Science Fiction No More

The headline reads "UK Scientists Grow A Living Human 'Brain' "

Kind of gets your attention right away huh? I go on to learn that a group of scientists at Aston University have altered cells from a cancer tumor & are making them behave like brain cells with the intention of learning how real brains work.

Huh? Ok, so I don't quite get it. How can you create a brain from a cancer tumor? At this point the article sounded decidedly science fiction-ish, but evidently it does have some merit--at least to the team at Aston U.

I was struck by the headline. How it really grabbed you & reeled you in. Is that good journalism? I guess so, I read it.

I started thinking about the advances in...well, everything. Technology, science, medicine, communications, you name it. And of course our headlines reflect it.

I've been reading science fiction all my life & remember the sense of amazement I got in 1996 when the internet was first blooming across the country. I distinctly remember thinking that the books I had been reading since I was a child had already dreamed it up before it was a reality.

George Orwell wrote about an armor plated war vehicle a full two decades before the first tanks rolled out.

Gardner Dozois is the anthologist for a series I love "The World's Greatest Science Fiction" & compiles a yearly summary of events that frequently reminds me that the world is always trying to keep up with the author's imagination.

So here's to the weird headlines, hope we read a lot more!

Click here to read about how the guys at Aston are doing their thing.