In Science and Science Fiction
In several modern Romance languages, terra (or French terre) is the name of planet Earth. Many science fiction authors call the planet Terra, following post-classical Latin astronomical terminology. In Warhammer 40,000 this is taken a step further, with Earth being referred to as Holy Terra. The term Terran is used by Philip K. Dick in many of his short stories. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Solar System is called the Terran system.
Authors who have used Tellus include C. S. Lewis in his Space Trilogy; E. E. Smith in his Lensman series; and Robert A. Heinlein in several of the stories in his Future History sequence. The chemical element Tellurium was named after Tellus by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1798.
Read more about this topic: Terra (mythology)
Famous quotes containing the words science fiction, science and/or fiction:
“Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can’t talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful.”
—Philip K. Dick (1928–1982)
“Art is the beautiful way of doing things. Science is the effective way of doing things. Business is the economic way of doing things.”
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915)
“If one doubts whether Grecian valor and patriotism are not a fiction of the poets, he may go to Athens and see still upon the walls of the temple of Minerva the circular marks made by the shields taken from the enemy in the Persian war, which were suspended there. We have not far to seek for living and unquestionable evidence. The very dust takes shape and confirms some story which we had read.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)