UNSW radio astronomer Maria Cunningham is patron of the inaugural Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival

“Science fiction is how the majority of people interact with science, even though they are not conscious that this is what they are doing,” she says.

Making the point she teaches a course in the School of Physics,  “Brave new world,” which uses SF, “as a teaching aid to stimulate student interest and as a starting point from which to communicate the science, and its likely future development.
“This course aims to provide students with the level of scientific and technological literacy required to take an informed part in debate on important scientific issues,” the course summary states.

But it appears there are limits to who can get lost in space, the prospectus states; “students enrolled in a Faculty of Science programme should not take this course.”