A numerical perspective on Futures, Nature 's science-fiction column.

To celebrate the millennium, Nature launched Futures, a series of science-fiction 'short-shorts'. The first series ran from November 1999 to December 2000, and was revived in February 2005.

At WorldCon in 2005, the European Science Fiction Society awarded Nature the accolade of 'Best Science Fiction Publisher', but nobody has dared to say to our face that everything Nature publishes is science fiction. Futures authorship varies from well-known SF writers to scientists to people trying their hand at fiction for the very first time.

This week's story, 'Semi-autonomous' by Jim Kling appears on page 108.

132 SF stories have been published by Nature since 1999.

11 is the age of Futures' youngest author, Ashley Pellegrino (Nature 439, 890, 2006).

15 is the number of stories written by Nature editors and other NPG staff.

850–950 words is the typical length of a Futures story. “Writing a work of fiction in such a confined space is much harder than it sounds” says editor Henry Gee.