History Main / FictionScience

Contrast LiteraryWorkOfMagic, when a RealLife fictional work has an agenda [[InUniverse in the universe]] of another. Compare {{Review}}, the act of evaluating --through storytelling lenses-- a fictional work in a public manner. Sometimes the fans would engage in this to support their EpilepticTrees (recurring insane fan theories).

Unrelated to FantasticScience and FictionalFieldOfScience, which are in-universe scientific disciplines.

Unrelated to FantasticScience and FictionalFieldOfScience,in-universe scientific disciplines.

Unrelated to FantasticScience, a fictional in-universe scientific discipline.

Where ScienceFiction is the writing of stories derived from some form of extrapolation from the laws and theory of science, there is a subgenre of books which take well-established settings and worlds and take a documentarian, analytical view of how that setting fits into, illustrates, or contrasts with the "real world".

There are many reasons for this. It'd be nice to say that a lot are written because the author is using the known milieu and expanding the understanding of why the stories speak so strongly to the reader, for great stories do not exist in a vacuum. We are hopefully led to a deeper appreciation of both the stories and the world around us.

Contrast LiteraryWorkOfMagic, when a RealLife fictional work has an agenda [[InUniverse in the universe]] of another. Compare {{Review}}, the act of evaluating --through storytelling lenses-- a fictional work in a public manner.

* ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'': Probably the most iconic examples of this trope. Two special effects guys and a crew of crafters scientifically test how possible in real life some urban legends and tropes are.

Contrast LiteraryWorkOfMagic. Compare {{Review}}, the act of evaluating --through storytelling lenses-- a fictional work in a public manner.

Compare and contrast {{Review}}.

* ''[[http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/21701757/ The Biology of B-Movie Monsters]]''
* ''The Enemy Papers'': The novel [expanded ''Enemy Mine'' book by Longyear] are supplemented with excerpt of ''The Talman'' (Drac "bible") and ''Drac for Travelers'' (sort of phrase-book).

* ''The Physics of Superheroes'' by Dr. James Kakalios, who has also given physics advice to comic writers. The book is notorious in the fan community for proving that it was the whiplash from [[ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied Spider-Man's web line that killed Gwen Stacy]].

* ''The Science of Superheroes'': It differs from most of the others in this category in that it is a science textbook first, superhero fan material second.

* ThePhysicsOfSuperheroes by Dr. James Kakalios, who has also given physics advice to comic writers. The book is notorious in the fan community for proving that it was the whiplash from [[ComicBook/TheNightGwenStacyDied Spider-Man's web line that killed Gwen Stacy]].
* The [[http://nerdist.com/videos/because-science-2 "Because Science"]] video series uses actual science to answer questions about various works of fiction.
* In ''The Enemy Papers'' (expanded ''Enemy Mine'' book by Longyear) novels are supplemented with excerpt of ''The Talman'' (Drac "bible") and ''Drac for Travelers'' (sort of phrase-book).
* Open Court's Popular Culture and Philosophy® series: including ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', {{superhero}}es, and their book of the [[ZombieApocalypse undead]].
* ''Literature/PhilosophyAndScienceFiction'' is an introductory philosophy textbook using [[GenreAnthology over a dozen stories]] from ScienceFiction.

* ''What's Science Ever Done for Us?'' looks at ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' through a scientific lens.

** ''The Gospel According to Peanuts''
** ''The Parables of Peanuts''

* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** ''Star Wars and History''.

** ''Harry Potter and History''
** ''The Science of Harry Potter''

** ''The Tao of Pooh]'' and the companion ''The Te of Piglet''

** ''How William Shatner Changed the World''

** ''The Physics of Star Trek''
** ''The Religions of Star Trek''

* ''The Science of Superheroes'': It differs from most of the others in this category in that it is Science texbook first, superhero fan material second.
* ''The Science of Literature/HisDarkMaterials''

* Averted in ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'' series, where the chapters alternate between "story" and "science", and illuminate each other. In the story chapters, the wizards of Unseen University study a "Roundworld" they created that lacks magic and impossibly runs without [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality narrative causality]] - just scientific laws. The science chapters explain what's happening in the story - how scientists work, the formation of Earth, and so forth, serious explanations of the real science that the wizards have encountered. The writers mention this trope in the introduction, and say they are not doing it. A more accurate name for the series would be "The Science of Roundworld" (i.e., ''our'' world), but [[MarketBasedTitle you know how it is...]]

* Averted in ''Literature/TheScienceOfDiscworld'' series, where the chapters alternate between "story" and "science", and illuminate each other. In the story chapters, the wizards of Unseen University study a "Roundworld" they created that lacks magic and impossibly runs without [[TheoryOfNarrativeCausality narrative causality]] - just scientific laws. The science chapters explain what's happening in the story - how scientists work, the formation of Earth, and so forth, serious explanations of the real science that the wizards have encountered. The writers mention this trope in the introduction, and say that they are not doing it. A more accurate name for the series would be "The Science of Roundworld" (i.e., ''our'' world), but [[MarketBasedTitle you know how it is...]]

Note that while a lot of the books are in fact science-oriented, this is not the only topic. Thus we also have:
* ''The Tao of [[Franchise/WinnieThePooh Pooh]]'' and the companion ''The Te of Piglet''
* ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh on Management'' and its follow-ups '' Winnie the Pooh on Problem Solving'' and ''Winnie the Pooh on Success''.
* ''The Gospel According to Franchise/{{Peanuts}}'' and ''The Parables of Peanuts''

* ''How [[Franchise/StarTrek William Shatner]] Changed the World''
* Franchise/StarTrek has various ''Technical Manuals'' for this reason.
* ''The Physics of Star Trek''

* ''The Science of Franchise/HarryPotter''

* ''The Religions of Franchise/StarTrek''

* ''Harry Potter and History'' and ''Star Wars and History''.

* ''I'm Working On That'', yet another book about Star Trek inspiring science. The title is taken from Creator/StephenHawking's comment on a tour of Star Trek sets, referring to the warp core.

* ''The Science of Superheroes'' It differs from most of the others in this category in that it is Science texbook first, superhero fan material second.

* in ''The Enemy Papers'' (expanded ''Enemy Mine'' book by Longyear) novels are supplemented with excerpt of ''The Talman'' (Drac "bible") and ''Drac for Travelers'' (sort of phrase-book).