© Science and Fiction was created and is curated by Dr. Helena Hartmann

Welcome to Science & Fiction

Accessible scientific results and exciting fictional stories in one. This is a space for people who like to a) learn about science and b) read science fiction at the same time. Each contribution below includes the following:

  • a fictional short story;
  • a scientific publication related to the story;
  • an easy-to-understand summary of the publication and explanation of its connection to the story;
  • tags and content warnings.

Follow this project on Twitter or Mastodon for regular story updates. New stories are published monthly on the 13th of each month.

Please note that while this project connects science fiction with science communication about real scientific results, be aware that the short stories are purely fictional and sometimes only vaguely related to the scientific results, for example in terms of the topic or underlying phenomenon. The stories therefore do not attempt to mirror the scientific research or describe its results. If you are interested in the science behind it, please always have a look at the original publication. If I missed a content warning, you can’t access a certain publication or anything is unclear, please write to Helena Hartmann at scicommandfiction@gmail.com.


Contributions

Are you interested in sending me a story idea or paper you’d like me to write a story around? Submit your ideas here.

Do you want to write your own short story and share it with the world? I am happy to publish your work here as part of Science & Fiction as a guest contribution. Read about the submission guidelines and submit your work here.


Credit

All artwork is created using the free version of Canva. To cite a story, please refer to it as follows: Author (year). Title. Science & Fiction short stories. URL: https://… (e.g. Hartmann, H. (2022). Emotion to go. Science & Fiction. URL: https://helenahartmann.com/stories/1_emotion-to-go/).


Short Stories

Browse through the stories below or use the tags to search for specific topics (e.g. empathy or utopia). New stories are published regularly.

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A story about two dogs behaving very strange. Content warning: suspense.

An upside down story about being neurodiverse. Content warning: mental health.

Eine Geschichte über eine Kapsel, die dein Leben verändert. Inhaltswarnung: Drogeneinnahme.

A story about taking a pill that will change your life forever. Content warning: drug use.