Five SF Novels Inspired by Disproven Scientific Theories

[james_davis_nicoll]

Plenty of exciting hypotheses eventually fall out of scientific favor — but not before they've found their way into science fiction!

Five SF Novels Inspired by Disproven Scientific Theories

Comments

[ba_munronoe]

"Ovenden hardly originated the missing planet 5 idea; it goes back to Kepler's16th-century statement, "Between Mars and Jupiter, I put a planet," an idea which was taken up in Bode's Law nearly two centuries later."

It certainly shows up in SF of the pulp era: an exploded 5th planet is part of the backstory of Jack Williamson's "Seetee" stories, in which the culprit is a rogue anti-matter planet (would probably do the job - and sterilize the Earth into the bargain, to be sure).

"There are also writers who use theories that they know to be disproven long before they wrote. My favorite example of this is the late Howard Waldrop's lovely story "...As We Know't," in which an intrepid scientist of the 19th Century sets out to isolate phlogiston and succeeds all too well..."

Then there's Richard Garfinkle's "Celestial Matters", in which ancient Greek "science" is 100% correct. (Of course, so is Chinese Taoist "science"...)

[dragoness_e]

In the Dr. Who episode "Image of the Fendahl", it was revealed that the Timelords had destroyed the 5th planet of our solar system and time-locked it to keep anyone from time-traveling to the pre-destruction period because of the sheer noxiousness of the race inhabiting it. (Parasitic, predatory mind-controlling creatures that assimilated less mentally-powerful races--namely humans--into group minds controlled by the Fendahl leader, IIRC).