OUR cover story this week underlines how science is increasingly stranger than fiction. This has led some to wonder whether the days of sci-fi are numbered (see “Is science fiction dying?”). We ran a poll to investigate, and found that most of those who replied do indeed prefer vintage sci-fi – such as Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965) and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation (1951) – to more recent works from the likes of Iain M. Banks or Neal Stephenson (see “Your all-time favourite sci-fi”).
But the comments showed that sci-fi can still invoke passionate feelings, reveal the world in a new light,…
