This hard sci-fi anthology features seventeen all-new stories from an international roster of today's most acclaimed authors. Hard science fiction is the literature of change, rigorously examining the impact of science and technology on humanity, the future, and the cosmos. As science advances, new frontiers in storytelling open up as well. In Carbide Tipped Pens, over a dozen of today's most creative imaginations bring the grand tradition of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein into the twenty-first century. Ranging from ancient China to the outer reaches of the solar system, this outstanding collection of original stories finds wonder, terror, and gripping human drama in topics as diverse as space exploration, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, climate change, alternate history, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, interplanetary war, and even the future of baseball. From tattoos that treat allergies to hazardous space missions, from the end of the world to the farthest limits of human invention, Carbide Tipped Pens turns startling new ideas into state-of-the art science fiction. Includes short stories by Ben Bova, Gregory Benford, Robert Reed, Aliette de Bodard, Jack McDevitt, Howard Hendrix, Daniel H. Wilson, and many others!