Panology of Science Fiction: E

Engineering

A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.

Frederik Pohl

Stories about the ‘mad scientist’ kicked off genre literature, ever since Daedalus fabricated wings from feathers and wax for himself and his son Icarus. Invention is the heart of all sci-fi stories, which in turn becomes the heart of inspiration that turns science fantasy into reality. Geosynchronous communications satellites, computer worms, Segways, wall-mounted home theatres, exoskeletons, smartphones, virtual worlds, and organ harvesting were all described by sci-fi writers long before engineers turned them into reality.

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hooded hydra

Panology of Science Fiction: B

Biology

This science is a given. Even if the story doesn’t involve alien ecosystems, a near or far-future world is an undiscovered country of new manifestations of living things, human or otherwise. What have we so far found living on this planet?  Plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, slime moulds, archaea. From synthetic to quantum biology, the list of organisms that can be conjured up is endless.

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