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Science Fiction or "sci-fi" is a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals.
The term science fiction was popularized, if not invented, in the 1920s by one of the genre's principal advocates, the American publisher Hugo Gernsback. The Hugo Awards, presented each August since 1953 by the World Science Fiction Society, are named after him. These achievement awards are given to the top science fiction writers, editors, illustrators, films, and "fanzines."
This month, Encyclopædia Britannica celebrates the Hugo Awards with a new article on science fiction. Take a look at some of the originators of the genre and the many ideas that often seem to presciently reflect future societies and technologies.
Science fiction to science fact
Considered by some as the grandmother of science fiction, this author's Frankenstein (1817) has been turned into a horror classic by motion pictures, but the novel itself is about the ability of science to do what seemed impossible when the novel was written — create a new species of life. The novel makes tentative overtures to future advances in biotechnology and bioengineering.
In 1865, this French author published De la Terre a la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon; 1873). He imagined a number of scientific devices and developments that eventually came to be — including the submarine, scuba gear, television, and space travel.
This author of such science fiction classics as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine acquired a reputation as a prophet of the future, and indeed, foresaw certain developments in the military use of aircraft, space exploration and atomic explosives.
This British novelist's Brave New World (1932) is a nightmarish vision of a society based on the advances in cloning and genetic engineering that are now within scientific reach.
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Coronary heart bypasses, grafting frozen blood vessels to replace diseased vessels, mechanical heart implants...These technologies may still be science fiction, if not for American surgeon Michael DeBakey. In pioneering procedures used in the treatment of circulatory diseases, Dr. DeBakey helped turn science fiction into reality. Encyclopædia Britannica is happy to count him as one of our eminent contributors. Read Dr. DeBakey's article on the "Cardiovascular Disease."
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