It was also a finalist for the 2020 Hugo Award for Best Novelette and the Theodore Sturgeon Award. 'Omphalos' won the Locus Award for Best Novelette in 2020. Weeks later, however, Dorothea plans to resume her work, realizing that doing science for its own sake is just as fulfilling-regardless of God's plan. Suspecting that humanity is simply a test or an unintended side effect, he fears that humanity is not part of a divine plan and that suffering (including his son's death) is meaningless.ĭisturbed, Dorothea tells her cousin that she is taking a leave now that she finds her job meaningless. He reasons that God is miraculously sustaining a geocentric star system around a truly unmoving planet whose inhabitants constitute His true reason for creating the universe. Not only does his research indicate that the Solar System moves like any other star, but that in defiance of celestial mechanics, the star 58 Eridani circles a seemingly empty spot every 24 hours, and its center is at absolute rest relative to the luminiferous aether. McCullough is an astronomer who challenges the consensus that the Sun is the only star at absolute rest.

Wilhelmina explains that she did not steal out of personal gain but to strengthen people's faith before her father's recent discovery is made public.ĭr. Nathan McCullough, director of the University of Alta California. The clues lead her to a post office in San Francisco, where, to her surprise, the thief turns out to be a teen, Wilhelmina McCullough. Believing that primordial beings with apparent signs of growth would have been tantamount to deception, Dorothea is passionate that God intended humans to understand Him through science.įrom a meeting with her cousin, Dorothea believes that an illegal sale of museum relics is taking place. The museum's latest exhibit includes Atacaman mummies belonging to the first generation of humans-created as adults by God and thus lacking navels.

Dorothea Morrel and takes place in an alternate 20th century where young Earth creationism is true.ĭorothea travels from an archaeological dig in Arisona to give a public lecture on Chicagou, where she explains how dendrochronology has determined the world to be 8,912 years old as well as indicating that the first trees were created fully grown, as they have a ringless core. The story is told through the prayers and letters of pious archaeologist Dr. It was first published in Chiang's 2019 collection, Exhalation: Stories. It is named after the Omphalos hypothesis and a 1857 book by English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse.

' Omphalos' is a science fantasy short story by American author Ted Chiang.

Omphalos ted chiang