Human beings have evolved in an environment of constant gravity. Here we explore the challenge of artificial gravity in SF

Looking at the tendency of science fictional life to destroy its creators.

Looking at our ears on the sky - the giant radio telescopes that extend our studies of the Universe beyond the range of optical light.

One common thread in SF stories is the idea of precursor civilisations - ancient races that lived, died and passed out of general knowledge long before humanity took to the stars.

Will humanity find friendship in the stars, or are we merely a helpless child, crying in the wolf-infested forest.

For the Homo Superior

Looking at degenerate futures for humanity in science fiction.

Exploring the portrayals and predictions of reality shows in science fiction

Did humanity originate elsewhere? Why does Mars appear so prominently as the origin of the human race in science fiction?

A recurring aspiration in visions of the future is the idea that machines, and particularly robots, will come to dominate key aspects of our lives and societies.

One of the most evocative of human senses is our sense of smell. It is closely connected with memory recall, with the taste of food, and with the more “primitive” and instinctual regions of our hindbrains. Science fiction has explored odour - and in particular an oversensitivity to odours - in a number of ways.

A running theme in science fiction is the idea that alien races are willing and eager to talk to us, but this is not an assumption that has gone unchallenged in science fiction, or indeed in our wider culture.

Most science fiction tells fundamentally human stories, on human timescales. However sometimes science fiction authors venture into the longer timescales on which cosmic evolution itself unfolds.

Tales of people under the sea are likely as old as humanity. In more recent times, fantasy has been succeeded by science fiction which explores what it would mean for humanity to live as natives in water, and how that might be achieved.

The quest for highly extended or eternal life, in the form of longevity treatments, technological solutions or genetic improvement, has been a staple of science fiction almost since it started