Abstract
John Stachel is a person with a wide range of interests and a broad sense of humor. In thinking about a suitable contribution for this volume, I recalled that about a decade ago I was asked to contribute an essay (Janis 1989) on astronomy and science fiction to a volume in memory of the astronomer M.K.V. Bappu. (This invitation came because, for many years, I taught a course for non-science students in which I used science fiction as the setting for teaching many aspects of physics and astronomy) It occurred to me that an essay on physics and science fiction, although undoubtedly rather different from the usual sort of festschrift contribution, might be a pleasant change of pace. My earlier essay on astronomy and science fiction assumed little, if any, scientific background. For the present volume, given its more technical but still interdisciplinary character, I have tried to write at a level that assumes some technical background but is still comprehensible to non-specialists. At any rate, it has been fun for me to write this essay, and I hope that John, as well as other readers, will have fun reading it.
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Janis, A.I. (2003). Physics and Science Fiction. In: Renn, J., et al. Revisiting the Foundations of Relativistic Physics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0111-3_27
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