The earliest wave of science fiction occurred in the late 19th and very early 20th Century, with novelists such as Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Olaf Stapledon writing regularly published hardback books often known by the genre name "scientific romance." The pulp magazine era of circa 1920 - 1950 saw the creation of monthly magazines entirely devoted to what by then was called "science fiction." As the pulp era ended in 1950, some pulp titles transitioned to monthly "digest size," and a large number of new magazine titles appeared in that form. However, the real game changer was the original paperback novel, which began to appear in the late 1940s. A huge fraction of all original paperback novels published in the era 1950 - 1970 were science fiction novels, and the corresponding impact on pseudosciences of the day was huge.

Astrophysicist Andrew May has written a number of books describing the complex influences and interactions between science fiction and pseudoscience, and explaining the relevant scientific facts.

A famous lecture on the topic by science fiction author John Sladek

Good science fiction can serve as a source of inspiration for kids reading it, enhancing and sharpening their interest in science, and even leading to a career in science when circumstances are right. But bad science fiction is generally founded on pseudoscience, and actually does great harm to the young reader, if the young reader does not have access to fact-based writings about science, aimed at young audiences. Science fiction can "poison the well."

For the increasingly science-illiterate general public, exposed to science fiction in the mass media, the fiction is the only "knowledge" of "science" that exists.

Incredibly, 54% of the adult US population is functionally illiterate... cannot read for content. So most "knowledge" of "science" in the general population comes from media: movies, TV, etc.

4th grade, US public schools, 2019