Isaac Asimov explains just what were the elements present in most "golden age" science fiction stories during the era of super-editor John W. Campbell - and how they all came true.

The most remarkable stories of the period did create a world of computers, of trips to outer space, of missiles, of a science-important culture. To those of us who remember the golden age, we are now living in a science-fictional world, and one which Campbell's science fiction did significantly succeed in creating.

— From a 1971 interview with Asimov, excerpted from the Literature of SF DVD, available from the Center for the Study of Science Fiction at the University of Kansas. [via Writers And Friends]