Astounding British Edition, Vol. 12, No. 8

ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, August 1956 (British Edition) The featured novelette "Exploration Team" by Murray Leinster presents a man named Huyghens, a felon maintaining an illegal Kodius Company colony on the hostile planet Loren Two. He commands a small team of genetically enhanced animals: bears (Sitka Pete, Sourdough Charley, Faro Nell, and Nugget) and an eagle (Semper) bred to survive the planet's deadly fauna, particularly the sphexes—lethal creatures that the animals have learned to combat. When an unexpected commercial vessel contacts the station demanding a landing, Huyghens faces potential discovery. The story explores survival on an alien world through animal companions and the tension of illegal human expansion. The issue includes short stories by Algis Budrys and Eric Frank Russell, and part two of Robert Heinlein's serial "Double Star." Campbell's editorial discusses genetic mutations and cultural development, arguing that fundamental cognitive abilities cannot be taught but must exist innately.