Science fiction author Arthur C Clarke dies aged 90 - Times Online

Science fiction author Arthur C Clarke dies aged 90 - Times Online: "Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died aged 90 in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, it was confirmed tonight.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

The visionary author of over 100 books, who predicted the existence of satellites, was most famous for his short story 'The Sentinel,' which was expanded into the novel on which Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' was based.

He was also credited with inventing the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality."