Science
The science in the "Skylark" series, while not entirely accurate, is believable: Newton's laws are obeyed, planets circle suns; there is description of something like a black hole or neutron star; and matter-energy conversion propels the spacecraft. The observation that a spaceship has covered a distance apparently impossible in the time elapsed is met with the response "Einstein's theory is still a theory. That distance is an observed fact"; such effects as time dilation and mass increase are simply ignored. This claim had more potential validity in the 1920s, when the story was written, than it holds at present; much like now-known-incorrect depictions of Venus or Mars in other classic space opera, it must be allowed as "poetic license".
Read more about this topic: Skylark (series)
Famous quotes containing the word science:
“What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what—eating, drinking, and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art.”
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)
“The trouble with tea is that originally it was quite a good drink. So a group of the most eminent British scientists put their heads together, and made complicated biological experiments to find a way of spoiling it. To the eternal glory of British science their labour bore fruit.”
—George Mikes (b. 1912)
“We said that the history of mankind depicts man; in the same way one can maintain that the history of science is science itself.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)