On the Origins of Modern Biology and the Fantastic

Tor.com is publishing a very interesting series of articles by Kelly Lagor called On the Origins of Modern Biology and the Fantasitic.

Science and science fiction are indelibly intertwined, each inspiring the other since their modern birth in the Victorian Era. Both employ similar feats of the imagination—to hold an idea of a world in your mind, and test the boundaries of that world through experimentation. In the case of science, you formulate a theory and conduct a series of tests against that theory to see if it can be disproved by the results. In the case of science fiction, you formulate a reality, and conduct characters through the logical implications of that reality. Good science fiction, like a sound scientific theory, involves thorough worldbuilding, avoids logical inconsistencies, and progressively deeper interrogations reveal further harmonies. This series will explore the connection between the evolution of biology and science fiction into the modern era.

So far there are 10 articles, discussing authors including Jules Verne, Aldous Huxley, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and more.