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 ‘Brave New Words, 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, ‘zero gravity first described the center of the Earth. In 1938, fairly obscure writer Jack Binder imagined a momentary weightlessness while traveling from our planet’s core to the surface. Arthur C. Clarke later shortened it to ‘zero-g in his 1952 space novel ‘Islands in the Sky. Computer virus: Dave Gerrold is probably most famous for his ‘Star Trek episode about a different kind of overproducing nuisance (‘The Trouble With Tribbles, first broadcast in 1967). But in 1972, he used the analogy of a ‘virus to describe self-replicating software in his book ‘When Harlie Was One, about a computer that thinks it’s human. The term actually appeared in print a short time after researchers spotted the first computer virus spreading through ARPANET, the precursor […]