10 Words You Might Think Came from Science (But Are Really From
Science Fiction  )  Last week it came to our attention that the
phrase "blast off" was coined—not in a purely scientific
context, but a science fictional one—by E. E. Smith, an early
science fiction author often referred to as "the father of space
opera." The term appeared in Smith's 1937 story Galactic Patrol,
when one character inquires of another, "How long do you figure
it'll be before it's safe for us to blast off?"  And it turns
out blast off isn't the only scientific word or phrase with
science fictional origins; here is a list of nine more,
originally composed by Jeff Prucher—editor for the Oxford
English Dictionary's Science Fiction Project and author of the
Hugo Award—winning Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of
Science Fiction—for the Oxford University Press Blog.  9.
Robotics This is probably the most well-known of these, since
Isaac Asimov [for those poor souls who have never gazed upon
Asimov's awe-inspiring sideburns, that's h