Mark Brake

Science Fiction in the Classroom.

Science fiction can be used as an imaginative forum to focus on the relationship between science, culture and society. This article outlines some of the ways in which using the genre can help achieve a dynamic and pluralistic understanding of the nature and evolution of science.

On the plurality of inhabited worlds: a brief history of extraterrestrialism

This paper delineates the cultural evolution of the ancient idea of a plurality of inhabited worlds, and traces its development through to contemporary extraterrestrialism, with its foundation in the physical determinism of cosmology, and its attendant myths of alien contact drawn from examples of British film and fiction. We shall see that, in the evolving debate of the existence of extraterrestrial life and intelligence, science and science fiction have benefited from an increasingly symbiotic relationship. Modern extraterrestrialism has influenced both the scientific searches for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), and become one of the most pervasive cultural myths of the 20th century. Not only has pluralism found a voice in fiction through the alien, but fiction has also inspired science to broach questions in the real world.

Access, Astronomy and Science Fiction. A Case Study in Curriculum Design.

It is argued that a positive response to lifelong learning policies involves the use of imaginative curriculum design in order to attract learners from disadvantaged backgrounds who are otherwise alienated from higher education. In this article a case study is presented based on the popularity of science fiction within popular culture, beginning with community-based modules in the South Wales valleys and culminating in a complete BSc honours award in Science and Science Fiction. This experiment in curriculum engineering has recruited adult learners, as well as school-leavers, and has led to the use of innovative teaching and learning methods that complement curriculum objectives and outcomes.

Science, fiction and the age of discovery

This article suggests that the age of discovery and enlightenment of the Scientific Revolution and the universe of Copernicus was responsible for a new way of imagining, which we now call science fiction. This history is important for an understanding of the evolution of the physics, and shows how scientists, such as Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei, and philosophers, such as the Bishop of Llandaff, Francis Godwin, and Cyrano de Bergerac, used the fictional imagination to help visualise the unknown.

Science fiction in the classroom

In March 1944 a group of counter-intelligence officers from the US Army inspected the offices of Astounding Science Fiction magazine. Their brief was simple: to find out if any military secrets had been leaked following the magazines publication of a fictional story about the development of an atomic weapon. The event entered science-fiction mythology when the editor of the magazine, John W Campbell, later revealed his relief that the officers had failed to notice his wall map showing the distribution of subscribers across the US.

Teaching Science and Science Fiction: A Case Study

This chapter describes a unique experiment: namely, the design and delivery of an undergraduate border study at the University of Glamorgan which explores the interrelationship of science and science fiction. We begin by looking at the context of the degree award: previous educational initiatives, the widening access agenda, and the award’s avowed intent to address the issue of social inclusion in science education at university level. We go on to look at the structure of the award itself, including a curricular analysis of the degree’s content. Finally, we consider the salient aspects of this unique experiment in terms of the broader outcomes after a decade of teaching the science and science fiction programme.

Radio and Reason--The Reith Lectures and J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Radio broadcasting offers a unique opportunity to reach the public and facilitate their entertainment and education. In this vein, a series of high profile lectures in honour of Sir John Reith was initiated by the BBC in 1948 as a way of introducing the public to some of the greatest scientists of the age, enabling such thinkers to spread a message of communication and scientific sense to the British public. This essay examines J Robert Oppenheimers 1953 Reith lectures and their relevance today.

Rocketry, film and fiction: the road to Sputnik

The launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 was fuelled by science fiction as well as science fact. The field of early rocketry included the work of Russians Nikolai Rynin and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, American Robert Goddard, and German engineers Herman Oberth and Wernher Von Braun. All were directly inspired and influenced by early science fiction that heralded a space age decades ahead of time. The work of these pioneers led directly to the development of the technology needed to boost Sputnik skyward. After the launch of Sputnik, the context of the nuclear arms race opened the floodgates for a new wave of apocalyptic fiction.