A Brilliant Void: Classic Irish Science Fiction

I'm sure many people here enjoy science fiction, both as a form of entertainment in its own right, and as a fun way of thinking about science.

Sci Fi often focusses on the future: what may happen if a particular technology is developed or a new theory plays out as true - and that can be great fun. But it can also be a fascinating way of looking at the past - learning about what once seemed plausible, and why.

I came across this anthology which does just that a few years ago. Classic Irish Science Fiction, compiled by Jack Fennel. It's a wild and endlessly entertaining mix of narrative styles and science.

A few stories stood out for me:

A Diamond Lens by Fitz-james O'Brien, from the 1850s is about a young man who becomes obsessed with what he sees though his microscopes. At a time when the existence of the atom as we know it was not yet firmly established, the story recounts how he manages to look inside an atom (using a diamond lens) and the extraordinary world he sees there.

The Professors Experiment (Margaret Wolfe Hungerford) is from the late 1890s and tells the tale of an elderly professor who has been working on the then-novel science of anaesthetics and needs a test subject for his latest discovery. Appeals to Kilmainham jail to offer up a condemned prisoner are rejected (to his disgust) and he is resigned to failure - until a vulnerable young woman knocks on his door...

And Lady Clanbevan's Baby (Clotilde Graves, 1915) is a great story from an era when radioactivity was still new and exciting - and when it seemed reasonable to assume that anything that contained so much energy must be good for us!

I've been involved with a theatre group over the summer converting these three stories in an audio drama podcast - and I will be sharing news of those over the next few weeks when we have it all beaten into shape. In the meantime, anybody interested can read the full collection at: Tramp Press

I really recommend it!

Also, I've often used science fiction in teaching too: asking what is plausible in fiction is great way of teasing out how science actually works. A few ideas here: Science Through Science Fiction | PhysicsResourceBank