Nine Words From Science Which Originated In Science Fiction

An anonymous reader writes "Oxford University Press has a blog post listing nine words used in science and technology which were actually dreamed up by fiction writers. Included on the list are terms like robotics, genetic engineering, deep space, and zero-g. What other terms are sure to follow in the future?"

Comments

Re:How about Waldo?

[BiggerIsBetter]

It's an engineering term for a remote controlled robotic arm, derived from a Heinlein story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_(device)

Yes, but what good is such a thing if you can never find it? It will never catch on.

Re:Text from Google cache

[Stele]

Interesting that "Belgium" wasn't in the list.

Re:other potential things

[lgw]

"deus ex machina" is latin for "machine from god"

God from machine! What the Hell do schools teach these days? Originally, in Greek theater, a crane used to lower an actor from the sky to take the role of a God and ruin the ending of a play. Now used to describe how a Michael Crichton books ends.