Nine Words in Science That Originated from Science Fiction

Did you ever consider becoming a writer instead of a scientist? As it turns out, the gap between the two is small – at least for science fiction writers, who conceived terms like “genetic engineering”, “computer virus” and “gas giant”, which are now commonly used in actual science.

A post by Oxford University Press describes the etymology of nine such words:  http://blog.oup.com/2009/03/science-fiction/.

So grab the pen and start writing – who knows, one day they might start using a term coined by you…

Posted on April 7, 2009