as a literature of scientific and moral consequence.
