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Darwin to the double helix: astrobiology in fiction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2007

Mark Brake  and
Neil Hook
Mark Brake
Affiliation:
Centre for Astronomy and Science Education, University of Glamorgan, 4 Forest Grove, Trefforest, Wales, UK e-mail: mbrake@glam.ac.uk; nhook@glam.ac.uk
Neil Hook
Affiliation:
Centre for Astronomy and Science Education, University of Glamorgan, 4 Forest Grove, Trefforest, Wales, UK e-mail: mbrake@glam.ac.uk; nhook@glam.ac.uk
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Abstract

From Darwin to the double helix, the last 150 years have seen revolutionary changes in our understanding of life in the Universe. In this time, works of science fiction have provided a valuable, and often overlooked, reflection of the assumptions and attitudes held by society to such changes. This paper will consider key works of film and fiction as a commentary on emergent features of astrobiology, including the work of Fred Hoyle, Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men (1930) and Star Maker (1937), and Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's cinematic classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). These popular culture texts represent a useful and inspiring communication of science. Their critical discourse is the reducible gap between the new worlds uncovered by science and the fantastic strange worlds of the imagination. As such, they exemplify a way in which the culture and science of popular astrobiology can be fused.

Keywords

Communicationeducationculture
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 273 - 280
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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