A story idea I just submitted. I've never used the journal before, here or on the other site, and I never thought to do this with submitted stories, (in case they get rejected, I won't lose the submission).
Although at times science fiction stories need to take liberties with physical law to advance a story, there are many instances where writers remain consistent with the current understanding of physics and astronomy. Andrew Fraknoi has assembled a nice list over at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific of 270 science fiction stories that portray the science accurately. The list is nicely broken down into 40+ subtopics and is intended to be used as a teaching resource, so for example if you are teaching about neutron stars, you could include Stephen Baxter's Flux as recommended reading.
If you know a good example that isn't on the list, Fraknoi would like to hear about it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Friday March 21 2014, @06:41AM
I noticed that the Rendezvous with Rama series doesn't seem to be there, although it fits quite neatly in both the 'Life Elsewhere' category and like all of Arthur C. Clarke's books, its depictions of celestial mechanics and interplanetary travel are accurate. I see Clarke's works are very well represented. I wonder why there's no category for extrasolar planets, which is where the Dune saga might have gotten listed.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.