海角大神

Scientists are uniquely qualified to describe the universe in numbers and equations, but sometimes it takes an imaginative novelist to distill discoveries into words.

For his book 鈥淏rave New Words,鈥� freelance lexicographer Jeff Prucher uncovered a slew of words that many people assume came from science, but actually originated in the pulpy pages of early science fiction. Here are four of his favorites.

Zero-gravity: While most people associate the term with outer space, 鈥渮ero gravity鈥� first described the center of the Earth. In 1938, fairly obscure writer Jack Binder imagined a momentary weightlessness while traveling from our planet鈥檚 core to the surface. Arthur C. Clarke later shortened it to 鈥渮ero-g鈥� in his 1952 space novel 鈥淚slands in the Sky.鈥�

Computer virus: Dave Gerrold is probably most famous for his 鈥�Star Trek鈥� episode about a different kind of overproducing nuisance (鈥淭he Trouble With Tribbles,鈥� first broadcast in 1967). But in 1972, he used the analogy of a 鈥渧irus鈥� to describe self-replicating software in his book 鈥淲hen Harlie Was One,鈥� about a computer that thinks it鈥檚 human.

The term actually appeared in print a short time after researchers spotted the first computer virus spreading through ARPANET, the precursor of the Internet.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to tell if the author knew about viruses when he wrote it,鈥� says Prucher. But he鈥檚 pretty sure that 鈥渢hey didn鈥檛 call that first computer virus a virus.鈥� The earliest scientific reference came a decade later, according to Prucher鈥檚 research.

Robotics: In 1920, a playwright coined 鈥渞obot鈥� from the Czech word for 鈥渇orced labor.鈥� It took two decades for science fiction writer Isaac Asimov to expand the word into the field of 鈥渞obotics.鈥� Prucher says that it took another two decades for mainstream outlets, such as the Times (London), to write about the real-world study of 鈥渞obotics.鈥�

鈥淎 lot of people know this came from science fiction,鈥� Prucher says. 鈥淏ut I include it on my list because it鈥檚 one of the only real sciences to have been originally named in science fiction.鈥�

Pressure suit: This defining piece of an astronaut鈥檚 wardrobe came from E.E. Smith. 鈥淐uriously, his pressure suits were furred,鈥� says Prucher, citing , 鈥渁n innovation not replicated by NASA.鈥�

Of course, just as with science, this list constantly changes as new information comes to light. Last month, Prucher thought that author Jack Williamson invented the term 鈥済enetic engineering鈥� in 1941. Mr. Williamson had come up with it on his own, but an online commenter directed Prucher to an interview in which the sci-fi writer admits that 鈥渘ow I understand that some scientist beat me by a couple of years.鈥�

Prucher welcomes such corrections. 鈥淚 certainly can鈥檛 read everything,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o, my book was partly crowd-sourced.鈥�

鈥淏rave New Words鈥� and his continuing work contribute to the Oxford English Dictionary鈥檚 science fiction project, currently posted at . At the website, fans can contribute to the etymologies of , such as 鈥渄eep space,鈥� 鈥渋on drive,鈥� and 鈥済as giant.鈥�