Big mistakes in sf.

[Stig]

Many writers are scientists - and many are 'scientists'.
But what makes Frank Herbert make it possible to freeze a poison to -400 K.
Any bigger mistakes around?
My grammar may be a little wrong, just as my spelling. Sorry, English/American is not my natural language.

[The Ace]

Don't knock it, it's better than my Danish.

[Stig]

Australian?

[Ice fyre]

Now I dont know how true this is but someone once told me that people used to sneak up behind Frank Herbert and whisper OXYGEN to him, as Dune has no oceans or forests where most of our gas exchange appears to happen.

Now I am totally willing to be corrected on this as it wasnt a very reliable source.

Oh and Ace is from Scotland, Perth in Australia was named after it.

I assume that's what you mean.

[The Ace]

Originally Posted by Stig

Australian?

Please, look at my location again.

[Stig]

I used a ?. The shield looks Perthian. A joke.
No mistakes anywhere?

[The Ace]

No mistakes, no, the shield is an auxilliary clipeus of the roman army, 1st/2nd centuries AD.

[Dave]

Plenty of mistakes if that is what you are looking for. Any story set on a planet in our solar system and written pre- Pioneer and Voyager probes is completely wrong. But you can't fault that, they were written with the best science available at that time.

We already have a number of threads here, where the authors/producers/directors really should have done better homework. These are just a few:

http://www.chronicles-network.com/fo...-fiction.html?
http://www.chronicles-network.com/fo...llo-13-a.html?
http://www.chronicles-network.com/fo...aviation.html?
http://www.chronicles-network.com/fo...-cliches.html?

[Rane Longfox]

I thought the whole point of Science Fiction was Fictional Science... but there we go - as for mistakes. Well, every story they travel faster than light, for one.

[hypocriticHarkonnen]

I do agree that when it comes to sf, even Frank Herbert can get a little too carried away with his writing. But I guess that's why I enjoy reading these books so much, that they're so far-fetched to the point of fantasy.

Ice_fyre, that's an interesting story! I wonder what Frank Herbert thought whenever people did that to him LOL

[HardScienceFan]

look up an anthology called The Hidden Planet,edited by Don Wollheim
Most oldtime SF looks a little ridiculous in hindsight,I suppose.

[baldur27]

to answer the oxygen question the worms produce it as a biproduct of spice

[gully_foyle]

Originally Posted by baldur27

to answer the oxygen question the worms produce it as a biproduct of spice

Problem solved. I wonder what Tatooine does. I guess it has its own variation on sandworms so they could be oxygen belchers as well. (Rumour has it that Arrakis is actually Tatooine, or is it the other way around?) I wonder where the oxygen on Hoth comes from.

Actually, oxygen is pretty abundant. It's number 3 in the universe, admittedly usually locked up with hydrogen or carbon (which is way less abundant). So maybe some planets start with the life sustaining atmosphere first, rather than building it up slowly, with the help of anaerobic bacteria, like poor old earth had to.

[Kostmayer]

(Rumour has it that Arrakis is actually Tatooine, or is it the other way around?)

Never heard that one. The Sarlac could be a vertcally buried worm I suppose. Or the worms could have evolved from Sarlacs, Star Was set a long time ago..

[Dave]

The first time I ever saw Star Wars (and I was one of the people in the queues around the block) I thought that Tatooine was Arrakis. The Sarlac in Return of the Jedi only confirmed it for me.

I also thought that Hoth was the ice kingdom of Frigia, that Endor was the forest kingdom of Arora combined with the jungle kingdom of Tropica, that Cloud City was the flying city of the Hawkmen, and that Naboo was the undersea kingdom of the Shark Men, all from Flash Gordon. But maybe I was just too cynical.