Dividing Science From The Fiction

Science and Fiction. Trying to get the science right when writing a future/forward looking story. Sometimes, the science is wrong--Jules Verne didn't know about the bends when he wrote 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea--but that didn't stop the story from seeing into the future and maybe influencing some scientists and engineers to invent the submarine. Here's an article from Apex Book Company, Dividing Science From The Fiction. An excerpt:

Has anyone else noticed that with the passing of each year, the well of sci-fi tropes becomes a little less sci-fi and a bit more…well, sci?

With a new year ahead of us—a brand new year full of potential and promises—our planet has a nice white canvass to paint a picture on. While 2009 wasn’t a largely significant year for scientific breakthroughs that will change the world in the long run, it does show the potential that the future has. And for those of you that favor sci-fi fiction, you may be beat to the punch on a lot of your ideas by reality. Just thinking of all of those extrasolar planets that have been discovered makes Carl Sagan’s Contact and sci-fi staples like Star Trek a little more believable. A very little, but still…

A quick glimpse at history shows us how man’s ideas have been proven as ignorant and then one-upped by scientific fact (or, in some unfortunate cases, simple logic).