According to Zachary Pirtle, program analyst at NASA “Real science still doesn’t work in the strictly deductive way that Holmes describes, for the best scientific questions, there are no straightforward answers, and a lot of the hard work comes from simply trying to imagine new possibilities.” 2 And yet Holmes is constantly affirming his belief in the improbable, indicating his imagination is among his intellectual tools. Naturally, the hard science of Sherlock Holmes doesn’t really stack up against the forensics labs of today, and it is also possible that the Holmesian methodology might not pass as real science to actual scientists.
Like a science fiction writer, Doyle seemed to start with the premise of “what if?” Instead of a detective who arrived at the answers through intuition or moxy, Doyle asserted a different premise with the Holmes stories-what if the detective discovers the answers scientifically? What kind of adventures might he have? Looked at from this semantic angle, the original canon of Sherlock Holmes almost passes for science fiction. In the Doyle stories, the science of deduction usually always works, and serves as the basic premise for every single Holmes adventure. But perhaps his most relevant contribution to SF is the invention of something Holmes calls “The Science of Deduction.”Įssentially, Holmes believes any mystery can be approached, and a solution deduced, scientifically, by gathering necessary data, and drawing conclusions based on logic and reason. During this time, Holmes dies and comes back, faces a variety of criminals, schemes, and ghoulish mysteries as well as making a nuisance of himself to Inspector Lestrade and the rest of Scotland Yard. John Watson, inhabited 4 novels and 56 short stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle between from the years 1887 to 1927. But even if Holmes does get an “F” in astronomy, there’s no denying his influence on the genre of science fiction.įor the uninitiated, Sherlock Holmes, and his biographer Dr. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work.” 1 Holmes likens his mind to an attic, one he can only fill with the rights kinds of “furniture” necessary for his occupation as the world’s first consulting detective. In the first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet, he accosts Watson on the subject: “What the deuce is it to me? You say that we go round the sun. Despite being brilliant, the great Sherlock Holmes is an ignoramus when it comes to the astronomical workings of the planets and stars.