Science Fiction to Science Fact

When Herman Oberth in the early part of this century was called in as a technical adviser for the German silent movie, Woman in the Moon, he had no idea the some six decades later his vision of a manned mission to our nearest neighbor would be frighteningly accurate. The filmmakers of Woman in the Moon under Oberth's tutelage showed the first count down to the lift off of their fictional rocket. The rocket itself was a three stage liquid fueled affair just like the Saturn Five that took astronauts to the moon. Even the depictions of weightlessness were accurate. Woman in the Moon was not to be the only movie that played prophet to future reality. Nor would it be that last one to be so accurate. The movies have had an amazing track record in to predicting the future through science fiction.

In the last few weeks science fact has taken some amazing leaps forward. The Human Genenome project has been all over the news and it's promise for curing disease boggles the mind. Hollywood hasn't been any slouch in the area of genetics. Cloning movies abound and they promise not only the end of disease but the creation of replacement body parts. Whether that pans out we'll have to wait and see but the fact is the movies said this was a future possible and now it is reality. Not so well know to the public is the fact that in a university lab the speed of light barrier has been broken. Scientist at the NEC research institute at Princeton passed light pulses through a specially treated gas and observed that the light pulses arrived across the lab before they left the light source. The light pulses literally existed in two places at once and are calculated to have travel at three hundred times the speed of light. This work is still under peer review for publication later in Nature. The movies long ago promised that we could, despite what Einstein said, travel faster than light.

Perhaps we need to ask the question is science driving the movies or is it the other way around. The movie Rocket to the Moon inspired a young German named Wernher Von Braun. Many people in the space program today cite Star Treck as an inspiration. So science fiction does drive science fact. But the movie Jurassic Park was based on the latest in genetic technology and theorizing on dinosaur behavior. So science fact is driving science fiction. If you get the feeling that this is a chicken and egg question I agree. At this date trying to separate how movies affect science and science affects movies is a puzzle that is like trying to unscramble eggs.

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