"Does the universe have a shape? What makes sunshine? Do stars explode? How do you build a time machine? Do aliens look like me? When it comes to the big questions about astrophysics, kids go right for the interesting stuff. Professor Mark Brake makes great use of this as he serves up a heaping help[...]

Since its emergence in the seventeenth century, science fiction (SF) has been a sustained, coherent and subversive check on the promises and pitfalls of science. In their turn, invention and discovery have forced fiction writers to confront the nature and limits of reality. "Different Engines" is th[...]