The Oxford University Press (or OUP as its usually referred to in book circles in the UK) has a blog post up entitled “Nine Words You Might Think Came From Science but Which Are Really From Science Fiction”. I think we all know that our beloved SF has often inspired many real world (if there is such a thing) scientists but its quite cool to see such a respected academic press like OUP noting that the genre has also given the sciences terms which were once purely fiction, from ‘pressure suit’ (good old EE ‘Doc’ Smith) to the ion drive, to be used in the realms of real life science. It would be very nice if sometime in the next century someone wrote a sequel article discussing terms like ‘transporter’, ‘tractor beam’ and ‘warp drive’ and how they have become accepted as genuine scientific labels for new developments… (link via Boing Boing)
Leave a Reply